PECAN PIE DAY

Every morning I get an email From the National Day Calendar, letting me know what wild and crazy thing is being celebrated that day. It's a wonderful way for me to pick up topics for my blog essays. Today it was National Pecan Pie Day.

The entry for the pie was this:
“National Pecan Pie Day is observed annually on July 12th.  The delicious pecan pie is made primarily with corn syrup, pecan nuts, salt and vanilla flavoring with some variations including sugar syrup and molasses or maple syrup.  Chocolate and bourbon whiskey may also be added to the pie recipe and is a popular addition in some areas.  Pecan pie is often served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
The attempts that have been made to trace this dish’s origin have not found any recipes dated earlier than 1897, even though there are claims made of the pie existing in the early 1800′s in Louisiana.  Well known cookbooks such as Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking did not include this dessert until 1940. 
Pecan pie was significantly popularized by the makers of Karo syrup. Their company has claimed that the pie was a “discovery”, in the 1930′s, by a corporate sales executive’s wife, as a “new use for corn syrup”.  Pecan pie is considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine.”

I’ve had great pecan pie and I’ve had so-so pecan pie. The so-so variety is usually made with corn syrup and is usually the too sweet, store-bought variety. Bleah! - as Snoopy would say. You want a great pecan pie? Follow this recipe from my late neighbor Georgette who was born in the northern part of Quebec. Fortunately for them, they had no corn syrup. They had no sugar. What they did have was maple syrup. The pie recipe is easy to remember because, other than the crust, there are only four ingredients. Here is the recipe, copied straight from my electronic cook book:

J GEORGETTE MILLER’S PECAN PIE

THIS IS A ‘NOT TO RICH’ PECAN PIE RECIPE GIVEN TO ME BY MY PORT WASHINGTON, NY, NEIGHBOR GEORGETTE MILLER.  THIS IS A FAMILY RECIPE SHE BROUGHT FROM HER HOME IN QUEBEC. THEY MADE IT WHEN THEY GOT PECANS AS A TREAT. THE SWEETENER IS WHAT THEY HAD MOST AVAILABLE: MAPLE SYRUP.  USE REAL MAPLE SYRUP OR IT WILL BE TOO SWEET, AND NOT AS AUTHENTIC.

1 CUP MAPLE SYRUP

3 EGGS, LIGHTLY BEATEN

¾ CUP PECANS

PINCH OF SALT

COMBINE THE FILLING INGREDIENTS AND BAKE THEM IN YOUR OWN FRESH MADE (OR THAWED FROZEN!) PIE SHELL.  350º FOR 45 MINUTES, OR UNTIL A KNIFE BLADE COMES OUT CLEAN.

I do tend to throw in more pecans than the recipe calls for because I just love pecans. I do agree with the entry from the National Day Calendar: “Pecan pie is often served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.” Oh, yes – must have one of those on top.

I’d love to make one now, but this July has been a killer with high temperatures. I wonder why a July day was chosen to celebrate pecan pie. It’s more of an October, November, December kind of thing, wouldn’t you think? So keep cool and save this recipe for later in the year.

THE GREATEST THING SINCE...

I can't make a rye as good as this

There are many things touted as “The greatest thing since sliced bread”, but to me, the greatest thing probably is sliced bread.  The first loaf of machine-sliced bread was sold on July 7, 1928. Otto Rohwedder and worked on and perfected a bread slicing machine. He called it, eponymously, the Rohwedder Bread Slicer. He had a hard time selling it to bakers – little did they know – but finally found one to give it a try. The rest is basically history, enhanced by a new entry into the book of household phrases. 

I absolutely love bread. I devote ample room to bread in my freezer where it keeps best. At any one time in my kitchen, you should be able to find loaves of my own homemade white or wheat, perhaps a store-bought loaf of seeded rye and English muffins, some drop biscuits, sweet or savory, and perhaps my banana bread or raisin bread. I know I’ve said that it is maintained that you could live on a diet of orange juice, milk, and chocolate. Oh yes, I could, but I’d have to add bread to the diet.

Sometimes I wish I had a bread slicing machine of my own, but they take up too much space I need for other things - like bread making. I've tried those bread slicing guides and they are a pain in the you-know-where. So we get a wonky slice every once in a while - that's o.k., it won't be around for long.

I’ve devoted a blog or three to bread, the homemade, slice-it-yourself kind.  You can read the entries here, here, and here.  Any way you slice it, and even if you don’t, bread really is the staff of life.

