Buttermilk Pie

My grandmother’s Buttermilk Pie is my all-time, hands-down, favorite dessert. I’ve given this recipe to I don’t know how many people and everyone has loved it. One of my best friends tell me this recipe got her accepted into her husband’s family.

Print Recipe
 Buttermilk Pie
Course Dessert
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour (ish)
Servings
pies
Ingredients
Course Dessert
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour (ish)
Servings
pies
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Mix dry ingredients.
  2. Mix liquid ingredients, then add to dry ingredients. Use a hand mixer to make the custard nice and smooth.
  3. Pour into an unbaked pie crust(s) and bake at 350° for about an hour, or until the custard has firmed up and does not slosh when you move the pie pan.
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(Not so) Quick 2017 in Review and Making Goals for 2018

I’ve got a confession to make.  Every year, typically starting around November and lasting through into the new year, I kinda sorta feel… left out (?) when I start getting holiday cards in the mail from my friends and family showing off pictures of themselves, their spouses, kids, and sometimes, pets.  Occasionally, there is a note attached talking about their big news for the year, but usually its a generic “Happy Holidays from the So-and-Sos” message.  Well, its kinda too late to send one out now, but I’m going to write a quick note here to let you know my news for the year.  Here it goes:

  1. I bought my first house.
    • This house has been in my mom’s family since it was built in 1928.  It belonged to my great-grandparents, then my great-aunt before me.  I’ve actually been living in this house since I moved to Dallas about 3 years ago, but I finally reached an agreement and bought the house from my aunt and uncles in January of 2017.
    • Once the sale of the house was completed, I hired a crew to come in and tear out the existing 50-plus-some-odd old chain link fence and replace it with an 8-foot tall, board-on-board, cedar privacy fence.  Its made a huge difference on how the backyard looks and now I can enjoy the backyard without feeling like everyone and their mother can see me back there.
    • I’ve done quite a bit of work cutting down crepe myrtle trees, runaway bush and vine growth, and digging up root stumps, chunks of broken concrete, and almost 2 tons of oil-field grade steel pipes and sheet metal.  And I’m not done with that yet.
  2. I got a new job.
    • In September, I was in DC on a work trip and met with a friend for dinner who told me she knew people at John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) looking to hire experienced system engineers.  Well I wasn’t interested in moving back to the east cost, but I sent along my resume anyway.
    • My resume was passed along to a friend of a friend of my friend, and I was later approached by a recruiter for Rockwell Collins here in the Dallas area.  I went in for an interview and was offered the job later that same day.  The job more along the lines of stuff I used to do up in New England, and there was a significant pay boost too.  So…
  3. I quit my old job of almost 13 years.
    • Raytheon made an offer to keep me, but they just couldn’t match the increased salary RC was offering.  I think I did a good job not burning any bridges and on my last day, I actually found it a little… emotionally taxing leaving.
    • I took a week off and started my new job at my new company.  So far, everything is going well.
  4. I bought a 36-year-old, used Airstream travel trailer.
    • This was kind of a out of the blue opportunity.  I came across a listing for a 24-foot, 1981 Airstream Excella II in early December.  It does need quite a bit of work before its ready for use, but my plan is to gut the trailer and rebuilt it from the inside out.  I will likely write about this in greater detail in the future.

And now we are in 2018.  Earlier today, I did something a bit… dramatic.  I shaved off my beard.  Its the first time I’ve been clean-shaven in 10 years.  It feels wierd and now my face is cold (doesn’t help that I did this on a day where the high was in the mid-20s).  But never fear, the beard will be back.  I just felt I needed a bit of a reset in the New Year.

Speaking of New Year, I hate resolutions.  I haven’t made any in years, and frankly, they’re largely considered a joke nowadays.  Instead, I’m setting goals for 2018.  And since “they” say people who write down their goals are more likely to reach those goals, I think I’ll list mine here.  They are, in no particular order:

