Have you ever had a solid plan and life comes thundering in, striking it down? As a military family this is more common than not. You throw your ideas of what the next two years were supposed to look like out the window and quickly dream up new ones. Sometimes it can be draining and emotional. Like the time we had orders to stay in Connecticut and at the last minute the Navy needed my husband in San Diego. You’ve got a week to pack up and move your family across the country. There was a submarine there waiting for him and he would be deploying as soon as we arrived. So you pack and you go. There may have been a ‘little’ complaining and grumbling as we faced our new reality, but as we jetted across the US, snapshots of all the silly, and weird, and beautiful, reminded us it’s all about the journey. There will always be bumps in the ‘rocky road’ of life, you just have to remember to sit back and enjoy the (sometimes rocky) ride, or in this case the pie😉.
By the time we got to Colorado we had already been on the road for 4 days. We only had two kiddos at the time, our daughter was 6 and our son was 4. It was mid-October and there was snow on the ground near Denver. We were all exhausted from days of travel, stuck in the car for hours on end, so seeing snow was exciting for the kids, at least at first. Our daughter decided she had ice powers (this is long before Disney’s Frozen), and her magic powers were making all the snow along the road. Now her brother decides he has fire powers and he is going to use his powers to melt all the snow. As she waves her imaginary wand to make snow, her brother is melting it at the same time, this turns into crying, yelling, and me removing ALL of their powers. Hello Colorado! As we continued on we truly got to absorb Colorado’s beauty. We pulled off the I-70 for coffee in a little ski town. We were sitting in a Burger King, yes Burger King of all places, watching the snow fall over this charming resort village high in the mountains, it was one of the most majestic moments of my life. In the middle of a chaotic move, It was simple and peaceful. Back in the car, we continued the downward, mountainous drive, and played ourselves out of the Centennial State with a little John Denver. We left with a whole lot of love for Colorado.
For those rocky moments in life sometimes you just need a minute to drown yourself in a bucket of ice cream or perhaps devour a pie. Colorado’s Rocky Road Pie is the perfect comfort food for just that. I started with a creamy, chocolatey pudding and mixed in chocolate chunks, marshmallows, and pecans. Spooned it into a homemade graham cracker crust and popped it into the freezer. This was by far the easiest pie I’ve made yet, perfect for the non-baker👍 Before serving I drizzled the pie with chocolate syrup. Think S’mores meets Rocky Road. I’ll drown my sorrows in that anyday😉
As the official state song of Colorado, I’ll play you out with John Denver’s ‘Rocky Mountain High.’ 🎵
Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight
Is softer than a lullaby
Rocky Mountain high
Rocky Mountain high
The reality behind the baking :(
Originally published January 16,2020