My own raisin bread, minus a few slices

MY CAROLINA MUSICAL DREAM CONCERT

It's Friday. I usually post on Friday, but I was't thinking of it for today. Then I remembered the piece below - all about my Carolina Dream concert. I wrote this for our community magazine's series on Southern Writers and Musicians, but they didn't use it because "it's fiction and we don't print fiction." Yes it is, so the heck with those guys, I do have a forum of my own. I'll add a picture or two and voila! - a post for a Friday. 

The Time: early on a warm summer evening in June.

The Place: a great meadow in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

       Bring along a blanket and an elegant evening’s picnic, and

       be sure to find a good spot for dreaming and listening to

The Performers: great music makers of the Carolinas.

JOHN COLTRANE

CHARLIE DANIELS

ROBERTA FLACK

DIZZIE GILLESPIE

THELONIOUS MONK

JAMES TAYLOR

Many will say that the concert should have taken place sometime in the mid-Sixties, when all the performers were still with us, but this is all in our minds, a Dream Concert, backed by a dream band or two. The year is any year, and they are all there in their prime:

We’ll start off our Dream Concert alphabetically with a composer and master jazz saxophone artist, The Hamlet, North Carolina-born John Coltrane. Though he did a lot of experimental jazz toward the end of his life, we’ll keep the program ‘classical’ with Lazy Bird and Moment’s Notice, two of his best known compositions. During his short lifetime, Coltrane played and recorded with our next two artists, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.

Dig those crazy cheeks!

Cheraw, South Carolina-born Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter and influential teacher, band leader and composer, is next on the bill. Perhaps this night we’ll hear him play his Night in Tunisia or Two Bass Hit, then he might segue into 52^nd Street Theme, written by our next great musician:

Thelonius Monk. Rocky Mount, North Carolina-born and New York City-raised, Thelonious Monk was a composer and jazz pianist. He wrote many of the tunes you hum but didn’t know the name of like Straight, No Chaser, or Green Chimneys, or Epistrophy. He may entertain us with one of his remarkable improvisations, perhaps on his In Walked Bud.

Who are these young guys?

A switch of moods brings out Charlie Daniels and the Charlie Daniels Band. With over fifty albums to his credit, the Leland, North Carolina born and raised, Nashville, Tennessee-affiliated Daniels will bring a taste of country, rock, and maybe a bit of bluegrass to the program. We may be in the Carolinas, but we all know The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

As the evening hours lengthen and the mood mellows, we’ll welcome the soulful Roberta Flack, from Black Mountain, North Carolina. Known for her hits in many modes of music, singer, song writer, and pianist Roberta Cleopatra Flack is in a class by herself. We know her for songs like The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and Killing Me Softly with His Song, written by others, but she’s sure to sing some of her own work like Mood, or Only Heaven Can Wait, or And So It Goes.

We’ll ease on out and conclude our Dream Concert with the Chapel Hill, North Carolina-raised, Massachusetts-born musician, singer, and songwriter, James Taylor. Of all those on our concert lineup, he is almost automatically associated with our area because of his nostalgic Carolina In My Mind. “Can’t you just see the sunshine? Can’t you just feel the moonshine?” We’ll hear that, and perhaps this uncle of Sweet Baby James’s will sing You’ve Got a Friend, or Fire and Rain. And finally: Shower the People. What better way to end the dream evening in the meadow than to “Shower the people you love with love.”

 

I want to hear "Jellyman Kelly"!!

 Drive home safely!

Yours truly at the beach, with pail, ready to dig, in 1944

At the Sea-Side

 

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up

Till it could come no more.

                                               

                                              BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Last month’s stanza from Chicken Soup with Rice was the twelfth posting. The year was skewed by six months, but last July was when I thought to start posting that wonderfully catchy poem. I thought I’d start in now with some of my other favorite poems. As it is July, and as the summer has been so blazing hot so far, I’ll start with one of the first poems I ever knew by heart: At the Sea-Side. I can remember my mother reciting this to me when I would be digging in the sand at Rockaway Beach on Long Island. She loved Stevenson’s poems, and I’ve passed her volume of A Child’s Garden of Verses on to my nine-year-old granddaughter who is developing into another poetry lover. 

Have a lovely July - keep cool! 

