7 Quick Takes: Books, Brackets, Bunnies

--- 1 ---

I finished another book for the year, my third . . . and my 3rd conversion memoir. Those things suck me in! Girl At The End of the World just blew my mind. Elizabeth Esther (the author) blogs over yonder. I luckily never knew such abuse as a child. And some of the theology that she was brought up with--yeesh. (There was one thing about a woman's soul being subject to a man's soul that had me hollering, "Are you kidding me?!" over and over and over.)

I'm joining a Catholic women's book club soon, and I might be suggesting this one. There were even discussion questions in the back, so I guess that makes it book club material??

Also, it's kinda cool knowing you're the first person to read a library book! It was on order when I put it on hold.

--- 2 ---

I realized the reason I hardly finished any books last year.

It was because my 'fun reading' looks like this:

Yes, that's 5 books all at once. I did sorta make it through the potty-training one, and it was not for me. According to that book, my kid is already potty-trained. The author also made it sound like no one in their right mind would use cloth diapers, so that's just a no. I returned it to the library a few days ago. I think I'm going to focus on the Jesuit Guide and let the others just collect dust/overdue fines for a bit.

--- 3 ---

So how did everyone do with their March Madness brackets??

Here are ours:

Cora's brackets were done mostly with a very scientific coin-toss method. Needless, to say, she came in 3rd for both men's and women's. I won the women's bracket with a very nice score of 135. I really feel that if we had no ties to Notre Dame at all, I could have done even better. But we both picked ND to win over UConn because that's what we wanted. One year I did a 'fantasy bracket' where I had my team (Georgia) win the whole thing (it's never actually happened), and then did a more realistic bracket instead. Maybe that's what I need to do again.

--- 4 ---

I only caught parts of the men's final match (in all honestly, I never cared much for men's basketball), but I did watch almost all of the women's final game online. Since we don't have cable, the only way to [legally] view it was on ESPN's website. However, it was the 'multi-cam' view. It turns out that meant there were no announcers. It was just the sound of the game being played. It was sort of interesting, mostly in that I could hear a little bit of what the players were yelling to each other. And I didn't have to listen to the same things being said over and over again by the commentators.

--- 5 ---

Our Y had the Easter Bunny come last week, and Cora called him "Peter Rabbit" (we read that one a lot). But she wasn't too keen on getting a pic with him.

Why are the Easter Bunnies so odd-looking? I've never seen one I like.

--- 6 ---

Tonight (Friday), we had B's aunt, uncle, and grandma over for dinner. I'm trying to host dinner for someone at least once a month because it forces me to keep a clean house. It's also rather fun. I made macaroni and cheese using half gouda/half cheddar, and it was delicious. I also made my own fresh breadcrumbs for the first time ever. (Um, that was easy. Never buying those again.)

We finished off dinner with another first for me, monkey bread:

I made this completely from scratch, using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. (Which, by the way, is a book I still do not own--I just keep checking it back out of the library.) There's another method out there that uses refrigerated biscuit dough, and honestly, I think I'll be using that from now on. Sure, this one was great, but it was a lengthy process that involved letting the dough rise 2 different times. If I had done the biscuit method, we might have actually gone outside and done something this morning.

--- 7 ---

I'm so glad it's finally warm and beautiful here. We even took our dinner guests on a walk around our street after filling our bellies. But flower names. Freakin' flower names, man. Every time I'm with older women, they look over yonder and ask me, "Oh, are those crocuses?" (Please tell me this happens to other females.) I recognize pansies and daffodils, but only after they've already bloomed, and that's all you'll get from me. I'm sure I learned other ones at some point, but it's been a long winter.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Late Night Chocolate Craving Recipe: the BEST Chocolate Mug Cake

Today I'm sharing the best microwave chocolate mug cake I've ever had.  I've tried a TON of mug cake recipes, and most of them are nasty.  I've discovered that if a recipe calls for an entire egg for a single serving, your cake is going to be the consistency of rubber.  I had one other chocolate mug cake recipe that I thought was decent, but it made way too much and always left me with a stomachache.  It didn't actually fit into a normal mug either--I had to make it in a bowl, as I don't own or have any need for an oversized mug.