  • Get to, and maintain, a body weight below 300 pounds.
    • I weighed myself this morning; my starting point is 329 lbs.
    • This is going to include making adjustments to my diet, exercise more, and cut back on eating out.  I’m not going to say I’m going do anything more specific than that because I think saying “I’m going to run a 5k” places the focus on the wrong metric.  Plus I hate running.  Hate it.  Unless I’m being chased by a bear, or chasing after Natalie Dormer (and assuming her security detail isn’t subsequently chasing me), I don’t plan on relying on running for much of anything.
  • Save or invest 50% of my income.
    • I don’t want to wait til I’m 65 to retire.  Right now, my goal is to retire by 55, but sooner would be better.  But to get to that, I need to do more than just dumping money into my 401k and Roth IRA accounts.  By saving/investing 50% of my income, I’m way more likely to be able to retire earlier rather than later.  In order to do this, I really need to control my spending, and right now, I tend to rely on the credit cards a little too much.  So, there’s a starting point for me there.
  • Resuscitate my comatose social life.
    • I’ve largely been a urban hermit since I moved to Dallas.  I haven’t met many people outside of work, and I hardly see most of my neighbors (I re-meet many of them few months at neighborhood block parties where we all re-learn each other’s names).  It doesn’t help that I hate going out by myself with no plan/agenda.  Dating websites are crap.  So I really need to start hitting up Meetup.com or some of these trivia nights.  And, more importantly, stop being such a lazy SOB in the evenings.

So that’s all I’ve got for now.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas/Hanakkah, a Happy New Year, and may your return to work be not-too-miserable.

Bob

Banana Icebox Pie

I’m not sure which dessert is Dad’s favorite, Mom’s cheesecake, or Pinkie Sue’s Banana Icebox Pie.

Print Recipe
 Banana Icebox Pie
This is a no-bake cream pie made with pudding, cream cheese, and bananas.
Course Dessert
Servings
pie
Ingredients
Course Dessert
Servings
pie
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the cream cheese, powder sugar, and cool whip together until you get a smooth consistency.
  2. Spread the mixture over the graham cracker pie crust. Start with a small-ish dollop of the mix in the center and work it out from there to keep from accidentally tearing up the crust.
  3. Peel and slice bananas and spread the slices over the mixture in the pie crust.
  4. In a separate large bowl, mix both packages of french pudding with the milk. Pour the pudding over the banana layer of the pie.
  5. Spread a layer of cool whip on top of the pudding layer of the pie. If you'd like, sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top. Cover and place in the freezer until it sets.
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Love and Banana Pie

I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t have anything for the neighborhood block party this afternoon.  Typically, when I make something for a pot luck, I make Jalapeno Cheese, but hardly anyone touched it at the last block party we had.  So this time around I thought I’d try making Pinky Sue’s (my great-grandmother) Banana Icebox Pie.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have everything I needed for the pie (or for breakfast for that matter), so I was going to need to take a trip to the store.

On Sunday’s, I try not to drive if I can help it.  Its not a hard-and-fast rule with me and its not based on any particular belief in not working on the sabbath.  I think its just a nice way to slow things down every now and then.  Plus, it gives me the opportunity to walk through the neighborhood, which I don’t do near enough as it is.

So, since I’m walking, I grabbed my phone and my headphones and decided to listen to something on my trip.  Being a Sunday morning, its only fitting to listen to a sermon from one of my favorite preachers, Dr. J. Vernon McGee.  Even almost thirty years since his passing, his sermons (and his 5-year Bible study program) are still broadcast around the world on both radio and over the internet.  Today’s sermon was one he gave about the time Jesus was asked “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”.  I won’t go into detail on the sermon, but you can certainly listen to it here:

Dr. J. Vernon McGee – The Greatest Commandment

I think my favorite part of this sermon is this quote:

“Faith looks to the past.  Hope looks the the future.  But Love is for the present and its for eternity.  May I say the thing that is going to characterize Heaven is going to be Love.”

In our current times where all we ever see in our culture is hate, fear, horror and shame, its good to hear about love.  True love our God has for us, and love we need to share with each other.

Getting Ready to Study the Bible

Earlier this year, I finished my first complete cycle of the five-year Through The Bible series with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.  It is an excellent program for in-depth study of the entire Bible.  For my next trip on “the Bible Bus” as the program refers to itself, I thought I’d get a wide-margin study Bible specifically for making notes.  I’ve also purchased a concordance and a Bible dictionary, and I’ve collected many of the Notes and Outlines from the TTB website to use during my studies with the podcast.

Now, when I decided to do all this, I was actually a few months behind on the program.  Then I stopped listening to the main program at work to catch up on the back-log of the Question & Answer and sermons they broadcast on the weekends.  Then I started catching up on other podcast shows I like.  I didn’t realize until Dad told me a couple of weeks ago, that I’m now a year behind the main program.  They started their new cycle last April.

Whoops. I guess I’d better get started.

I Attended a Local Church Service Today

I’ve been thinking about my faith a lot lately. I’ve never really doubted my faith in salvation through Jesus Christ, but I know it could be stronger. Sometimes I’ve wondered how much certain aspects of my life have been held back because of the weaknesses in my faith and the sin in my life. So I’ve decided to do a more in-depth personal study of the Bible.

