This is a lesson that I may or may not have learned this week. Don't buy the pecans long before you bake the pie.
I bake lots of pecan pies over the holidays. Mom's beloved recipe, which has alcohol in it, gets put in heavy rotation this time of year, as well as some Paula Dean pecan recipes I like. Last weekend I bought 4 pounds of pecans in preparation of the bake-fest to come. One bag disappeared within a couple of days. I asked PapaMark to lock up the other bag so it would be out of my reach. Last Friday I bought another 2 pounds to make up for the bag devoured earlier in the week. I am embarrassed to say that there is probably a half pound left of the new bag now. I have munched them into oblivion. So, I will buy all the other pie fixings today, but hold off on buying more nuts until I am just about ready to preheat the oven.
The house I grew up in had pecan trees in the yard that produced mass quantities of pecans. My Mom was practically the pecan-Nazi, shooing away folks who would pick them up in any spot remotely considered our property. As with the regular yard work, we kids had to go out with buckets and pick them up daily. When my sister was grown, Mom expected her to spend her lunch breaks from work picking up pecans in the fall. Then Mom spent most nights in the winter shelling them. I LOVE pecans and am used to having them around to snack on at will.
By the way, where I come from we call them PEA-cans, though I admit that puh-CAWN sounds much more lovely.
5 comments:
We share more than one obsession then! I was munching on a bag the other night and I don't know where they go!!
I'm from Texas and have very good memories of picking and shelling pecans. I'm just sad that my parents won't be visiting and bringing a 10-lb bag of pecans with them for me and the kids to shell. My daughter loves the activity, and it's a good chance to sit and share stories.
Many of my Texas traditions having fallen by the wayside while living in the NE, but luckily for me my husband's favorite pie is my pecan pie. The recipe is straight from the back of the Karo syrup jar, and it never fails me!
Ok now you have to post your moms pecan pie recipe. I have a 5lb box I bought from the church that sponsors my sons Scout troop. Every year the ladies of the church bring a semi truck full of boxes of pecans from Georgia. The men roast some and the boys help carry boxes out to cars. There are some people that buy 50 lb of nuts each year. I would love to be on their Christmas cookie list!
Hmm, pecan pie. We also call them pea - cans. We make a similar pie with macadamia nuts, they are exquisite. We make a caramel sauce and float the macadamias in this and then roast. Yum.
Now I KNOW we are related. I always have to buy more and more PEA-cahns because I eat them before they get made into the Christmas goodies. And I have an ongoing argument with a friend over the proper pronunciation of that nut! We pronounce similarly, you and I, but the second syllable I pronounce slightly different.
We have "pea-cans" here in Delaware too. And "aunts" are "ants!"
Bet that pie is yummy!
Kim :-)
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