Pecans.

Toasted pecans from CARTI's Festivities, Too cookbook

On many a November day, along tree lined roadsides and across orchard-clothed flatlands, you may see people of all ages engaging in a particular rite of autumn. Each man, each woman, each grandparent or child gazes at the grounds, bends over and picks up a handful of brown ovoid nuts and places them in whatever they manage to utilize to carry such a bounty. It is time for the pecan harvest.

Last year an estimated 2.6 million pecans were harvested from orchards

E's Bistro's Lemon Pecan Pie.

around the Natural State. With prices running around $3 a pound, pecans are big business.

Pecans are native to Arkansas. They were highly valued by Native Americans, who traded and consumed them. Spanish explorers thought they were another sort of walnut and called them nueces, or “fruit of the walnut.” They’re a great source of protein, and somewhat easier to crack than walnuts.

Blue Mountain Bakery's Sticky Rolls.

When I was a little girl, the weekend before Thanksgiving was a common time to pick pecans. You don’t pick them off the trees; instead, you get yourself some sort of container or sack and go walking out where the trees are and pick up all you can before your back gives out. My cousins and I would pick up all we could, shoving the nuts into potato sacks or

Praline pecans from Ozark Candy & Nuts.

grocery sacks, until we’d either give out or it got dark. The evenings we’d spend with a set of nutcrackers, carefully popping open each shell and extracting the soft part inside. That’d go to whoever was making pies – because there was ALWAYS pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, usually a Karo-nut pie. We’d also eat our share. You learned quickly to examine the nuts before you ate them, because those little woody bits in the center that held the shell together

"Pecan Row" by Grav Weldon, taken near Scott.

are bitter.

Pecan trees are common across the state, and you’ll see them here and there. I even have one in my backyard, though the squirrels seem to reap the bounty the tree offers before the nuts hit the ground. There is a stretch of highway near Scott where pecan trees line either side of the road, offering a shady tunnel during the summer and a stark

Pecan pie at Chip's Barbecue.

reminder of winter’s arrival each December. To get to this pretty place, take 161 south from where it splits off from Highway 167 by the Plantation Agriculture Museum.

Nana Deane's Coconut Pecan Pie, recipe in Arkansas Pie

As I mentioned, pecan pies are a big tradition in my family. We have our own pecan pie recipe, as many families do. While criss-crossing the state, I have discovered many other pie varieties that focus on the pecan. Of note: the PCP (Pineapple, Coconut and Pecan) pie at Ed and Kay’s Restaurant in Benton; Nana Deane’s Coconut Pecan Pie at Ray’s Dairy Maid in Barton and the Bourbon Chocolate Chunk Pecan pie at Greenhouse Grille in Fayetteville. The Backyard Bar-B-Que Company in Magnolia and the Red Rooster Bistro in Alma both make a marvelous rendition of pecan cream cheese pie,

Pecan fried pie at Grandpa's BBQ.

and Ms. Rhoda Adams still makes the traditional version in miniature pie pans down at Rhoda’s Famous Hot Tamales in Lake Village.

Some places, like Skinny J’s in Jonesboro and Grandpa’s Catfish in Cabot even serve up fried pecan pies.

Pecans can be found in sweet potato casseroles, mixed into the cranberry relish and even included in a good cornmeal dressing. What better food to celebrate during November?

Now, as many of you know, I've been developing a rather ridiculous intolerance to corn grain.  I apparently can eat corn off the cob; it's the corn that's used as grain that's been

The recipe for Greenhouse Grille Chef Jerrmy Gawthrop’s Bourbon

Chocolate Chunk Pecan pie is inthe Arkansas Pie book.

giving me issue -- and that's the corn used in corn syrup.  I've been avoiding the heck out of corn syrup since February.  My few encounters have lead to some swelling... which is not what I want, believe me.

Most pecan pies are made with Karo syrup.  How am I getting around that?  Simple.  I'm thinking for Thanksgiving, a brown sugar pecan pie will grace my table.

Brown Sugar Pecan Pie

2 eggs, beaten
2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar (the white stuff)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup pecan halves
1 blind baked flour pastry pie shell (store-bought is acceptable, too)

Caramel Pecan Pie at Sweet Treats.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the heck out of the eggs.  Pour in the melted butter, both sugars and the vanilla and incorporate thoroughly.  Shake chopped pecans with all-purpose flour and add to the mix.

