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.

All Things Southern

Open Faced and Covered Peach Mini-Pies

Last week I headed home to spend some time with my family before the craziness of the market season took over for the rest of the summer. I love going home for several reasons. One reason is to hang out with my family. Second reason is to ride roller coasters with my dad. Third reason is Chick-fil-a. Fourth reason is peaches. I can go on and on and on.

Living in Louisiana, we always frequent farm stands that were dotted along the backroads and highways. One stand we hit always had Ruston Peaches from Mitcham Farms. Mitcham Farms is the state's largest peach orchard in Louisiana. Biting in to one of these peaches was heavenly. The taste was amazing and the peach was very juicy that you needed several napkins. It was definitely something to savor. 

Peaches are grown in zones 4-8 here in the United States and are usually available mid-June to mid-July. Having a tree-ripened peach is the best and I am always disappointed when I pick up peaches in a local grocery store. They look good, they smell good, but the taste is nasty. For this reason alone, I stopped wasting money on buying peaches here in New England. So you can believe it when I say, I was super happy about bringing back a case of peaches from South Carolina. Before I left South Carolina, I hit a local farmers market held in the Market Common. I picked up some peaches from a farmer and when I got back to the family, we all bit into one and the first words uttered were "Oh my, that is SO good!" My sister stated she needed to hit a stand on the way out of town to get some to take back to Ohio. We stopped along Route 501 with the intention of getting a few more, well I grabbed a case instead along with some plums. (This is another reason why I love going home).

So I ate some peaches and brought some peaches back for my husband and decided to make some peach pies for a local market.  They got rave reviews. Here's a recipe for Peach pie. I recommend using tree-ripened, Southern peaches but if you can't get them, local peaches grown here by a farmer would be the next best option. If you have to, you can use frozen peaches or canned peaches. I would shy away from purchasing peaches at a local grocery store UNLESS you have had them and know that they are good.  Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/4 tsp cinnamon*, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 TBSP butter, pie crust of your choice (we use my granddaddy's pie crust recipe for all our pies), 5 c sliced fresh peaches*

Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 425F.   2. Peel and slice peaches. Make sure not to have any of the pit in your slices. 3. In a bowl, add peaches then add other ingredients except the butter. 4. Pour peach mixture into a prepared pie plate and dot with butter. Cover with an additional second layer of crust or leave open. 5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

*I usually use a tad bit more cinnamon then what is listed above.
*Overripe peaches are best for pies. Mixture will be soupy. You can substitute peaches for apricots.