I love the poem -- and the recipe -- but I gained a couple of pounds just from reading it!

One of my favorite "new" ice cream flavors is salty caramel so I know I would love these. Unfortunately, my jeans are having the same problem as yours so I'll have to pass.

yoyo, I find jeans are very unforgiving, especially after Christmas.

Now please can you give me some pecan advice.
A US cousin sent me a 2lb packet (plus some fancy tea-bags) meant to be a pre-Xmas to-be-used-in-baking gift. The package, despite being priority US 'Express Mail' and costing $45, took almost a month to arrive so missed the holiday deadline.
Over here pecans are very expensive so are not used much.
Please can someone give me practical cooking ideas to use them up before they go past their 'sell-by date'. Thank you in advance :-)

Veer,
You can put them in an air tight plastic bag or container and keep them in the freezer for a long time. The idea is to keep the oils from spoiling.
Use them in any recipe calling for walnuts.
Sweet rolls are especially delicious with pecans mixed with sugar and butter as a filling.
Additionally you can sprinkle them , toasted, on top of any salad for extra nutrition and crunch.
If you make sweet potatoes /yams they are quite good crumbled with these as well.

Toasting brings out their flavors even more. To do this place them on a baking sheet and bake in a medium oven about 15 min or until they seem "toasty".

They are delicious.

Well, that is a lot of pecans unless you are feeding a large houseful. I eat lots of pecans and other nuts but it would take me quite a while to power through that batch. In a freezer-safe container, they can be frozen for quite a long time, at least a year, and should do well in the refrigerator for six to nine months, again in a proper container.

You could make a huge pile of cookies for the church bake sale but those would be some expensive cookies! They are very good in salads and make excellent pesto. You might try a pasta dish with chopped pecans, parsley, your favorite cheese, garlic, olive oil, proscuitto, etc. Basically pesto ingredients that are just chopped instead of ground into paste. Eat them as a snack with some fruit, put them in yogurt or oatmeal.

For $45 I would have delivered it myself! :)

Vee, you could always make a pecan pie. The following has been my fail-safe recipe for years. I use a bought pie crust (I know, I know, but I'm lazy), or you can make your own crust.

Pecan Pie

3 whole eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup pecans
1 unbaked pie shell

Beat eggs. Add sugar, syrup, salt and vanilla, mix well. Add butter, mix well.

Place pecans in bottom of unbaked pie shell. Pour filling over pecans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 - 55 minutes (no longer). Pie will set as it cools.

Yoyobon, I don't even want to think about how the jeans are fitting post-Christmas! I indulged in waaaaaay too many sweets, but those cookies sound divine!

You can also try Candied Pecans.....delicious as a treat.
Keep them in an airtight container after baking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Candied Pecans recipe

Sheriz beat me to it. Pecan pie is luscious.

And to make pecan pie truly decadent, add a cup of chocolate chips. :)

Another good pecan recipe is sticky buns. Or pralines. But give up on getting into those jeans.

Thank you for all the waist-expanding ideas.

Re the Pecan Pie. What is the diameter of the pie-case or amount of pastry, please? We don't have corn syrup over here so would need to find a substitute. We do have a substance called 'golden syrup' made from refined cane-sugar which must be similar.
Siobhan, bake-sales are being promoted at the moment and BBC TV is running a series featuring 'celeb's' making various cakes/pastries/tarts which is lots of fun to watch and gives some useful 'handy hints' along the way.

Here is a link that might be useful: BBC 'Bake Off' watch and drool

Golden syrup is a pale treacle.[1] It is a thick, amber-colored form of inverted sugar syrup, made in the process of refining sugar cane juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey, and is often used as a substitute for people who do not eat honey. It can also be used as a substitute for corn syrup.

Vee, I use a 9-inch pie plate / bought pie shell.

I was a bit surprised you don't have corn syrup available in the UK -- of course, in the US it's not just in the grocery store baking aisle, but is used in everything, no doubt a major contributor to our overall girth :) It sounds like golden syrup would work just fine as a substitute.

There is also a pie that is copyrighted under the name Derby Pie so that copycats are required to call it Chocolate Chip Pie or Horse Race Pie. It's a bit dense for me, but then I really like cream pies. Anyway, most people love it. Here is a recipe for it.

HORSE RACE PIE

4 eggs
3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. bourbon (optional)
1 c. white corn syrup
8 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. flour
1 c. chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1 c. chocolate chips
1 unbaked 10-inch pie shell

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie shell in piepan.

