It all started in my teens! If a sadness or a depression started creeping up on me, I could drive it away by doing something to make someone else happy! Doing something for myself just simply didn’t work! It had to be SOMETHING I DID FOR SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!!!

Even on my farm, as my three little girls were growing up, when I was milking a big herd of cows every morning and night (it was always who is gonna help Mom milk), working ground, planting fields, cultivating corn, baling hay and straw, et cetera et cetera, I still would bake an extra pie to give away.

When I handed a warm pie to the crippled man over in town or the lady who still ran the gas station after she lost her husband, the smile it brought from each of them warmed my heart.

That crippled man still lived above the grocery store his parents had owned. As a child when I walked up to that store, HANDED HIS FATHER a PENNY and asked for hard tack candy, that kind hearted man would FILL that little brown bag TO THE BRIM! That had to be a DIMES worth!

This was back in the ‘Stone Age” like 1927 and 1928 long before several of you reading this were even yet “THE TWINKLE IN YOUR FATHER’S EYE”.

Over the years wherever I have lived it has been very easy for me to find people for whom I can do something to bring a little happiness to their day!

After driving home from my Real Estate office in Venice, Florida, as I am walking past my neighbors kitchen window, she said “Flo, wait a minute, I just baked a chocolate cake and I want to give you some.”

UH! OH! SHE KNOWS MY SECRET FOR STAYING HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My current neighbor’s favorite is CHOCOLATE PIE! And here you can see him with one I just made for him, Lee and his lovely wife Norma. He shares with her!

Since I have had a REQUEST for my CHOCOLATE PIE recipe, here it is:

Close up of pie in picture shown above

Frozen Pillsbury Pet-Ritz ‘deep dish’ pie shell (from the store freezer) thaw then punch in holes using a dinner fork and sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon shaker ready for 385 degree oven (I make up my own sugar and cinnamon mix and keep it in a shaker). It is also great to top raisin filled sugar cookies just before putting them in the oven or etcetera, etcetera!

In a two quart bowl, mix 2 boxes Jello chocolate ‘cook and serve’ pudding with 1/2 cup 2 percent milk. Add 2 tablespoons imitation vanilla. I add an extra 1/2 cup milk to the 4 cups called for on the Jello pudding box. The pudding will taste better if it isn’t so thick.

In a microwave bowl heat 4 cups 2 percent milk for about 5 minutes in your microwave oven. Put pie shell in regular oven at 385 degrees. It should be light golden brown. At the same time you finish cooking the filling.

Add hot milk to the pudding mix, a little to start with, stirring as you add the hot milk. Pour into a large sauce pan and bring to a boil stirring constantly with a wooden flat end spoon. Continue boiling for two minutes. Remove from burner and add 1 and 1/2 regular size Hershey Milk Chocolate bars. Stir until completely melted, place back on burner, and bring to a full rolling boil stirring constantly. I buy the package of six Hershey bars and keep them in my fridge.

Remove from burner, take pie shell from oven and immediately fill hot pie shell with hot pudding. That is how to keep pie shell from soaking! You probably already knew that!

Never stir the pudding once you have removed it from the burner. If you do stir it, that will cause it to go watery.

I leave the pie on the kitchen counter until it cools to room temperature, then put it in my fridge to further cool before topping with dream whip and the 1/2 Hershey Milk Chocolate bar shavings or cut up pieces. If you have a paring knife that is very thin (I broke mine) you can make the chocolate curls that look so neat!!!! Take two bars from your refrigerator BEFORE starting to make the pie to bring them to room temperature.

I use one package of Dream Whip with 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons 2 percent milk for the topping and when beaten up add 2 rounded teaspoons powdered sugar to sweeten. I add an extra 2 tablespoons of milk to the 1/2 cup directions on the box of Dream Whip. That gives it more the consistency of actual whip cream. Even by using 2 percent milk many people have thought it was real whip cream on the pie.

It really is quite easy and does not take much time to make this DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE. I make this pie so often to give away that;

I COULD MAKE IT IN MY SLEEP—zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

FRF ♥