Sharing My Pecan Pie Recipe

Pecan pie is part of celebration or a happy time for me. I know it’s full of sugar, but a small slice once a month won’t undo my life. Pecan pie means gatherings and joy to me.

Sharing my pecan pie recipe at the end of this blog.

Giving or receiving recipes. It’s a eustress for me. Like writing a poem.

Hans Selye, a scientist of the early 1900s, coined the word “stress” and added that positive stress is “eustress.” Good news stress. The opposite is being confronted with bad news or “distress.”

We all recognize headaches, conflicts, grief. Distress.

The struggle for most of us is slowing down to recognize and enjoy the eustress. And thanking people and God for providing the eustress for us. It adds balance to our lives.

My new book has caused a little eustress. Sweet. Women, Resilient Women is inspiring, makes you smile, and helps women remember their own journey. I love hearing how my reality of a woman’s journey connects with other women.

Distress comes when I get too much going at one time or I’m puzzled about how something works. I’m always looking for a balance.

So there’s a wave to it. A wrinkle, an up and down.

Strangely, the body cannot tell the difference between eustress and distress. Both are stressors, and the body feels both kinds of stress.

It has taken me years to learn to ask myself, “How important will this be in 10 years?” Some problems are worth $100 energy, some are worth a dime’s energy.

When stress is high, I distract by baking a pie or putting a pot of pinto beans on the stove. The smell of burning leaves helps me rest from stress, too. A walk or calling a friend, pulling weeds, reading a mystery.

Today, it was all about a pie, my favorite pie.

Women do this all the time. We bake and share recipes. It’s a gift every time I receive one. And it’s a way for me to create a little eustress.

Today, I’m sharing my recipe with you. It is not a poem, just a recipe. It comes from a sister-in-law’s son-in-law’s mother, who was given the recipe by an elementary school teacher. That’s how it happens. The recipe has taken a journey! (Eustress, for sure.)

Recipe for Pecan Pie

From the kitchen of Joyce Cassity, given to her by Bessie Babb, Dan’s 3rd grade teacher in 1975. (Here it is, just as I received it.)

Pie crust: Any recipe you like; scatter powdered sugar on pie crust before you add liquids.

Ingredients: Beat 3 or 4 eggs (real good). Add 1 cup Karo (I use white) plus ¾ c. sugar. Stir in ½ stick melted margarine, 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir in 1 c. chopped pecans.

Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake 350 degrees for 10 min., then turn to 300 degrees and bake 'til brown, about 45 minutes.

This is what we do. It’s a way to love people. I love it when people ask me for a recipe. (And, of course, I pass it on and feel grateful to the women who passed it to me.)

Blessings,

Pat Durmon

P.S. Share my blog, recipe, love, books, gentleness. Pass it on.

Photo of a pecan pie from the kitchen of Pat Durmon in Norfork, Arkansas, 2018.