Birthday and Pinterest

I used my mother's pinterest page to get inspiration for her birthday. I knew she already liked those things since she pinned them in the first place! First I decided to make her a homemade gift since she can be kinda hard for me to shop for. This site was my inspiration. Here are some pics of the finished project.

I'm not normally a crafty person but I really enjoyed making these. (which is good since I have to make these for all the grandbabies now!!) It can be hard to remember my own child's birth stats so it'll be nice to know all the babies stats. There are a few flaws but I had some difficulties with printing and font and by the time I figured everything out it was the day before her birthday. I'm overall pretty happy with them.

Next pinterest project was coconut creme pie. It's her favorite dessert but I wanted to do something different since it always seems to be runny and I didn't really want to heat up the house using the oven to cook the meringue. This recipe was my alternative.

Lawry's Coconut Banana Cream Pie

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours chilling

COCONUT PIE SHELL

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, plus more for pie plate

3 cups sweetened flake coconut

Lightly butter a 9-inch pie plate and set aside.

Melt the 1/2 cup butter in a large skillet over medium heat and brown the coconut flakes, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. They should be golden brown. Press the coconut firmly and evenly in the pan to form a shell. Chill the crust 30 minutes before filling.

PIE FILLING

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar, divided

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup flour

3 cups half-and-half, divided

Yellow food coloring

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 bananas

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Combine the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the cornstarch, salt and flour in a small bowl. Gradually add 1 cup of the half-and-half.

Combine the remaining 2 cups half-and-half and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a 3-quart saucepan and bring just to boil over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook and stir until the mixture returns to a boil and thickens, about 1 minute.

Remove from the heat. Stir in 2 drops of food coloring and the vanilla. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool.

Slice the bananas into the pie shell. Pour the filling into the shell.

Whip the cream with the powdered sugar until stiff. Spoon in dollops or pipe with a pastry bag around the edge of the pie. Chill 2 hours before slicing.

Mine was still a little runny (I suppose I can't make a perfect pie) but it was SO delicious. I love that coconut crust. I want to use it for every pie! I was going to include the nutrition info but do you really wanna know that it's over 500 calories a slice? I didn't!

Overall I really enjoyed having some projects since I don't like to spend money on things just for the fun of it.  It was  nice to have a reason to try some new things.