Chocolate chess pie

I just had a huge plate of leftovers (including some extra side dishes we didn't even have on Thursday), the chocolate pies are ready and I can see a few Christmas lights on the porch peeking through the blinds. All in all, things are pretty good today. I remember my father arguing that chocolate chess pie wasn't a pretty pie and so we shouldn't take it to parties or holiday dinners. I'm not sure if he still feels that way, but as a kid it was always one of my favorite desserts my mother would make. It's also ridiculously easy to make, so long as you take care to add the egg slowly and not overcook it.

1 pie crust (regular - not deep dish) 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter 1 cup sugar 1 oz. package of liquid chocolate (Nestle sells it in a yellow box. The liquid is way better than block for this.) 2 eggs, unbeaten

Melt the stick of butter on low heat. Add the sugar and chocolate to make a fudge mixture. Slowly add the egg and continue stirring to keep the egg from cooking once it touches the hot chocolate. I generally add about half of the chocolate mix to the egg and then all of that back into the rest of the chocolate mix.

Be careful not to stir the mixture too much (which I always do) or it will try to fluff up. Pour the mix into the pie shell and cook at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

My mother makes these great biscuits from little to no ingredients and they are some of my favorite breakfast foods even though I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes. 2 med/large sweet potatoes smidge of butter or Crisco 2 cups Bisquick 1/2 cup Splenda or sugar 1/2 cup Bisquick additional

Grease 2 medium/large sweet potatoes in butter/Crisco and cook for 75-80 minutes at 425 degrees. The potatoes will "leak" sticky juices, so you might want to put them on aluminum foil. You an tell they're getting done when the skin puffs up away from the potato. Wait for them to cool and peel the skin off (you can do this by hand).

Mix potatoes with 2 cups of Bisquick and 1/2 cup Splenda/sugar. They will be really sticky so use the remaining the 1/2 cup Bisquick to get them off your hands. Pull off pieces into golf ball sized bits and put on a cookie sheet. You can roll them out if you really want, but they taste just as good if they're uneven.

Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes, checking the bottoms to make sure they're not too brown.

I highly recommend these served with slices of crisp bacon in between like tasty little sandwiches.

Corn Pudding

This recipe came from Alice Stuteville, a friend of my mother's. It works best if cooked in a shallow glass Pyrex dish so all the corn doesn't sink to the bottom. 2 cups of corn (1 16oz can) 1-2 tbs cornstarch 2 cups milk 1tbs minced onion 3 eggs 2 tbs sugar 1 tsp salt 2 tbs butter or squeeze margarine

Combine corn and cornstarch in a saucepan and heat 3-4 minutes until it thickens. This is better than using creamed corn because they'll put anything in those cans of creamed corn, including chunks of husk.

Add remaining ingredients (be sure to add eggs slowly so they don't cook) and pour into a shallow glass Pyrex dish.

Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. The top will turn a very light golden brown when done.