Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

3 large eggs
2 yolks
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
5 TBS melted butter
1/4 cup Jack Daniels
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups pecans
Pie crust

Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar until combined. Whisk in corn syrup, melted butter, Jack Daniels. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of chocolate chips over bottom of crust. Pour in filling. Sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans over filling. Sprinkle remaining chips over filling. Top with 3/4 cup pecans.

Bake 50-55 minutes at 350 until set in center. Turn off oven, leave pie in oven with door closed for 15 minutes to crisp top.

The Entertainment

Tommy Keith is one of "the brothers". The brothers are the 5 remaining Keiths in this line from Talbert Dalton Keith. He had 5 kids with Emmaline, including my Grandma and her sister Iva. Aunt Iva is 100 years old and is the only child of Emma's that is still living. She hasn't been able to make the reunion is several years, and she is surely missed. The rest of these brothers are the result of Talbert's second wife, Laura.

Here's the impromptu band that is created when you bring a bunch of Keiths together. From left to right: Tommy Keith, Harold Keith (from a line other than Talbert's), Keith I-can't-remember-his-last-name (he's married to Gail, she's one of Talbert's grandchildren, I think), and Lois. Here's the scoop on Lois. I wrote her name as Loys last year because that's what my mom said. She said that because that's what Tommy called her. Lois (pronounce it Low-is, just like it looks and just like you would expect it to sound) was Tommy's girlfriend last year. This year she is his wife. They've been married for a week and the word at the reunion was they "had to get married". Oh, ah-ha-ha, my family is such a riot. Anyway, Tommy calls her Loys (say it like Joyce, except with an "L") and this bugs her. Why would that bother a second wife? Because his first wife's name was Joyce. Oh, ah-ha-ha, my uncle is in Trouble! (That would be trouble, with a capital "T"!)

Lois is the one that started the playing this year, followed closely by Harold. She has a beautiful voice, if you like that kind of singing. I didn't happen to know a single song she sang. Harold was the other one that hung in there for a long time. He has an awesome voice as well, and at one point I THOUGHT I knew one of his songs, but didn't. I'm hoping that next year they practice up on some Garth Brooks or George Strait. At least some Kenny Rogers would be nice and then Lois could sing some Dolly Parton lines, no? Tommy sat down for a while, but ran off to chat with family more often than he played. Keith was catchin' a few beats on the harmonica, which was pretty cool.

Umm, Umm, Good!

Yep, what you see here is a full plate of dessert. It was after a full plate of dinner. Do I care? Is this wrong? Probably, but I'm pregnant, and I'm at a Keith reunion where they make some seriously good desserts! Desserts I don't get very often. Desserts that I'm sure are full of gooey goodness that have so many calories and so much sugar that I will be paying for it for weeks. But what is really the draw here? They were desserts that were reminiscent of the desserts that my grandmother, Leacy (Keith) Graham, used to make for these same reunions so many years ago. I remember the creamy banana pudding dish with graham crackery-nutty crust (bottom left), and the cherry pie filling sweetness with cake and coconut topping (bottom right), strawberry and chocolate cake (top left), and dessert wouldn't be complete without chocolate pudding with PLENTY of whipped cream. That is a Keith thing, whipped cream or cool whip. We're not picky. Now my mom, and many of her kin folk (that's what we call them out in New Mexico) will be upset if I don't mention the favorite of all- pecan pie. There were 2 typical pecan pies and one my mom baked special- Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip pecan pie. Yep, my mom with the burbon pie (or is it whiskey?). Let's just say it was a big hit and the recipe was requested by many. The real question is, "why is none of this famous pie on your plate, H?" Because I don't really like it. I know, the shame of it all! It's a wonder they haven't disowned me as a Keith.

"Here's Your Sign"...

This is where you stay, in Logan, NM, when you wait too long to book a room and there is a bass tournament the same weekend that you will be there. You fight all the 4x4's and boats for a parking space, kill 3 roaches in your room, wash your hair while standing OUTSIDE the shower (because the shower head sprays all over the place), and then lay your tired, wet head down in a slanted bed and try to sleep as the trains wiz by at all hours of the night. Hmm, what does that last line of the sign below say? Yep, it's a "P", followed closely by an "OOL".

No worries, I really didn't do any diving in this POOL...
And just across the street, all booked up, was this beauty.
What? What are those words in RED?
Oh, sweet internet, how I missed you for my 2 nights and 2 days!

On another, silly note about signs... when we were driving through Gallop on the return trip, I told my mom I thought I read on a hotel sign that said, "Fresh BO". I couldn't even say it without giggling because is BO ever really fresh?! After we stopped laughing I admitted that it probably said, "Free HBO".

Let the Road Trip Begin...

When driving through New Mexico (on I25, I think!), one must always make the important stop in Pie Town. Yes, Pie town has just what it's name implies, PIE! And that pie, at the Pie-O-Neer restaurant, is DEE-LISH!Our friends, Dave and Sue, made this same stop on their last road trip through NM. It was funny because they described the front porch, just as I remembered it (minus the actual rocking chairs), and I knew exactly where they were talking about. The owner, Kathy, has been there for years, leasing it out only on occasion when she needed what she calls a "reality check". I get that. I need to run away from life sometimes, and I certainly would if I lived in Pie Town. There's not much there, not many people, and it could get really old, really quick, if it weren't for her spunky nature and love of people.

We signed the guest book (a regular, spiral bound college notebook) and I glanced at some of the other names in there. Many people wrote about how they heard of this place from one magazine or another. The fun part was that 2 of them read it in a cycling magazine. April, I expect to see Ryan's name in there the next time I go through! There was one man from Idaho that stopped in on his bike ride, and another from Berlin. Yep, Berlin, as in Germany!

We were hungry this trip, so we had a lunch of spinach quesadillas and a grilled sandwich that is slipping my mind right now. We took our pie to go and had it that night when we arrived at our destination. At $4.95/slice it isn't cheap, but you're on vacation, right?!

As we left, my mom gave Kathy (a practical stranger!) a big hug and I realized why I'm such a huggy kind of person. It's all my mom's fault! Dang that Freud for always being right. Oh well, we are who we are.