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After a rough week- Eat Pie!

It has been a rough week.  We are in the middle of winter here in Nebraska, which means cloudy, cold weather.  We had a case of the stomach flu, I had to explain a couple life experiences to the oldest Brown boy, that no parent should have to explain to their child, and least of all our worries- we had a pie crust catastrophe! 

A few of the pumpkins harvested this year!
But this is life, things happen to us and we have to make the best of it somehow, I suggest pumpkin pie as one way to do that.  But let’s begin our story at the beginning, this summer we planted exactly one pumpkin plant that produced literally half my garden space worth of pumpkins.  We gave some away, we sold a few for the boys to make money, and I still had roughly 20 left to take care of.  The pumpkins “mocked” me in our basement until New Years weekend, when I finally felt I had the time to take care of them, and that means; can them.  I cut up four pumpkins, and this gave me the amount of pumpkin that I wanted to can.  This was my first time canning pumpkin, and it requires pressure canning, I don’t mind pressure canning.  But it requires more time and a little more effort- but not a big deal usually. 
A few of the jars of canned pumpkin, I was really proud they all sealed on my first try!

Alright, so now I have several quarts of canned pumpkin, now what?  Pumpkin pie!  I found a recipe on Pinterest, of course.  The recipe looks intimidating, just to warn you, but it isn’t that bad if you take it in steps, and you don’t have to follow it exactly.  The following is how I made the recipe. 

I don’t make pie crust for starters.  So I didn’t follow the recipe to make the crust.  I also did not make the candied cranberries or the leaves from pie crust.  We are simple folk, and I only have so much patience on a recipe that I’m not sure is going to work.  The only part of the recipe I followed to the letter was the pie filling.  However, I didn’t use the store bought canned pumpkin, I used one of my quarts of canned pumpkin, and mashed with a hand masher (I’m sure it has a technical name, but you get what I mean right?), then added the rest of the pie filling ingredients. 

Also, I do not have pie weights, so as a substitute I used another pie pan on top of the pie crust to pre- bake like the recipe calls for. However, this is where my pie crust catastrophe occurred- I did not grease the pie pan on top of the pie crust!  I know right, your thinking that was really dumb- and it was!  After the pre-baking of the pie crust I took it out and tried to pry off the top pie pan- and it didn’t work ( Imagine that).  This was the day I was at home with a “sick” Brown boy, who was running around the house chasing his brother.  My nerves were a bit shot at this point, but I called Farmer Brown and asked him to bring me another pie crust home- the battle was lost, but the pumpkin pie war was not over!

I placed my mixed pie filling into the refrigerator for two days, until I had time to try again.  The second time, I greased the top pie pan, pre-baked for 10 minutes, and took it out of the oven.  The crust didn’t look the greatest, but I made it work, and at this point really just wanted to see if the filling would even taste like a pumpkin pie.  I baked the pie according to directions.  Once cooled placed an obligatory dollop of whip cream on the pie, and tasted. One word-Amazing!! 

Then the oldest Brown boy (posing as Spiderman) tried it, he started dancing around, which made everyone laugh.  The pumpkin pie was a hit, even Farmer Brown (FB), who has very discerning taste liked it.  FB didn’t even mind the store bought crust.  I call this recipe a no-fail recipe.  If the ingredients can withstand all that I did (or didn’t do) then almost anyone can make it. 

And homemade food is always better- you know the blood, sweat and tears that went into it.   So when you are having a rough week- try making a pie, it just might be the trick to take your mind off your troubles.

P.S. If you are looking for a gift for me, pie weights- I don’t have any yet, just saying…

P.S.S. I should write a book titled, “If you give Mom Pumpkin Seeds.”


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