Grams Made Southern Pecan Pie

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I've been making my shopping list. If I don't get called to work tomorrow, I'll be going to the grocery store early in the day. Hopefully, some people will still be working and it won't be overly crowded. I can always hope, right.

I'll be doing my baking on Tuesday evening. We're going to my sister Bylinda's home in Seguin for Thanksgivng Day. She's doing the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, homemade dinner rolls, and macaroni and cheese. Knowing Bylinda as I do, I know she's making a couple of desserts too. I'm taking broccoli rice casserole, deviled eggs and pecan pie. Katy will bring her mile-high apple pie and Nick is bringing honey-baked ham. Travis is making home-made cranberry sauce.

Just a personal note here ... I'm so proud that my children always go to family dinners with a dish in hand. So many of the younger family members just show up and eat. Grandad and I worked hard to instill this responsibility in our kids and it's so rewarding to see them follow through on things that we taught them.

It's always been interesting to me how family members seem to get assigned to bring certain things to family gatherings. In our family at least, once you make a dish, you own it. I got this pecan pie recipe from a co-worker more than 30 years ago. Ever since the first year I made it, I am always assigned to bring pecan pie. Everyone in the family considers this the best pecan pie they've ever eaten. One year I tried a different recipe and my family was not happy about it. The next year I went back to this old reliable recipe.

In the South, pecan pie is as important to Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie. Most cooks use pecan halves in their pies. I chop the pecans because they stay tender and the pie is easier to cut. I have also discovered that the pie filling does not set if I use a metal pie plate. Be sure to use a glass or Pyrex pie plate for best results.

1 prepared pie crust (I use Pillsbury All-Ready)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup margarine
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 teaspoon salt

Place prepared pie crust in pie plate and flute the edges.

Blend sugar, syrup and margarine in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Blend hot mixture slowly into beaten eggs. Stir in vanilla extract and salt. Pour into pie shell. Top with pecans.

Cover the edge of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. Remove it after 20 minutes. Bake at 375º for 30 minutes.

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Grams Made Pumpkin, Cranberry & Pecan Muffins

When we were in Houston last weekend Grams went to Ikea where I bought a new muffin tin. It makes a tall, skinny muffin which is bigger than a mini-muffin but smaller than a regular muffin. I've been dying to try it all week but I've been crazy-busy. This afternoon, while Grandad went dove hunting I decided to give it a try. The muffins sort of look like pop-overs when you fill the tins properly. I had to experiment a little to get it just right.

I got this recipe from another blogger. I modified it to use Splenda for Baking which is a Splenda/sugar blend. Click on For the Love of Cooking for the original recipe. While you're there, look around. She has some great recipes.

2 cups of flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons Splenda for Baking
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a muffin tray with cooking spray.

Mix together the flour, Splenda for Baking, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the pumpkin, oil, eggs, cranberries, and pecans. Mix until just combined. Divide batter evenly between the muffin cups. Sprinkle coarse sugar evenly over batter in each cup.

Bake in the oven for 20-23 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

These were delicious, even with the Splenda/sugar exchange. I had two for dessert tonight.

Grams Made Monkey Bread

I first tasted this delicious sweet bread when my next-door neighbor, Mary Lou Simmons, made it for our bunco club. There's a little bit of work involved in rolling the biscuits quarters in cinnamon and sugar, but other than that it's extremely easy. I love to put it on one of my pretty pedestal cake plates and then just let everyone pull it apart and eat it communally while we sit and talk. You really have to bake this in a "tube pan" or it won't get done in the middle. I use my Bundt pan. Thanks to Mary Lou for sharing the recipe.

1 stick Butter
1 1/4 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
4 cans Biscuits
1 cup Pecans
1/4 cup Cinnamon

Melt Butter and stir in 1 cup of Brown Sugar.

Mix Cinnamon and Brown Sugar together in a separate bowl.

Cut biscuits into quarters and roll each quarter in Cinnamon and Brown Sugar mixture.

Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour half of butter and brown sugar mixture into bottom of pan. Sprinkle one-third of the Pecans in, then fill pan by stacking coated biscuits and pecans. Pour remaining butter mixture over top.

Bake at 350 degrees until done (30-45 minutes).