Thanksgiving Preview

It has been while.  But here are some pictures of what, so  far, has been a marvelous Thanksgiving. And a couple of recipes.  More to come, hopefully soon.

Top to bottom.  Christmas at Beauvoir.  Mary Mahoney's Old French House Restaurant,  Civil War sites at Corinth MS, and Shiloh TN.

And now onto the recipes.  Above is a traditional Draper (Richard's maternal grandfamily) family recipe that I love.  This is a scan directly from the cookbook.  You may want to 1/2 or 1/4 the recipe.  This makes a lot. It also leaves out one of the instructions.  You should soak the gelatin in the water and then add it to the hot egg and mustard when indicated.  This is marvelous on ham, if you like honey mustard type stuff.  It melts right into the hot meat yum.  I have plans for this recipe.

Lastly I will share a favorite Kentucky pie recipe.  My friend Melissa requested this, so you have her to thank for this post.  I am in Kentucky and don't have her email so I thought I would just post this.  That way hopefully I will never lose it. This recipe was taught to me by a ward member who used to work at a bakery that made these pies (not the original derby pie but a knock-off) and is the closest I have found to the real deal in spite of being a simple recipe.  And contrary to popular belief the real derby pie does NOT have bourbon in it, one of the few facts about the pie confirmed from the derby pie family itself.  This is the halved version of the recipe.  You may want to double it and have two on hand.

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecan halves


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter & sugar, add eggs, salt & vanilla. Gradually mix in flour. Stir in pecans.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on unbaked pie shell.  Spoon filling (it will be kind of thick) over chocolate chips.
Bake for 30-45 minutes top is puffy and a deep golden brown. Remove from oven .  Let set about 2 hours before serving.  The pie is so sweet and rich I like to serve it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream.  Others like it with ice cream.  It'll be good no matter what you serve it with.  Yum.