Forget the vanilla extract for Joanie Manning’s Pecan Pie.
This holiday staple gets a jolt of bourbon.
“Just a tablespoon. It gives it just a little bit of flavor,” said Manning, who loves to bake, cook and
entertain. “One time I tried two tablespoons and that’s too much. You don’t want to overpower it.”
Her modest ranch home on Sunrise Drive is ideal for entertaining with its open layout. There are three
cozy sitting areas that surround the star of the home: the bright red kitchen. The bar area is stacked
with a half-dozen bar stools for grazing and conversation with the cooks, who also can perch on stools
on the other side.
A sample of the signs hanging in the kitchen: Pie Fixes Everything and Fresh Baked Pies Served Daily.
The couple loves to entertain, holding theme parties, such as for the queen’s jubilee, a Burns night
celebrating Scotland and a derby one in the spring. For the latter, the pecan pie is infused with
bourbon and chocolate.
She’s not afraid to try just about anything in the kitchen.
Manning makes a mean mincemeat pie — with real meat — but only one of her sons requests it for
Thanksgiving.
“You either like it, or you don’t,” she said.
For the Burns supper, which celebrates poet Robert Burns, Manning has tried serving Haggis.
Not for the faint-hearted, Wikipedia describes it as “a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart,
liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and
traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach and simmered for approximately three hours.”
That’s a far cry from the meals she prepared growing up just down the street on Byall Avenue. Her father
was a mailman and her mom was a school secretary. Starting in middle school, she was in charge of the
dinner meal every Wednesday when her mom got her hair done after work and her dad bowled.
Specialties included tuna noodle casserole, meatloaf and salads, then she ventured on to chili.
Pies, cakes and cookies, however, have always been the specialties in kitchens of her grandmother, mom
and now her own.
“I come from a family of bakers.”
She makes pies for her Relay for Life group, which is based out Trinity United Methodist Church. She
teaches Sunday school there for preschoolers.
The one area that Manning doesn’t like to tackle in the kitchen is bread.
“I don’t know about rising and punching down. I’ve never mastered bread.”
Manning is patient care coordinator for Downey Orthodontics. Her husband, Gary, works for BioFit
Engineered Products in Haskins. Their sons, Jay and Jeff, live in Akron and Columbus.
When Jay got married last month, he and his wife, Ashley, begged Manning to make the pies for reception.

It was quite a feat for Manning to take all of her equipment, including rolling pins and pans, to the
Akron church and churn out seven pies the day of the wedding.
A cabinet stuffed with cookbooks stands in her living room. There are some gems, including “The Joys of
Jell-o.” Anyone recall celery-flavored Jell-o? “It is fun to look through them,” Manning said. “I read
cookbooks like books.”
Her favorites are the Sentinel’s annual collection of Cook’s Corner recipes and church-published
cookbooks.
“Because those are real recipes that people make.”
She also surfs the Internet for ideas.
“When I go online, I’ll get three different ones (recipes) … then I make a mix out of all of them. You
pull parts of each one.”
Bourbon Pecan Pie
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 heaping teaspoon flour
1 cup dark Karo syrup
1 cup toasted pecans halves (chopped is OK too)
1 pie crust shell (homemade is best)
 
Melt butter, add sugar and salt, and stir to combine. Allow to cool slightly. Beat eggs, add to cooled
butter mixture and combine.  Mix in bourbon and Karo syrup; add flour and combine thoroughly.  
Place toasted pecans in unbaked pie shell, pour mixture over pecans.
Bake in 375-degree oven for 40-50 minutes. Pie is done when the center is mostly set.
To toast pecans, place on baking sheet in 350-degree oven for 4-7 minutes until lightly toasted and you
can smell the pecans.  Watch carefully as they burn quickly, you don’t want them to get too brown.