RE-READING NORA ROBERTS

Last week I found a few new Nora Roberts reprints someone had donated to the community lending library. It was nice to see some titles I hadn’t read in years. I do love the MacGregor clan. Silhouette/Harlequin books must do a nice business in reprints. Up to a point, I had read everything Roberts had ever written. My daughter-in-law and I maintained an almost complete collection.

When I read a historical novel, the reading usually flows. No matter when the book was written, and whatever the period in question, things like clothes and living conditions and morals interest me very much. I never stop to compare them to what we have today because they are so far removed from today’s world.

In re-re-(re-?) reading the Nora romances first written in the 1980’s or ‘90’s, I was really struck by the changes. What we wear isn’t too different, but the hairstyles are a bit more natural. Bus, car and train travel haven’t changed, but there’s no way now that anyone can catch the the next plane to the coast – or to anywhere else in this era of background checks and extreme security. There’s also no way lovers can meet or part in tears at the gate.

In novels these days, no one uses a typewriter. In novels these days, no one searches for change for the pay phone. In novels these days, no one lights up a cigarette. In novels these days, no chapter just ends with a kiss and the romantic couple moving behind closed doors: the doors stay open and we get a detailed play by play.

I don’t read too much Nora now, especially since she’s gotten into the horror/romance genre. I do still read the J.D. Robb books. I really like the Eve Dallas and Roarke characters, and some of their friends are hilarious. The books are set in the future, and though some of the new things like soda in tubes and flying cars are fun,  those books too are starting to get a bit too paint-by-number.

Do you think that perhaps prolific writers like Nora Roberts just seethe with ideas for new books? With over two hundred books to her credit, I think it’s time for Nora to put away her writing tools and retire to Ireland before her work becomes too formulaic and her reputation begins to tarnish. I’ll continue to enjoy re-reading her earlier novels.

JUNE

Well, here we are, well past the Ides of June, and I've not posted the verse for this month. It's been a scorcher of a June this year. Temperatures for the last weeks have been in the 90's - not conducive to thinking of soup, but here it is: 

June

In June I saw a charming group

Of roses all begin to droop

I pepped them up with chicken soup!

Sprinkle once, sprinkle twice

Sprinkle chicken soup with rice

                                           by Maurice Sendak 

I think we all could use a bit of pepping up these days.

APOD IS TWENTY

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is my home page. It is always fascinating, I usually learn something, and the pictures are marvelous. Today they celebrate their 20^th Birthday, so I thought I’d celebrate and show you a few of my favorite APOD pictures I’ve saved over the years. The telescope pictures of the galaxy are fascinating, but most of my 'keepers' are earthbound photos.

Of course, even “rocket scientists” can goof up. On May 8^th this year they tried to show what the rotating stars would look like in the year 14000 when Vega will have replaced Polaris as our North Star. The rotating stars will look no different to us because north is north here on planet Earth.

2009 June 23 Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars

Aurora in the Lofotens

Big Blue Earth

Devil's Tower and the Milky Way

Eclipse over Rapa Nui

The Horsehead Nebula in Orion

Iceland Volcano Erupts

New York Hot Spot

An Unusual View of London

Saturn's New Rings

Perth, Australia - January 2007

Pileus Iridescent Clouds

The Shuttle Comes to New York

Stonehenge, where else? 

Thunder Cell Over Montana

Venus and the Moon

Titan, Dione, Pandora, and Little Pan

Winter in Yosemite

The APOD link above will change from day to day, this is their anniversary 

day page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150616.html

THAT'S INTERESTING

One day last month I read the following entry at The Writer’s Almanac:

“And today is the birthday of travel writer and novelist Mary Morris (books by this author), born in Chicago (1947). She grew up on the north shore of Lake Michigan, in Highland Park, which was largely rural at that time. She spent her free time roaming the woods and horseback riding through the cornfields. On one outing, she rode her horse across Adlai Stevenson’s front yard. He came out and gave her a wave. She went to college at Tufts University and spent her junior year at a study-abroad program in Paris, which kindled her interest in travel. As the old song goes, “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?” Morris went to graduate school first at Harvard, and then at Columbia, and although she often writes about the Midwest, she never returned to Illinois for any length of time. She lives in Brooklyn now, and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.”

Interesting entry to be sure. This gal is about my age, just a bit younger, and seems to have had an interesting life, one that allowed her to roam and write about it. What made me do a mental double-take was the inclusion of that bit about Adlai Stevenson waving to her as she rode by. Why did the Almanac writer include that? And what did that have to do with the price of rice in China? Is that her real claim to fame? I wouldn’t think so.

