The coolest thing about this recipe is that the main ingredient can be found right here on campus, for free. That’s a hard thing to come by on college campuses, right? Get your hunter-gatherer on and head over to Sweetheart Circle. See all those trees lining the walkway? Those, my dear readers, are pecan trees, and they are giving these nutritious snacks out for free.

Nature! Who knew?

You’ll need:

• 3 cups of shelled pecans (1 cup halved, 1 cup quartered and 1 cup finely crushed)

• ½ cup white sugar

• ½ cup light brown sugar

• 4 eggs

• ¼ cup butter

• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

• 1 ½ cups corn syrup (½ dark and ½ light)

• 1 peep dish pie crust

Step 1: Go out and gather about half a plastic grocery bag of pecans from Sweetheart Circle. They look like brown ovals with dark stripes on one end. Be sure the shells are not cracked or already open…that’s gross. Crack shells with a nut cracker or pair of pliers, separate into piles.

Step 2: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pecans naturally come out of the shell halved. Quarter the pecan halves by slicing them down the center (basically halving them again). Set one cup of both halved and quartered aside. Finely chop the last cup of pecans using any method you’d like, I used a Magic Bullet and it was ok, they could’ve been chopped more.

Step 3: Pour 1 ½ cups of corn syrup into a mixing bowl or tupperware. Use ½ a cup and a ¼ of a cup of dark and light syrup.

Step 4: Beat eggs with a fork and microwave butter for increments of 15 seconds until melted. Add eggs, melted butter, white sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla and finely chopped pecans into the bowl. Stir until well-blended.

Step 5: Evenly disperse quartered pecans on the bottom of the pie crust.

Step 6: Pour mixture into pie crust. Place pecan halves on top of the mixture in any pattern you’d like.

Step 7: Place pie on a pan to catch any spills and to remove easily. Bake for one hour, or until firm and cross your fingers that it turns out well.

Step 8: Success! Now you can prove to your family that you don’t just sit at home binge watching Netflix all day! Remove from oven and let sit until cool. My pecans got a bit toasted on the top, but they still tasted great, I would recommend moving the oven rack closer to the bottom to avoid this.

Enjoy nature’s little gifts of goodness and have a Happy Thanksgiving!