Perfect dessert for one.  No stomachache included.

But after searching high and low, I have found THE ONE.  I have made this recipe almost ten times now.  And I don't make recipes more than once if they're yucky the first go'round.  I have even printed this one out and added it to my recipe binder!

After mixing, before baking

About 50 seconds in our microwave.  Cool whip adds an extra touch!

I usually make it in a mug, but I've also made it in a ramekin, just for kicks and pics.

Make sure to grease the cup really well if you want it to come out!

One-Minute Chocolate Cake

2 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tablespoon + 2 tsp sugar (that's just a bit less than 2 tablespoons; 3tsp=1Tbsp)
1/4 tsp baking powder
2-3 tsp coconut oil or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons milk (any kind)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Optional ingredients:
chocolate chips
whipped cream or cool whip

Combine dry ingredients (the first 5 on the list) in a mug and mix very, very well. Add all of the liquid ingredients and stir well. Feel free to add some chocolate chips into this if that sounds good. Microwave 40-60 seconds (you'll have to mess around with your microwave a few times to find its 'sweet spot). If you want to make it in a ramekin, mix it in a bowl first and spray your dish well before adding the mixture. Let cake cool before removing from ramekin.

Top with whipped cream and chocolate chips for an extra-fun treat!

Adapted from this recipe at Chocolate-Covered Katie.

You should definitely check out Katie's blog.  It has become one of my favorites, because it's mostly desserts!  She's vegan, so a lot of her ingredients are on the "offbeat" side, but she tells you which things you can sub for them.  I made this with all "traditional" American ingredients (and an extra pinch of sugar).  I'm sure it's great her way, but I just use what I have on hand.

7 Quick Takes (Olympic Fever Edition)

— 1 —

B and I have been having fun keeping up with the Olympics.  He's a lot more into it than I thought he would be!  I think he's watched about every sport that has come on.  He likes to whine and moan about some of it, though.  I sometimes agree.  One thing he hates is swimming.  I get this.  Why is someone who won a gabillion medals in swimming the "greatest Olympic athlete"?  You can win a gabillion medals in swimming because it has a gabillion events.  (17 events, I just counted.)  But what about those sports that only offer one medal?  I personally love women's beach volleyball, and I think May-Treanor/Walsh is one of the greatest teams of all Olympic history.  And what about skeet shooter Kim Rhode who has won gold in five consecutive Olympics?

— 2 —

Speaking of beach volleyball, can I just say that Kerri Walsh is amazing?  Did you know this gal popped out TWO kids between the last Olympics and this one?

Source

I remember hearing Jillian Michaels say she didn't want to "ruin her body" with pregnancy.  Um, I think Kerri Walsh just proved that it does not ruin your body if you don't let it.  (I can personally vouch for this, as I have a similar body type to Jillian and have lost every ounce of pregnancy weight and even a pound extra to boot.)

— 3 —

Going back to swimming, what in the world is the point of the butterfly stroke?  Why would you ever use this stroke in swimming?  Freestyle is the fastest, breaststroke is an endurance stroke, backstroke probably has the least risk of drowning . . . but butterfly?  To look like a fish?  I don't get it.

— 4 —

I really enjoyed this YouTube video that shows the evolution of uneven bars routines over the year.  Neat, huh?


— 5 — Did you catch my guest post over at Many Waters earlier this week?  I talked about my views on my husband leaving active duty military service, which you can read here.  His replacement is checking in today, which means it's turnover time.  Less than 30 days left until his end date.  Yeep.  And, no, we still don't know where his job search is going to land us. — 6 — I've crossed two items off my 101 list lately.  The first was that I got my butt back to that farmer's market and finally bought a few items:

Flowers, local raw honey, and some yummy bread.  Total was under $20.

The honey was from a church friend's yard, so that was cool too.  You can check out their website here. — 7 — And yesterday I blogged about how I made ice cream from scratch without an ice cream maker.

Check out how I did it here. —— And check out more quick takes at Conversion Diary!

