Pecan Pie is one of those friendly foods that doesn’t usually have milk anywhere other than the crust (and even then, you can avoid it).  And since the chocolate is bittersweet, as long as you buy good chocolate, you’re good there too.

The first time I made this, I used juuust enough chocolate to cover the bottom of the pie.  This time I upped that…  Now, it was chocolaty-er.  On the other hand, it was also harder to cut after it had cooled.  It wasn’t impossible to cut, and if it were for some sort of holiday, it wouldn’t be around long enough to fully cool….  But keep that in mind if you want to tweak the amount of chocolate.  At some point I want to try toasting the pecans in bourbon first.

From Gourmet November 2007: (with my commentary and additions)

ingredients:

1 (3 1/2- to 4-ounces) fine-quality 60%- to 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, finely chopped
Pie Crust  (Whole Wheat is okay here… I suppose.  I’m still somewhat skeptical.)
2 cups pecan halves (7 ounces), toasted and cooled
3 large eggs
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark corn syrup (I used light.)

preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.

Melt chocolate in a metal bowl set over barely simmering water, stirring. Remove from heat.   Or microwave it– 30 seconds, stir, repeat until spreadable.

Do whatever it is you do with pie crust.  Make it, pull it out of the freezer….  make someone else make it for you and ship it to you from Chicago….  It’s all good.

Spread chocolate in bottom of pie shell with back of spoon and let it set, then cover with pecans. (What is this “back of a spoon” stuff?  I used a heat resistant spatula, like I do for most things.  I do most things with that or my tongs.)

Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl, then whisk in corn syrup and pour over pecans.

Bake pie until filling is puffed and crust is golden, 50 to 60 minutes. (If pie is browning too fast after 30 minutes, loosely cover with foil.) Cool pie on a rack to warm or room temperature.

current music: nickel creek- this side

My boyfriend loves tomato sauces, tomato soups….  but really doesn’t like raw tomatoes.  Raw tomatoes are easy to add to just some of something- sandwiches and salads and tacos.  But then there’s the buying of tomatoes.  I’ll usually only buy tomatoes when I’m going to cook them in something, like a sauce or stir fry.  I hate the idea of two-thirds of a great (and expensive!) tomato going to waste just because I only can eat just so many sandwiches, and never got around to taco night.

My solution?  Baby tomatos-  grape, cherry, whatever looks best and is chepest.  You can cut them in half and put them in a sandwich or burrito, put them into a salad as is– and if you check the box when you get them home and rinse them— and then keep checking every couple of days— when one or two go bad, it’s not a big problem.

We watch a LOT of BBC America.  And listen to a lot of BBC Radio.  And for certain things that haven’t yet gotten to BBC America, for instance, the most recent season of Doctor Who….. well….  we get it somehow.  I don’t have a problem with American Trash TV, but my boyfriend does, so we watch the same thing, just with British accents.

The result is we’ve watched quite a bit of Gillian McKeith’s You Are What You Eat.  This woman has a PhD in holistic nutrition in a distance learning learning program from the non-accredited American Holistic College of Nutrition.  (*Cough*).  The jist of her show is that she takes an overweight person who is eating utter trash, and then she changes their life in 8 weeks.  She does a few standard blood tests, but the main focus is that she examines their tongue (odd slashes?  Your spleen isn’t working properly!), and their poo(which really only reflects what they’ve eaten recently, but at least there’s some rationale here).

She then shows them what they’ve eaten in the past week on one table, and then shows them the table of what they will be eating.  She cuts out almost all meat, most sugars, almost all yeast, white rice, white pasta…. caffeine, sugar, chocolate, alcohol……

I realize I’m unusual.  The only eating problem I’ve had is occasionally being somewhat underweight.  My first year of college, when someone said “you look like you’ve lost weight,” it wasn’t a compliment, it was concern.  Learning how to get enough calories and protein on a budget, eating reasonably healthy foods, and not having to eat every 20 minutes was difficult, but hardly Nobel worthy.  And beyond that, I also don’t even have a fake PhD in the subject.

My best suggestion is the one that many people won’t be able to do easily:  Live with a vegetarian.  Don’t cook separate meals.  Separate side dishes are fine, separate add ons, great.  Meat is flavoring.  Meat is a little bit of what you’re putting in a tortilla, some of what goes in a good sandwich.  A small part of a great curry.  A nice note on top of pasta.  If meat is the largest part of most of your meals, you’re paying too much money, not enjoying it enough, and you’re risking your heart.  I felt very gross when I initially cut down on the total amount of meat I ate.  I now feel so much better, and eat so much better.  And save a lot of money.

But that’s me.  I don’t have to look at your poo to tell you that your body might work better with some other sort of diet.  Even not working out most days of the week, I can still eat almost whatever I want.  That’ll change by my mid 40′s.  I would eat well my entire life than have to suddenly change everything I eat just to be able to be comfortable with my body.

But I’m not giving up white things– pasta, rice,  and bread.  I can eat some whole grain stuff some of the time…..  but I really like jasmine rice….

If you were born in the ’80s, chances are either you have some dietary restriction, or you have a close friend who does.  If you were born in the ’90s, dietary restrictions are the rule rather than the exception.

I exaggerate.  But not much.

Senior year of college, I lived in an on-campus apartment with three other people.  One was a life-long vegetarian (except for when she was vegan), one had all sorts of allergies (peanuts, uncooked soy, something about fruit… (skins?  uncooked? the wax on commercial fruit? it was never entirely clear)), and one was normal (but disliked onions, olives, and coffee).

And me?  I’m just Lactose Intolerant.  Lactose intolerance is common enough these days that when I tell most people that, they have a friend who just can’t eat ice cream, or can’t have more than 6 ounces a day, or takes a couple lactaid and is fine.  I’ve known people who just can’t have cow’s milk, people who drink lactaid milk and can then have whatever they want….  I’ve known people who claim to be lactose intolerant when they don’t want to eat what they’ve been given, but as soon as ice cream comes along, well, they can manage (or so they say).

I’m Lactose Intolerant.  I can have a teaspoonful of aged parmesan cheese every couple of days.  And that’s if I’m super careful, and am cooking for myself entirely.  That’s roughly equivalent to eating at restaurants, friend’s houses, and dining halls, and getting things with No Dairy.  Oh, except for the small amount of butter used to saute that..  and the splash of milk in the eggs…  People will remember these things belatedly.  So I tell people I can’t have Any Dairy At All, that way my system can often handle the small amounts that sneak in anyway.

At least my boyfriend is also lactose intolerant.  This means that we only buy soy milk, when we go out we can try each other’s food, it’s easier to make dinner.  Of course he doesn’t like any seafood, and he has a few other food sensativites (it’s gotten better recently, it’s wonderful).

This summer, we didn’t cook much.  The kitchen would regularly get into the upper 90s on the days we would cook, so we avoided it as much as possible.  I’m just now readjusting to cooking, and cooking for two lactards who still eat meat.  I keep forgetting all the meat based dishes that I can make regularly now, the pot pies and stews I didn’t make last year!  It’s very liberating.  Of course, it means I’m saving money since I still think about making tofu dishes instead.