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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Truly Southern Pecan Pie

November 22, 2011 by Mary Frances 13 Comments

Pecan pie is my all-time favorite dessert! My father was a correspondent banker for a large bank in St. Louis, and his territory was the Southeast area. He traveled all over doing business with smaller banks in the region. And as he became close friends with many of these folks, we used to visit them on family vacations.

I learned to water ski on Lake Norfork in Mountain Home, Arkansas at Powers and Louise Fowler’s weekend lake house. They had a really fast powerboat (Powers liked speed) as well as a pontoon party barge, (Louise loved a party). One time, when I was about 12 years old, for some reason, I was with my parents alone. None of my other 5 brothers were with us and we visited the Fowlers.

So my mom says, “Louise, you make the best pecan pie and it’s Mary’s favorite. I wondered if we could have your recipe.”

Mrs. Fowler said in her lovely Southern drawl, “Well honey, why don’t we just go and make Mary one right now, and of course you can have the recipe!”

Cocktail in hand, she got up, went straight into the kitchen and made me a pecan pie right then and there.

And I have been making them for years. These days I use less sugar and Karo syrup as I like things less sweet. If you like it really sweet, go with the full cup measurements.

MRS. FOWLER’S PECAN PIE
3 eggs beaten (take out early to be at room temperature)
1 scant cup of packed light brown sugar
1 scant cup of Karo light syrup (I know it’s not good for you – just close your eyes, just this once OR you can                                                          substitute 7/8’s of a cup of raw agave syrup)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs with a whisk, add in all remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9” pie crust, which has not been pricked, but has been baked for 5 – 10 minutes, weighted with beans or rice in parchment paper.

Bake for 40 – 50 minutes. Test with a knife or toothpick in the middle – should come out clean and the center slightly set. Cool completely before cutting and serving. Bake this in the morning before your feast.

Serve with whipped cream sweetened with a touch of powdered sugar and some vanilla. I use 1/2 pint of heavy cream, 1 tbs. powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until soft peaks form.

For me, this is the perfect ending to a Thanksgiving meal!

Pecan pie.

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: pecan pie, pecans, Southern, Thanksgiving dessert, vanilla, whipped cream

Weeknight entertaining

September 20, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Weeknight entertaining is easy to do if you plan a little bit ahead. We enjoy seeing our friends in the city during the week as we are usually in the country on the weekends. So on the weekend, I knew my good friend MB was coming for dinner on Monday night. On Saturday, I started marinating my chicken, I roasted and peeled my golden beets for the salad and toasted the walnuts. Easy. Here’s my menu:

APPETIZERS
A platter of sliced soprasetta, thin breadsticks, fresh fennel sticks, a little bowl of basil olive oil with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, pistachio nuts, Siracha peas and a large square of Spanakopita from the Greek store, warmed and cut into four.

DINNER
Baby spinach salad with roasted golden beets, toasted walnuts, goat cheese and a sherry vinaigrette (wash and chill spinach, cut beets, arrange all, make vinaigrette & drizzle)
Buttermilk roast chicken on a white platter.Buttermilk roasted chicken (all your work was done on Saturday)
Corn on the cob (easy to roast in their husks, 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes)
Tomato, mozzerella and basil with olive oil, salt and pepper (easy – just wash, slice and arrange)

DESSERT
Baklava with fresh strawberries (wash and dry berries, cut store-bought Baklava)

I wanted this dinner to be casual, easy and serve some of the freshness that is left from the farms upstate. I’d say I succeeded! All 4 of us were content and happy. You may think why salad/salad with the beets and tomatoes but the beet salad was served as a first course and the tomatoes and mozzerella were served with the meal and it didn’t feet that way. Both were delicious. Besides, I didn’t want a plate with just corn and chicken on it for the main meal. This chicken is my son Zach’s favorite. Try it and you’ll know why. Those of you that have young teenagers at home can even put this in the oven for you when you’re on your way home from work. I used to instruct Zach to do this over the phone when we still lived in Jersey.

Filed Under: Appetizers, Desserts, Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: baklava, basil olive oil, butttermilk, corn on the cob, dinner menu, entertaining, fennel, goat cheese, golden beets, siracha peas, spanakopita, walnuts

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