I took my first bite of dinner tonight and immediately thought of a BLT. It had nothing to do with the warm crumbled bacon atop the (surprisingly) fresh-tasting tomatoes, I’m sure…
A base of spring mix lettuce started tonight’s gastronomical delight. Hard cooked eggs, sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, blackberries (I love fresh fruit in salads!!!) bell pepper, grilled chicken breasts, homemade croutons from a loaf of tomato basil bread, and those bacon bits were dressed in a sherry vinegar vinaigrette. The flavors worked really well together, but then, bacon goes with (almost) anything!
I made a corn syrup-free walnut pie last night (who knew light Karo syrup had high fructose corn syrup in it?!?) but we cut into it a bit too soon and it just wasn’t picture-worthy. (It’s all about the picture!!!) So I’ll post one later on this evening when we have dessert. In the meantime, here’s the recipe – it is REALLY good!
It calls for a tablespoon of (drumroll, please…) SCOTCH! I have cooked with just about every liquor, liqueur, wine, beer, and ale out there, at one time or another, but this may be the first time I have ever used scotch in a recipe other than a Rob Roy or Rusty Nail. (I was bartending waaaaaaay before Cosmopolitans became popular…) I’ll be damned if it wasn’t totally excellent!
The original recipe came from Bon Appetit and it was for a pecan pie. I already had the walnuts…
Brown Sugar Walnut Pie
Pie crust for 10″ pie
- 2 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon Scotch whisky
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups walnut pieces
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 10-inch glass pie dish with dough. Whisk sugar, eggs, butter, Scotch, vanilla, and cinnamon in large bowl to blend. Mix in nuts. Pour filling into dough-lined dish.
Bake pie until filling is slightly puffed and set in center, about 40 minutes. Cool pie completely before serving.
This actually would be best made the day before, because if you can’t wait for it to cool completely, it’s pretty much a runny mess on the plate. It tastes really, really good, it just won’t look very pretty!
Yum.