Easy As

I hope all of you lovelies had a delicious Thanksgiving! I'd like to thank those of you who voted in the pie poll and made my holiday particularly exciting :) Some of the results were obvious (pecan was the peoples' choice, OF COURSE) while others were somewhat surprising (No love for apple? What's up with that?). And I'd really like to know who voted for sweet potato because I've never tried it. Is is much like pumpkin? (If there's a textural similarity then you can have my piece. Yucko!)

Anyhoodle, I weighed the votes against my personal preferences and family input and in the end I could not settle on just one pimp-worthy pie. So yes, Virginia, I pimped TWO: pecan pie became pecan bars (PEE-CAN or PIC-KAHN? I'm partial to the latter, although I once had a prof who called it PICK-IN. Contemplate that.) and apple pie (EVEN THOUGH IT RECEIVED NARY A VOTE) became apple pie cheesecake. And wouldn't you know it, my grandma W, the queen of fried, mashed, jellied, and baked goods, the iron-fisted tyrant of the kitchen (whom I love dearly), served homemade pecan and apple pies right next to my versions! I fretted that experience might trump innovation as I crammed two helpings of baked mac 'n cheese and Aunt Carol's stuffing into my mouth and helped prep coffee for dessert, but then--a revelation! My offerings were almost completely decimated by the end of the night and my grandma was hovering over what remained of my pecan bars and nibbling at the stray pieces. They liked me! They really liked me!

And do you know what I like, friends? Food porn. There, I've said it. Most of the good stuff that I've seen is from Smitten Kitchen and Bakerella, and while I'm not much of a purveyor of gastronomic entertainment myself, I still like to lug my DigiReb into the kitchen from time to time and pretend. I did so while I was making Thanksgiving treats and completely confounded my mother, but I ended up with some pretty tasty shots (click to enlarge because heaven knows these are FAR from actual size):

[Bottle was brand new before I got my hands on it. Mmm, sticky sweet pecan bars...]

*Note to self: make a photo station out of black foam core board so that the counter tops don't interfere next time.