Apron Free Cooking -Turkey and Pumpkin Pie

Thanks­giv­ing meals have cer­tain stan­dard require­ments. In our fam­ily, there’s always a turkey and pump­kin pie on the menu. Side dishes may vary year to year, but these sta­ples don’t ever change. My mom bakes the best pies. That’s my opin­ion and it’s nearly a fact! But some­times it doesn’t turn out like she plans.

On Thanks­giv­ing 2003 mom made the pump­kin pies for din­ner. She was in a hurry that morn­ing … because she needed to get out of the oven so Dad could roast the turkey. She didn’t put on her glasses when she made the pie and grabbed what she thought was pump­kin pie spice from the cupboard.

Do you know, all those spice con­tain­ers look the same except for the dif­fer­ent names on them?

After din­ner when we cut into the pie … every­body antic­i­pates the pump­kin pie with whipped cream on top! The first bite was a shocker! Mom had used Chili Pow­der instead of Pump­kin Pie Spice! Let me tell you … Tex-Mex Pump­kin Pie just isn’t the same as tra­di­tional fla­vor! We did have a good laugh about that one, and ate the pecan pie instead.

Fast for­ward to Thanks­giv­ing 2004, my sis­ter was eight months preg­nant with her daugh­ter. We all had a good laugh about the pre­vi­ous year’s pump­kin pie, then things got seri­ous. My sis­ter stated in no uncer­tain terms that mom had bet­ter pay atten­tion to the pump­kin pie spice. She was hav­ing a severe crav­ing for “mom’s pump­kin pie”.

On the big day, mom was extra care­ful with her spice con­tain­ers and baked up a won­der­ful look­ing pie. At din­ner time, we all watched as Dad served the first slice of pie to the preg­nant daugh­ter. She took a mouth­ful and her facial expres­sion changed from hope­ful to com­plete disgust.

My sis­ter ran to the bath­room and her hus­band reached over to take a bite of the pie … try­ing to deter­mine the prob­lem. No Sugar. Mom had been so care­ful to use the right spices, she over­looked the sugar com­pletely. Again, we all reached for the pecan pie. Except my sis­ter … don’t mess with a preg­nant woman’s crav­ings … she refused to eat any more pie that day.

Ever since 2004, Mom has started to make her pies the day before Thanks­giv­ing, so she can take her time and be extra atten­tive to the ingre­di­ent. Mom uses a recipe handed down from Mrs. Cramer who used to run the Green­wich Hotel.

Mrs. Cramer’s Pump­kin Pie Recipe.

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 can (size 2 1/2) pumpkin

dash of salt

1 cup milk — may use 1/2 can condensed

2 TB pump­kin pie spices

Add dash of salt to eggs and beat slightly. Add the sug­ars, mix­ing well. Add pump­kin and spices, mix well. Add milk and beat for 2 min with hand beater. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake 15 min at 450 F. Then turn oven down to 350F and bake 30 or 35 min. This makes one pie.

Noel Lizotte is break­ing free of cor­po­rate stress with con­ve­nience cook­ing! www.apronfreecooking.com.

Posted by Noel Lizotte on Nov 10 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.