Beat the eggs and add to them the sugars, vanilla, bourbon, corn syrup, butter, and flour. Mix well. Distribute nuts and chocolate chips in the bottom of the pie shell. Pour the filling on top.

Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cool.

Every time I see this thread I am reminded of a funny incident from years ago. A man I was dating brought me a pecan pie, which I thought was a little strange as I had never mentioned it, and in fact I don't like pecan pie at all. I set it aside and later, after dinner, I asked him if he wanted a slice. He said no, he didn't really like it. I was really puzzled but didn't pursue the matter. The pie sat around for a day or two and I eventually gave it to someone. Then he brought another one. This time I asked him why he was bringing these pies since neither of us like them. He responded, "But it's your favorite!" I was astounded, as I said I don't like it and I was quite sure I had never talked about pecan pie either way. I pressed him for an explanation and he finally admitted that he was confusing me with his ex-wife!

In case you are wondering, that relationship did not last -

Carolyn, are US 'cream pies' any pie that doesn't contain fruit? I've often heard the word but never before thought its 'meaning' through. I think the only UK 'pie' not fruit-based would be lemon meringue.

Sheri, re corn syrup. You, in the US produce miles/acres of corn/maize, whereas we in the UK grow only a certain amount just for cattle feed (wrong growing conditions here). DH tells me it is very cheap to use in processed food, weight for weight, perhaps adding to American's love of all things sweet.
Since WWII most of our sugar has come from beet grown in prairie-like conditions in East Anglia. I think cane sugar from the W Indies is still used in 'Golden Syrup'.
Re the 'baking aisle' in super markets, that is almost a thing of the past; many many shelves being given over to 'ready meals' etc.

Quick / easy way to use pecans -

Chop a big bunch of them. Put into an airtight container.

Sprinkle some onto your breakfast cereal in the morning. Makes it more tasty!
Adding chopped dates are a good combination, too.

vee, have you never had the opportunity to enjoy banana cream pie or coconut cream pie or butterscotch pie? You are really missing some of the very best desserts. Of course, you are missing the calories associated with those pies, also. I could eat an entire pie in one day, given the chance.

Oh great!

NOW I'm craving a banana cream pie....homemade, of course with the wonderful meringue top.

frances, as far as I know we just don't have banana cream etc pies. Our pies and tarts and crumbles are all based on fruit, apple, apple and blackberry, plum, gooseberry etc. Either what is in 'season' or when bought 'ready cooked' whatever has come out of a tin and been added to the pastry.
It would be interesting to know if we (in the UK) used to have these pies and the early colonists carried on the tradition which we lost, or if they came via immigrants from Germany etc.

When bananas first became readily available in the United States (1880's), people figured out all kinds of ways to use them up. Hence banana bread, banana ice cream, banana splits and, naturally, banana cream pie. (If you're terribly interested in the history of bananas here, read Bananas: An American History, by Virginia Scott Jenkins; Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, D.C., 2000.) In 1901, we find an early banana pie in The Women's Exchange Cook Book, Mrs. Minnie Palmer; W.B. Conkey Co: Chicago, 1901. It read like this:

Fill a pie shell, already baked, with sliced bananas and powdered sugar. Put in the oven a few minutes until the fruit softens. Very nice so, but far better to cover the top with whipped cream and serve at once. Flavor with lemon juice.

If you've never baked a pie before, you might want to attempt that one. Buy a premade piecrust in the refrigerated section of your grocery, line it with two layers of aluminum foil and follow directions for baking an unfilled crust. Cool completely and proceed from there using the recipe. Do flavor the bananas with the lemon juice and not the whipped cream. Use about a tablespoon of lemon juice. You'll need a couple of large bananas and perhaps 2-3T powdered sugar. A cup of whipping cream will be more than ample.

My favorite banana cream pie recipe is from The Fanny Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham; Knopf, New York, 1984. (There's also a book club edition published in 1996.) Still available used from http://www.amazon.com, grab one if you can get it. This recipe teaches you how to make vanilla pudding from scratch, which is much like making it from the package except that you must first mix your own dry ingredients. It's a skill worth having. A whisk really helps here, but a wooden spoon can do the job.

Banana Cream Pie

Basic pie dough for 9" pie shell or crumb (graham cracker) crust, baked if necessary, and cooled

3/4 c sugar

4 T cornstarch

1/4 t salt

3 c milk (whole)

4 egg yolks, slightly beaten

4 T butter, softened (1/2 stick)

2 t vanilla extract

2 medium-sized ripe bananas, cut into 1/4" thick slices

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in the bottom of a heavy saucepan and stir them together with a wire whisk. Slowly, by drop and then a light stream, add the milk, whisking gradually to prevent lumps. Whisk in the egg yolks, stirring vigorously until you see no flecks of yolk. Place saucepan over medium heat and cook the mixture, stirring constantly until it boils. Be sure to reach the bottom with your whisk or wooden spoon because lumps could form or it could easily burn. When it reaches a full boil, reduce the heat to low and continue cooking and stirring for 3 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Place a large piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding, covering it entirely and leaving no gaps or air bubbles, which prevents...

