Pecan pie and some black tar

We're having an early Thanksgiving over here!  I can't wait for some nice pie, slow-roasted chicken, mash and more.  I think I have a history of being a back-seat cook during Thanksgiving.  Often I'm around great cooks and I'm happy to back them up whether that be making simple things, helping prepare, drinks or hosting the get-togethers. 

But this year, there aren't a lot of cooks who'll be contributing, so I'm on the front-line cooking squad.  My man really likes pecan pie and I thought I'd give it a try. 

Now living in China, there are a few things that are hard to find in a normal supermarket, anything from: butter, refined sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, fresh milk, cheese, etc.  I use the internet to track somethings down, I keep my eyes peeled for certain ingredients in the foreign sections of a supermarket and I have friends that hook me up with good supplies.  I also have some good cook books to help me (Less with More, recipes passed on my friends, etc.) that keeps things simple.  And then there are times when I just have to turn to the internet to find things that will work.

Google is my best resource for finding substitutions.  And anyone that regularly eats pecan pie knows that it calls for corn syrup, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  BUT I thought my substitution option looked hopeful: sugar, cream of tartar (my friend had some), and water.  Now the only part of the recipe that seemed a bit ambiguous was cooking it until it "formed a soft ball."  I thought that this soft ball would be sort of happen and that perhaps it would all start to clump into a big gooey ball.  It seemed like the soft ball was taking ages to form.  I'm was in my friend's kitchen using her pots.  I wondered if something went wrong when the color changed to golden brown.  By the time it was black, I wondered if I ruined my friend's pot and created toxic fumes.  I thought that perhaps pecan pie just wasn't in my future. 

After the black tar finally came off the pot, good old Google helped me find a recipe without corn syrup (there aren't too many of those out there!)  So, I'm looking forward to some pecan pie tomorrow! 

Advice for anyone making corn syrup substitutions, look for different recipes :) 

The pecan pie. 

A jello salad (used lime instead of lemon jello, oranges instead of frozen strawberries, real cream (from a friend) instead of cool-whip and going to add some walnuts on top).  But hey, hopefully it'll taste good.

My guys in the travel tent.  I think it was one of the first nights that we've ever been away from our house that my little man has slept through the night.  Usually we're all in the same room and he wakes up in the night.   We decided we needed to be in two separate rooms and it was so nice to wake up at 6am rather than at 2, 3, and 6!  

Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!