Category: Dear Dad

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an extraordinary Pecan Pie Recipe you won’t find anywhere else

Nothing finer than a Pecan Pie made with the best!
Nothing finer than a Pecan Pie made with the best!

There is nothing more disappointing than to bite into something you believe to be extraordinary and find it wanting… however, this was not the case! I have found all too many Pecan pies overly syrupy, overly hard or much like the famous soup where only 1 Pecan swam through. The problems were clear… even in the best recipes, cost dictated taste…. obviously, this presented wonderful opportunities for improvement!

What makes this pie so special is that it contains more eggs, no corn syrup just 100% honey and brown sugar, more pecans prepared three ways (meal, caramelized & chopped and whole), more butter, a candy quality thickener and a crust to die for!

This was a trial for Laura’s Birthday and she loved it… so that’s what matters.

here is the recipe!

Roger

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designing a better pecan pie

00 pecantampering

Have you ever done something that you weren’t suppose to do…. but you knew it just HAD to be done? A while back I blogged and twittered about coming up with a better Pecan Pie recipe and I heard about how wrong this was… one person even (gasp!) referred to me as a ‘Yankee’ and that cut deeply…. y’all know what I am talking about.

First, many recipes call for a certain brand of corn syrup — some of you know who I am talking about. Unfortunately, I won’t use it … as it is a cheap substitution for something a lot better and secondly, it has been ‘cut’ with high fructose corn syrup. HFCS — we wizards know — has a dramatic effect of reducing our cooking powers… then, there is the fact that I don’t believe it to be too good for you. Alternatively,there are a wonderful variation of sweeteners that could be used… such as honey ( make sure you use a honey that is not ‘cut’ with corn syrup).

The next issue is in thickeners which detract from the dessert such as corn starch or flour… there is a better way (arrowroot). How many eggs is too many? What about using real vanilla beans and not just poor flavorings?  The pecans themselves are sometimes soft, chewy or gummy as they are prepared, but steps can be taken to avoid this ( do we just toast them or do we further caramelize them?).

Lastly, a good pie need not have a bland or disappointing crust ( how about a little Mace?)… so we make this ourselves.

Ah, the work goes on…. if you want something better.

Roger

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a Los Angeles Vacation

00 SCvacationVacations don’t have to be exotic, expensive or bound to long away locations. However, vacations do need to take you away from what you are doing and put you somewhere else to experience another of what life has to offer.

Karen had plans and we thought about tagging along and seeing an intersquad scrimmage among Southern Cal’s Trojan football team. It was a nice sneak peek into the world of Trojan football and a time to revisit SC again. We stayed at the Radisson just off campus giving us a chance to visit and eventually end up at the old hangout ‘el Chollo’s’... Los Angeles’s finest Mexican restaurant.

I am sure the coaches saw sparks of brilliance and some things they are going to work on… but from my perspective there was enough there to worry most people. I would have liked to see the quarterback run more… but that’s just me.

It was all fun!

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it’s not about the fish

it's not about the fish.. t's about fishing!
it's not about the fish.. it's about fishing!

When my daughters come home to visit, we use the time as productively as possible. Sometimes we fish. Fortunately, it’s not really about catching fish or how many fish you catch… but about the act of fishing. It is about the journey and not the destination. There are things we like to do that are more results oriented… and that’s all about cooking.

00 KarenSNACKWe have been working on a healthy snack size bar for some time and Karen took her own twist on the process. So many commercial bars have high fructose corn syrup or other things w really want to stay away from… so it pays to design your own bars. A real health food nut would have some problems with our bars as we use chocolate and peanut butter, sugar and honey… but they are relatively good for you… and they are yummy!

our basic recipe !

Anyway, always fun to have them home…

dad

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pastrami from scratch

nothin like making it yourself!
nothin like making it yourself!

This time around I made my pastrami a little differently from my usual recipe.

Just like the famous beer commercial, it all starts with the water and in this case, I mean beer! When Karen, Laura and Kristin met in Greece, I bought a case of  Mythos. It was this beer and added seasonings, preservative and salt that I soaked my beef to make home made corned beef. From this corned beef, I rinsed and soaked the meat and finally added additional seasonings (Spanish Pimenton & basic pickling-like spices) to be smoked for 6 hours in hickory and mesquite.  It was wonderful to make and even more wonderful to consume!

enjoy your day.

Roger