Pecan Tassies – a Farmer’s Favorite!

Mimi’s Pecan Tassies are definitely a favorite when it comes to choosing from my grandmother’s repertoire of family recipes. The recipe comes from her mother and their mothers before them. A “tassie” is a miniature pie shell filled with a pop of sweet goodness, such as a pecan pie filling.  Warm morsels in a perfectly simple dough, baked with a delicious filling, Pecan Tassies bring childhood memories into the forefront of my mind. 

Growing up, our Hawkinsville farm, much akin to the farms of those around us, was dotted with rows of pecan trees, forming a forest of orchards that yield cultivars of pecans in the late fall  and early winter such as ‘Desirable,’ ‘Schley’ and ‘Elliot.’ Each pecan has its own taste and flavor, and for Mimi’s Pecan Tassies, ‘Elliot’ pecans are often first choice. These buttery almost round pecans are small and make for the perfect filling for the tassie cups of dough. Karo syrup (I mix light and dark), brown sugar, eggs, good vanilla and butter round out the other ingredients, and with a combination like that, the already fantastic pecans are made divine. The perfect mix of complements -  sweet and salty, crunchy and soft – Mimi’s Pecan Tassies are truly delightful.  A bite size delicacy, these small packages are definitely good things. Cook’s hint: try salting your pecans for an added sweet-n-salty satisfaction!

  
The crust is very close to pie dough, but thicker and easier I think. What I love about this recipe is that it takes the fear out of dough making – making dough is easy! Master this recipe, Mimi says, and you’ll be able to entertain and serve your guests something very elegant with confidence and ease; especially since this dough can be used for not only tarts, but pot pies, shortbreads, and other perennial Southern tassies. Lemon, Peach, and Plum Tassies, Coconut Tassies, Chocolate Tassies, Vanilla Crème Tassies – the list goes on! But for this Farmer, Mimi’s Pecan Tassies will remain a dessert darling. 

Mimi, and Mrs. Mary too, always had me to think about what is in season – what is absolutely best right now – and use that. Hyper-seasonal… a fruit per say is at its ripest, it’s very best, the flavors are the supreme… they will be and need little else to make it table worthy. So if blackberries or plums or dewberries were in season, that’s the type of tassie we’d have! Take the freshest and finest of fruits and use them with the easiest of dough, and your guests will surely be pleased to have been at your table.

Some of the finest meals I have ever experienced – which is how a meal should be taken in, as an experience – are not so much an elaborate production, but more so of a presentation of the season's best offerings, simply prepared and seasoned. A meal of the freshest cuts of meat from our local butcher, vegetables and fruits direct from the farm or garden, and a simple dessert of classic ingredients makes for the most delightful of times to break bread. From this Farmer’s pecan trees, kitchen, and Mimi, I hope you make tassies your dessert de rigueur.


Pecan Tassies

**I follow the Karo syrup pecan pie recipe for the pecan filling. It is a classic Southern staple. Use chopped pecans and somewhat undercook for chewier or softer tassies... brown for crunchy tassies.

Tassie Dough, Two Ways

• 2 Cups of all purpose flour OR
• 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and ½ cup of pecan meal
• 1 ½ sticks of butter, salted
• ½ a cup of ice water to “bring together”
• Tablespoon of vanilla sugar (insert leftover or scraped vanilla pods into a sugar canister and the essences will combine)
• Teaspoon of good vanilla

Cut or fold cubed butter into the flour in a large bowl.
Add vanilla and vanilla sugar to the mix.
Use electric beater or paddle attachment to bring together, adding ice water as needed to help “ball”  up the dough.
When dough has formed a ball or is malleable to form a ball, pat into a disc and chill for at least 30 minutes or up to a week.
Roll dough out into thin sheet and line greased muffin tins with dough and fill with pie filing of choice.

Bake at 350 until golden brown…about 25-30 minutes. Watch so pecans don’t burn.
Serve with Vanilla Bean Crème Fraiche! Enjoy!

Lemon Curd Tassies

Fill the above tassie dough cups with this lemon curd filling for a sweet citrus treat!

• 1 block of softened cream cheese
• 15 ounces of ricotta cheese
• Teaspoon of good vanilla
• ¼ cup of powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon of fine salt
• 1 jar of Dickinson’s Lemon Curd
• 1 cup of candied lemon rind

  

Blend the above ingredients together and fill tassie dough cups AFTER you’ve baked them until firm and golden, about 20 minutes at 350.  Enjoy!

Only the Ocmulgee’s Finest for this Farmer’s Décor

As often stated, I’m a major fan of Latin names of plants. They can tell you so much about a plant’s character, origin, growth habit, etc etc etc, but some are just fun to say. Pinus palustris. Isn’t that illustrious?! 

