My Kingdom for a Pie!

Ok, whatever. I was trying to think of some kind of clever title relating to pie, but no such luck!

A couple of months ago, I started seeing "pie pumpkins" for sale at my local co-op grocery. I had heard my grandmother talk about how much better a pumpkin pie is when it's made from a real pumpkin, so I was intrigued. I scoured the interwebs for recipes and advice about making a pumpkin pie from scratch and I spend several weeks talking myself into and out of making the pie.

I have had several culinary debacles lately, so I was not feeling particularly confident. Most recently was the great election-night eve oatmeal cookie fiasco. I started by adding too much flour, then decided to double the recipe to compensate. I then added to much butter, though only a couple of table spoons to much...I didn't think it would make a difference. I plopped the oatmeal balls onto the cookie sheet and put them in the oven, only to watch them swell and spread to cover the entire cookie sheet in a all-encompassing, semi-soft sheet. I had no idea what I had done wrong, but they were definitely not quite right...halfway between a cookie and peanut brittle in texture. My husband made me keep them, but I was ready to chuck it all in the trash! I did throw away the rest of the dough and about an hour realized what I had done wrong...I didn't double the oats.

Blerg.

Then there was the time that I tried to make turkey meatballs and they fell apart in the pasta sauce, rendering it inedible becaus ethey were still raw...and the time I tried to boil a chicken...the list goes on and on.

In fact...I can't remember the last time I cooked something that was even satisfactory.

Well, I'm going to consider my losing streak offically OVER! The pies were not perfect, mind you. I used condensed milk instead of evaporated milk in the pumpkin pie...I sliced the apples way too thin for the apple pie and the crusts were not as flakey as I would have liked. BUT! I cuaght my pumpkin pie mistake with the milk in time and I just skipped the white sugar, the apple pie was still really delicious and tasted kind of like an apple gratin-desert, and the crust-while far from flakey-was still very good and kinda tasted like a shortbread cookie. And, of course, it was a learning experience. I made a pie once when I was like 9 and hadn't tried since. It was another-maybe the first-culinary disaster. It turned out beautiful and delicious, but then I dropped it on the way out to the car and it splattered accross the pavement. I was devistated. I never made another pie again...


Until now! I'm going to try the crust again this weekend on a chicken pot pie and I think I will try to make an apple cranberry currant sometime this holiday season.

And don't they look great!! The crust designs are a little jacked up, but after making two completely different pies, I was starting to lose my steam.

I will now begin focusing my efforts on a single, perfect pie per week until the holidays are over. That's only like 3 weeks! I better get started!