I don't do chocolate chess pie, but here's a recipe for Lemon Chess Pie:

1 (6-oz.) ready-made shortbread piecrust
1 egg white, lightly beaten
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Garnishes: whipped cream, fresh raspberries

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Brush piecrust with beaten egg white. Bake 6 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes).
2. Beat 4 egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
3. Whisk together 4 egg yolks, sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl until blended. Stir in lemon juice. Fold in egg whites. Pour mixture into cooled piecrust, and place pie on a baking sheet.
4. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until set, shielding edges with aluminum foil after 20 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Remove from oven to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour). Garnish, if desired.

Chocolate chess pie

1 1/3 c. sugar
1 sm. can Pet milk
3 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 stick melted butter

Combine ingredients, pour into pie crust, bake 45 minutes at 350.

My Thanksgiving dinner sounds so bland compared to what you guys are talking about. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, veggies and pumpkin pie for dessert. Normally we also have mole but the designated person didn't bring it.

What is mole? Wait, you mean burrowing-in-the-ground mole?

You're messing around, right? lol

No. I thought at first maybe you meant guacaMOLE, but that didn't seem right either.

Weren't my post! :D I believe this is what the poster was referring to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(sauce)

I'd rather be outside in freezing cold than be in a house where chitterlings are being cooked (my grandmother makes them on New Years). I don't go near that stuff

And don't get me started on sweet potato pie--I don't do sweet potatoes
My Caucasian Canadian husband cooks collard greens better than I do

My grandmother told me to hand in my Black Card and give it to my DH :p

You are not alone. My nuclear family kicks relatives out for having the nerve to bring uncooked chitterlings. We don't eat chitterlings but we are not opposed to a relative who brings COOKED chitterlings. They will be the only one eating it but at least we don't have to smell it too much.

LOL. You may lose your Black Card but your healthy card will hopefully be alive and well. Sweet potatoes and chitterlings are not the best for our health.

I'm glad she was talking about the sauce. LOL.

Moles are one of the most miserable animals in the world so it makes sense their meat is supposedly unpleasant. LOL.

About 10 minutes ago, I had a lightbulb moment and thought "Isn't there a sauce by that name?" Thanks for the clarification.
Then the student in me wondered how you would know that and if anyone's ever done a Beck Depression Inventory on a mole. My shining moment has been snuffed. :o

Wikipedia. The very last sentence at the very bottom of the page.

They look gross. I think most animals that look gross probably taste gross. LOL.

The collective noun is a 'labour' of moles - enough said. Although I think they are kind of cute :)

Moles are not cute. They are underground rats.

ETA: I love how this thread has gone from being about African American holiday traditions to moles.

We don't have any traditions in our house. Collard greens get made with ham hocks but my mom, keeping my sister (vegetarian) and her partner (diabetic/high pressure) in mind, traded the ham for turkey (and sometimes not at all) and way less sugar.

Otherwise, the usual holiday staples, sans chitterlings. My mom grew up on them and said she'd never subject us to that abuse :)

What is pet milk? (Imagining milking a cat....) Is it like a can of sweetened condensed milk?

iDied!

Sweet taters are good for you! You just can't load them up with a pound of butter and brown sugar. I make an awesome sweet potato casserole that is "healthy." I sweeten it with honey (or molasses if I have it) and cinnamon and only use 1/2 stick of butter for the entire casserole. Then instead of topping with mashmallows, I make a meringue instead. Eggs whites with just a little bit of sugar. It's so yummy!

One of my dogs dug up and ate a mole once. She died because the mole ate poison my husband put out for it. No more mole poison for us. :( Another dog dug up and ate another mole a few years later. He barfed it up in his kennel. I freaked because I thought he was barfing his own blood and tissue... until I found a little ugly mole paw. I knew then what he was puking up. Nastiness.

Concur, with both!

PET is a brand of milk. LOL. There is canned milk and refrigerated bottle milk.



Marshmallows do not belong on sweet potatoes, anyway.

I hear ya, I need to better explain my point about sweet potatoes. These dishes can be made healthier but diabetes and high blood pressure are pervasive in the Black community because most people are not making healthier options; and even healthier ways of cooking some of these foods are still not truly healthy in the longrun. Sweet potato is healthiest before people start adding a bunch of stuff to it. It's important for people to remember that because every holiday, someone eats a slice of sweet potato pie and says "sweet potato is good for you." LOL. Your casserole sounds tasty but you are still adding a few things that should be eaten in small portions and in moderation. Some people with diabetes would not be able to eat your casserole. :(

Yes, but if you HAVE to have sweet potato casserole, like my family does, a (much) lower calorie option is ideal. Everyone is always surprised when I say there's no brown sugar and that the meringue is just as good as sticky sweet marshmallows (I pick them off if someone else makes it with them). I'm perfectly happy eating my sweet potatoes with a 1/2 teaspoon of honey when I make them for my own dinner, or even plain if needed. I dont even think I've ever had sweet potato pie, not that I wouldn't try it, but it doesn't scream healthy. Portions are everything!


(Says the pregnant woman who had two large servings of mashed potatoes and noodles on Thanksgiving... lol):o

Speaking of noodles.... that was something I'd never experienced until meeting my husband and his southern Ohio family. Chicken n noodles or just plain homemade egg noodles on top of mashed potatoes. Is this a common dish anywhere else?

