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Mack's Corner

Saturday, January 13, 2018

This Week

The Ice Cream Man

A few years back a friend of mine was in the hospital. She had just had surgery and the doctors had kept her there for a week. After the first day she started getting hungry for something other than Jell-O. "Ice cream" she said, she wanted Ice cream. She didn't care about anything else.. That was easy. I asked the nurse if it was OK and off I went. The hospital had those little ice cream cups like we used to have in the school cafeteria, so I got 2 and a spoon. She loved it. You would have thought I had flown in a 14 course meal from Paris. So every day that was my job, my first stop as soon as I got to the hospital. That Saturday night I got there about 7:45pm, went to get Ice Cream, but the cafeteria had closed at 7:30pm and didn't open again till the next morning. I had to have some ice cream!!!  I knew Wendy's was on the corner and they had Frosty's, so I thought I could just walk over there, how far could it be? After walking 15 minutes I started to think that I had gone the wrong direction, somehow I had gotten turned around. But there was no way I was going to give up and tell her I couldn't get any ice cream. This was the one thing that I could do for her, and she had waited for it all day, I wasn't going to stop just because I got mixed up. I kept going. I walked around the whole campus and there it was less than 250 yards from where I started. I just couldn't see it because of a big sign in the way. The whole way I kept telling myself it probably wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't find it ..Well, It was a big deal! She looked kinda rough when I walked in. Nobody had been to see her. They all thought she was ok and thought they would be more of a bother than a help, plus she needed more rest… blah, blah, blah .. All those things you think when you don't really want to go see somebody in the hospital …. She was so excited to see me and the ice cream .. We talked for 2 hours till she fell asleep …

God's like that: We think "How could God use me?" .. "What difference could I possibly make?" … "It's too late to start.".. "God won't do anything worthwhile with my life." .."I'm too old." .. "I've done all kinds of bad things in the past." Blah, blah, blah …. God uses the smallest things to change people's lives. 90 percent of our job is just showing up.. God's not really interested in what your life looked like in the past. He's interested in what it looks like now. You can make a difference even if you've only got a minute to live…. 

I wonder what the night shift does when they get hungry? …

== 

Cooking 220 - 2 pans, 2 burners, 20 minutes:

I was feeling kinda homey, kinda southern,  wanted some comfort food. This is the best pecan pie I've ever tasted. It's not that super sweet stuff with pecans floating on top. It's way better than that. Homemade crust and everything ..and it's really easy …(I changed a few things to make it even easier)

This is from "The Prudhomme family cookbook" by Paul Prudhomme..

Roasted-Pecan Butter Pecan Pie

For the Dough:

1 cup of flour

1/2 tsp salt

7 tbsp cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup ice water


For the Pecan filling:

1 1/2 cups pecan pieces or halves

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark corn syrup

2 tbsp room temp unsalted butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

Pre-heat your oven to 325

For the dough:

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk it around so the salt gets spread around and you break up any clumps of flour.

Cut the butter in to small pieces while adding it to the flour mixture. The smaller the pieces the faster this will go … using a fork or a pastry cutter or your fingertips or your mixer, cut the butter in to the flour until it's the texture of course cornmeal….. add the ice water and stir until well blended. (The reason for the cold butter and the ice water is so the butter will be cold and not melt in to the crust. If the butter is cold, you get a nice flakey crust. If it's melted you get an oily flat crust.)

Form the dough in a ball. On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to a big circle 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. Flour the dough on top and fold it in half, then in half again… Place the dough in an ungreased spring-form pan (point in the middle) and unfold it… press the dough in to the pan. If you poke a hole in it, just pinch it back together or use some dough from the outer edge to patch it. This is going to be rustic looking anyway, so don't worry too much about how it looks.. let the dough drape over the edge of the pan …

Put the whole thing in the fridge ..

For the filling:

Roast the pecans: spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven.. Don't leave!!!! Give them about 5 min and check. DON'T LET THEM BURN!!! …. The best way to tell if they are done is by smell … they will turn darker and not have that raw pecan taste… if you're in doubt take them out sooner rather than later … Let them cool a little..

Process the pecans in a food processor until they are finely, finely chopped. Don't let them turn to pecan butter.

Place the eggs in a mixer and beat at high speed until frothy. Add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt, and chopped pecans.

Beat this mixture until it is light in color.

Pour mixture in to the pie crust and gently fold the overlapping crust over the top of the filling.. This doesn't have to be pretty, just be sure the filling stays inside the crust.    

Put the spring-form pan on a cookie sheet and bake for about 80 minutes, until filling is brown on top and crust is lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cool completely, then put it in the fridge to setup …

Standard rules apply: Best eaten at 2am, in your PJ's with the fridge door open … Ice cream, whipped cream, powdered sugar optional..

Mack

 

Posted by Mack Oates at 9:36 AM