Don’t Mispronounce This Word If You Want To Be A Texan

The argument started about ten years ago at "Casa Fernandez" during Thanksgiving.  A dear friend from Michigan and his Canadian wife described one of my wife's dessert creations as a "pee-can" pie. That one simple word sent my head spinning. A heated discussion at Thanksgiving dinner quickly ensued.

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Let me digress. My dad had been in and out of the hospital, and I had been helping him get out of bed and navigate to the bathroom. When a kind nurse at Hendrick Hospital offered my dad a special container for which he could use to relieve himself, the nurse affectionately call the contraption a pee-can.

Above I have included a photograph of a pecan, which is a nut off of a pecan tree and can be made into pecan pies. Below is another photograph, that of my trusty companion that I keep in my truck, the good old pee-can. Notice the difference.

I asked the nurse if it would be possible to purchase one of those pee-cans from the hospital. She gave me one and I still have it today. I have kept that can in my truck in the event I should ever need it. But I would never let my wife use it to make a pie at Thanksgiving.

Fast forward now to the recent craft show, bake sale, and women's ministry fair at the church last weekend. A craft fair attendee had purchased a beautiful, perfectly baked, delicious-looking, pecan pie to which my friend Jo referred to as a pee-can pie.

For the record, if you want to sound like you are a Texan, please do not mispronounce the word "pecan", unless it's a container you need to use when on the road.

FYI, pecans can be made into pecan pie, pecan praline, pecan brittle, pecan butter, pecan coffee, and my all-time favorite, brown sugar pecan bourbon. Let the party begin.