Pour into pie shell.  Top with pecan halves.  Bake for 45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

The 2012 Arkansas State Fair Food Preview.

As I always do, I've checked out the food you'll find at the Arkansas State Fair. Rather than rehash everything you already know at the fair, I'll direct you thusly to last year's compendium of absolutely just about everything you could find -- and introduce some new stuff right here, too.

The weird new food at the fair this year:  BACON LEMONADE.  I kid you not. 

Because it has actual bacon rendering in it, I cannot try it myself, but I am

told it doesn’t taste too far off from regular lemonade.  Coastal Concessions,

which is offering it this year, also has Peach and Raspberry versions, which

aren’t nearly as offensive and are actually quite good.

The tastiest of the new fair foods:  DO-RE-OHs.  These are

deep fried cookie dough wrapped Oreo cookies, and if you

get them when they are just out of the fryer, they are

phenomenal – 10 times better than a Chocolate Lava Cake. 

However, once they cool they’re kinda mushy and the charm

is lost.  The Fried What! Folks are selling these.

The folks that brought you Cheeseburger on a Stick are

branching out this year with Alligator on a Stick.  Yes, it’s been

offered at other fairs, but now it’s at the Arkansas State Fair. 

Tastes like chicken.

The Red River Catering Company is offering a tasty twist on

a classic:  Barbecue Nachos.  This is a pile of tortilla chips

topped with cheese, covered in your choice of shredded beef

or pork and drizzled with barbecue sauce.

Beef brisket sandwiches have been here before, but they're always yummy.

And yes, there is still Chocolate Bacon, first introduced at the Arkansas State Fair in 2009.

The Fried What! People are also offering Deep Fried Brownies. 

Served up with a hefty scoop of ice cream and whipped cream,

this is only a sharing dessert – total consumption by a single

individual might result in a sugar-related emergency.

Fried What! is also serving up Deep Fried Green Tomatoes.

Here's another shot of the Do-Re-Ohs, since I know some news folks might want a different image.  As always, yes, you can use my imagery... with attribution, of course.

This should have been a no-brainer... it's a funnel cake on a stick.  Of course.

Red River Catering is offering this meal-on-a-stick, a Chicken and Potato kebab, complete with bun.

Kathy's Kabana brings back a childhood favorite -- chocolate dipped bananas.

Colonial Nut Roll has your sweet tooth in mind with Black Walnut Salt Water Taffy.

Red River Catering will serve up a perfectly normal Fried Catfish plate if you ask nicely (and pay a little).

I personally find this a bit disturbing on a cholesterol level -- gravy covered deep fried steak bites.

Kathy's Kabana is selling steak and chicken quesadillas -- not unusual, but tasty.

You can also buy an oversized nacho plate at the Big Show Diner.

And finally:  The Walking Taco in all its glory, from Kathy's Kabana.

Seven Places You Must Try Fried Chicken in Arkansas.

Arkansas has its own flavor... and much of it is rooted in Southern culture.  And there’s nothing more Southern than fried chicken.

I could sit down in any of a hundred kitchens around my home state and have pan fried chicken so good you’d lick the plate.  But truly great fried chicken is a hard thing to find in an Arkansas restaurant.  Sure, a lot of restaurants try, but just a handful do the dish justice.

Here, in my honest opinion, are the seven best places to have fried chicken in Arkansas.  They’re not numbered because, frankly, they’re all dang good.

Dew-Baby’s. Oh, what a flavor. The little Stuttgart restaurant may not look like much, but it's eight sisters' tribute to a mom who shared it all. The fried chicken there has the tenderness and flavor of being buttermilk-soaked, a very light bit of spicing  with a hint of lemon pepper.  Juicy, flavorful, tender and golden.

AQ Chicken House. Chicken is prepared multiple ways at this 75 year old Springdale establishment, but you'll find the best version is the original: pan-fried, tender, simply seasoned and golden crusted. If you really must have other chicken there, try the Chicken Over The Coals -- strongly seasoned, lemon pepper tinted, slightly blackened and completely decadent.

