Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Pie

Mayan Chocolate Pecan Pie 

I have not shared a recipe in awhile and I thought this delightful goody was too good not to share. 

We tried this on Thanksgiving and it was amazing! 

Photo & Recipe by Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 frozen pie shell (9 inches)
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur
• 1 teaspoon ground ancho chili pepper*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecan halves

* I did not use the ancho chili pepper - and the pie still turned out amazing!

Directions 

• Sprinkle chopped pecans and chocolate chips into pastry shell. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, liqueur, pepper and vanilla. Pour into pastry; arrange pecan halves over filling.
• Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 8 servings.

Christmas Music + A Great Cause

Do you love Christmas music? 

Yep. I do.

Our church's band just released a Christmas EP that is amazing! And even more amazing is that 100% of the proceeds from the album sales will go to feed families in our community this Christmas. Yep. You get to listen to great Christmas music while helping us reach out to those who could really use a great meal on Christmas. It's a win, win. 

And it's only $3.00. 

Win. Again.

Watch the video below for details about this sweet little music Christmas collection. (and click the links below for your very own copy of the music!)

Aletheia Tampa Christmas EP from Aletheia Tampa on Vimeo

Christmas Special Offer!

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Life Verse Winner!

I am working on multiple new projects that should be ready for a formal introduction around the start of the new year. One of those new projects includes Bible verses. I wanted to hear what your favorite verse/passage of the Bible is, so I coaxed many of you into telling me by promising a prize for one winner. Many of you answered and I am so appreciative! Be on the lookout for these new products soon!

......

And the winner (chosen at random - thank you random.org) is...

Miss Katie Getz

Please message me with your mailing address so you can receive your free set of personal note cards and address labels!

......

AadenSage.

Today is November 15. Today is a bittersweet day for our family. Today we mourn the death of our sweet baby boy but we celebrate in knowing that we have hope. A hope that exists only because of Jesus and the sacrifice that He has made. Today we celebrate knowing that we will be reunited again. Today we celebrate knowing that there is coming a day when death will no longer be.

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21: 3-4

My heart yearns for my son. I see my husband with my two boys and a part of me aches knowing there is someone missing from the picture. No matter how many children we have, our ever growing family will always be incomplete.

We spent today as a family. We laughed and we played and we cuddled. We took time to remember our sweet boy in special ways and to treasure the gifts we have in our hands today.

I believe in making moments special. We celebrate Aaden's birthday (October 8) every year, praising God for the gift He gave us. We want Aaden's brothers to grow up knowing all about him and the great things God has done because of his life and death. We want them to yearn for eternity with our Father. So, we make his birthday a special day in our family and we make the day he joined Jesus a special day as well. Our special day went something like this:

Breakfast (from a very sweet friend).

Cuddling and cartoon watching.

Craft making.

A trip to Publix.

A trip to the cemetery.

A trip to Cheesecake Factory (thankful for sweet friends who know our love for that restaurant!)

A trip home.

A long nap.

 We bought 2 blue balloons and a beautiful bunch of yellow flowers.

We visited the cemetery. We can't go back to Virginia (where Aaden's body is buried) every October 8 and every November 15 (though I do wish we could) so we did the next best thing. We have dear friends that God has brought into our lives because of Aaden; because of his death we have walked through this same or similar journey with many others. Baby Nathan went to be with Jesus (and Aaden!) after only living an hour on April 15. We were blessed to honor his life today with that beautiful bunch of yellow flowers.

And then our boys let their balloons go to heaven, just like they do on Aaden's birthday. 

In my heart I believe Aaden sees those balloons and it makes me smile... and today Nathan saw them too.

My hope is to help those who have hurt the way our family has hurt. I remember when Aaden's first birthday was coming up and being at such a loss as to how we should spend that day. Do you celebrate? Do you weep? Do you pretend that it is just another day, the same as the one before and the one after? For our family, for me, the answer was not to treat those days just like any other, instead we seek to honor the gift that God gave us in Aaden and to praise Him for the great work He has done because of his life.

My little devotional book this morning started with this line: "Completely surrender your hurt to Him, withholding nothing, and invite Him to work miracles from your misery." ~Beth Moore

My prayer has always been for God to use Aaden's life and death for His glory... 'to work miracles from my misery.' God has given me a beautiful opportunity to do just that, to minister to families who are hurting and in tragic pain, to minister to them in the way that I am most gifted. I am overjoyed at knowing that our Father is going to be telling Aaden's story in a much bigger way.

{A Little Inspiration}

{Introducing}

I would love your prayers as I start this new journey.

