Easter 2011 - Nanny's Pecan Pie

There were lots of people coming and going on Easter weekend and lots of cooking and communion going on too. On Saturday afternoon the old rugged cross began it's transformation with Sally T, then many Roaches, Albrittons, Saleebys, Sister, Corns, Hunts, Roysters, a McCullen and a Byron. There may have been others because the cross kept on transforming through Easter Sunday morning. Last Easter there were primarily camellias and azaleas in the cross but with Easter later this year, there were more iris and knock out rose blooms. But every year the cross transforms and it is always a joy.

We had a crowd for dinner at our house Saturday night and David used two grills - ribs in the big cooker and chicken over charcoal. Boneless chicken thighs were on sale so last minute we picked some up and marinated them the way David has done chicken for years and years - in Zesty Italian Dressing. I can't count how many times we have cooked chicken this way and it is always a hit. He turns the chicken several times over the charcoal fire and every piece winds up really moist and tasty.

We had corn from last years garden, beans, potato salad, tossed salad with Fantastic French Dressing and sliced tomatoes with olive oil and fresh basil from the garden. I made Sour Cream Pound Cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream and neighbor Marge sent over a pecan pie. I don't have Marge's pie recipe but it tastes a lot like Nanny's Pecan Pie. Marge decorated the top of her pie with whole pecans while Nanny always chopped all the pecans but either way it is a great tasting pie.

The Easter Cross tradition at our house began because we enjoyed participating in the one at Shelby Presbyterian Church. This year First Baptist Church, Central Methodist and Shelby Presbyterian held a combined Sunrise service in the courtyard at the Shelby Presbyterian Cross. We love a Sunrise Service and so early Easter Sunday morning, we headed out dressed in comfy clothes, with our coffee and folding chairs. We put iris and knock out roses in the Shelby Presyterian cross. I added three sprigs of rosemary - "for remembrance" like Ophelia said.

As we entered the courtyard we were given a candle to light. Everyone sat quietly in the grassy courtyard holding their lighted candles. It was peaceful waiting for the service to start when suddenly the sprinkler system came on! Everyone cracked up and it was even funnier when the Methodist and Presbyterian preachers joked that the Baptists found a way to Baptize everybody!

But it was a great service and we were glad to be a part of it.

When we got home from the sunrise service, Turner Classic Movies was showing the end of Easter Parade with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. I helped Judy Garland sing the title song and was proud that I remembered every single word. I couldn't help but laugh remembering Lattimore Easters years ago when all five Hunt girls, in Easter clothes that Mama made, would parade around the house and sing. "...on the avenue, 5th avenue..."

The rest of the family went to the 11:00 service and then we all met at Sister's for a picnic style lunch. Everybody brought something and it was all delicious and fun to be together. The newest family members, Mary Katherine and Maggie, were darling in their pretty, little Easter dresses, picking up eggs and playing with bunnies. Gigi (Lynn) literally hopped in with an easter surprise for the two little girls. David and I enjoyed watching the one year olds and as he pointed out it was pretty entertaining to watch the grown ups too.

We missed the ones who weren't with us, but it was a great family weekend. By Sunday afternoon, everybody needed to get back home until the next time.

And we all know there will be a next time.

Nanny's Pecan Pie
(from Libby's handwritten copy)

1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (Red Label) Karo All Purpose syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch salt
3 eggs (or 4 if they are small)
About 1 tsp flour

Mix everything together well and pour in unbaked pie shell. Bake at 300 degrees until the crust begins to brown and then 200 degrees until done.

Maundy Thursday - Sister's Seven Layer Salad

April 17th has come and gone. April 17, 1888 was the day my grandmother, Nanny, was born. It's the date I use for the Magic Planting Day when it is unlikely we will have another frost. We have planted 3 varieties of tomatoes - better boys, romas and sweet 100s - several varieties of sweet and hot peppers, squash and lots of different herbs. It will be a while before we can pick tomatoes, peppers and squash but it's been fun to walk outside for fresh basil, dill, chocolate mint, thyme, parsley, chives, rosemary and oregano. If I'm not using the herbs in cooking, I just pick a sprig or two for the kitchen window.