Monte Ne Inn Chicken Restaurant.The crust of the chicken at this family-style sit-down pass-the-plate restaurant is deep brown, almost russet red. Batter-tight skin like a good pan-fried-and-baked chicken is flavored with paprika, black pepper and special seasoning. There's a flavor that permeates the chicken, even the breast, that gives it a supple flavor equaled only by the tenderness of the meat itself.

Myrtie Mae’s. Mouth-dabbingly moist, lightly golden fried and buttermilk battered, this Eureka Springs restaurant is serving up the same recipe that Myrtie herself started to use on travelers who showed up at her dinner table in the early days of travel for fun in the Ozarks.

David Family Kitchen. I don't know where they get their pieces, but somehow the folks at this soul food cafe in downtown Little Rock manage to pick the fattest chicken legs and thighs for their salt-and-pepper batter. It's juicy enough to worry about having wet elbows when you are done.

Holly’s Country Cooking. Crispy, thickly battered fried chicken that manages to still be light enough to keep you moving back out the door of this Conway mainstay. Available only at lunch, the slightly sweet and salty batter on this chicken will win you over.

The Skillet Restaurant. The latest addition to my chicken list, this is good Ozark style fried chicken -- a little paprika, a little salt, a little black pepper and a lot of buttermilk. I'm told they have to watch out and make sure to have extra wings out on the buffet each Sunday, because those wings are the first to go. You can find it at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.

Company’s Coming Pie at the Cliff House Inn.

The pie of the Arkansas sesquicentennial is still a favorite of those who have traveled Scenic Highway Seven. Learn more about this famous dish and the restaurant that brought it to the table.

Burgers and Pie: A Brand New Ozark Joint Has Both.

I tend to like truck stops. They usually offer decently clean bathrooms, 24 hour service and some crazy items. And sometimes they have good restaurants, though that tends to be with the older places.

This place I’m going to tell you about is just a couple of months old. Seriously. But it tastes -- yes, I said tastes -- like it’s been around a decade.

It’s the I-40 Travel Center in Ozark -- moreso, it’s Hillbilly Hideout, the restaurant inside. It could be the next great Arkansas gem in the making.

I stopped by briefly on my way to the Wakarusa Music Festival a few months ago. It was opening weekend and the place was packed. Mind you, that’s saying something, since a couple of football fields’ worth of concrete was laid down for all the expected traffic to the place. I managed to get some iced tea and noticed there were fried pies by the register, and I made a mental note to head back over that way.

Well, I went up to the Altus Grape Festival this past weekend, and right before I hit the road to come back I decided it was worth my while to head over to this travel stop and see if those pies were any good. There were a lot of people there, but nowhere near what I had experienced before. I had my daughter Hunter along for the ride.

Now, I should let you know, I was hot and exhausted and so was she. After we had spent a good portion of the day at the Grape Festival, we had checked out the Backwoods Arts Gathering up at Mulberry Mountain -- and saw the effect the 100+ degree heat had on that event. We wanted a good meal, a cool place to sit and plenty of iced tea to soak in.

First thing I noticed when we went in is that there’s this deli bar at the end of the restaurant. At the deli bar, you can get just about everything you’d ever expected from a truck stop -- taquitos, jojo potatoes, pizza sticks, hot dogs, chicken fingers, cold sandwiches, fried chicken, fried shrimp, chicken on a stick... and then there were frog legs and hush puppies and catfish and ribs and beef brisket. So it was like a deli, a truck stop warming box and a BBQ joint all rolled into one.

And right by the register were these big eight inch long fried pies. And they were tempting. But as I said, Hunter and I were seeking our sustenance with a side order of climate control and iced tea, so we had a seat at one of the booths.

I have to say, I noticed all the waitresses had on lanyards, to which was pinned one of those blue Welcome to Arkansas pins. Watch for those when you go places. Those pins mean they’re ready to tell you all about the state. Our waitress was no different. She came over and asked if we’d been to the Grape Festival or the art gathering. When I told her both, she told us we were very ambitious. She took our drink orders and left us with a massive two-sided menu.

As I expected, one whole side of the menu was dedicated to breakfast -- omelets, waffles, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and gravy and platters. Everything seemed pretty reasonable, with the most expensive item being an eight ounce ribeye steak with two eggs, hashbrowns, toast and jelly for $9.99. Most everything fell in the $4-6 range. There were also kid meals offered for $4.99 -- chicken strips, grilled cheese sandwich, corn dog, hot dog, hamburger or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on goldfish-shaped bread.

