I hope you enjoy this pecan pie as much as I enjoyed making it. Every pie I bake reminds me of how much my husband loved my pies. The name “Miss Sally’s Heavenly Pecan Pie” is dedicated to the memory of my sweet husband Rick, who died very suddenly this past spring.
My mom taught me how to bake this pie when I was 18, and she never made another one: I was “elected” to bring pecan pies to every family gathering after that. The recipe is very old, from my father’s side of the family, and I am not allowed to share it unless our sons Matt and Scott get married.
When I was dating Rick, I took his parents a pecan pie. After that, his dad always asked me to bring two for Thanksgiving: one for him to eat and one to share! I still take one or two every Thanksgiving and have made many a pecan pie for birthday, Christmas and thank-you gifts over the years. This is my 35th year to bake them.
Before I became an Aggie mom, I just used whatever pecans I found at the grocery store, but I will never again use anything but Aggie pecans! When our oldest son became a Texas A&M University Aggie in 2003, I became an Aggie mom and joined the local Aggie Moms club. Pecans are the Collin County Aggie Moms club’s biggest fundraiser, and Rick graciously agreed to let me host the “pecan bagging” at our home for two seasons.
Pecans grown in the hill country by Aggies are shipped to the sheller in Corsicana who packages them into 30-lb boxes and trucks them to the “bagging” home. Aggie moms get together three nights in a row to transform three tons of pecans into 3,000 2-lb bags of halves or pieces. It is like an old-fashioned quilting bee where we all work hard, talk a lot and have fun getting to know each other. All the orders are filled; club members pick up their orders and distribute them to their buyers; and everyone bakes happily every after.
Our pecans are big, plump, tasty and fresh, so we all buy enough to last the whole year, freezing what we won’t use right away to stay fresh until the next season when we can buy more. They practically sell themselves, and the proceeds go to scholarships to deserving Aggie students. Long after our two sons graduate from Texas A&M, I will still be using Aggie pecans to create delicious homemade pies.
Rick and I made scores of wonderful friends opening our home to the Aggie moms; in fact, the past president of Collin County Aggie moms told me the club had voted to donate the 2006-07 funds to Texas A&M University in memory of Rick. Many Aggie moms not only came to his Celebration of Life, but they also stayed to serve refreshments at the reception. Five hundred people attended the service: that will give you an idea what an impact Rick had on people. That is why these homemade pies are “Heavenly.”
If you would like to order a pie for your family gathering, you are welcome to call me at 972-596-5055.
Love,
Sally
