pumpkin pie success- against the odds.

John said the pie was fantastic and lots of other complimentary adjectives.  

I was proud, happy, and possibly confident enough to make future pies for people other than family. 

the hurdles:

finding ingredients: I acquired all necessary ingredients and only had to look in 2 stores to find canned pumpkin.  Evaporated milk was plentiful!

proper equipment- uhmm, yes, I do realize that usually pies are ROUND! I didn't realize until AFTER I made the crust that I should have purchased a pie pan, because our stuff is still on the ship.  However, I forged ahead and it worked out!  Brilliant!

crust: my recipe called for 1 cup butter.  Problem is, butter here comes in 500 gram blocks!  Anyone know off the top of their head how many grams of butter in 1 cup?.   I did a little guess work as I divided up my block of butter with a knife.  

cook time and temp: I also had to convert the oven temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit (I'm getting used to that) and then do some guess work as to whether my pan and the convection oven I used meant that I should cook it longer or shorter than the recipe suggested.  

high pressure: PLUS John is always commenting about how pumpkin pies need to NOT have a soggy crust so I used my mother-in-laws trick of precooking the crust "just a little" and crossed my fingers again that my version of "just a little" wasn't too long or too short either. 

Against all odds, it worked (twice-since the recipe was for 2 pies) So either pumpkin pie is way easy and there is nothing to be afraid of, or I'm a "good cooker"

(Almost every night at dinner Asher says to me, "you're a good cooker mom!"- it's funny because sometimes he says it even if he doesn't like the meal).

I got the crust recipe from John's cousin Marla who posted it on her private blog just for me (thank you!).  I'll post it below because it really was super easy and sounds like lots of you are pie lovers or have pie loving husbands.  The pumpkin part of the recipe I took right off the can of Libby's canned pumpkin.  

Easy (according to me) and delicious (according to John)!

Best Pie Crust Ever

1.5 c. white flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. salt

1 t. sugar (or more!)

1 c. butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.

2. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

3. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.

Marla added lots of fun comments here and there but this is the bare bones recipe.  However she did say "...the food processor is your ticket to pie dough heaven." and "the gateway to awesome easy pie dough."

After doing it once, I have to agree.