Thanksgiving

This year, I made four pies to contribute to the gigantic Wong Thanksgiving feast: two apple, one mixed berry, and one pecan. The apple pies turned out fine, but the mixed berry was a mushy mess (my ill-conceived phyllo crust did NOT travel well).

I decided to try a new pecan pie recipe this year, one that was made with brown sugar only (no corn syrup). This is apparently the approach endorsed by Mark Bittman. However, Bittman's recipe seemed needlessly difficult (he blind bakes his pie crust AND then cooks the filling on the stove). So instead, I chose to use a recipe that I found online. The internet is not always a reliable reference for recipes, which is why I normally stick to recipes from sites like Allrecipes.com , which are reviewed by users. But this time I decided to just trust the recipe that Google found. And it turned out great! It's a little more crunchy than regular pecan pie, and it tastes really good.

So, here is my pecan pie recipe.

Pecan Pie

3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour

Mix cream cheese and butter well, stir in flour. Roll out and place in pie pan. Prick well with a fork and bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

2 eggs
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. flour
1 c. pecan halves

Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, butter and flour; beat well. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.