Beech Tree News Network

Dessert is such an emotional food.  You put so much of yourself into making dessert.  It’s happy food.  I’ve often watched Garey and Sabria make homemade ice cream together then eat it together, congratulating themselves on the finished product.  It has been a real bonding experience for them.  

Over Thanksgiving, we traveled south to Covington, Louisiana—just north of New Orleans—to be with our youngest daughter and her husband.  Thomas made this plan back in the summer for both his and Nikki’s families to celebrate the Thanksgiving meal at their house.  His plan was even more ambitious than that.  He also planned to load up all the leftovers on the following Friday and take them to Alabama to visit Garey’s mom and sister, so Nikki could spend time with her grandmother and aunt.

Thomas’ mom, Jean, spent the night on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving in order to get up with him on Thursday morning to start the huge meal.  If you’ve ever eaten at anybody’s house in Louisiana, I don’t have to tell you the spread they put out.  The menu included: Gumbo, rice, turkey, ham, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn and grits, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, shrimp in butter, sweet potatoes, cocoons (I’ll explain later), hickory nut pie, lemon pie, Tarte au la Bouillie, and apple pie.

A couple of years ago, Garey and I had Jean’s apple pie.  Neither one of us have stopped talking about it since.  Jean is one of those incredibly gracious women that is all about making you feel welcome.  She invited Garey and me into the kitchen for a hands-on lesson on making her apple pie.  Garey sliced the eight cups of apples, I measured and stirred the filling, and Jean cut out the lattice strips.  We piled the apple slices into the pie, added a bit of the filling, Jean wove the lattice strips on top then I poured the rest of the filling on top of the strips.  She cut out a cookie cutter apple from the left-over dough and placed it in the center of the pie.  It baked up beautifully and tasted just like Garey and I remembered.

Thomas let Sabria help him make the cocoons.  You’ve probably tasted those little shortbread cookies rolled in powdered sugar.  Cocoons are that same recipe, but in Louisiana, they roll them into cocoon shapes before they are baked then they roll them in powdered sugar when they come from the oven.  I could eat my weight in the things and would have if I hadn’t been embarrassed to do so.

Thomas’ mom and dad haven’t been together for about three years, but Jean encouraged Thomas to invite his dad, Farrell, as well as Jennifer, Farrell’s significant other.  When I see three people like those three people showing each other respect and kindness, it gives me hope for the human race.  Jennifer brought a lemon meringue pie her sister made for the occasion.  She also brought a Tarte au la Bouillie.  If you’ve never had one, just go ahead and order one online.  It is a simple little custard baked in a sweet crust, but it is unbelievably good.  Between Farrell and me, we managed to polish off the last crumbs. 

As planned, Thomas, Nikki, Garey, Sabria and I got up Friday morning and headed for Garey’s sister’s house to have dinner that afternoon with her and Aggie.  Garey’s sister, Charlotte, is one of those people who is all over the place, but she’s really good-hearted and always goes out of her way for people.  Even though she was getting ready to have several house guests, she took the time to make a couple of pecan pies—one for the meal and one for Garey to take home.  (He loves her pecan pie.)

Charlotte had to go get Aggie, because Aggie doesn’t drive.  She fastened up her dogs—a Great Dane and a Labrador—in the sun room, so they didn’t drag the food off the kitchen counter.  What she had forgotten is that she had put the two pecan pies in the sun room to cool.  When she returned with her mom, one of the pies was no more, except for a particularly stubborn pecan that was stuck to the center of the pie plate.  At least, they left the other pie.  Charlotte put that one on top of her refrigerator for safe keeping then accidentally knocked it off the refrigerator and onto the kitchen floor.   The foil wrap saved it, and Garey immediately scooped it up and put it into our cooler.  He was not to be robbed again.

The dogs survived the ordeal, although they lay on the living room floor in a sugar stupor, listening to the football game, barely lifting an ear when Alabama scored.  They understood the emotional connection between satisfaction and pecan pie.