Chris Poch

This recipe was originally found by my grandmother in I believe an ad for cool whip and pudding. I have taken the original recipe and updated it to use fewer artificial ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 pie crust (I recommend graham cracker crust that contains no hydrogenated oils)
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup whipping cream*
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar*
• 1 cup cold milk
• 2 cups (16 oz) pumpkin puree
• 2 packages (4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

Add powdered sugar to whipping cream in a cold bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Set aside. Soften cream cheese in microwave for 15 seconds. Mix cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk, and sugar with wire whisk until smooth. Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.

Pour 1 cup milk into large bowl. Add pumpkin, pudding mixes, and spices. Beat with wire whisk until well mixed and set. Mixture will be thick. Spread over cream cheese layer. If using homemade pumpkin puree that has not been squeezed of excess liquid, start with half the milk and add more if needed. Spread over cream cheese layer.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Garnish with whipped cream. Keep leftover pie refrigerated. Each pie serves about 8.

With today’s snow, I went to buy some hot cocoa at the store.  I was disgusted to find that all the mixes in my store were made with hydrogenated oils, so I set out to make my own.  Here is my recipe, modified from an Alton Brown recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
• 2 1/2 cups powdered milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• Cinnamon, to taste
• Hot water

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. Sift into second bowl to smooth mixture.  In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.

Fill your mug one third full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk.

So one of my favorite things to think about is politics. I feel kinda guilty admitting that, as it’s given much more attention and importance than I feel it deserves. At the same time, it’s been a long time since I’ve had such mixed feelings about an election.

Two years ago, I believed Obama was a longshot candidate. Today, he seems a near certain victor. Eight years ago McCain was too much of a maverick for republicans. Today, he’s towing the party line (not Bush’s line, but still hat the party leadership wants). I would have happily voted for the 2000 McCain, since a true bipartisan and maverick would be a welcome change. Obama’s claims of post-partisan politics are only true if you define post-partisan as left-leaning.

What I like about Obama:

• He’s an inspiring speaker
• He comes across as presidential
• He’s young
• He’s smart
• He’s inspiring
• He took down the Clinton machine-ended the Bush-Clinton dynasty
• Would probably not deliver on promises and would be a one term president

And what I dislike:

• He’s arrogant like no other. I think he’s running for Jesus, not president
• He uses people for political gain
• His associations are scary
• He says what you want to hear, not what he intends to do

What I like about McCain:

• He’s spent time in Washington
• He’s not a Bush clone – as a matter of fact, he was the bane of his party in 2000
• He’s a centrist
• He actually has meaningful experience

What I dislike about McCain:

• He’s a hothead
• He’s old
• He has a Bush-like tendency for gaffes
• His conservatism is suspect-seems to be for big government, like most current republicans
• He’s inarticulate
• I can’t see him as president
• The chances of him dying in office are too high to have inexperienced Palin as the vice president
• Would most likely be a one term president due to age

All that said, I can’t vote for either major party candidate. I’m investigating my options. Looking into third parties and write ins. Whatever your political persuasion, go vote next Tuesday. It’s critical in shaping who runs next time around.

Took a lot of pictures this evening from Rosslyn and Washington. Still trying to get the perfect artsy DC photos to hang in my office. Not convinced that I’m there yet, but still enjoyed a beautiful evening out and about. Photography is definitely one way that I worship. Also gotta love being minutes from the nation’s capital.

Had an awesome time last night with the G703 leadership talking about prayer and, more importantly, praying. Definitely looking forward to being part of what God is going to do this year!

Now to him who is able to do more than we can ask or even imagine to him be the power in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:20-21

The Dark Knight

Back in 2005, I wrote about Batman Begins, which truly blew me away. I left believing that I could be Batman. Ever since seeing the trailer for The Dark Knight a couple of months ago, I’ve been waiting to see the next installation in the series. Finally made it out Friday night. A week since the release, yet the showing was still sold out. I would have rather seen it in IMAX, but didn’t want to wait at least another week to get tickets.

The movie didn’t disappoint. If it doesn’t win best picture this year, I’ll be shocked. Outstanding acting. Great story. Plot twists. A seat gripper for the full 2.5 hours. The movie is open for a sequel, but I have to say that I don’t think it should get one. I can’t picture anyone but Heath Ledger as The Joker and can’t picture a sequel without The Joker. Hollywood, if you make a sequel, please do Heath’s memory proud.

As I’ve become quite a fan of Netflix, I probably won’t buy the DVD. But I suspect that I’ll see this movie again. And I’m going to rewatch Batman Begins.

I’ve updated this site to the latest version of WordPress (the software I run), which also meant updating my gallery software, most of my WordPress plugins, and fixing a corrupted table in my WordPress database.  But now I’m up to date!

My main incentive for getting all up to date was to enable mobile blogging on my iPod Touch.  You say, “can’t you just email yourself posts and add them later?”  Yes, I could.  But the simplicity of just being able to get posts set up exactly how I want them from offline is the Holy Grail in mobile blogging.  Expect to hear from me more frequently.

I’m currently in Jacksonville doing training sessions for work. After training today, I made it out to Jacksonville Beach and then enjoyed the downtown riverfront at night. Today, I’ll share some beach pictures.

I live in a town. In Virginia, towns are located inside counties and are below the county level of government. It appears that Fairfax county (which contains 3 towns and roughly 21,000 voters – ~1 million total county population) requires all town candidates to run as independents. I was planning to vote in the Vienna election today, but I logged on to find out about the candidates. I like the mayor, but didn’t know anything about the council members. This is what I found:

I think it’s safe to sit this one out.

You call a plumber for an estimate on some work and they refer you to another plumber.

The main sewer line in my house needs replacing.  It’s going to be an expensive job, so I’m trying to be an intelligent homeowner and get some quotes on the work.  I’ve been told by a commercial contractor what the job “should” cost, and the only company that has come through on an estimate wants essentially double that.  Ouch.