Yesterday I decided to pickle up some eggs. I turned to my old blog to find the recipe and was
shocked that it has been almost a year since I wrote here last. Lord knows I've had a lot to say over the
last year, but I guess most of it has been better kept to myself, haha! Reading through some of these old posts made
me remember how much I enjoyed it. I should have known food would be the reason
for the return, although food was not the intended subject when I first started
this thing and I don't want it to be the only subject of my ramblings. But I just can't help myself, food is so much fun. Fun to cook, fun to photograph, fun to write
about, and most of all, fun to share.
There is not much in this world that makes my heart happier than knowing that something I cooked conjured smiles on
the faces of those that I love.
Every winter I get the urge to cook and cook and cook. During the summer I love to grill, but I
don't get to do nearly enough of it.
Grilling for me is an event to be shared, usually with a crowd,
something that must be planned and thought out and coordinated. Cooking and baking in the kitchen is a little
different. I can cook and bake at work
for a captive audience, or I can cook and bake at home and deliver it to
someone who hopefully eats and enjoys it as opposed to chunking it in the
garbage.
I always love to try new, different, completely unhealthy
things, like stuffed jalapenos deep fried in egg roll wrappers, or mac n cheese
topped with a woven bacon crust. But in
all my Damn Near 40 years, one thing I had never attempted to produce is a pi.
Until now. I have assisted (watched) my
Sweet Mama in making pies in the past, but I don't think I ever was allowed to
put my actual hands on the actual ingredients.
Pie-making has been a daunting, scary task to me, and now I know
why.
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| Buttermilk pie with ugly crust |
I am horrible at pie crust.
I have tried every different way I can find to make a crust that is both
beautiful, flaky, and most importantly delicious. So far they have indeed been delicious. And hideously ugly. They have shrunken up into the pie
plate. They have dripped over the edges
and formed burned curtains of crust-like matter. I have tried butter-only , shortening-only,
butter and shortening, butter and lard.
Each has tasted delicious and looked horrible. Everyone tells me "just go buy a crust
at the grocery store" but I can't give up yet. I MUST MASTER THE CRUST. Probably I'll
eventually get over how it looks and just be glad that someone will eat
it. I am not a big pie eater myself and
have only actually tasted one of the few I've made so far, and I gotta say, it
was a delicious buttermilk pie and I was very happy with it. Except for how ugly the crust was.
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| Calf slobbers! |
A couple nights ago I decided to try my hand at a coconut
crème pie with calf slobbers. I have
never had a coconut crème pie, but I tasted the filling and it made me want a pina colada. The funnest part was making the calf slobbers themselves. I don't eat meringue, have never liked it at
all. I pick it off the top of my Mama's
chocolate pies and give it to someone else.
But it was so fun to make, and so beautiful on top of that pie, I may
top everything with calf slobbers from now on. I delivered that one to my
friends the Rushings, and Venna said it was good til I called them calf-slobbers.
Somehow the image of a slobbering calf drooling all over her pie just didn't do
it for her. Hahaha! I guess meringue does sound a bit more
appetizing, but calf-slobbers is what they'll always be to me.
Last night, I decided
to try a pecan pie. This was not
just any pie, this was a MAN'S pecan pie.
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I have to preface this story by mentioning that I love bacon. And I guess a lot of people know it because I
get text messages and emails about bacon pretty much every day. I had received a couple of text messages that
demonstrated how beautifully bacon can be woven into a lattice-work that
resembles the top of a pie crust, and it sparked the idea for a mac n cheese
pie with a woven-bacon top. But that's a
story for another time.
The point is, while I was googling for instructions on the
art of bacon pie weaving, I came across a recipe that knocked my socks
off. MAPLE BACON BOURBON PECAN PIE. Holy Pete!
Pie with bacon AND booze! You can find the recipe HERE.
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| Boozy, bacony pecan filling ready for the shell |
I knew
that one day I would have to make this, but as I read about it to the fellas at
work, they seemed a bit skeptical about bacon being mixed in with their pecan pie. The truth is most of these crazy concoctions I like to try are met with
apprehension until the initial tasting is over, so I decided not to share the true nature of
the pecan pie with my guinea pigs (the Rossers) until they had tasted and loved
it first.
Then I revealed the delicious
secret.
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| 6 pieces of bacon, cleverly disguised |
Right there smack dab in the
middle of all that Pe-Can gooey goodness are six pieces of center-cut
bacon. All chopped up small enough to be
in full disguise. And another little tidbit: there is no butter involved, because the
pecans and maple syrup were cooked in the bacon grease instead. How could you go wrong! Well, in my case you could go wrong with the
pie crust, but at least the innards were tasty.
Maple Bacon Bourbon Pecan Pie.
You must try it for yourself. And
so must I.
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| Pecans and maple syrup bubbling in bacon grease |