Truly Old-Fashioned

I should have done this a long time ago.

Yeah, that?  I made it.

Thus fulfilling . . .

✔ 38. Make ice cream from scratch

Now before you roll your eyes and say, "Whatever, no big deal," let me inform you that I did this without an ice cream maker.  Let me say that again, but in bold and all caps.  I MADE IT WITHOUT AN ICE CREAM MAKER.

We don't have the space for one, and I didn't want to buy something I might use only once a year anyway.  (Yes, I know you can get them for cheap at a thrift store, but that's not the point here.)

Okay, so how did I do it, you ask?  I have actually made ice cream in the bag method before, way back in my Girl Scout days.  That's sorta fun, but you should probably buy rock salt and you'll need some good plastic bags.  Also, the ice cream isn't as good as the kind you buy.  For that, you need a custard base, which means eggs and a little bit of cooking.

Where's an easy place to find a good ice cream recipe?  Screw Pinterest, this one calls for tried and true.  Betty Crocker red book to the rescue.  Here is her vanilla ice cream recipe.

Now, as for the freezing it into ice cream part, I searched around and found this guy's method.  The basic premise is that you put it in the freezer and just keep stirring it every half hour or so for at least 3 hours.  Yes, it takes much longer than whatever magic an ice cream maker does, but it worked!  The timing was perfect, too, as our ice cream was ready right after baby went to bed!  (It was soft serve consistency around the 3-hour mark, so I actually tacked on an extra hour.)

It was pretty cool watching it slowly turn into ice cream over the course of the evening!

It came out so good!  The only ingredient I actually had to purchase specifically for this was heavy cream.  Everything else was on hand.

I actually did a little happy dance in the kitchen after getting these two beautiful scoops into the bowl.

Have you ever made ice cream without a gadget?  How did it turn out?

Some Life Updates

I figured it's about time to just let y'all know what's going on around here.

Last week, we celebrated a lot!

First, B's 29th birthday was on the 8th.

Those are birthday brownies from a box.  I'm not super-mom over here.

Then on Thursday evening, we drove back to my hometown in Georgia.  That means that Cora gets to cross another state off her list!  Friday was spent sinking a bunch of money into repairing my car (new alternator and water pump, ugh), and then on Saturday we had not one, but TWO big celebrations of faith.

My nephew/godson received his First Communion:

That's him kneeling in the first row.  I got a video of the whole thing even though I wasn't supposed to :)

And then that same afternoon, my precious baby girl was baptized!

She's wearing the gown that both my sister and I were baptized in!

We did two cakes, one from Publix for my nephew, and I decorated the one for Cora.  It's not awesome, but I think I did an okay job.

The more important part is that it was YUMMY and got gobbled up very quickly!

B had his D.C. trip early this week, so Cora and I dropped him off at the airport on Monday morning, and went on an adventure!  I did this last year on the same weekend after my niece's baptism and regretted going to somewhere a bunch of field trip students were.  So this year I steered clear of touristy places and a friend joined Cora and me for our first IKEA trip.

I wish I lived near one so I could just go there for breakfast all the time!

I got a handful of toys and toy storage and picture frames, and it was great!  This is totally my type of store.

After that side trip, I had to drive back to Pensacola on my own with baby.  It really wasn't so bad.  She's gotten a lot more efficient at nursing, so we just took our time and didn't do bottles since I would have had to pump if we did.  We only made two stops, so it worked out just fine!

Other than our travels, the big deal in our household right now is B's job hunt.  He signed up with another headhunting agency, which I think has had someone call him almost every day.  He's going to a big job conference in Baltimore next week, where he'll be interviewing with a handful of companies he matches.  If you're the prayin' kind, please add him to your list next Tuesday!  It absolutely freaks me out that wherever we end up moving to in just a few short months could be our FOREVER home.  I want him to have a good job and all, but I guess my role as wife and mom is to make sure we end up somewhere that has a good environment for families and preferably good schools.

