Nancy's Kitchen

This is to tell you about the time I made my “Praline Cream Pie” (see column 9/6/2006) for one of our family’s traditional Thanksgiving dinners here in Louisiana. When I removed the pie from the oven it looked perfect. However when I cut it open the inside was runny liquid. To this day, I do not know what I did wrong. I do recall how my family laughed and teased me. I finally just told them to “Hush and drink their piece of pecan pie.” Now when we have a Thanksgiving family dinner, they always remind me to be sure to prepare my “Traditional Praline Pecan Soup Pie.”

Now this week I have for you a new and different traditional KEEPER Thanksgiving Pie. The only thing I was not too happy about was I had to buy a whole two pound box of cake flour for the two tablespoons called for in the recipe. I searched the grocery’s baking isle for a smaller size but the one and only box was the brand “Swans Down” weighing two pounds. I will probably never use it again before the expiration date. If there is anyone out there that needs a two pound box (minus two tablespoons) of cake flour just let me know and I will send it to you.

CALIFORNIA ALMOND PIE

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

FILLING:

½ cup light brown sugar

2 Tbsp. cake flour

1 ¼ cups light corn syrup

3 Tbsp. butter

¼ tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

1 ½ cups sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350○. Mix brown sugar and flour in a saucepan. Add corn syrup, butter, and salt, and warm over low heat just until butter melts. Beat eggs with vanilla and almond extracts. Add to sugar mixture and stir. Turn into unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

YUMMY!

Following the September 13, 2008 Hurricane “Ike” our Texas home was flooded and beside all the household damage, I lost a huge amount of my collection of cookbooks.

When my daughter, Carol Farley, a member of the Haughton’s “Red Hat Society” told her organization about my loss word got out far and near.

I started receiving cookbooks in the mail from many Red Hat Society members throughout the USA and even one as far away as England.

I also received a cookbook from Moss Bluff, Louisiana “Moss Bluff Chapter #16273” compiled by Queen Joann Kaufmann & Vice Queen Karen Merrill just for me titled “Fluff in the Bluff.” I still feel humbled and honored that all these dear people opened their hearts to me during a difficult period of my life.

This week’s recipe was taken from a cookbook titled “”Blue Ribbon Pies” sent to me by a “Red Hat” member, O.M. Terisa Wise of Elmer, Louisiana. Her group calls their selves “Red Hatters for Christ.” The cookbook is a collection of blue ribbon winners’ pie recipes. Contributor Diane Kirk won a blue ribbon for this recipe at the Madera District Fair, Madera, California. The cookbook was published in 1987 by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010. The ISBN number is 0-312-00732-9.