So it got me to thinking: what brushes have I had with the famous folks? Not that any of them made much of a difference in my life – except that I can sometimes, as the Brits say, dine on the stories.

Well, there was the time at the 1957 dedication of the new Girl Scout headquarters in New York City that I was approached by Averill Harriman. He was interested in the patches I’d just bought, and it wound up that he and a group of us scouts got our picture on the first page of the second section of the New York Times.

Then there was the time in Barbados that I got to the hotel just a week after Bennett Cerf, Roz Russell, and Frank Sinatra (be still my heart) and their spouses. Why did everyone there have to tell me what I missed?!

I once did have a door at a New York City bank held for me by Howard Cosell, and Frank and I did sleep in a bed once slept in by Bill Gates and his wife in a Provençal chateau.

Are you impressed? Oh, please look impressed!   (Nah! I wouldn't be impressed either.) 

PIZZA OR TARTE FOR TWO

     

Unless something new and really tasty comes along, this will probably be my last recipe posting. I have been working on this for over a year. I’m not like America’s Test Kitchen where I could test the recipe changes one right after another. No, I had to space out my research so that Frank wouldn’t become sick and tired of pizza.

I did do a previous post on Margherita Pizza, but that dough was too sticky and too much of a hassle. I've been working on the recipe since then, and this recipe is so much easier. You can use the topping recipe there for a nice Margherita pizza.

Basically, the dough recipe almost equals one sixth of my two-loaf bread recipe. That would amount to two and a half slices in each of the two servings – just the amount of a nice big sandwich – not too much for a dinner for the old folks. It can be made thin and flat, or deep dish.

In years past I’ve made a traditional Tarte aux Moutarde, a French Tomato and Mustard Pie, using prepared pie dough or tortillas. I thought to make it with my new pizza dough, and it was just great.  Then I tried tomato, cheddar, and bacon – delish!

My spaghetti sauce recipe is great but a bit too ‘sweet’ for pizza. I’m tacking on the chunky pizza sauce recipe I developed at the same time I was messing around with the dough recipe.

The Basic Dough:

Start dough around 4 or 4:15 p.m. for dinner around 6.

1/3 cup warm water        ½ tsp. salt               

1 tsp. yeast                     1 Tbsp. oil               

1 tsp. sugar                     1 cup of flour

Mix the first five ingredients then add the flour. Mix until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Add a bit more flour if dough is too sticky. Turn out onto the counter, flour your hands, and knead it until it becomes silky. Form it into a ball. Let the dough rise for about 20 minutes.

It doesn't look too promising here, but just
dump it out on the counter and begin
kneading this with your hands.
Add a little flour if it gets sticky, and

soon you'll have a little ball of dough
that looks like this. Let it rise for 20 minutes.

For Deep Dish Pizza, spray 8x10 Pyrex dish  

Knead the dough a bit more, then roll it out to fit the bottom of the dish, spreading it a bit up the sides.  Let the dough rise in a warm oven until it is time to preheat.

 At 5:15 or so, remove the dish from the oven, and turn on the oven to 450°

Leave the pizza on top of the stove and wait to top it until the oven is up to temperature.

Then pour on the sauce (see recipe of Chunky Pizza Sauce or use 1 cup of other sauce), top with a cup or more of mozzarella, and pepperoni, etc.

Bake the pizza for 10 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake it 10 minutes more.

Out of the oven - crunchy cheese edges 

 Split two ways - delicious!

For Thin Crust Pizza spray 14” Lodge pizza iron or whatever you choose to use. Follow the recipe for the dough. 
Knead the dough a bit more, then roll it out to just fit the iron. Let the dough rise in a warm oven until it is time to preheat. At 5:15 or so, remove the dish from the oven, and turn on the oven to 450°

This is a 14" pizza iron from Lodge -
available at Amazon

For Regular Pizza, use about a cup and a half of sauce, a cup or more of mozzarella, and as much pepperoni or other toppings as you’d like. I didn't take pictures of this pizza, but you know what it should look like. Bake the pizza for 10 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake it 10 minutes more.

Now here's the finished Tarte aux Moutarde

For French Tomato and Mustard Tarte, first top the crust with a slathering of Dijon mustard, about 1/3 of a cup. Then lay on 8 ounces of sliced Swiss cheese. 

Top this with a generous sprinkle of shredded fresh or frozen basil, as much or as little as you’d like, and maybe some chopped chives.  

