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I’m up in Tahoe again this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with Christopher and Kathryn. Unfortunately, this is the first year in many where I am unable to go skiing on Thanksgiving morning. You can bet that the snow gods won’t be getting thanks from me this year.

I decided on a Chocolate and Kahlua Pecan Pie for my dinner offering. Well that and a few bottles of vino, we are avid consumers of the fermented grape. My initial plan was to bake the pie at home and bring up with me, but of course as the procrastinator I am it took me until Tuesday at 9pm to realize that I no longer own a hand mixer. Thus, the baking had to wait until I got to Tahoe.

My first attempt was started less than a half hour after I walked though the door. The pie filling is super easy to mix up and since I went with a pre-made pie crust the whole thing was assembled and in the oven in about 20 minutes. Not too bad, huh?! I set the buzzer for 45 minutes, and sat back with a glass of Zinfandel. The minute the buzzer went off, I went over to the oven to revel my master piece. It didn’t take long for me to notice I had burnt the crust. Not good, not good at all! Ohh well Kathryn had made a great looking cake, so it’s not like we would go without desert.

Just as were about to finish dinner and our 2nd bottle of wine, I said:

“What the hell, I have enough ingredients to make another pie. Let’s cut into this one and make sure it’s at least edible…”

To my surprise it tasted great. I suppose any desert that includes Chocolate and Kahlua, regardless if it’s over cooked, is bound to taste good.

So this morning I took a second pass at it. This time without wine in my hand, which can make it was easier to keep an eye on the pie as it bakes. Sure enough, Pecan Pie 2.0 came out much nicer than it’s predecessor. I’m willing to bet it’ll taste just a good if not better too!

Happy Turkey Day!