Why??  What possessed me to try this?  If I needed to make a pecan pie, I could have just used the recipe on the bottle of Karo Dark Syrup.  Why on earth did I have to make Rosalie’s Honey Crunch Pecan Pie??  Maybe it was the secret ingredient, the tablespoon of Bourbon that intrigued me.

Rosalie won the National Crisco Bake-Off in 1989 with this pie. The prize was a $10,000 new kitchen.  Rosalie is a member of the congregation in Bethany, Oklahoma, of which I was the Pastor for about nine years.  Not only was that congregation a warm and loving crew who taught me how to be the pastor of a congregation (up to that point I had served as an Associate Pastor with a limited portfolio), but Rosalie was a member.  We relished those times we were invited over to eat at their place.  I remember once paying $45 for one of her Honey Crunch Pecan Pies at a fund-raising auction.

Anyone can find the recipe.  I just Googled “Rosalie Seebeck’s Pecan Pie.”  While the recipe is easy to find, the secret to making it as Rosalie did, makes it impossible to match perfectly.  Rosalie grew up on a farm.  She was the oldest of a number of children, so she had to learn to cook.  Her farm years had impact on that pie.

Oklahoma City is an interesting place.  It is an overgrown town.  When I first arrived at the church, across the parking lot was a small field with horses in it.  Lots of folks had gardens and livestock.  Ray and Rosalie had chickens and bees and a yard filled with pecan trees.  She carried on the plane to the contest in California, eggs from their chickens, honey from their bees.and pecans from their trees.  Oklahoma pecans are small and especially flavorful.

This pie is made in stages, with chopped pecans in the filling, followed by pecan halves in the next stage.  The pie is cooked for fifteen minutes, then the foil around the crust is added.  After another twenty minutes, the coating for the larger pecans is made, the pecans stirred in until they are fully coated, then spread on the top of the pie.  Then the pie goes back in for more cooking.

There is filling and sugary coating in pools on the bottom of the oven, smoking so much I pulled out the Security System information in case I had to call off the fire department.  Gratefully, the smoke detector did not go off — nor was the pie itself burned.  I will be anxious to see how it came out when we cut it for the crew that is coming to the house to help us celebrate our anniversary tomorrow.

This morning I put a large pork loin in the crock pot after browning it.  Then came the onions, apples and sweet Bavarian sauerkraut.  It cooked on low for about seven hours.  I loved it.  Mary Ann did not.  She used to make the same thing the same way.  She used to like it.  That she will not eat what I cook hurts my feelings, but by now, I should know better than to expect that to change.  I made her a sandwich so that she would have something in her stomach for the night.

As I have said far too often, I am out of my comfort zone when trying to cook.  That is why the Anniversary Dinner tomorrow is a carry-out special.  It does demand cooking the Prime Rib for an hour, and reheating the side dishes that came with it.  I should be able to handle that much, but who knows how it will come out.

Then the next day will be devoted to preparing side dishes that will accompany our early Christmas celebration dinner on Sunday.  This cooking business is getting completely out of hand!

It is getting late.  Mary Ann seems to be sleeping at the moment.  It took her a long time to settle tonight.  Hopefully, there will be some sleeping for both of us before the morning chores begin.

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