Flashback Friday — November 11, 2015 I had the best day ever when Jane McGarry came to my house to make pie. Here’s the story!

Mrs. Twist and Jane McGarry

This past Wednesday, I had a crazy, fun experience cooking Thanksgiving sides in my kitchen with Jane McGarry, co-host of WFAA’s Good Morning Texas. My bestie came up from Austin to capture it from the sidelines with Mr. Bee. It really was the best day ever! Here is the low down on how we taped the segment for Jane’s Skillet Pecan Pie – I will post part two on Jane’s Cranberry Sauce another day.

Last week:

Jane posted this message on her FB page…This was my reply…I follow Jane on Instagram and I remembered she has beautiful cheetah print carpet in her house. Animal print is my best friend and I thought I should toss that fun fact we share in common into my response. I guess it worked…and the fact that this picture is on my FB page when they probably screened me to see if I had “party potential.” So, she could take a gamble that I was going to be fun, or a hot mess.

Monday:

Got the message from Jane that I had been selected for their Kitchen Invasion segment featuring two of Jane’s “blast from the past” Thanksgiving recipes.

Tuesday:

Producer calls me and says they will arrive on Wednesday morning to shoot live for the show. I wasn’t panicked at all, because Sunday night I had cleaned the house. I was more concerned about what I was going to wear…and it had to involve animal print. I called my fab friend Jess (who is also my personal trainer/life coach/stylist) and she ran over with her 3-month old for a look-see through my closet. We came up with animal print pants (nod to Jane), a black tunic, and shooties. Before I went to bed, I penned a fun message about what Jane was going to cook on my menu board. I thought it would be a nice, personal touch for her to see.

Wednesday:

About 45 minutes before Jane’s arrival, I whipped up a batch of mulled apple cider so the house would smell like fall. Jane arrived at 8:15 a.m. all pretty and perfect in a red dress and heals, holding a trifle dish of cranberry sauce and a giant iron skillet of pecan pie. While we waited for the photographer, Jane went through what we were going to do and in what order…

Getting a quick schooling from Jane

Then the photographer, Laura, arrived. She wanted to photograph the pie and cranberry sauce Jane brought. I asked if they wanted me to put props on the table to stylize the food. “Sure, do you have anything?” Still thinking I was the party girl in the photo, they had no idea that I have a party pantry — now was my time to shine! I yelled at bestie to grab the pumpkins and candles, I got the flowers and chalkboard, a wooden bread board from the pantry, plates and cloth napkins from the cabinet and made a Pottery-Barn-ish set in 10 seconds flat…

At 9 a.m., the magic happened. It was the quickest 30 minutes of my life. We did the cranberry sauce first, then the next segment was the pie. Jane let me contribute a few of my tips on how to season a cast iron skillet and using Pillsbury pie crust for baking. I’m pretty sure I won’t win any Cowboy’s tickets since I admitted on camera I’m not a fan. The best part was Jane saying she followed my blog and had no idea I was the author of Home with a Twist!

Zest School

This is us grating lemon zest. I impressed her with my knowledge of not zesting too hard so you don’t grate the white, bitter part of the peel. I may not know much, but zesting is one of my skill sets.

Then, we finished with a shot of us playing Scrabble. In this picture I look all composed and having fun.

I’ll never look at Scrabble the same again!

In real life, this was how I was feeling…

Mary Katharine Gallagher

I think they were filming this Scrabble scene for a teaser for another show. I asked if I could pour a few mugs of cider for the table shot to make it look all-homey. I cautioned Jane not to drink it because it was really a prop and I hadn’t strained the mulling spices. Next thing I know, Jane was drinking it! I calmly yelled “Jane, don’t drink the punch, you’ll choke on cloves.” She said it was delicious and she was fine. Then, we bonded over how to make it, what she’d be doing for Thanksgiving and I made sure to point out my animal print pants.

Before she left we snapped a few more pics…

Mrs. Twist, her best friend and Jane

We helped Jane and the photographer out to their cars, hugged good bye and promised to do it again. I ran in the house and jumped up and down with glee. It was so fun! Jane couldn’t have been nicer. She was elegant and calm and made me feel so at ease. It really was like cooking in the kitchen with a friend. Truly.

We finished the morning eating the pieces of pecan pie she left us to try and watched the show on DVR.

The pie was delicious. The pecans had caramelized and were crunchy and the pie crust was crispy. I liked it because the pecans weren’t chewy or overwhelming. We topped the slices with Bluebell vanilla ice cream.

Jane’s Skillet Pecan Pie

As we were cleaning up the kitchen, we saw Jane’s cup of cider. Mr. Bee was about to wash it and bestie and I yelled “don’t touch it!” We read each other’s minds and snapped a pic of her lipstick on the rim.

I know it’s creepy and I don’t care! When are you going to have someone as special as Jane in your house again! If George Clooney kissed you, you wouldn’t wash your cheek for a year.

Be sure to check out the Skillet Pecan Pie recipe. It’s definitely worth making and I hope you add it to your Thanksgiving table.

3 Comments

Patti Morfeld RN BSN on November 14, 2015 at 3:34 am

Best post ever!
Kathy Kay on November 14, 2015 at 11:18 am

"Jane! You'll choke on a clove!" They hit the jackpot when they chose your kitchen and your outgoing personality.
Stacy Your cabi girl on November 12, 2017 at 11:25 am

Oh my!!! How did I not know about your encounter with Jane.????This is truly amazing. And I think you are very clever in how you got picked for this incredible experience. To say I’m jealous is an incredible understatement!