Pecan pie is beloved nationwide, but it's especially revered in the South, where it seems that pecans fall from the trees like little gifts from the heavens. Native Americans had long known the pleasures of the nut they named "pacane" (translation: "nut to be cracked with a rock"), but it was French immigrants who turned the nuts into one of America's most loved pies after they settled in New Orleans and discovered the joys of having so many pecan trees in their yard. We say, merci beaucoup!