And just because she's stinkin' cute, here's a recent picture of Cora:

adventures in champagne cake

I have a quest. It might even turn into a lifelong quest, but I'm hoping it doesn't.  See, my husband and I had an amazing wedding cake.  And not just amazing in its decoration, but amazing in its taste.  Speaking of husband, he just looked over my shoulder and saw what I wrote and called it "a little dramatic."  It's the best cake I've ever had, so I'm allowed to be dramatic.

The cake even kept so well in my parents' freezer that after a year, I was still in love with it. Yeah, most people HATE their year-old wedding cake, but I was begging for more.  Obviously, I need to figure out how to make it.

The cake: champagne cake with strawberry mousse filling (and buttercream icing).  Here's a picture of it after a year of freezing and then thawing.

It was actually even better the next day--it somehow got fluffier.

I decided that I'd try to make it for our anniversary this year.  I asked around on a few message boards and got a whopping ZERO responses.  So much for that.  I found a recipe that sounded decent and committed to it.  It included both the cake recipe and the strawberry mousse recipe.

The night before our anniversary, I made the frosting from my Wilton books, so that was easy.  Then I decided to tackle the mousse.  The mousse recipe had a few jobs in it that I'd never done before.  The first was whipping heavy cream.  I have a handheld electric mixer (no room in this tiny kitchen for a fancy stand one), and whipped the cream like a pro.  I was feeling pretty confident at this point.

Then I had to separate eggs and whip the whites.  I didn't do any research on this, and the recipe was just very bare-bones about it.  I've never separated eggs before, but I do have a tool for that.  It fit nicely over a cup, so I just kept adding them to the cup.  The yolk broke on the fourth one (out of six), so I now learned why this method is a bad idea.  (Pro tip: dump each egg white into the bowl right after you separate it.)  I couldn't get all of the yolk out, so I just moved on.  Once I got my 6, I tried to use my whisk attachment for the mixer to whip them.  Twenty minutes later, I still didn't have stiff peaks.  I've sorta watched my mom make meringue before, so I knew something was wrong.  But it was past bedtime at this point, so I said screw it.  And so I mixed my soft-peaked egg whites into the rest of it.

The result?

That's a 5-quart bowl, about 4/5 full of runny mousse.

The next day, when I tried to put it between my cake layers.  Major FAIL.

Even if I'd gotten it all right, I'm pretty sure this recipe would have still made at least eight times the amount of mousse needed.  There was a frosting recipe included too, and I'm glad I stuck with the one I already knew.

The good news is that the next day, when I actually made the cake layers, the recipe called for another six egg whites whipped to stiff peaks again.  I was definitely not gonna screw this up a second time!  I turned to YouTube and found an informative video about doing it by hand.  I decided that was the way to go.  Of course, I had already done a full workout that morning, including dumbbell activities, but I didn't let that stop me.  Boy, was it another workout!  I had to take a few breaks.  But in less than 5 minutes, I had my stiff peaks!

Then I had to open a champagne bottle for the first time by myself.  There were directions on the bottle that made me think this thing just might go everywhere, even though it was a screw-top Wal-Mart variety champagne.  The sink was full of cake stuff, plus I'd rather not have to clean the floor if it came to it.  After giving it a bit of thought, I decided to do it outside on the patio.  That was a good call, since it ran all down the bottle.  We'll call that a success.

All in all, the cake did NOT turn out anything like our wedding cake (which is also why I refuse to link to the recipe here).  The cake was way more dense--almost like a pound cake.  And the mousse obviously didn't pan out, but the taste wasn't even that great.  I shouldn't be eating raw egg whites anyway, so maybe that's a good thing?

At least those Wilton classes I took last year paid off!

The decorating was the best part.

We're still eating it, but I'm definitely on the hunt for a better recipe to try next year!

The list of firsts I experienced with this cake:

• First time whipping cream to stiff peaks (success!)
• First (and second) time separating eggs
• First and second time whipping egg whites (failure and success)
• First time opening a bottle of champagne (it was a screw top, but still)
• First time baking a cake without using a box of cake mix

Have you had any mousse mishaps?  Or are you on a quest for the perfect recipe for something?