(Sorry, I shouldn't be straying so far off topic!!!!)

Yeah and the average Black holiday gathering will have sweet potato pie (or even cornbread with sliced and seasoned sweet potatoes--my favorite) and not a sweet potato casserole. However, sweet potato casserole will not be scoffed at as long as it clearly has sweet potatoes and is seasoned like a traditional sweet potato dish.


There's nothing wrong with that. :)

Oh yeah...I rarely eat mashed potatoes at a holiday gathering. That's a last resort side dish for both my and my significant other's families. If someone cooks it, we will eat it only after the other side dishes are devoured. If you give me deviled eggs and potato salad, you can cancel the mashed potatoes.

Seriously. Sweet potato casserole should have a great crust of brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts and the like on top. :D

Yeah, I know. :o

I'm not a big sweet potato fan -- it's only the brown sugar, cinnamon and the other bad for you stuff that makes it taste good to me. But I do understand exactly what you're saying.

Hmmm, I've not had it with nuts on top.

(That's what she said)

OMG, I could eat the hell out of some deviled eggs right now...

Hard boiled eggs, mustard, and mayo and salt n pepper. Guess what I'm having for dinner!!!! The husband is working tonight, so he won't have to suffer the after effects.

I can also eat the hell out of smashed taters. But I'm a little tatered out, precious... too many T-giving meals.

Only way I have had Sweet Potatoes is sweet potatoes fries which I love.

Sweet Potato Pie > Every member of GC

And SP Fries are good too :)

I think that's why a lot of people eat particular sweet potato dishes in the cultures that I am most familiar with. LOL.

Of course, sweet potatoes are eaten different ways across the country and around the world.

Yes I was referring to the sauce Mole not the animal... LOL

I dunno... some people enjoy eating animal mole...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TLHCAlonCx...0/P8040249.JPG

Hey, I started talking about moles. When I read that, I thought of Mr. Mole who was trying to marry Thumbelina.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3x13p8DsVQ...00/Thumb15.jpg

Yes and I hear squirrel is Chicken of the Trees, but not something I am going to try.

Is it chicken or is it.....never mind, too easy.

Growing up, we ate roasted sweet potatoes for dessert. My mom would just take whole, wash sweet potatoes, roast them in the oven and done! We ate them with no butter/sugar and they were still good and sweet (I still can't eat them with butter and stuff). I think now a days you have to doctor them up just because of how our food supply is prepared. I've noticed that most veggies from grocery stores have no taste anymore so you've got to add some flavor. lol

Just. Can't. Eat. It.

Again, MC has it right! I forget which restaurant serves "praline yams" but they are just so yummy!

I'm not a diabetic, but I play one on tv... Seriously, with the eye problems in my family, I would be foolish not to watch out for diabetes, so I take my sugar a few times a week, more or a baseline or such.

That said, I've noticed that if I eat a yam (which I love) or a sweet potato (not so much), my sugar goes through the roof! This is just plain, baked potatoes. Has anyone else noticed this?

LOL. What does MysticCat have right?

I like sweet potatoes more than yams. Most people have never had yams and don't really know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes.

That is why some family doctors, pastors, and "community members" are advising "the Black community" to either stay away from sweet potatoes (and yams) or only eat it in small servings during a holiday.

Well, usually during the holiday time, we go over to another relative's house or have someone come to the house. With that being said, one of the main traditions for the holidays has always been my grandmother's sweet potato pie recipie. For about 10 years, I made them and wouldn't come within 10 feet of them after about 5 years of making them. Don't get me wrong, I can make the hell out of it, but I just got so tired of making it and HAVING to eat the damn things!
This year, I made three and actually ate some of it. It's a recipie that I have NO idea of how she came up with it! I dunno if she discovered making it when she was in PV or if she found it, but for over 50 years (she's been gone since 1988), it's been in the family as a guard your life recipie and if you give it out, you must die recipie.

Anywho, on Thanksgiving, we usually do turkey, collard greens with bacon, green beans and potatoes, my Momma's dressing (which will have you smack the crap outta the next person to your left), candied yams, sweet potato pie, apple/pumpkin pie, cake, biscuts, cranberry sauce (homemade or canned), sweet tea, soda, juice (this year, homemade lemonade), gravy with the gizzards, mashed potatoes, corn, and this year butternut squash (something different).

At Christmas, add deviled eggs, ham or Cornish hens (have a cousin that's of the Jewish faith), rice, LaChoy crunchies (lo mein crunchies (in the can), coated with Chocolate (white or brown-doesn't matter)).

And the coolest thing is that everyone in my family knows that for my mother, you have to find the craziest flavor of ice cream and some damned egg nog (can't stand the stuff, looks like yellow snot to me). The ice cream thing is just her, she loves flavors--started when myself and libramunoz's big brother were kids and Momma got a gal of pumpkin flavored ice cream from Ralph's. Suffice to say, bighead and littleone each got a bowl and took one gulp and BOTH bowls went back into the freezer for Momma to finish.

Therefore, this is one tradition that everyone in the family seems to have leapt onto. This years flavor, pumpkin spice flavored--last years--egg nog and peppermint!

:) I just saw this on CNN. They were talking about African American cuisine and soul food restaurants that have gone healthy. :)

http://www.oldwayspt.org/AHH-committee

http://www.oldwayspt.org/african-heritage-diet