Happy Thanksgiving!

Well today was the big day. By "big," I mean the day I put on about 10 pounds from various foods and desserts (including the mystery pie) In all seriousness, its a great day to give thanks and see members of my family that I don't get to see all that often.

My mom hosted dinner tonight at her church, which was great of them to let us use their building and kitchen for our large group. One of the high points of the evening for me was the opening toast, where we went around every member of the family and we all made a toast to something that we were thankful for. I was really impressed by some of my nieces and nephews who gave answers like "my parents" and "my brothers and sisters." My youngest foster sister, Tiffany, said she was thankful for school (and she was serious to boot) Stephanie, the older foster sister, said that she was thankful to have the family she was now a part of.

Then there were answers like that given by my stepsister Lori, that she was thankful for her new dog. I was seriously blown away that the oldest of the children was the only one to give something completely material as something she was thankful for. Her husband Matt seemed pretty unimpressed.

PIX!

Mom, Michelle, Tiffany, Stephanie, Traivs, and Grandma
(I think the girls were just pretending to eat for this photo shot)

Rick, Lori's kids, Lori the Dog Lover, and her husband Matt

The back of my wife's head, Adam's parents, and Adam
(Melissa is hiding on the center-left)

Here's the kids hard at work at the craft table
(awesome idea on my mom's part, I must admit)

Their creation, the four-legged turkey
(......)

The Great Pie Experiment

This Thanksgiving I have decided to attempt something I have never made before as my contribution to the family food table. I have been camping on a pecan pie recipe for months now, secretly holding it away for the Thanksgiving feast. I figured that if there was ever an opportunity to test your dessert on unknowing subjects, it would be Thanksgiving dinner.

Here's the rundown. This recipe is for a 9.5 inch pie.

CRUST!
1 cup flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cold butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 large egg

Now, you will probably notice the complete absence of any water in this crust recipe. After making this, I'm convinced this is a typo as one egg simply doesn't provide enough moisture to make a respectable dough of any kind.

Mix the flour, sugar, powder, and butter together until it forms loose clumps. Then add your pecans and egg. Keep turning the dough until smooth. Make it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, throw it in the fridge for one hour, then pull it out and make your crust. I added water to the dough as needed to allow me to form the crust properly.


FILLING!
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
2 cups pecans

First, put your sugar, corn syrup, cream, and butter into a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat. You'll need to get this mixture just up to a constant boil so keep an eye on it. Be sure to stir frequently as, since its mostly sugar, you don't want it to completely carmelize. While this is heating up, take your eggs (in a separate container) and beat them until all the yolky lumps are out of it.

At this point, start heating your oven to 350.

Once your sugar mixture has hit the boiling point, pour it into a separate bowl and allow it to cool. After it cools down, pour in your eggs, and give it a good mix. Once you got it all mixed together, pour it into your crust and then top it off with your 2 cups of pecans.

Stick that bad boy in the oven for 45 minutes. I'd advise covering the crust with aluminum foil at the 35 minute mark to avoid burning.

The final result should look something like this.


My family all thought the pie was great, although I will say unless you absolutely love pecans with a passion I would cut the toppings down to about 1.5 cups or even 1 cup of pecans. Overall I was pleased with the pie, but I will likely lower the nut quotient next time I make this.

Victory!

Firstly, my apologies for falling off the wagon with the blog. I tend to go through periods where so much happens that I really don't have time to make it to the ol' blog to post something.

This last weekend I made a wager as to the outcome of the annual BYU vs Utah football game. Thanks largely to Max "Turnover Machine" Hall, Utah emerged triumphant by a margin of 48-24. This was excellent news for me, as my wager with Mike was that whoever won, we'd wear those shirts on Monday.


Excellent news for me. For Mike, not so much. Go Utes!