Bye bye American (Hershey Bar) Pie....

I haven’t written in the blog much the last couple of months. It’s not that we don’t love you, we do. My father (Tracy) started the descent downhill that cancer causes, late in the summer and passed away last week. Having our family around us to celebrate Dad gave me an opportunity to work through my grief by cooking for everyone. Normally this is something I do well that I would attempt to turn into gourmet fare. In the case of my Dad however, I felt like it was a great homage to him if I cooked the foods he loved rather than the foods I love to cook.

My Dad was a child of the convenience age. His mother was a fabulous cook and he was also raised with a housekeeper and cook who made sure they always had wonderful, well-prepared food. Dad could do the gourmet thing with the best of us. His coming of age into adulthood however was marked with time in American lives when we were learning to shortcut. The war had taught us to ration our fresh meats – which left us with Spam which my father loved – and then science was giving us a variable smorgasbord of chemically infused wonders. We are only today beginning to understand the depth of damage we’ve done to ourselves with foods prepared with trans fats and saturated fats designed to taste good and have longer shelf lives.

So to honor my Dad, my family and I prepared an early Thanksgiving dinner featuring Dad’s favorite side dishes. My aunt made my grandmother’s curried cauliflower (cauliflower drenched in cream of mushroom soup and curry seasoning), my youngest niece prepared sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (her specialty which Dad loved), my eldest niece prepared string bean casserole complete with the French fried onions, canned cranberry sauce and I topped it all off with my Grandmother’s Hershey Bar Pie (something my Dad took to covered dish suppers and always amazed a crowd with his cooking prowess.)

The Famous Bosworth Family Hershey Bar Pie

(shhhh, this is a secret family recipe, don’t let it get out how simple this is or you’ll ruin us…)

6 Hershey Bars with Almonds
1 regular sized container of Original variety Cool Whip (defrosted but cold)
1 Keebler Graham Cracker Crust (must have the plastic lid for self sealing)

Melt Hershey Bars in microwave, I think it took me 2 minutes at about a 60-70 power, stab with a spoon occasionally to see if they are melted so you don’t overzap them.

Let the chocolate sit for a few minutes so it’s not scalding hot, you don’t want it to melt the Cool Whip.

Fold chocolate into Cool Whip until thoroughly mixed.

Scoop into pie crust.  Place the plastic lid on top and crimp the metal pie pan around the lid.

Put in refrigerator.