Weekend Wardrobe: Sparkly

I am loving neutrals. Especially if they have a bit of sparkle, like the nude sequin tank below. I paired the tank with a brown cardigan and skinny black belt, wide leg trousers and nude pumps. The sparkly tank did not need much embellishment so for accessories I wore simple gold drop earrings.

What do you think? Would you wear this look?

Freebie: Thankful for...

 

This is a beautiful script with soft, delicate lines. (I used it below in one of the printable 'Thankful for' card designs.)

  {You can download Quilline Script for free here.}

A sweet little detail for your Thanksgiving table, free 'Thankful for' cards that I designed just for you.

You could use them as place cards with your guests' names written on the opposite side, maybe hole punched and tied with ribbon to a mini pumpkin. 

Have everyone take a moment to right down a few things they are thankful for before you begin the Thanksgiving festivities. 

(Directions for printing are below.)

{A black and white version.}

{To use free cards}

1. Click on this link for color (LINK) Click on this link for black and white (LINK).
2. Click on the image
3. Click on 'View All Sizes' in top right corner
4. Click 'Download the Large Size of this Photo.'
5. Save file to your computer. (Make sure you save it to a place where you will find it, i.e. your desktop)
6. Open the file & print onto cardstock
7. Cut the paper in eighths 

Email me if you have questions or problems downloading the file.

*For personal use only, not for resale. All rights belong to Ashlee Proffitt Design.

Inspiration: Thanksgiving Table

What are you plans for the Thanksgiving holiday?

Typically, Thanksgiving is the holiday we spend in Virginia with all of my extended family, but since we just got back from an extended trip to Virginia we thought it best to celebrate at home this year.

So, I will be making my first ever Thanksgiving dinner for a huge crowd (and by huge I mean, my sweet husband, my two sons, and myself. ha. :))

I will still, of course, try to add some sweet details to our menu and table decor.

Thoughtfully preparing your table is just as important as the menu and can be done days, even weeks, ahead of time. Here are a few ideas I loved (all sources for the original photos and inspiration can be found here):

{CENTERPIECES}

{EXTRAS}

{TABLESCAPES}

 

 

  {TABLE FOR THE LITTLE ONES}

 

 

A Real Inside Look.

Tuesdays are to be my 'Inside Look' posts where I inform you, my gracious readers what is going on with new projects and such (well, that is what my little schedule says... but sometimes I have a hard time sticking to a schedule. Blame it on morning play dates, sweet boys who want to be rocked before their nap, dishes that need cleaning, laundry that needs to be done... etc. :))

I have posts planned for the remainder of the week but when I tried to figure out what was going on 'inside' the studio of Ashlee Proffitt Design today I cringed a little. Of course the to-do list is as lengthy as ever and I could show you a number of projects I am working on, but what is really going on 'inside' Ashlee Proffitt is that honestly, this is just a super tough time of year for our family. That's it. No way of getting around it.

My mind does not work as efficiently. I am easily distracted. My heart aches just a little more than usual. Tears fall more readily.

This afternoon I passed a fire station that is being built close to our house and my eyes welled up with tears... for no real reason other than any kind of emergency vehicle reminds me of the son that we lost. So, these days I am sort of in a fog and I have learned to lower the expectations a bit on myself remembering 2 Corinthians 12.10, '... For when I am weak, then I am strong.' 

I covet your prayers during this season; for peace and clarity and ability to focus on loving my God, my husband and my beautiful boys.

I am grateful that you let me share these deeper moments with you here. Thank you.

Virginia Part 4

The last post of beautiful Virginia. Tomorrow we will start celebrating the holidays with some fun Thanksgiving recipes and table setting ideas!

On our last full day in Virginia we woke to about 4 inches of heavy, wet snow. It has been over 30 years since it has snowed in Virginia in October. Crazy! The boys had so much fun playing in the snow and building a snowman. So cute! We of course were not prepared for snow so the boys were stuck with pink gloves and snow boots from our sweet friends that we were staying with. Hilarious. After being out in the snow for about an hour, my little Floridian Drew comes inside screaming 'my feet are bleeding.' I guess he can't remember ever experiencing such a fierce cold. haha.

We can't say thank you enough to the Kiracofe's (ALL of them) for putting up with our crazy family over that weekend. After we lost power we all packed up and headed to the grandparents' house where we were met with the best soup you have ever tasted and a mound of grilled cheese sandwiches. And there might have been about a dozen tins of homemade cinnamon rolls as well. Let's just say that the plan b for that day turned out pretty great. :)

 

  

 

...

And of course, we could not be in Sangerville, Virginia without taking a visit to Aaden's gravesite. 

Virginia Part 3

Family Fun.

 

Drew & Asher are saying 'Cheeeeese!'