What is your favorite family recipe?
Without question or hesitation, my favorite family recipe is my Gigi's chocolate pie. My Gigi was my great grandmother on my mom's side (so my Mimi's mom). She was a fiercely faithful southern baptist, so much so that she married a Baptist preacher, but also kind, loving, and encouraging. She taught me how to play dominoes which would be our tradition every time I visited until Gigi finally earned her angel status in November 2001.
I am so grateful for the memories and experiences I have from my Gigi. When I was a toddler, I evidently had a fear of
grass, so my Gigi graciously bent down to help me pick up up all of my Easter eggs. She loved to sew me and my second cousin (her other great granddaughter) matching dresses and quilts with old baby clothes.
And man oh man, could my Gigi cook!
Even though I have been a vegetarian for 10+ years, I can still imagine Gigi's homemade chicken n dumplings and feel myself start to salivate...
But, the one recipe that has withstood the test of time, and which my Mimi has graciously been making for us since Gigi's passing, is without question: Gigi's Chocolate Pie.
The main components of GCP as we'll call it from now on are: crust made from scratch, Hershey's brand cocoa, and homemade meringue (NEVER cool whip). Over the years I have been partially privvy to the GCP making process, listening as my Mimi muttered and fretted over the crust or prayed for Gigi to make her meringue peak just so...But I'd never tried to make my own.
So when I visited my grandparent's house in Lake Kiowa Texas in June, the time had come to pass down the tradition. I also wanted to cherish the memory forever, so I secretly set up my video on my phone and recorded the entire process, complete with full cameo by Mimi (don't tell her, she'd kill me!)
I had wanted to include a hyperlapse version in this post, but the whole process took about 2 hours and even in hyperspeed, it's a long video. Plus, we can't have people trying to copy the family recipe.
What made this learning experience the most memorable, was the fact that my Mimi was my teacher. She was patient, mostly hands off, gave me tips and encouragement along the way, and the best part was that she was telling me stories the whole time. Stories about baking with her mama (Gigi), stories about my mom and uncle, just whatever came to her mind.
I am incredibly grateful to still have both of my mom's parents. They are a tether to her. Even though she has been gone over 6 years now, I always feel her presence the strongest when I am with my grandparents.
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