Today I started off by shopping for this important ingredient. Now, I confess that I do enjoy a whiskey sour from time to time (extra cherries, please–and by extra, I mean at least 5); however, today’s purchase was for two valuable tablespoons of flavor in a Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie.I found this recipe in my PIE cookbook that I ordered from Amazon. It was pretty easy to make. The most time-consuming part was pre-baking the crust. I followed the instructions in my book (this guy believes in crispy crusts and almost always recommends partially pre-baking a crust), and the pre-baking took 30 minutes in all. I even had to use my pie beans to weight down the crust and poke holes in the crust at just the right time. This pie took THREE different oven temperatures to complete.

Today’s pie is for our friend, Jay. He grew up around here, and he’s very involved in local theatre–my husband loves the theatre, and even though I didn’t see shows before I was married, I’ve become a big fan of the stage in the last 15 years.

Anyway, Jay has directed and produced several shows over the years, and he’s won many awards for his work in the theatre. He’s also a talented actor. Every show that I’ve seen has been excellent, but a favorite of mine that Jay directed was The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The singing and acting were fabulous, I laughed so hard I cried, and I went back to see it a second time. I mean, who can resist hits like “I’m Gonna Make Like a Nail, and Press On?” Jay’s got a lot to be proud of, and his support of the arts in our community deserves thanks. So Jay…thanks! This pie makes me think of you because it’s southern, sweet, and–with that Jack Daniels in there–it knows how to have fun. Well, it was a good baking day, so the pie’s finished before 2:00. Jay’s not supposed to pick it up until 6:00. I sure hope there’s some left when he gets here. Y’all should smell this thing. I’m considering making up a story about how everyone gives me the first slice or something. Hmmmmm…..OR I could just give him this pie instead:After all, I didn’t say what KIND of pie it was….

Well, according to my countdown app, there are 36 days until the big 4-0, and my house has never smelled so good!