The longleaf pine is probably one of my absolute favorite trees. That’s a bold statement for the lover of so many plants and trees, but the longleaf pine is definitely a top contender. I could write volumes on my adoration for these trees, their straw, their lumber, their ecosystem, their byproducts, and their place in Southern history, but for today, I’ll stick to another delightful attribute of the longleaf pine–their pine cones.

A good buddy of mine and his sister share this Farmer’s love for Hawkinsville, the River (that’s the Ocmulgee for those of you not from Houston or Pulaski Counties proper), and its native flora. These dear family friends are a slice of the South in general, with “good people” kind of roots on both sides and a true calling for the land. It is their beautiful land in particular where these gorgeous pine cones come from–land running the course of the Ocmulgee River, banked in longleaf stands, palmetto forests, and wax myrtle. It is families like theirs that make Hawkinsville and other small, Southern towns charming, tasteful, and classy. It has been said of their grandmother that if Hawkinsville had a queen, Mrs. Barbara would she be!

Since we grew up in a town so connected to the land, the river, and our agrarian heritage, it is no surprise that the offerings from the land influence or, more so, invade our décor. Whatever is in season is on our mantles, tables, or foyer pieces; and in the fall and into the depth of winter, nature lends us one of her truly amazing works of art and geometry for our tableaux–the longleaf pine cone.

Piled in bowls, bedecked on the mantle, peering from behind pheasants, mixed with pecans and cypress–however these pine cones are used, I am just elated to use them. Reminiscent of sunflower centers, chrysanthemum petals, and whirling tendrils, each and every cone is a unique expression of nature at her finest. The large longleaf cones are statements in and of themselves and are striking displayed en masse. Smaller cones tucked into fruit and pine needles are lovely for a January arrangement that harkens the Yule time feel but are totally apropos after New Year’s Day. The browns, greens, oranges, and reds of the fruit, foliage, and cones are remarkable against the glossy green boughs of holly and two tone magnolia as well. A cinnamon, green, coppery salmon and garnet hued combo is just luscious!


Simply filled with pine cones, my dining room table urn makes a statement of the season and serves as a siren to those passing by to stop, take a gander, and be amazed at the utter simplicity and elegance that is a pine cone. Sirens indeed, for these icons of beauty lure me with their song of delight, beauty, and legend of their land. From this Farmer’s pine cone filled home to yours, Happy New Year, happy decorating, and happy wishes for pine cones aplenty!  

Sausage and Lentil Soup...Farmer Style

Winter comfort food at its best, this soup is hearty, filling, feeds an army, and is perfect on a chilly winter’s day. Plus, make it all in a big ol’ pot for easy prep and cleanup! 

With the holidays past us and us all stuffed with stuffing, a break from the traditional fare of the holiday sideboard is surely welcomed. I love to make a pot of this soup and eat it for a couple days, freezing some for another day or sharing with my friends and family…trust me, for they’ll come running to your table for a bowl of this delicacy.

The texture and mélange of flavors lends this dish towards perfection as winter’s best soup. Root veggies, lentils, cabbage, and warm seasonings make this an ideal mainstay to fight the winter blues or ward off the cold. Cornbread, crackers, a spicy cheese, or simply some sour cream are the condiments de rigueur with this soup. I’m a firm believer that condiments make a meal, this one of no exception.

Take tasty, simple, and even local ingredients and you’ll be thrilled with the result. Find your favorite local sausage and use it - this Farmer loves M & T’s smoked mild links or Stripling’s from Cordele. With much glee, I’m also so thrilled that Conecuh sausage is now readily available at grocery stores across the South! It is the best sausage you can get at a grocery store in my humble opinion. Local cheese, such as M & T’s hot pepper is ideal as it melts ever so smoothly into the warm soup. Find the local stuff and use it my friends!  If you prep all this ahead of time, this soup takes hardly any time at all…another added bonus! From this Farmer’s kitchen to yours, enjoy!

Sausage and Lentil Soup 

• 1 red onion, diced
• ½ a head of cabbage, sliced into strips
• 5 stalks of celery chopped with some leaves
• 1 bag of lentils (Publix brand doesn’t require soaking…I’d use them or another that doesn’t require soaking)
• 6 cups of water
• Tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 package of sliced, smoked sausage… about a pound
• ½ a stick of butter
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• Dash of Nature’s Seasoning
• Dash of Lawry’s Season Salt
• Dash of cumin
• Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

 

Slice sausage into small rounds and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 or until edges are crispy.

In a heated pan or heavy bottomed Dutch oven, add olive oil and butter to melt.

Add chopped onion and sauté until translucent and beginning to brown. Stirring often and adding cumin and other seasoning as well.

