A friend mentioned to me that she was recently back into writing poetry...poetry this isn't, but perhaps someone will find it amusing...

Summer Readin'

Summer reading, had me a blast.  Summer reading, happened so fast.
Got a romance and a mystery
Checked them all out from the library
Summer reading lazy and free but oh those summer books

Read some more, read some more
A thriller or some suspense
Read some more, read some more
It can get kind of intense

A chick lit book that makes me laugh
A fantasy quest, a wizard and staff
Audiobooks, it hardly matters what kind
Knitting and cooking, whatever I find

Summer reading, stranger than life but oh those summer books

My husband's birthday was Monday, and I always make him a special meal and dessert.  They had bone in ribeyes on sale at Public, so I knew we would have steak and green beans and rice.  But I asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  I was surprised when he said he wanted Chocolate Meringue Pie.  This was not something I had ever made before, but I was up for it.  (In the past, I have not been a fan of meringue pies--mostly they are lemon, and mostly the filling is not that great.)  So I went on a hunt for a recipe and finally decided on this one.  I liked the combination of chocolate, and the fact that the number of egg yolks in the filling matched the number of whites in the meringue...I hate having egg yolks left over...what do you do with them, anyway?  I did cheat and used a store bought pie crust.  I also only used 7.5 ounces of chocolate because the bittersweet Lindt candy bar I used was on 3.5 ounces.  Because of the cooling/chilling time for the recipe, I started this the night before.  When I got ready to make the pie, I realized that somehow I had gotten rid of all my pie pans.  So 15 minutes before the store closed, I ran over and bought a very nice pyrex pie plate.   Melting the chocolate was easy, and the metal bowl over water in a sauce pan was fine.  (I haven't used a double boiler in years.)  The filling took a lot longer to cook then the recipe seemed to indicate.  I think I was worried about cooking the eggs and didn't have the milk hot enough to start with and so it took longer.  I stood at the stove stirring and whisking and worrying that it wasn't going to turn out.  Finally, it got thick and I added the chocolate and vanilla.  To be honest, I could have stopped there, as this is the best chocolate pudding I have ever had.  I let the filling cool and poured it in the pie crust.  After chilling the pie overnight, I made the meringue early the next morning and browned it in the oven.  When we had the pie that night, it was all excellent except the crust.  A co-worker suggested that I could just skip the crust, and I have also thought about using a cookie crust instead of pastry.  But I am sure I will be making this again!