Red River Wildlife Refuge Adventure = Pie!

I have live in the Shreveport / Bossier City area for a very short time now.  Even though I lived relatively close, I had no idea how rich this corner of Louisiana was in terms of interesting things to explore with the family.  It seems every occasion we have check out the SBC, we have found something new and exciting!

This past weekend, we found a gem.  Tracy, Deacon, and I checked out the Red River Wildlife Refuge.  In all honesty, I had an ulterior motive for suggesting this destination - I was hunting pecans.  I noticed early on that the area is literally riddled with pecan trees, and the Red River Wildlife Refuge was the mother-lode!

My biggest complaint is that we didn't stay longer.  I did, however, get enough pecans to complete the 2nd phase of my project.  My secret mission was to gather enough local pecans to make a pecan pie from scratch like my grandmother used to make.  This all started when we bought a tiny bag of crushed pecans for the sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving. It seems we forgot another one of the ingredients for the dish, so we had this extremely expensive miniature satchel of imported pecans that was abut 1/3rd of the amount needed for the pie.

Our quick trip to the Red River Wildlife Refuge not only netted me just enough pecans to finish up the pie, it also provided my family with a beautiful, wooded setting to hike through and more!  There is an educational exhibit, incredible trails, several outdoor settings, and acres of perfect pecan trees.  No kidding, it is so beautiful - families were taking their Christmas Card photos there.

On to the pie!  The recipe is a secret, but here's a hint

The entire deal was a success!  We all had a great time at the refuge, and we got a pie out of the deal.  I can't be the only one who's happy about that.