Thunder over Louisville! Kentucky Derby Days are here…let’s make Derby Day Brownie Pie!

Thunder Over Louisville marks the beginning of the festivities for the Kentucky Derby.

Rated as one of the top 100 events in North America, the Derby Festival’s Opening Ceremonies were definitely worth attending…even in the freezing cold weather.

The day-long event kicked off two weeks of events that are part of the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. The Thunder Air Show featured more than 100 planes, including some amazing night aerobatics with fireworks.

It is the beginning of fun and food…

We waited for the fireworks show, in the cold, brisk wind…watching a variety of planes fly over throughout the afternoon.

My favorite plane…The F-22 Raptor. This plane is amazing! The U.S.air Force claims this plane to be un-matched by any known or projected fighter.

Due to high production costs and other factors this plane is no longer in production. The final F-22 rolled off of the assembly line on 12/13/2011.

Impressive plane…impressive maneuvers by the pilot…loved it!

And then nightfall…fireworks!

The breath-taking show (nearly 30 minutes) featured Thunder’s signature one-mile “waterfall” effect off the bridge.

The pictures from my little camera do not do the show justice. It was, by far, the best fireworks show that I have ever seen. They just kept going and going…so many different shapes and colors…impressive!

Here are some interesting facts that I found about the show:

For the past decade the show remains the largest annual pyrotechnic display in North America. Seen by approximately 1-million U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense civilian employees and their families stationed in 176 countries and aboard 140 U.S. Navy ships at sea via a July 4th rebroadcast on the American Forces Network, it is the state’s pride. A Discovery Channel documentary on fireworks shows says it best, “Thunder is the Grand-daddy of them all!”.

Lots of Oooo’s and Ahhhhhhhhhhh’s! It felt like the 4th of July!

To help ring in the festivities…it is, of course, appropriate to make a famous pie…that I shalll call Derby Day Pie (it is called something else but I’m not allowed to call it that)! I am so happy that there is always a reason to bake something!

It makes this ‘Flour Child’ feel like wearing flour in my hair…I mean flowers in my hair! Remember the song…If you’re going…to San Fran…cisco, be sure to wear some flour in your hair…oops, flowers in your hair?

As for the pie…

I found a couple different versions of this pie. You can use walnuts or pecans…and Bourbon or no Bourbon. I am going to try both.

Today…Walnut, no Bourbon.

You will need a single pie crust.  I made a double pie crust…and froze half of the dough so that it is ready for the next version when I need it.

You can use a ready-made frozen crust, of course, if you wish.

I always make my pie crust…and there are a few recipes that I use.

Today I used Barefoot Contessa’s Perfect Pie Crust recipe…from The Food Network.

www.foodnetwork.com/

It is always flaky…a good recipe.

Now for the rest of the…

Derby Day Brownie Pie

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 c. flour

1 stick butter

2 large eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1  1/2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk chocolate or a mixture of both)

1 teaspoon vanilla

To make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and flour. Melt butter, add to flour and sugar. Beat eggs lightly and add to the flour mixture.

Add vanilla.

Add chopped nuts and chocolate chips.

Pour into pie shell and bake for 40 – 45 minutes.

This is a very delicious, rich and sweet pie! If you love Pecan Pie…you will love this pie. The pie forms a crunchy topping while baking and ends up with a chocolate layer and a creamy layer.

I’ll keep you ‘posted’ on the other versions…soon!

In closing….

I hope your day is spectacular,

and that you’ll wear some flour in your hair… make the pie!

Vee