National Pecan Pie Day

July 12 is National Pecan Pie Day, just in case you didn't know. Pecan Pie is considered a specialty Southern dish. Usually it is served at holiday meals and consists mainly of pecans, corn syrup or molasses. Chocolate or bourbon whiskey are popular additives to the traditional Pecan Pie.

Tradition has it that the French invented the pie soon after settling in New Orleans. Supposedly they were introduced to the Pecan by Native Americans. No early recipes prior to 1897 can be found and popular cookbooks like Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking didn't include a recipe until the 1940s. The Corn Products Refining Company, the makers of Karo syrup, popularized the dish and state that the pie was a "1930s discovery of a new use for Karo syrup by a corporate sales executive's wife."

This pie is very sweet. Us Southerners love our sugar and the only type of pecan we use are Georgia Pecans.

Here's a recipe for Pecan Pie. We use my granddaddy's pie crust and I can't give you that recipe or the family will kill me. Use whatever pie crust recipe you have and if you don't want to waste time making crust from scratch, purchase a prepared pie crust or the boxed pie crust located with the canned biscuits. I hear they taste just as good.

Ingredients:   2/3 c sugar, 1/3 cup butter, melted, 1 c corn syrup, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 3 eggs, 1 c pecan halves/broken

Instructions:  1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Prepare pastry and line pie plate with crust. 2. Beat sugar, butter, syrup, salt and eggs with an electric beater. Stir in pecans and pour into prepared pie plate. 3. Bake until set, usually 40-50 minutes. Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

*After chilling the pie, you can freeze the pie for 3 hours uncovered then cover it and freeze for up to 1 month.
*Decrease the corn syrup to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup brandy to the mix for a Brandy Pecan Pie. You can also use bourbon.
*Melt 2-1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate with the butter to make a Chocolate Pecan Pie.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My grandmother always made a rhubarb pie or bread or muffins when the rhubarb in granddad's garden would sprout. One summer, prior to her fixin' the pie, us cousins tried some rhubarb. Needless to say it left a very nasty impression in our mouths. For the longest time, I would never eat anything that had rhubarb in it because of that memory associated with the taste. I decided to make some rhubarb pie one season when a customer asked for it at a market. I used grandma's recipe and even had a slice of pie later in the day. I'm still not a huge fan of rhubarb but at least I know I can stomach it if I had to.

The recipe listed below is the recipe given to me by my grandmother years ago. You will need a pie crust recipe (the flakier the better) or a store-bought pie crust. Pillsbury makes a non-frozen pie crust that you can purchase and my mother-in-law will sometimes use it when she isn't making it from scratch. I use my granddad Nestor's pie crust recipe. This is a very flaky and buttery recipe that he always used when making his pies. Sorry, not sharing this family secret with you.  Enjoy the pie!


Ingredients: 3/4 c  sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1 tsp  ground Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 lb. fresh rhubarb*, 1 pt. strawberries, 2 TBSPs butter


Instructions: (1)Preheat oven to 425F. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and cloves in a bowl. (2) Wash rhubarb and trim off ends. Cut rhubarb into 1" pieces. Wash and hull strawberries; cut in half. (3) Place rhubarb and strawberries in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Toss to mix. Let stand about 15 minutes then toss again. (4) Spoon rhubarb-strawberry mixture into a deep dish 9" pie pan or a baking dish that already has pie crust in it. Cut up butter into small cubes and place on top of mixture in the pan/dish.(5) Cover with another pie crust or make a fancy lattice top. Cook for 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juices bubble up.


*You want about 6 c of cut-up rhubarb. To prevent the edges of the crust from burning, you can line them with aluminum foil and remove it the last 10 minutes.