Chocolate, Hearts and the Shortest Month of the Year

Hello lovely readers!

Happy February 1 which is not Groundhog’s Day apparently. Which I had wrong. Tomorrow we find out if the furry little guy sees his shadow and the prediction for the rest of winter.

January certainly was not my favorite month due to bouts of illness and icy weather. Even in the Georgia Mountains we do see ice.

Very happy to be recovered from two rather unpleasant illnesses. Nothing is worse than be iced in, sick and unable to run out to the pharmacy.

But now it’s February, the shortest month of the year and Valentine’s Day! Despite gray and dreary weather, we have romance, chocolate and crackling fires.

To celebrate, it's time for another recipe.

Crème De Menthe Pie

1 Pt Heavy Cream

1-7oz Jar of Marshmallow Cream

1/3 C Green Crème De Menthe

9” Oreo Crust (recipe below if you want to avoid store bought)

Whip cream. (Yes, that’s all my mom wrote on the recipe!!!) I’d use a deep bowl that holds 2-3 cups and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. 1 pint of heavy cream makes about 2 Cups of whipped cream.

In a separate bowl, mix together the marshmallow cream and crème de menthe until thoroughly combined. Fold in whipped cream mixture. Pour into prepared Oreo crust and freeze until firm.

Serving size depends on how big a slice you like. I think we probably got 6 large or 8 slightly smaller slices.

Oreo Crust for 9-inch crust

28 Oreos

6 Tbsps. of butter or margarine (we always used margarine)

Crush Oreos by pulsing in a food processor until you have crumbs. Or, if you were like I was growing up, you are the food processor!!! Time to vent frustrations by smashing Oreos in a zip lock bag with a rolling pin. Careful though, sometimes the bag breaks and Oreo crumbs ooze out.

Melt butter/margarine. Mix into Oreo crumbs and pat into a 9-inch pie dish. Bake in a 350F oven for 10 minutes. Cool before filling with crème de menthe mixture.

Of course, this is a frozen dessert. As delicious as it is, it's probably not the kind to warm you up in the winter.

Which makes me think of Hades and Persephone who absolutely are not the least bit cold.

They’re having a great time while Demeter mourns and vents about the loss of her daughter.

I’m part way done with Midnight Rendezvous which will be a quick novelette about Hades and Persephone and how they might get around her Spring/Summer duties.

Hades is not patient. Sure, he agreed to Persephone spending time making the world fertile with her mother. But compromise doesn’t alleviate a husband’s need to show his wife what a queen she is to him. He’s also not above stretching rules about sharing Persephone with Demeter. After all, if he isn’t caught during a conjugal visit, no harm done.

Here’s a snippet of what’s coming up:

“Eros paid a price long ago, forced into obedience to his mother the way I was before my marriage.” Persephone paused, swirling ambrosia on her loosening tongue. “Aphrodite wouldn’t allow her son unconstrained power over immortals. Not that he ever wielded such sway, and certainly not for two thousand years over the likes of Apollo.”

She scoffed at the thought. Zeus or Hera might enjoy such power, but not Eros who was more apt to party for hundreds of years at stretch.

“And Olympus wouldn’t tolerate any one god with that kind of power over their own kind. Athena would go to war over anyone who even insulted her brother. She’s got no sense of humor.”

“Clearly that Olympian protection doesn’t cover nymphs! Here’s me, still hunted and pursued.” Daphne tugged at her flowing silk skirts, shimmery blue and silver of a water nymph.

“By a god who’s so in love with you, he pined for millennia, and even now sends you baskets of the best ambrosia, chocolates, and poetry extolling your virtues and what a wretch he is. Some of us can’t even get a love note without restrictions and rules getting in the way.”

Fine, Persephone admitted the bitterness souring the whole support her friend in her hour of need. Not that Hades was a big love letter kind of God. He did better with grand gestures and that thing he did with his tongue.

Daphne needed a dose of reality. Like how she wasn’t stuck in a temple with her mother’s snide comments about choices and duty. Daphne could leave, go to Apollo and have it out with him. Do things like kissing and make-up sex.

Persephone would give up a few fig trees for a tryst with her hellfire husband and already had plans for hot-leather clad reunion sex. Maybe even christening the new temple dedicated to him in Ephyra.

If you missed out on my Hades/Persephone story, here’s a link to Not a Chocolate Snowball’s Chance in Hades, a sizzling hot story of how Persephone won a husband and throne.