B's birthday weekend

My husband was born on Mother's Day.  And it hit this year on Mother's Day again (sidenote: the 8th is the earliest date Mother's Day can fall because it's the second Sunday in May).  However, I am not a mom yet (except to some plants on our patio), so there was no conflict of interest.  I let my wonderful husband choose all the activities for the weekend, and I think he chose pretty well!

On Saturday morning, we went kayaking on base (renting from the same marina where we took the sailing lesson).  Kayaking was also on my list (unbeknownst to B), so I'm happy I got to check it off!  I convinced him that we should get a double kayak just in case I had a panic attack again.  It was such a beautiful day here in Pensacola, and we spent a lovely two hours paddling around the Bayou Grande.  On our way back, we even saw some dolphins and paddled up near them.  That was definitely the highlight of the weekend!  In addition to the fact that it only cost us a whopping $4 to rent that kayak!  I would definitely love to go again--and maybe even get a waterproof camera along in case of more dolphin sightings.



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Saturday night, B chose a restaurant to go out to (more of a mom-and-pop diner near the Alabama line), and then we went to check out the Greyhound races they do here.  I know some animal lovers will probably get on me about supporting this, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but it was interesting to see.  I kind of have a "when in Rome" mentality sometimes, which is why I went to watch a bullfight when I was in Spain.  I had also been to horse races up at Colonial Downs in Virginia and actually enjoyed it a lot.  The Greyhound track here had the same kind of betting system, but the place was a freakin' dump.  It was a beautiful night, so I wanted to watch the races outside, not from behind the big window.  Well, the overhang from the roof was leaking and there was nowhere to sit outside near where the finish line was (most people were just out there to smoke), so we just stood there by our lonesome.  A poker room took up half of the building--which is apparently open 24 hours a day on the weekends--and there were tons of cars in the parking lot.  I guess most of them were playing poker because the people watching the dog races seemed to be few and far between.  We stayed for 6 races, placing dinky $2 bets on each.  We ended up spending a whopping $10 and leaving with half of it.  When we got in the car to leave, I commented, "I felt over-dressed in that place . . . and over-educated also."  Come to think of it, I feel like that a lot in this town.

These things were huge!

On Sunday, we did our usual church thing and then took B to get his birthday present.  A new suitcase, which he had to pick out himself.  After that, we came home and I made his birthday "cake": homemade cream puffs!  (and 2 eclairs).  I had apparently stumbled upon and bookmarked this tutorial online, which inspired me (don't know how I found it--I still don't follow that blog).  This blog doesn't actually give a recipe with measurements though, but I found this one in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and I highly recommend it (Betty didn't have one--shocker, I know!).  Yes, I mixed it by hand, and yes, it was a workout.  But it wasn't terrible.  I did use the pudding/Cool Whip combo for the filling and chocolate frosting for the top, because it was just plain easier and tastes just as good.

28 isn't too old for blowing out candles, right??

Easter Recipe: My Momma's Strawberry Cake

My mom makes this cake every Easter, and it is my favorite cake in the world.  And that's saying a lot, because I love cake!  She's even made it for my birthday sometimes.  Since moving away from home, I've  had to learn how to make it myself because I can't imagine Easter without it.  I think I do a pretty good job!

This was my first-ever attempt at it, back in 2008.  I didn't sift the sugar in the icing, which is why it looks lumpy.

Yes, it is a pretty PINK on the inside!

Ingredients
1 box of white cake mix
1 box of strawberry jello
1 cup vegetable oil
4 whole eggs
3 Tbsp. flour
½ cup water
6 oz. frozen strawberries (½ a box); cut fairly small (easiest to do while frozen)

For the icing:
½ box confectioner's sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp. butter
Milk

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Oil and flour your pan; this is best in a bundt pan.
2. Put dry ingredients together (cake mix, jello powder, flour)
3. Add oil and eggs, then water and strawberry pieces.
4. Mix completely.  If using electric mixer, about 2 minutes on med/high.  Mix until smooth and relatively fluffy (not gooey).
5. Bake in oven for about 1 hour.  Cake tester or toothpick should come out clean.
6. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn upside down to get it out of the pan.