The dogwoods were about as pretty as ever this year and I took a quick cell phone picture of the ones in Lattimore a few days ago. I haven't been in Lattimore much but I did meet Mama and Daddy at Wendy's recently. Not unusual, we ran into some friends at Wendy's that brought on conversation about the Roger's Theatre in Shelby. The Rogers is being renovated now and is really looking great. Everybody had memories of the Rogers, but my favorite story was hearing about Mama and Daddy's first date. Daddy said he had wanted to ask Mama out for a while, but felt sheepish because she was four years younger than he was so he asked both her and her little sister to go to a movie at the Rogers Theatre. No doubt that was big fun for three kids from Lattimore.

Today is Maundy Thursday. Or Holy Thursday. It's the Thursday before Easter when Christians around the world remember the Last Supper of Christ with the apostles. For my Jewish friends this is the time for Passover which celebrates the Exodus of the freed slaves from Egypt. It's always interesting to note the similarities of religious celebrations within different groups all over the world. Most celebrations have two things in common - gathering and sharing a meal.

I like the Quaker's idea that every meal at every table is a communion.

As usual, we have shared many meals with many groups in the last few weeks - with hungry college boys, with tennis teammates, with tennis opponents, with workers from a fun new project in town, with friends at the Lake, with family at home. And of course at Wendy's.

We look forward to more communion this Easter Weekend. And I look forward to my favorite Easter tradition. The old rugged cross is in Nanny's pitcher and is outside on the front porch. Like the feeling of Maundy Thursday, the cross is sad and lonely and barren. But the hope is there that by Sunday morning everybody who comes and goes will add flowers and herbs and all kinds of plants to be a part of the communion and transformation.

Sister's Seven Layered Salad

This year we will go to Sister's for Easter Sunday Lunch. One of everybody's favorite things will be Sister's Layered Salad. Layered Salads can be made in many many ways and is good just about every way. As Cindy says, "When you have mayo and bacon on a salad it can't help but be good."

Sister's Layered Salad is truly wonderful and so recently we were talking about how to make it. Like all good cooks, she doesn't know exact proportions - it depends on the bowl she is using. She laughed when she remembered talking with Kathie about how to make layered salad because one instruction is, "Add more sugar than you think." To which Kathie replied, "how do you know what I'm thinking?" I can just see and hear Kathie's funny expression when she delivered that line.

Sister makes the salad in a three day process so it might be a good idea to start on Maundy Thursday!

Day One - Dressing

And I quote:

"- In a bowl stir in mayo, sour cream, mayo, sour cream
- add a little sugar "more than you think" then a little salt and some lemon juice.
- Stir it really good and let it sit overnight in the fridge to dissolve"

When I pressed a little, Sister said she uses about 2 parts mayo to 1 part sour cream.

You're on your own with the salt, sugar and lemon juice.

Also on Day one -

- Defrost a package of frozen peas and drain on paper towels in a bowl in fridge. You do NOT want the peas to be watery.
- Boil some eggs and cool in fridge

Day Two - Assemble Salad

- Shred iceberg lettuce and shred again. The lettuce needs to be in small pieces
- Chop lots of spring onions
- Grate or chop hard boiled eggs (I use a pastry blender or the back of a fork to really mash up the eggs because, like Mama, I am not a fan of chunky egg whites)
- Grate cheese - "any mix of cheese, Swiss and cheddar are good"

In a glass dish, layer lettuce, peas, onions, eggs, and spread dressing on top. "Make sure you get the dressing out to the edges really good"

Top with grated cheese, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Day Three

Top with a lot of cooked Bacon and Serve

Sister says she likes to use scissors to cut uncooked bacon and then stir it around in the frying pan. It's quicker and easier when you are frying alot of bacon.

Good Luck!

"Vishnye!" - Mediterranean Tuna Salad

April is always an action packed month and this year is no exception. The weather has been really crazy with hot days, cold days, sun, rain, fog, hail and tornadoes. Through it all there have been beautiful flowering trees and plants and a whole bunch of sporting events.