Add garlic once onion shows some caramelization.

Sauté garlic for a minute, stirring the seasoning, onions, and garlic together. Add lentils and celery.

Stir lentils and celery with onion mixture and add bouillon cubes and water. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, adding cabbage after 20 minutes are up.
Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add sausage and some drippings and serve!

The Farmer, Fox 5, Fruit and Flowers

For a segment on Atlanta’s Fox Five this past week on holiday centerpieces, this Farmer created a few different portrayals of pizzazz for your very own holiday tableaux. From a more modern usage of fruit, thick glass, and moss to a classic green and white wreathed pieced to a fancy and fruitful formal homage to the season, I had a ball creating these for this segment. Here are some details on making your own holiday centerpieces and arrangements! 

• Modern Shades… shades of red such as garnet, ruby, deep coral can be found in pomegranates, apples, and pears. Try pairing pomegranates with oranges in a thick, cut glass container for a Mod Squad approach to centerpieces. Using floral picks or shish kabob skewers, anchor the fruit into a block of oasis surrounded by lovely moss for an updated look with classic elements. Use some chartreuse reindeer moss for a pop and tuck in some holly leaves for additional color. Williamsburg meets modernity! I love it!

• From Christmas to New Year’s and Beyond! Try using a green, brown, and white palette that will hail the holidays and look great into the New Year. Pine, pine cones, cabbages, cedar, and holly are all over the garden and woods and look super with pillar candles arranged in different heights. A few lime green apples make the tapestry of greens POP and a ‘Little Gem’ magnolia leaf or two keeps the brown and green as a killer combo. Use this all holiday season long and into January for a gorgeous look! Plus, this arrangement is textured galore!

• Who says ya gotta use red and green? If you‘re not aware, this Farmer loves shades, tints, and hues of oranges. From salmon, to peach, coral and copper, mixing different variations of this color is lovely mixed with greens. Sliced grapefruit and pomegranates and a touch of red from Winter Berry (Ilex verticilata), makes this combo fit right into the holiday season. A few orchids, callas, amaryllis, David Austen roses set in a creamware tureen – ah!!!! Just divine! And if visually this arrangement isn’t enough, the smell of the grapefruits and greenery is heavenly with that twinge of spicy sweet from the orchids.

Go put your garden to bed for the winter, trimming your evergreens for holiday décor! Add some fresh fruit, a modern twist, or candles for your centerpieces and enjoy the party! Whether you have a house full of heavenly hosts or just you, make something special for your centerpiece. From this Farmer’s holiday tableaux to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Farmer’s Garden Wassail – Here We Come a Wassailing-

“…Among the leaves so green…

love and joy come to you,

and to you your wassail too,

and God bless you and send you a happy new year,

and God send you a happy new year.” 

Though I’ve never actually gone wassailing per say, I have though, made a batch of wassail to fill my home with the scents of the season and share with friends and family. This Farmer’s wassail incorporates the garden and seasonal produce that will pack your home with fragrance for days to come. I actually make two versions of this wassail… the base basically the same for both, but one is much better for ingesting than the other, mainly because of the presence of sugar. 

Wassailing is actually an act of celebrating somewhat noisily while drinking a concoction, wassail, of warm beer or wine seasoned with spices and fruit. An English tradition that was brought to the colonies, wassailing and making wassail became a source of delight, warmth, season’s greetings, and entertainment for merry folk; and rightly so! Making and sharing wassail is merry and bright! 

A small pot, simple ingredients, and a few minutes – that’s all one needs for wassail making. Stir the pot occasionally as it sits on a low heat, gently simmering and perfuming your home with the aromas of its elements. Said elements – oranges, cinnamon, cloves, tea, rosemary, and juniper – are readily available from the garden and grocery. Citrus is coming in by the truckloads from my neighbor state to the south, and oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and the like have always been a part of our holiday season tableaux.   

     

Make some wassail for you and yours: it is a perfect gift to give your neighbors, friends, hosts and hostess as a party favor from your own holiday bash. Add this batch to this Farmer’s sweet tea and you’ll have your very own delicious Christmas cocktail – Arnold Palmer meets Santa! From this Farmer’s garden, Merry Christmas, and may God bless you and send you a Happy New Year!  

The Farmer’s Garden Wassail

4 cups of water

2 small oranges sliced into rounds

2 bags of Earl Grey Tea

2 tablespoons of whole cloves

2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

3 small cinnamon sticks

2 stems of rosemary

1 cluster of juniper berries

Combine all ingredients into a small to medium sized pot and simmer on low heat, stirring as you pass by the stove! Enjoy for a few days and serve hot with the Farmer’s Sweet Tea. Merry Merry!