July 12, 2020 (Sunday)
(Note: yesterday’s blog was amended yesterday afternoon A film maker’s idea of an early Christian song with lyrics was added at the end).
Today is Pecan Pie Day. O Boy, what a day. What an idea.
I’ve always been good at eating pecan pie (or almost any other kind of pie), but I’ve never tried to cook one. So I looked up the subject of cooking a pecan pie, and I was surprised to find out that it’s a very simple recipe. The incredients include much brown sugar and corn syrup, so we can rely on lots of calories being in this pie. I think the average pecan pie contains almost 5,000 calories. When sliced into 8 pieces, your piece accounts for 625 calories. A second helping, you say? Are you sure about that?
I like pecan pie when it’s warm. But if it’s still hot from the oven, we need to stay away from it for a while, because it could probably cause serious burns. It gets hot–very hot. I also like it at room temperature, cool, or cold. I just like it a lot, although it is not my favorite. But this being Pecan Pie Day, I’ll say no more about other kinds.
I’ve always preferred pie to cake. But I’ve never been known to refuse cake. I love candy, too. I remember a day when I was a teenager working as cashier in the restaurant owned by my parents. The candy was displayed behind the cash register and me, so all the candy was at my fingertips when I turned around. Well, one day there was a new item among the candies. It was called “5th Avenue.” Since it was OK for me to sample such things as long as I did not overdo it, I eased the wrapper from one end of the new candy bar and took a bite. Wow, was it ever good! A second bite, then a third and whoof! it was gone. O.K. I think you are following me in this story, so I’ll switch to the end. I ate every one of those 5th Avenue bars, one at a time for the rest of my shift, and had to replace the display box with a fresh one filled with brand new bars. I don’t remember ever doing that again. I must have been very hungry.
Getting back to the special observance today of “Pecan Pie Day.” I’ve always loved pecan pie. I don’t recall ever eating a whole one at one sitting, and if I did not do that, it was probably because it was so sweet that a little went a long way.
Pecans are a necessary ingredient, of course. How do you pronounce the word, “pecan?” There are three pronunciations in my online dictionary. The first one is the only one I ever heard until I ate pecan pie as a guest in an Ohio home. The host was from Kentucky, and he pronounced it very differently. But the pie itself was the same as it had been in Texas.
When I was 8 or 9 years old, our next door neighbor had some huge pecan trees and the pecan shells were very long, up to 1 1/2 inches. The shells were also easy to crack, so they were known as “paper shells.” Some fell in our yard, so we tried them out and they tasted very good.
Many years later, I learned about the experiences of some of my friends who had been raised in San Saba, which is known for its abundant pecan crops. They made their living picking up pecans that had fallen from the trees. They were in a valley loaded with pecan trees when a flash flood suddenly was upon them and they had to climb the trees to escape the waters. They remained in those trees three days–father, mother, and 3 kids. Amazing. I cannot imagine such an experience.
I remember tiny pecan pies, wrapped in cellophane, for sale at the stores, usually as a last minute item at the checkout. Many kids at school had them in the lunches their parents had prepared for them each day. They were a delicacy.
We would not have pecan pie if we had no pecans. We would have no pecans if we did not have pecan trees. We would have no pecan trees were it not for the goodness of the Lord in giving us such a wonderful world.
All this talk about eating something good has brought a scripture verse to mind: “Taste and see that the Lord is good..” (Psalm 34:8 NIV).
Please come back tomorrow and we will have a blog about Psalm 34 and the verse that says, “Taste and see,” praising the Lord’s goodness.