This year I went to a friends house for Thanksgiving. Instead of going the easy way, I decided to make some pies.

Pumpkin is traditional and pecan was requested, so that’s what I prepared.

Pecan-o-riffic

I made a non-traditional pecan using this recipe to avoid using corn syrup. Why is corn syrup a problem? A little searching gave me this article as a reference for this post:

Journalist Greg Critser lays out a compelling case against high fructose corn syrup in his 2003 book, “Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World.” He argues that federal policies that aimed to stabilize food prices and support corn production in the 1970s led to a glut of corn and then to high fructose corn syrup. With a cheaper way to sweeten food, producers pumped up the size and amount of sweet snacks and drinks on the market and increased profits.

Critser writes that despite the food industry’s arguments that sugar is sugar, whether fructose or sucrose, no group “has yet refuted the growing scientific concern that, when all is said and done, fructose … is about the furthest thing from natural that one can imagine, let alone eat.”

Although some researchers have long been suspicious that too much fructose can cause problems, the latest case against high fructose corn syrup began in earnest a few years ago. Dr. George Bray, principal investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program at Louisiana State University Medical Center told the International Congress on Obesity that in 1980, just after high fructose corn syrup was introduced in mass quantities, relatively stable obesity rates began to climb. By 2000, they had doubled.

Anyway. I also made a pumpkin pie which I got all extra lazy with and knocked out with canned goods, a pre-made crust, and a couple eggs.

Behold the squash puree custard majesty.

It was a great time. I learned many things. Among these is that I play Guitar Hero III much better after I’ve had a couple of cocktails to loosen up.

cooking, pie