Icing is primarily based on taste and how sweet you want it.  My mom usually tries for a glaze, which I love.
7. Melt about 3 Tbsp. of butter per ½ box of confectioner's sugar.  Add melted butter to the sugar and stir until well-mixed and all the butter lumps are out.
8. Add milk to the mixture to the texture you want.  Start with ¼ cup and add gradually.  If icing hardens up, put in microwave to heat a bit, then add milk.
9. Spread icing over cooled cake, then decorate with jelly beans!

a bandwagon! a bandwagon!

Yep, I've become a BALLER.  A cake baller, that is!

Sprinkles were definitely the easiest decoration

 I was inspired, of course, by Bakerella (the gal who made it trendy and put them on a stick), and also this blog which saved me from taking pictures of the process for you because she already did!  I even made the exact same kind, strawberry cake, mixed with strawberry frosting, dipped in chocolate almond bark.

My mom reminded me that these are nothing new, though.  Anyone ever had petit fours?  Yeah, cake balls are basically those, just a lot less fancy (and thus, in my opinion, way more American).

And it makes a mess the size of Texas!  Or maybe that's just me?

One thing I will warn you, if you attempt this, just one box of cake mix makes a TON!  I think I had about 80 cake balls for a potluck that was then canceled.

Luckily I was invited to another potluck a few days later.

faux tagalongs

I decided to participate in this blog hop since I'd been planning on making some yummy goodies anyway!

Click the picture to see what everyone else made, and maybe link up your own!  She promised to keep it open for the whole month, too.

I don't usually do a ton of holiday baking -- it's about on par with the amount I do the rest of the year.  I guess that means I don't get invited to enough parties?

Anyway, I wanted to try something that my friend back in Virginia had made for me before.  So I sent her a message through Facebook that read:

So the past 2 years you did some holiday baking, and I was a lucky recipient of some of it!   And there was one thing that stuck out to me, and I can hardly remember it, but I want to try to make it this year.  I think it was some type of chocolate and peanut butter creation, because that is usually my favorite.  It might've been caramel though.  I remember eating some on our plane ride last year, and then after we got to Indiana, one of the dogs got into my stuff and ate some of it and I had to throw the bag away. Not sure if I told you about that, but I was really sad!!

And I was really sad.  Especially because those dogs are usually very well-behaved for, well, dogs.

Anyway, my friend responded in a timely manner with the easiest recipe ever.  Actually, it's not even a recipe, it's more like an edible craft project.  Especially because they have no name.  I was gonna call them "cracker-doodles" because that's essentially how I name things, but I think the term "faux Tagalongs" is more accurate.  Tagalongs have been my favorite Girl Scout cookie for the past 20 years.  The first time I tasted that precious combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and cookie at the tender age of 6, I knew it was my manna from heaven*.  And I should know a thing or two about those cookies, since I stuck with Scouting all the way up.  (Actually, I'm a lifetime member now.  I have a card and everything.)

So here is how to make these wonderfully fake, no-baking required cracker-thingies.
You will need 3 ingredients.  Yes, only 3!  Club Crackers, peanut butter, and chocolate almond bark.  And leave your measuring cups in their happy homes, none needed today.

I cheaped out and got the store brand Club crackers.  But then the store didn't have the almond bark (it is a seasonal item, but I guess both Publix and Winn-Dixie forgot to order it this year), so I ended up at Wal-Mart anyway where real Club crackers were the same price as the Publix brand ones.  Sigh.

After your wild goose-chase for the ingredients, the fun begins.  Spread (however generously) peanut butter between the crackers to make sandwiches.

This just looks like a good afternoon snack!

Then stick them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to firm them up.

Yep, right on top of the frozen bread.

Meanwhile, start melting down that almond bark.  There's directions on the back of the package for microwave, oven, and stove-top.  I chose stove.

I definitely had to add more pieces.

This was my first time ever using almond bark, but it behaved like most chocolate.  And by that I mean, she sure is a fickle mistress when it comes to temperature.  At one point, it started seizing up on me, and I didn't think it was ever going to be smooth.  But I gave it some encouraging words, a few stirs, and maybe a 10 degree temperature change, and we worked it out.  It never really got perfectly smooth, however.

