Video: Cool Food Gifts for the Holidays, Southern Sweet Chocolate Coconut Pie Recipe

From Denny: This is so cute! I've done a few gingerbread houses in my time and this one is simplified and easy, so easy you can do it with your kids. How fun! The kit has a cardboard frame, the mix included for the cookie dough and the royal icing too, from Sur la table for the $35 kit.

Another idea is a baked Southern tradition: caramel cake. This lady baked these cakes for her family and they were such a big hit she started a business. From Carolines Cakes for $45.

This year's newest trend are gifts of salt and this company was also started by a woman. These are unprocessed salts that are healthier for you from Salt Sisters Salts for $5 to $14.

Do you know someone who likes to make their own vanilla extract with vodka and 8 vanilla beans? Here's how and you can purchase the vanilla extract kit from Salt Sisters Salts for $25.

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I love the combination of chocolate and coconut and found this easy pie recipe that would be convenient to make for the holidays! Chilling time is the most effort you have to put into it.



Southern Sweet Chocolate Pie

From: Kraft Foods

Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 5 hr 25 min
Makes: 10 servings

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (4 oz.) BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 deep-dish pie crust (9 inch), unbaked
1-1/3 cups BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut
1/2 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Melt chocolate and butter in saucepan on very low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; gradually add milk, stirring until well blended.

MIX sugar, cornstarch and salt in medium bowl; beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add chocolate mixture, mixing until well blended. Pour into pie crust; sprinkle with coconut and nuts. (Crust will be quite full; filling will not rise over sides.)

BAKE 45 to 50 min. or until top is puffed and browned, covering loosely with foil for the last 15 min. to prevent overbrowning if necessary. (Filling will be soft, but will set while cooling.) Cool at room temperature 15 min., then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.


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Video: Unbelievable, OK, Weird, Foods and Recipes

From Denny: Just when I think I'm going to post something typically Cajun I run into this funny food video! These have got to be some of the most disgusting, too salty, too sugary, fatty, highest calorie, wonderful tasting recipes around. The author of the blog turned book, This Is Why You're Fat! gives you a sampling.

These are some crazy recipes! Try fried Coke - now how do you fry a liquid was my first thought? Then there are Bacon Cinnamon Rolls, McNugget-tinis (vodka and McDonald's chocolate milk shake with fried battered chicken nuggets only as a garnish, whew!), Mac 'n' Cheese layered into your meatloaf (which actually looks kinda pretty) and an Elvis Presley donut - peanut butter frosted and garnished with sliced bananas and slices of bacon on top. To qualify as "why you're fat" category a recipe has to be smothered in cheese, deep-fried or wrapped in bacon. There are a lot of bacon blogs out there, folks! And we wonder why America is fat!

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If you are game - and crazy enough - to make these recipes, enjoy!

Bacon cinnamon rolls

From: "This Is Why You're Fat"

INGREDIENTS

• 1 container bacon strips
• 1 container cream cheese
• 1 roll ready-to-cook cinnamon rolls

DIRECTIONS

Cook the bacon in a pan until one side is mostly done, but not fully cooked through. Dry the bacon of grease, then slather the mostly cooked side of the bacon with cream cheese.

Unroll the cinnamon rolls on a hard surface. Place the cream cheese-slathered bacon onto the unrolled cinnamon rolls. Roll the cinnamon rolls back up with the cream cheese bacon inside.

Place the rolls on a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and top with icing provided in the cinnamon roll packaging.



Deep-fried Coke

From: "This Is Why You're Fat"

INGREDIENTS

• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Coke
• Whipped cream
• Maraschino cherries

DIRECTIONS

Mix together flour and baking powder. Add eggs and Coke and mix until a batter is formed. Pour 1/3 cup batter into a funnel, dropper or turkey baster and pour into a skillet filled with oil. Fry for a minute on each side.

Serve warm, garnished with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.



Bacon mac and cheese meatloaf
(Italian grandmothers must be rolling over in their graves...)

From: "This Is Why You're Fat"

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 2 slices wheat bread, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoon parsley, minced
• Worcestershire sauce to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 1/4 cups onion, sliced
• 10 strips of bacon
• Premade macaroni and cheese

DIRECTIONS

Mix ground chuck, eggs, bread, ketchup, garlic, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper with hands in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, sweat onion until translucent but not brown. Allow onions to cool, then add to meat mixture. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and move to refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lay bacon across the width of a loaf pan. Press a layer of meat into the bottom of the pan, on top of the bacon. This layer should fill exactly one third of the loaf pan.