On the other side, it was a mish-mash of all sorts of different items. There were salads and sandwiches, soup and chili, a wide array of country style dinners such as chicken fried steak and grilled fish and open faced roast beef and pork chops. There were also a few Tex Mex items, and among the side items I was happy to see PurpleHull peas listed (though I would love to see sliced tomatoes and rice offered as well, but that’s just me being all Arkan-per-snickety). And there were desserts listed. And of course, there were burgers.

I compared a few prices and asked Hunter a few questions and we ordered. She got a chicken quesadilla and I ordered a Charlie Burger. And we sat and chilled out and enjoyed our beverages.

Our waitress returned with the chips and salsa that came with Hunter’s quesadilla. She went to town on the thick tortilla chips and homemade salsa -- a salsa that was just a little heavy on the spice for me but perfect for my girl. It was very fresh, as if it hadn’t even made it to a can, with nice pliant chunks of tomato within.

The rest of our order arrived a short time later. Hunter’s quesadilla was filled with cheese and hand-shredded chicken, which she took to quickly dunking in the salsa. Me?

Well, this is what I saw -- a big ⅔ pound patty on a bottom bun, served on a platter with the plank fries, lettuce, white onion ringlets, hamburger dill slices, tomato slices and a top bun that had been squirted with mayo, mustard and ketchup. The patty was massive. And it didn’t take me long to figure out that it was oozing cheese.

Now, the Charlie Burger is actually two patties with a slice of cheese in the middle, pressed down around the edges to create one patty. It was juicy, cheesy and hot and it was bigger than the bottom bun! And it was filling, which was kind of a detriment since I had another mission.

See, when I had entered the place, I had seen the pie case. It was full of pies, cakes and other sweet delights. It had changed my mind about having a fried pie. I needed to know about those pies. I really did. So I asked what pie was available, and was told either chocolate or coconut. Hunter made the decision for us.

And it was a good decision. The pie that came out to us was on a nice slightly salty blind-baked crust. It had a moderate amount of coconut-infused meringue, and one of the most perfectly conceived coconut custards I have ever consumed. The custard was packed with gentle flavor yet not too sweet, addictive even. Hunter insisted on having more than half of it and asked for more.

So I asked about the pies and the fried pies by the counter. Turns out they’re made by two different ladies. Ms. Janie makes the fried pies, and they’re individually wrapped to take with a traveler on the road (though I suspect that if you wanted to eat it there they’d heat it up for you). I requested a peach pie to take home once I heard it was made from local fruit.

While that was being rung up, I noticed a lady in the back working with a couple of meringue pies. When my ticket came out my waitress offered to show me what she’d been working on. I am assuming from the conversation that the good lady I saw was Mrs. Rhonda Vaughn... and the pie? It was like nothing I’d ever encountered. It took two great pies and blended them together into something undescribably heavenly.

It was this -- a cherry cream cheese meringue pie. That’s right. It was like a regular cherry cream cheese pie, except on top meringue had been piled and it had been baked together.

Well, I was already stuffed and I already had a box of leftovers and a fried pie, but I ponied up and bought a slice of that cherry cream cheese meringue pie to take home with me. And I have to tell you, when I got up the next morning I had it for breakfast and it was absolutely divine.  And I ate that peach pie for lunch... and it was marvelous, with the center all spiced and falling apart and with that great homemade flavor...

So... there’s a little more to this story. When I was editing the photos for this piece, I noticed the sign on the pie case and clutched my chest a little. On the door it listed the different regular varieties, which included not only Possum Pie but the elusive Millionaire Pie (which until now I’ve only found at pie walks and Furr’s Cafeteria). I tell you something -- I have a friend bringing me a slice of that Millionaire pie right now. And I am looking forward to trying it.

I have to tell you, this place is so new that the phone number’s not in the phone book or on most of Google. But I have it for you. Hillbilly Hideout and the I-40 Travel Center at Ozark can be reached at (479) 667-0711. It’s open 24 hours a day and is located just north of exit 35 off I-40. Give it a try.

And there's a piece on 40/29's website about how they're offering green hookups for truckers.