Okay, chocolate, we can compromise.

Now comes the mess part of trying to figure out how to dip these suckers in the pool without getting it all over the kitchen.  If I had been paying more attention, I probably would've used a fork.  Dip them in, get them coated, then put them on wax paper (or parchment paper, in my case) to cool for about an hour.

I'm obviously not a perfectionist.

After about an hour or so, they will cool down.  You can tell because they won't be as shiny.  Aaaand, that's it!  Time to eat!

I could probably eat these every day for the rest of my life with no complaints!

*Please don't confuse my hyperbole with sacrilege.  A year later, I received First Eucharist, and it has trumped any cookie ever since.

faux chocolate eclair

I have a favorite cookbook. It is a compilation of recipes given to me by family and friends at my bridal shower.  I am currently working my way through making every recipe in the book, and this one was submitted by both my mother-in-law and my Aunt Ann.  If two rather different people from rather different parts of the country both submitted it, then I guess I gotta try it!

B saw the title, and immediately said, "My mom's never made an eclair in her life!" But then when I started getting the ingredients out, he questioned, "Oh, you're using graham crackers? I know that one." I guess he thought I was gonna make a REAL eclair, like this:

I have re-titled this to "faux chocolate eclair," just for his overly-literal engineer brain.
But anyway, here are the ingredients:

The first step is to put a layer of graham crackers on the bottom of your dish. Both recipes said to use a 9x13, but I decided to halve the recipe since I wasn't making this for an army/church potluck/hoard of teenage boys. An 8x8 would be fine for just me and B, although I did have to get slightly creative with my graham crackers.

Rounded corners make my life more difficult

The next step is to make the filling.  Both recipes called for instant pudding, but my MIL's said FRENCH Vanilla.  I'm in no position to go against the mother of my husband, so French Vanilla it is. Combine the pudding mix and milk to well, make pudding (sorta), then add the Cool Whip in.

If anything, the Cool Whip helped it from staying that mucky yellow color.  The next step is to make the chocolate topping.  My aunt's recipe just said to use a tub of prepared chocolate frosting.  My MIL's recipe was only slightly more difficult, so I went with that.  Because I'm still not about to ruffle the feathers of the grandmother of my future children.  Powedered sugar, white corn syrup, cocoa, vanilla, milk, melted butter.  It's kinda like making a runny chocolate frosting.

Then you get to assemble.  Half of the filling over the crackers, then another layer of crackers, then the other half of the filling, then more crackers.  Yep, 3 layers of graham crackers, 2 layers of filling, then the chocolate topping.  And now for the annoying part: cover and refrigerate!

We only let it chill an hour because we wanted dessert.  But the topping hadn't hardened, and B called me out on it.  My aunt's recipe says to make this 8 hours before serving it, and she's probably right.  We ate some the night I made it, then put it back in the fridge.  Last night we ate more after dinner, and it was perfect.  Topping was hard and the graham crackers were soft.  And you know what?  It really DID taste like an eclair!  Just one you need a spoon to eat.

I wanted to do an awesome cross-section picture, but rounded corners make it just look like mush.

The full recipe now (not halved):

Ingredients
1 box graham crackers
Filling:
2 pkgs instant french vanilla pudding
3 cups cold milk
1 8oz container Cool Whip
Topping:
4 Tblsp. melted butter
3 Tblsp. cocoa
2 Tblsp. white corn syrup
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 Tblsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions
1. Line bottom of 9x13 pan with graham crackers
2. Prepare filling: beat pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. Then stir in Cool Whip.
3. Pour half the filling over graham crackers. Top with another layer of graham crackers. Pour on remaining filling. Top with 3rd layer of graham crackers.
4. Make chocolate topping by stirring all ingredients together. [OR (per my aunt) use a tub of chocolate frosting. Microwave it about one minute and stir.] Pour over the top of graham crackers.
5. Cover and refrigerate, preferably at least 8 hours.