Christmas Pie

In the late 80's, after my parents moved to Maryland, my family began to make yearly visits to Virginia for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Travel had become difficult for my grandparents, so we made the trip down to be together at the holiday. The drive from our home to theirs was only about 2 ½ hours [in good traffic].
On Christmas morning, we’d leave the house about 10 a.m. to get to Virginia at lunchtime. We had a typical-traditional family gathering, after which the women would clean the kitchen [several years into this practice, we wised up and began eating on paper plates], then we’d open Christmas presents and visit a bit, before we’d get back into the car and drive home. It made for a long day – worth the effort but tiring nonetheless.
We didn’t just drive down to have lunch. We took things down to add to the food table. My contribution in 1989 was the Christmas pie, also called a Japanese Fruit Pie. For anyone who has never had it, Christmas pie has the consistency of a pecan pie with added goodies: coconut and golden raisins. One year, I added a cup of chocolate chip morsels. It’s a dessert that doesn’t require a huge slice. A little of this sweet treat goes a LONG way because it is just that – sweet. My grandmother loved it! I will never forget how much she loved it. She went back for a second sliver. It was a big deal.
"Oh, Dahlin’!" she said in her soft, genteel southern voice. "This is really a good pie!"
High praise from a grade A, blue ribbon, smack your lips good cook like my grandmother.
I remember how much her words meant to me. They brought a little tear to my eyes because, well, whenever you get praise from someone who is a master at something, it means a lot to know that you did something that merited praise.
"Thank you, Nannie."
"I think I’d like to have that recipe," she said.
It was a WOW moment for me – MY grandmother asking ME for a recipe. It was a first.
I wrote it out when we got home that night and put it in the mail to her the following day. It gave me a special thrill when she put that recipe in her churches cookbook one year. It let me know just how good she truly thought that pie was, because a woman doesn’t put a recipe in her churches cookbook that isn’t exceptional in her book. Trust me on that.
It’s is a good pie and easy to make, but it doesn’t taste like it’s easy.
I thought I’d include it as part of my blog, because I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmases past the last few days. This memory is truly a warm-fuzzy one for me: the day that Martha Jane asked Martha Jhill for a recipe. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as she did.


Christmas Pie:
1 (9 inch) un-baked pie shell
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 c white sugar if you like it sweeter, add 1/4 c more
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup golden raisins
　
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl combine eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and vinegar. Beat until smooth. Stir in pecans, coconut, and raisins. Pour mixture into pastry shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Cool before serving. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Note: I bake my pie shell for about five minutes before I put the mixture in the bottom, so the crust isn’t soggy. Put foil around the edges. Also, if you want to try the chocolate chip morsel variation, add a cup at the point when you stir in the pecans, coconut and raisins. Top with whipped cream or go for broke and add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Enjoy!