This year the Master's golf tournament and the Family Circle Women's Professional Tennis Tournament happened to be the same week. Today is the final day of play for both tournaments and we'll be going back and forth this afternoon to see what happens. We'll see if Rory McIllroy can win his first Master's at the tender age of 21 and if #1 ranked Caroline Wozniacki can beat unseeded Elena Vesnina.

I made my annual pilgrimage with Susan to watch tennis during Wednesday's rounds of the Family Circle Cup. We saw several top seeds playing singles and decided that Wozniacki was our favorite to win the tournament. Wozniacki is from Denmark but lives in Monaco. She is always smiling and cute but has a powerful tennis game. Her serve, like many of the other women, is often over 100 mph. And she seldom double faults. The sound of the tennis balls moving back and forth with the power and speed of these professional players is like fireworks.

We watched seeded American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands upset by unseeded Elena Vesnina. We were pulling for Bethanie since she was one of the few Americans in the tournament. It was powerful tennis, but there were some other interesting aspects to the match. Bethanie had the match won several times but just couldn't make it happen. It was like she couldn't stay focused. She was decked out in Under Armour and blacked under her eyes like a football or baseball player. She had on knee socks like a soccer player. No wonder she couldn't stay focused on tennis. We were having trouble ourselves. Susan worried about knee sock tan lines. I am a big Under Armour fan but they might want to go back to the drawing board on tennis gear.

Vesnina is from Russia and we learned a new word from her. After working hard for a winning point, tennis players sometimes yell, "Come ON!" This is a cheer and an affirmation. But, when Vesnina won a hard fought point she yelled, "VishNYE!" This may or may not be the proper spelling. In fact it may or may not be an actual word. But we all enjoyed watching Vesnina win an incredible point and then yell "VishNYE!"

The Family Circle Trip always includes lots of fun in the low country. This year we took a carriage ride in Charleston. There were 15 of us in a carriage with a very knowledgable guide named Matt and a very well trained horse named Bill. Bill took us through the Battery Area while Matt took us through about 350 years of history - Pre-Revolutionary War through Post Civil War. A Charleston carriage ride was on my bucket list of things to do and I couldn't have enjoyed it more.

At Isle of Palms we took a sunrise walk on the beach and saw all kinds of birds, shells and jellyfish. But the most amazing thing we saw were hundreds of starfish. I have never seen so many starfish at one time. They were all shapes, sizes, and colors. I googled them later and learned that there are over 2000 types of starfish in the world. And that they aren't really fish. They have an interesting life including being able to regenerate limbs.

We had some great food on the trip, but the recipe we wanted to copy was at Ali Baba. We had been there before and it was just as good the second time. The Mediterranean food tastes so fresh and flavorful. I tried grilled vegetables, greek salad and tuna salad. The tuna salad is really light and we found out it is put together with a tiny bit of olive oil, light lite mayo, and lemon juice. They also minced up a lot of other ingredients like black olives, artichoke hearts and roasted red pepper. Very mediterranean flavors that were tasty and healthy to eat.

To the Ali Baba people and to whoever wins the Masters and the Family Circle Cup "VishNYE!"

Tuna Salad Ali Baba Style

This is a guess at how Ali Baba makes their tuna salad based on what they told us. Adjust portions to your own liking. It's a fair guess that Ali Baba adjusts vegetables and aromatics depending on what is in season. Mainly the salad is not real chunky and is not creamy at all. It is light and is loaded with mediterranean flavor.

Tuna packed in Water or Fresh Tuna
Black Olives, minced
Onion, minced
Roasted Red Pepper, minced
Artichoke Hearts, chopped
Other vegetables if you want but not in big chunks
Season with pepper, garlic, oregano and dill

I asked if they added yogurt which would make sense for mediterranean food, but we were told it was a very tiny touch of Lite mayo.

Drizzle a few drops of olive oil, lemon juice and then add a touch of mayo just to hold the ingredients together. Serve with warmed pita bread.