Heaven in a bowl

I finally managed to make the chocolate ice box pudding. It really shouldn’t have taken me this long to get it all together, especially since it’s the only contribution I’ll be making to Thanksgiving dinner.

I went to the grocery store last Wednesday with my goal being that I wouldn’t have to return to the store until after Thanksgiving. Grocery shopping right before Thanksgiving is like going to a bar on New Year’s Eve. You have to deal with tons of amateurs who have no idea what they are doing.

However, while I was gone this weekend, P informed me that a six foot rat had gotten into my Ghiradelli chocolate bars and that they would need to be replaced. The rat was actually nice enough to go to the store and buy new chocolate, but we ended up running out of other essential items such as toilet paper and powdered sugar. And we have to have powdered sugar.

Anyway, after our trip to HEB this morning, Caroline and I were ready to make the chocolate ice box pudding.

And since I want y’all to have a lovely Thanksgiving, I will share the recipe. Use this information carefully. Once y’all try this you may never be the same.

Chocolate Ice Box Pudding

The Diet Coke with Lime is completely optional and probably not really recommended.

8 oz. of semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 packages of ladyfingers

Mix sugar and water together in a medium size bowl and microwave until the water has thoroughly boiled and the sugar has dissolved. Add in chocolate and microwave another 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Set mixture aside.

Melt butter and powdered sugar over low heat in a large saucepan. When melted together, add chocolate mixture and stir constantly until it boils well. Set aside for 20 minutes and then add vanilla.

Separate eggs and put egg yolks in a large bowl and egg whites in a mixing bowl. Beat eggs yolks and gradually add chocolate mixture to them. Allow to cool completely (or put in refrigerator if you’re like me and have the patience of a gnat)

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into bowl lined with ladyfingers. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with homemade whipping cream. Do NOT desecrate this sacred dish with Cool Whip.

Here’s Caroline with the chocolate. If she had been home on Saturday I have no doubt that she would have served as an accomplice to the six foot rat that ate the chocolate.

This is AJ showing Caroline how to eat the powdered sugar right out of the pan. It was really helpful.

This is the mess I made on the stove when I decided to sling hot butter and powdered sugar everywhere. Tomorrow I will give thanks that at the moment the hot butter hit my hand I managed to not yell any profanities.

Here’s the inside of the cabinet where I keep all my silver serving pieces. Please note that they are all neatly wrapped in silvercloth and stored in Ziploc bags. I am very proud of this because it is the only area of my life in which I am this organized.

However, it still took me 15 minutes to find my medium sized Revere bowl in spite of it being labeled “Medium Sized Revere Bowl”.

I don’t know why.

These are the ladyfingers. It’s a very complicated recipe.

Here they are lining the Revere bowl. This is a crucial step in the process. You must ensure that you have the proper pudding to ladyfinger ratio or Thanksgiving will be RUINED.

Here is the finished masterpiece. Don’t you think Jenni and DeAnna would have been completely okay with the whole Brad dumping them thing if they’d had a bowl of this to self-medicate?