Additionally, I think I need to start attending a local church on a more regular basis.  I’ve only gone once in the two plus years since I moved to Dallas.  Even the twice-a-year Christians have me beat on that account.

So this morning, I attended service at a nearby Baptist church in the area.  The last service I attended was in this church, so this time I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it.  This church advertises two Sunday morning services: the “Classic” service at 9:30am and the “Contemporary” service at 11am.  The difference being the former one is “choir-led” while the latter is “band-led”.  Call me old-fashioned, but I’m still not terribly impressed with the almost concert-like atmosphere many Christian churches try to adopt when conducting “band-led” services.  I usually don’t find anything technically wrong with them, but it feels more like an entertainment venue than a house of God.

The service was fairly typical of a Baptist service.  The choir sings a couple of hymns, various other congregants join in the singing or else mutter, hum, or simply read along.  The service director makes a few announcements and the offering plates are passed around.  Then its time for the sermon to start and everyone leaves the dais/stage while a third projection screen unrolls from the rafters (the other two were already hanging to either side displaying various information like local mission announcements and the words to the hymns).

?!?

The local preacher (whose picture was in the church bulletin) did not take the stage.  In fact, I didn’t see him anywhere.  Instead, all three projection screens tune to a man on a sound stage at a different location (I later found out this church is one of six other churches in a network) who proceeds to give the sermon.  The message he gave was actually pretty good.  He began with Psalms 23 and discussed fear and death and how faith in Christ renders those first two things irrelevant.  He also read from Romans, Ephesians, and (I think) Galatians, but I forget which specific verses.  I wish the bulletin said more about the sermon other than “Sermon – Psalms 23”.

But I still couldn’t understand why a local preacher wasn’t giving the sermon.  I don’t know if the regular preacher was out sick, or on vacation, or what.  Or, if the service director was a preacher, why wasn’t he giving the sermon today?  If I’m going to motivate myself to get dressed and drive somewhere for a Sunday morning service, the least I would expect is a preacher to be there in person too.  I can watch videos at home.  Or anywhere, really, thanks to my cell phone.

So, with the sermon concluded, it was time for the Lord’s Supper.  A squadron of elderly deacons descended on the table with the serving dishes in front of the dais/stage and started making their rounds passing out the shards of unsalted crackers to everyone.  I was sitting at the end of the pew, and when the closest deacon approached me, he kinda held the plate away from me and said something to me.  He was so soft-spoken, I couldn’t make out what he said over the music the keyboard player was playing up on the stage.  I reach across him to take my piece of ‘bread’ and he moved on.

I noticed a few people, including the service director, immediately popped the piece of ‘bread’ in their mouths while most people quietly held on to theirs.  I, apparently like the others, were waiting for someone to stand up and read from scripture of the Last Supper where Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and served it to the disciples as a token His pending suffering by taking on all our sin at the cross.

Instead, the deacons returned their bread trays and started passing out the tiny thimbles of grape juice (no wine for us, we’re Baptists after all).  This time I took my minuscule glass of juice without comment from the deacon.  Again I noticed some immediately drank their glasses of juice while most of the rest of us held on to both our ‘bread’ and ‘wine’.  When the plates of unclaimed juice cups were returned to the table, the service director stood up and made a few more announcements and started the benediction.  I quickly consumed my ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ without any of the expected recitation of Christ’s Last Supper from scripture.  No “Do This In Remembrance of Me” for us.

And like just about every other church service I’ve attended in my life, upon conclusion of the benediction, everyone practically raced for the exits like greyhounds on the track.  The service director/maybe preacher was no where in sight.

Overall, it was an okay service.  Only memorable for the tele-sermon and the utterly lackluster affair of the Lord’s Supper.  I’m not sure if or when I’ll return to this church again, but this “Classic” service didn’t really inspire me to attend next week.  I’m interested in checking out other churches in the area, including the grandfather of mega-churches, First Baptist Dallas.  I’m not really comfortable with the mega-church scene, but I do like the preacher there (I even listen to his sermons via podcast while I’m at work).

We’ll see how it goes.  I don’t know, maybe I’m just being too picky.

Fools for Christ

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and He has not been disappointed. Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society. We are fools for Christ’s sake. We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world. If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

– Justice Antonin Scalia

Trimtab

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab.

It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trimtab.

Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.

So I said, call me Trimtab.”

– R. Buckminster Fuller