Southern Pecan Pie

Southern Pecan Pie



Where I live, in the Texas Hill Country, we have just splendid pecans that are absolutely all over the place. This year, to save a little money, we decided to go to the local park and pick our own pecans. That was the easy part! Cracking them all was a different story, it took me about 45 minutes with my six year old son "helping" me the whole time. (He thought we had to adjust the nutcracker after every pecan.) All in all, in the end it was completely worth it! I don't think I've ever had a pecan pie as delicious or homemade as the one I made this Thanksgiving! There was ecstatic moaning and fluttering eyes going all around the table during dessert time!  To top it off, I was super proud that I personally had a hand in literally everything from start to finish! This is hands down the best pecan pie recipe I've ever had!

Pie Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
4 Tablespoons cold water

  Preheat oven to 350. Mix all dry ingredients together first. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the cold butter until it's crumbly and has pea sized lumps. Add the water and mix well. Turn out onto a floured surface and roll slightly bigger than a pie pan. Carefully transfer to pie pan. Bake until about halfway done for about 10 min or until you finish whipping together pie filling.

Pie Filling:

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 Tablespoon imitation vanilla flavor
1 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter , melted
2 cups pecans (a little extra never hurt anything either!)

   Whisk together sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. Add beaten eggs and whisk until smooth. Slowly pour butter into sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Stir in pecans and pour filling into the halfway baked pie crust. 
   Bake in the oven for about an hour, or until it's "set". It will be slightly jiggly, but not sloshy. If it's too sloshy, put that puppy back in for another 10-20 minutes. If the crust begins to brown too much, cover the edges with foil and return to oven. Once it's set enough, remove pie and let cool for three to four hours before slicing.  ​

Easy Delicioso Mexican Rice

Easy Delicioso Mexican Rice

 I've had a very hard time getting my mexican rice to come out right. It's usually too mushy or sticky, too much tomato sauce, or just not right somehow. For years, I'd envy restaurants their light, fluffy flavorful rice and curse myself for not being able to pull it off myself. My poor husband had to put up with years of funky rice from me. Finally, after many years, I found a recipe that started me on the road to the right rice! The first time, it was...better....but still needed a flavor fix. After tweaking it a dozen times, I finally got the flavor right!! 

1/3 cup oil
1 cup rice
1/4 diced onion
1 1/2 c chicken broth (I microwave water with one chicken bullion cube)
6 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
(optional) 1 small can of chopped green chiles

     Heat oil on medium heat in a medium saucepan, add onion and cook until it starts to sweat. Add rice (and green chiles) and cook until starting to turn golden brown. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce and seasonings. Heat to boiling, cover tightly, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 min. I usually stir it ONCE halfway through cooking just to make sure everythings mixed properly. When done, fluff with a fork , serve and enjoy!!

Best Ever Tortillas


Along with trying to perfect my mexican rice, I've also had a lot of trouble over the years making perfect tortillas from scratch. Usually they'll come out tasting great, but once they cool, they get hard and break. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of a wonderful fajita taco and the tortilla rips in half and your taco basically explodes! Finally, after years of trial and error, I have perfected my tortillas! They stay soft, they heat up easily, storable and delicious!!

3 cups flour
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 vegetable or canola oil
1 cup warm water

  Combine all the dry stuff and mix well. Add the oil and hot water. Mix well. Roll into balls about the size of golf balls and then flatten with your hand. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Heat a comal or flat pan up during the last 5 min to be ready to cook on.
   After 15 minutes, roll each flattened dough ball out on a lightly floured surface until about as thin as a regular tortilla. Place a tortilla on the comal or flat pan, flipping once whenever you start to see a few bubbles appear. Watch the comal carefully, it's very easy to burn them in just a few seconds. you only need to flip the tortillas ONCE! If you flip more, they'll  start to get tough.
  I like to keep my tortillas warm in the middle of a folded towel until ready to serve since it prevents them from getting soggy.