Pie Day!

Thanksgiving is two days away and with Ellie's four month checkup tomorrow and family coming into town tomorrow, too, I'm making my pies today. I've got two pumpkin pies in the oven right now and they smell SO good. We'll see how they turn out, since I used my own pumpkin instead of the canned variety. It's not as smooth as a canned puree would be (I made it in the blender since I didn't have a food mill yet - but now I do!!), but I think it will be fine. I'm not sure I've ever made pumpkin pie completely from scratch (puree, crust and everything) before, but I have now. I'm not making my own whipped cream, though. I could, but that's just one more thing to do. Canned whipped cream from Costco it is!

Okay... now for my pie crust recipe. You asked, Tam! It looks uninteresting, but don't knock it 'till you've tried it!

PIE CRUST
makes one 9 inch double/lattice crust or two 9 inch pies

2 C sifted all-purpose flour
1 t salt
2/3 C shortening
5-7 T cold water

Mix salt and flour together. Mix shortening into flour with your hands. Do not use any utensils. When the shortening is all mixed in and is somewhere between cornmeal and peas, add the water. Adding a T at a time, mix the water into the flour mixture with your hands. Form into a ball. Roll out into pie crust. For unfilled baked pie crust, bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.

I just have to add a little note here about how great my mom is. A few years ago she took all the recipes my brother and I grew up on (and a few of her favorites found after we were grown) and put them into a recipe book for us. I use that book more than any other cookbook in my kitchen, hands down. I know the recipes are tried and true and they're all right there. Thanks, Mom.