You probably have the idea now, Vee. Don't you have stirred custard (not Bird's)? The recipe above for Banana Cream Pie uses a pretty standard vanilla cream, although lots of recipes call for partially cooking the milk mixture and adding a little of the hot sauce to the egg yolks and then putting the egg mixture back into the saucepan so that they don't cook and make eggy lumps in your filling. I like meringue, which you spread on top of the hot filling and bake until slightly browned, and so always use the egg whites to make the topping rather than whipped cream.

For chocolate cream pie (you knew I would go there), mix cocoa into the dry ingredients and proceed as above.

Lemon meringue pie is my favorite. I use a recipe that calls for milk as the liquid, although most call for water. I think the one I use is much better; it came from the mother of a 92-year-old friend.

I am getting cavities and gaining weight just reading this thread! ;)

So am I! LOL

Carolyn, of course. I should have thought of egg custards which used to be made as 'invalid food' or served in a pastry case and called 'custard tart'.
I come from that just post-war generation who treat eggs with the greatest respect and despite keeping a small flock of hens I still baulk at recipes which state 'beat 6 egg yolks and discard the whites'.
To make 'real' custard takes time and patience and I know people who still get lumps in the 'Bird's' variety. ;-)
I agree that meringue is the best topping for lemon m pie. We eat little cream or sugar in this family which has kept the children and me cavity free . . . can't say the same for the DH; when I fist met him he was on a mars bar diet . . . and no, it doesn't work. ;-(

Too much temptation here for me!

Rosefolly

Never discard extra whites! Beat them until not quite stiff enough for meringue. Then add powdered sugar and cocoa according to your taste and the number of egg whites. Continued beating until stiff. Line a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper and drop mixture by tablespoons. Bake at low temp (250 F) until the little meringues look dry on top. Pretty low in calories and so easy--good hot or cold.

I must take this opportunity to thank Sheri and Carolyn for the pecan pie recipes. We followed the instructions to the letter (with the addition of a small slug of rum . . .bourbon is seldom drunk over here). It was amazingly yummy and not as sweet as we expected.
Rule, I refuse to use recipes which call for egg yolks only, mostly from frugality. I know the whites would linger in the fridge too long and then be wasted and even if I had good intentions of making meringues (is that a contradiction in terms?) I doubt that I'd get round to it; but I'm sure someone here will find your advice useful.

Vee, glad to hear you liked the pie recipe. I'm always happy to share a few calories with friends!

For those who don't like to use egg yolk recipes because of wasting the whites, here is an excellent use for egg whites, that is, if you don't want to make lemon merengue which I personally adore. Or white cake, which doesn't excite me but many people like for its delicacy.

Here goes. Beat the egg whites into a soft peak froth for an excellent facial. Let it dry on your face, then rinse it off. It leaves your face feeling quite silky and smooth.

Vee, I'm glad, too, that you enjoyed the Derby Pie recipe. You must make another one on the first Saturday in May to eat while watching the Kentucky Derby--I'm assuming our little claim to fame is broadcast worldwide? And maybe add a pitcher of Mint Juleps? Enough juleps and you won't care if you have the pie or not.

Carolyn, sorry but the Kentucky Derby gets little mention in the UK . . . except, I think, when HM Queen was on an official visit to the US and spent time in your 'neck of the woods'. She is well-know as a good judge of horse-flesh and makes private visits to ??? (the Newlyn house maybe) . . .where a mint julep would be appreciated.
We don't have them over here. In fact I'm sure cocktails were introduced by rich Americans to the English in the 20's/30's.
You probably know the story of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their 1939 tour of the US and being entertained by the Roosevelts.
It is early evening and FDR offers his guests a cocktail. "I would love one" replies the King "But don't tell my Mother."
"Don't tell my Mother either" says FDR. "She said I mustn't offer you anything stronger than a cup of tea."

I hadn't heard the FDR story--funny! Yes, HRH did attend the Derby once. She boards horses at a horse farm near Lexington. The owner of the farm was the U.S. Ambassador to GB some years ago. Our newspaper is full of news of her when she comes to visit. You know how fascinated we colonials are with royalty.