Valkyrie Brunhilde, from Arthur Rackham's illustrations for The Valkyries (1910)
I thought I’d be spending most of this week in London, Kentucky, on something of a warrior’s mission. That turned out to be unnecessary, but during the one intense day I did spend there, I rushed into Weaver’s, which has been the café on London’s main street for over 70 years.
I had about seven minutes to gather provisions at Weaver’s, so ended up with the quickest thing available: a grilled cheese sandwich with pickles grilled into the cheese (a personal idiosyncrasy that the griller was willing to accommodate), and, for a sugar fix to go along with the fat fix from the grilled cheese, two small fried pecan pies. The pickles would just have to do for the vegetable course, given the situation.
Baked pecan pies are a southern staple, of course; even the Kitchen Valkyrie has made those. But fried pecan pies?
The counter clerk explained that these particular fried pecan pies were from a local pastry-maker, Parrett’s Pies & Pastries.
They were divine! Half-moons of homemade pastry, with pecan filling; about two bites per pie.
The Kitchen Valkyrie may attempt to make some of these for the holidays, despite pathological fear of kitchen procedures in general, and hot oil in particular.
I don’t know what recipe Parrett’s uses for the pies supplied to Weaver’s, but this one from Paula Deen sounds as if it might be about right.
Worth every calorie. The grilled cheese sandwich with pickles was good, too.
I always get the grilled cheese at Weaver’s too (sans pickles). Hope you have a wonderful holiday, with or without the fried pies.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Michelle. I suspect the culinary delights of the day will be more complicated than grilled cheese, but it’s hard to beat grilled cheese and pickles in the middle of a crisis!