Scoop some of the macaroni and cheese into the loaf pan, making sure to press out any air bubbles. This layer should also fill one third of the loaf pan.

Form a slab of meat in the approximate size and shape of the remaining one third of the loaf pan. Transfer the slab to the loaf pan. Add or remove meat as necessary to ensure a snug fit.

Fold strips of bacon back over the top of the meatloaf. Roast until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.



Elvis donut

From: "This Is Why You're Fat"

INGREDIENTS

• Glazed donut
• Peanut butter
• 3 to 4 slices of banana
• Bacon strips

DIRECTIONS

This is a peanut butter glazed donut topped with bananas and bacon.

Make some extra crispy bacon, and let cool to room temperature.

In a shallow pan heat up a peanut butter of your choice in the microwave for 30-45 seconds.

Dip one side of the glazed donut in the peanut butter.

Top the donut with 3-4 slices of banana.

Lay the bacon on top in an 'X' or chop it up and top. Lady's choice!



McNuggetini

From: "This Is Why You're Fat"

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bottle vanilla vodka
• 1 large McDonald
• 1 container McDonald
• 2 Chicken McNuggets

DIRECTIONS

Mix 3-4 shots of vanilla vodka in the McDonald's chocolate milkshake. Rim each martini glass with McDonald's barbecue sauce and pour the milkshake and vodka mixture into the glass.

Garnish each with one McNugget.



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Chocolate Trivia from Horror Director Hitchcock

Director of movie Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock

From Denny: What has Alfred Hitchcock done now that we never knew about? (scratching your head) Well, seems this horror guy has ties to chocolate that we chocolate foodies went ill informed about for decades. Turns out our campy Hitchcock thought it great fun to use Hershey's chocolate syrup as a blood substitute in his black and white film "Psycho."

Chocolate syrup was used in the 45 second shocking shower scence that terrified America at the time. As an actress can you imagine being covered in chocolate syrup for the full 7 days it took to shoot the scene?

No need for coffee breaks. The crew probably just all gathered around the syrup covered woman and took turns with finger dabs at wiping off the excess dripping syrup. Bet the men on the set thought it sexy stuff to see an actress covered in chocolate syrup! :)

And here everyone thought it was gooey blood. Looks like Hitchcock punked us again... what a sense of humor.


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Cajun Joke: Boudreaux and Thibodeaux Play Golf

From Denny: Louisiana folks have an endless supply of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes they tell for generations, using the local French-accented dialect, enjoy!

From: maremare @ StumbleUpon who is from Sunshine, Louisiana



Boudreaux and Thibodeaux Play Golf

Boudreaux decided to go play a game of golf with his good friends Thibodeaux and Guidry one morning. He promised his wife, Clotile, that he would be home in time for lunch. Well, lunchtime came and went, and no Boudreaux. Mid afternoon came and went, still no Boudreaux. Suppertime passed, and Boudreaux finally shows up about an hour later. Clotile is, of course, just a little bit mad.

"Boudreaux, where have you been ? You say you gonna be home by lunch, and here it is dark time, and you jus now gettin' home !"

Boudreaux says, "Clotile, don' get on my case. My good fren, Guidry, died on de golf course dis morning."

Clotile says, "Oh, Boudreaux, I'm so sorry. I can understan' now; makin' funeral arrangements for your fren, and all. I understan' why you late."

Boudreaux says, "Funeral arrangements. What funeral arrangements? It was 'Hit de ball, drag Guidry. Hit de ball, drag Guidry.’ It took me and Thibodeaux all day to finish the game!”


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Awww, 7 Funny Dog Photos to Make You Laugh

From Denny: 7 funny dog photos to amuse and delight! I've been collecting these for a while this past year. Like so many things floating around on the worldwide web, many are without proper attribution to the photographer. If you happen to know about any of these images, shoot me an email: Denny Lyon - warriorspearl @ gmail.com. Glad to hear from you, thanks!

Photo courtesy of byme249 @ StumbleUpon - he collects a lot of funnies; check him out!



Ouch! From the socially inappropriate, and ironically true...



Photo by ano-cha @ flickr of Cocoa the dachsund clowning around.



Sunning Lab mocks by sticking his tongue out at the photographer. No attribution available on this one, if you know, shoot me an email.



I'm crazy for ya, baby! by inga @ flickr



Oh, the art of hiding out with my pet dog who is clueless...



Jack Russell terriers sleeping with their pet cheetah on the master's bed in South Africa - this came from a story from a UK newspaper.



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