Mama's Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie is one of my dad's favorite desserts, and the recipe my mom used to make is his absolute favorite. He's tried different versions all over the country, but Mama's is still the perfect pie. He made it by himself for Thanksgiving, but for Christmas I offered to make it for him. Since I've never made a pie before, let alone a pecan pie, I asked him for the recipe ahead of time so I could do a trial run (and so my good friend and fellow foodie, Eva and I could also make The Pioneer Woman's Maple Whiskey Cream Sauce to go with it!).

When I go home I'll have an electric mixer, but in my apartment I have to

cream the butter, brown sugar, and karo syrup by hand.

I think the result was still pretty good,

but only the final product could tell me that.

Next came the three eggs to be mixed with some salt.

I almost bought regular salt

from the store, but Eva assured me that my sea salt would work well in

the pie. Since this was just a trial run we were up for experimenting.

The pie filling started looking amazing and we were getting so excited to eat! Eva chopped up the halved pecans while I continued mixing.

Finally, the filling was ready to go into the pie. For this first time I bought a pre-made crust, but in the near future I want to make one from scratch.

Eva did what she could to make the Pillsbury crust look good after I'd arranged more pecans on top. I think we were pretty successful in our efforts!

Going in the oven!

While the pie baked, we combined heavy cream, maple syrup, and whiskey in a saucepan on medium heat. In my excitement I added the whiskey too early, but Eva and I agreed the finished sauce was absolutely delicious. The recipe for the sauce can be found here, on the Pioneer Woman's site.

Baby proved to be a most loyal mascot while we cooked.

After about 10 minutes, the sauce started to thicken up nicely, and the whiskey left a cool trail as we stirred.

The finished pie!

Celebratory champagne, which was very well deserved.

Eva's homemade whipped cream.

Everything was absolutely delicious. Eva and I both inhaled our first pieces of pie and immediately went back for seconds. I ate my first piece plain so I could just the caliber of the pie by itself, but I drizzled my second helping with plenty of the Maple Whiskey Sauce and it was even better. Eva and I both tried the sauce when we took it off of the stove; she thought it could have used more whiskey and I thought we should have used less, but once it was on the pie I loved it. All in all, it was a success!

Welcome one, welcome all

Welcome to my blog! I won't even try to claim that I'm from the South or have long-lost Southern roots; the ties that bind me to that intricate and traditional culture are of my own making. While I love living in the Bay Area, it doesn't satisfy my desire for Southern cuisine. I'm also working on getting my undergrad degrees from San Francisco State University, so most of my cooking is limited to pressing the buttons on my microwave.

I want to change both unfortunate facts, and a friend of mine helped me come up with the solution: this blog. I'm going to try to cook a new recipe or two every week, starting with the two Southern food cookbooks I already own; Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood, and Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott.

So far my plan is to alternate between appetizers/entrees and desserts. Since it completely feels like winter now, I want to make soup— which doesn't really narrow it down all that much. I'm tempted to dive right in and try Trisha's recipe for chicken and dumplings, so tomorrow night might be the perfect time.

Always,

your western magnolia