Then add slices of a large, ripe tomato, salt and pepper it, and top off with a sprinkle of olive oil over the tomatoes. Bake as for the Thin Crust Pizza:
10 minutes at 450°, and then 10 minutes at 350°. 

For Bacon, Tomato and Cheese Tarte, first top the crust with 8 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar. Then sprinkle on crumbled cooked bacon from a half pound of regular or thick sliced bacon. Then add slices of a large, ripe tomato, salt and pepper, and top off with a sprinkle of olive oil over the tomatoes. Bake as for the regular Thin Crust Pizza: 10 minutes at 450°, and then 10 minutes at 350°. 

Think up other tarte combos of cheeses, mushrooms, asparagus – be creative. These tarte recipes don’t work too well with the deep dish recipe.

CHUNKY PIZZA SAUCE FOR TWO   

  

I like to add a little interest to our pizza, so I sauté chopped onions for this sauce. This recipe makes five batches of sauce for Deep Dish Pizza for two, or about three batches for Thin Crust Pizza) or about 5 cups.

2 medium onions, minced - sauté  for 15 minutes in 
1 Tbsp. butter - and ¼ cup olive oil

Add 1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

      2 Tbsp. tomato paste

      ½ tsp. sugar

      2 tsp. minced garlic

      ½ cup of water

Pinch each of thyme, rosemary, and sage (these my choices – choose some of your own, but not more than a teaspoon in total.)

When sauce is done and off the heat add ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.

RE-RETREAT TO YOUR SANCTUARY

This morning I was checking the statistics on my blog, and I noticed that someone had looked at “Retreat to Your Sanctuary”. I didn’t even remember what that one was about, so I opened it and looked. It was this one. I wrote it two and half years ago – and still it is true. I've added a postscript at the bottom.

RETREAT TO YOUR SANCTUARY

                                  Tuesday, October 30, 2012

She's gone for weeks and then she's back two days in a row - the Curmudgeon. But as I was throwing Sunday's newspaper into the recycling I saw a headline that stopped me with an idea for an essay.

I loved this headline in this Sunday’s Community section of the Charlotte Observer: Outdoor Fireplaces: a hideaway in your yard. Oooh! Things are getting bad: folks on the lam are searching for hideaways. And what about those “bedroom retreats”, and “adult sanctuaries”?  What I want to know is from what are some folks fleeing?  Why do they have to retreat? Why must they hide away? Are things getting so bad that instead of sending recalcitrant kids to their rooms the parents flee to their own? Are things getting so bad that folks must flee from the world in general?

Being just two weeks this side of seventy, I’m from an era where togetherness was the key word for families: togetherness at meals, togetherness for an evening’s entertainment and learning, togetherness in all times good or bad. It seems now that every family member is entitled to their own inviolable space. Entitled, I tell you!  Our son has three girls, and each has her own bedroom. The girls are all under six, so there aren’t yet any “go to your room” orders, or even their own desire to get away from the rest of the bunch - but they’re getting older every day. Of course, the parents have their own suite, and there’s a small guest suite on the first floor. Five bedrooms: gotta have ‘em! I’d better not complain too loudly: I may need that guest suite one day. But you know what I’m getting at here.

Excess, excess – it’s everywhere. (Witness yesterday’s blog about Booing.)

The size of the average American family home is increasing – doesn’t every home need a living room, a great room, a playroom, a media room, a billiards room, and maybe a gym?  Our son’s home has four of those six, yet along with those five bedrooms it’s one of the smaller houses in his golf club community. I ask you!  But why not, it’s what up-and-comers do these days. And I really shouldn’t comment, because they are doing so well. But it just chews at my conscious. Though I’m sure it is mainly doing what they think best for their family, it all seems to me to be the eternal keeping up with the Joneses, the maintaining face, if you will, and the showing themselves that they’re all right Jack. Seems to me it might be our fault for not instilling simpler values in them. It’s a vicious cycle, and many parents will probably be lamenting about this for eons.

Well, that’s off my chest for now – but I’ll probably still stew about it later on in life.

                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

June 5, 2015 - - I must bring you up to date on our son’s home. It now sports a new salt water pool with waterfalls and a hot tub, and a huge patio that connects to the new three-car garage with laundry room, lavatory, and an outdoor shower. Every home’s gotta have those, doncha know. I think I’ll put a reminder on my calendar to see how things progress in the next two and a half years. As I said at the end of the piece, I’m still stewing. One never knows.