Thanksgiving in the Holler

Wednesday night, after having Fat Billy's pizza for dinner, I loaded the car to go down to visit my mom, her partner & his mom in West Virginia. Then, I commenced pie-making. Since there were only 5 of us for Thanksgiving dinner, I only made one pie, a derby pie. I have made a different, giant cookie-type derby pie, but this is my favorite variation. It was our sole dessert for the holiday.

Derby Pie

1 pie shell
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 c. light Karo syrup
4 eggs
1 c. pecan halves
1 c. chocolate chips
2 tbsp. bourbon (I actually used Jack Daniels)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together everything but the pie shell. Pour into shell. Bake 45-50 minutes.

My other contributions to Thanksgiving dinner were a salad made with bagged mixed baby greens, packaged candied walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese crumbles and raspberry vinaigrette and also a green bean casserole (I just use the recipe on the can of French's onions). My Beloved topped some of her company's sweet potato-banana mash with walnuts that she caramelized with butter and brown sugar and baked it. My mom, the vegetarian, made the first turkey she's roasted since 1973...and did a damn fine job of it...along with mashed potatoes and sage dressing. She also made, ahead of time, cranberry sauce (using the recipe on the cranberry bag) and our family's time-honored Thanksgiving raspberry Jello with raspberries in it. My almost-grandma's contribution was to clean up after us. She also had the bright idea of picking up some Kahlua for us to enjoy with our dessert, but we forgot until Saturday night.