As I mentioned to you on Monday’s post, we already partook in one Thanksgiving feast while my parents were here last week. It wasn’t as over-the-top as we’re accustomed to (we had only 6 or 7 side dishes this time), but it was absolutely delicious. Thanks to Brian’s turkey and my mom’s…well, everything else, it was a huge success. A great time was had by all!

Well, almost all.

No one told him he’s supposed to sleep after all the turkey. Seriously, poor kid slept through the entire thing.

Now, y’all know I’m not much of a cook, and I’m even worse at meal planning. Thanksgiving is like the Super Bowl of cooking, and I panic under that kind of pressure. So, I happily gave that responsibility to the master (my mom). She reluctantly put Brian in charge of the turkey—which was perfect as usual—and I was placed in charge of the steamed broccoli, the canned cranberry, and the chocolate pecan pie.

I remembered to refrigerate the can of cranberry goop, so that was a huge success. My slicing was a bit uneven since that stuff tends to slide all around the plate. Fortunately, I was the only one who actually ate it, so it was a non-issue. In fact, I probably could have left it as a solid, can-shaped piece and just sucked it up like a Jell-O Jiggler.

[Ugh. I’m going to be sick.]

Cranberry Jiggler = Success 

Then came the broccoli. I opted for the easy route where I take the frozen spears, place them in a glass bowl with a bit of water, cover with plastic wrap, and nuke the crap out of them. Only, they never cooked. Not the first time around, and not even after I removed them from everyone’s full plate to RE-microwave them a second time. Serves me right for using a microwave on Thanksgiving. Rookie mistake.

Steamed Broccoli = Fail 

Finally, I was in charge of the one and only dessert item. This was an incredibly risky move on my mom’s part. As an experienced kitchen coach, I suspect that she wanted to work on her depth chart a bit in the area of desserts, but she simply didn’t have the recruiting here in Kansas that she has back in Georgia. No aunts and uncles to save the day with a perfect pumpkin pie. None of her own sugar wafer cookies in the freezer just in case Katy pulls a hamstring and can’t finish the drill. She went for the Hail Mary with my one and only dessert, and, y’all, it was clutch.

If I do say so myself.

Chocolate Pecan Pie = Seriously, Somebody Kiss My Super Bowl Ring

[At least she’s modest.]

Before I give you the recipe, I do need to tell you two things:

One is that I have absolutely no idea where I got this recipe. I know I didn’t create it myself—unless I had some sort of outer-body experience wherein I became a pastry chef for a day and then returned to my normal “Katy in a laundry basket eating Pringles” immediately afterward.

My guess is that I found it in a magazine or cookbook, made it, loved it, and then hand wrote it on a recipe card in the hopes that my children would find it one day and say to themselves, “Huh. This is a recipe written in mom’s handwriting. I guess she used to cook or something.”

The second thing I need to tell you is that this is the PERFECT recipe to make now and freeze for Thanksgiving or Christmas. In fact, I prefer the pie after it has marinated (is that an appropriate term for a pie?) for a while first.

Please just make sure that if you cover it with blue plastic wrap and tin foil before you freeze it, that you remove the blue plastic wrap before you cook it in the oven and serve it to your family and neighbors on Thanksgiving day.

I may or may not have done that in 2011.

So, here you have it. “My” Easy Chocolate Pecan Pie—THE only dessert you’ll need this Thanksgiving!

(Unless you’re allergic to nuts, and then you may want to make other plans.)

Easy Chocolate Pecan Pie

1 recipe pastry for a 9” single crust pie
1/3 cup butter
3 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup chopped pecans

1)  Pre-cook pie shell according to package directions (if desired).
2)  Preheat oven to 375°F
3)  On stovetop, heat butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted; cool slightly.
4)  With mixer, beat eggs, sugar, salt, chocolate mixture, and corn syrup until combined. Stir in pecans and pour into pie shell.
5)  Bake until set (about 40-50 minutes). Gently tent foil over pie (careful not to let it fall into the pie) if it starts to brown too quickly.
6)  Cool slightly. Can serve warm but best if refrigerated or frozen and reheated in oven. Just be sure you remove plastic wrap (if applicable) before reheating. Serve warm with ice cream!