No More Mr. Nice Pie
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pies About Town
  • Pie-Ku
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index

PIE-TOBER, NO!VEMBER

10/17/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
On Saturday, I overheard the word Thanksgiving closely followed by the word pie followed in hot pursuit by the word order. The words triggered an involuntary response in my right arm. Beginning somewhere between shoulder and elbow, rapidly traveling southbound through the carpal tunnel, encompassing my wrist and finally exiting through my fingers, the pain was surprisingly real.
 
It is barely Pie-tober, with miles to travel before turkeys and tryptophan get tangled up in the good dishes. Although there is a newly purchased, unopened box of After Eight Mints resting on my dining room table, I will ignore said holiday until rolling pin and hands become one.
 
Despite my fierce denial, there is one slight pie wrinkle that must be addressed, and that is the state of the pumpkin. Pies in general, but specifically Thanksgiving pies are driven by food memories. The people seated at the head of the table may change and the faces reflected in the sterling silver are either a good bit older or brand new to the party. It is pretty safe to assume, however, that the culmination of the holiday meal will feature triangular slices draped in ice cream or whipped cream. In anticipation of the last Thursday in November, one must ponder the pumpkin.
 
Pumpkin pie is highly personal.  Yes, there’s a familiar assemblage of sugars and dairy, spices and squash. The memories are what make your pumpkin pie different from mine. Are you partial to the richness of heavy cream, sour cream or Carnation evaporated milk? Is there molasses in the mix? Do you like a sprinkling of mace or black pepper? Is the recipe taken from the back of the Libby canned pumpkin or is it penned in your grandmother’s hand? Pumpkin pies can be similar but one girl’s nutmeg is another girl’s allspice. A bigger question looms; are you pro cloves or opposed?
 
What I vividly remember about Jessie’s pumpkin pie is a can of Libby’s pumpkin lounging on the Formica kitchen counter next to a canister of dark brown sugar and a parade of McCormick spice tins. Jessie measured out cinnamon and nutmeg, ginger and the slightest hint of cloves. I have a faded recipe card that I hastily scribbled one Thanksgiving, years before the launch of A Slice of Heaven. Jessie dictated the recipe including the directive, “add two good pinches of salt.” In hindsight, Jessie was decades ahead of the salt caramel bandwagon, adding a little more salt to balance the sweetness of the brown sugar and give the pie some spunk. The rest of the details were drowned out by the hum of the Sunbeam mixer and the Macy’s Day parade. I wish I had asked her why her pumpkin pies never cracked.
 
In anticipation of what I consider the actual Pie Day, this week I auditioned a trio of pumpkin pies before the audience of Team Butter. Personally, I prefer a bit of tipsy in my holiday dessert, but the boozy entry received the comment, "Thank you. Next?"  In the end, we settled on a classic pumpkin pie; just enough spice, but not too much. Hopefully we chose the one that says, “Hey- thanks!”
 
​When I’m standing at the bench, slicing pounds of butter (and not my thumb) into sensible cubes, I daydream about Thanksgiving. In my dream, there is a sign emblazoned across the front of the bakery. It declares, “NO PIE RESERVATIONS. We bake ‘em- you take ‘em, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.”  The same way Linus believed in the Great Pumpkin, I so terribly want to believe. A girl can dream.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2025
    July 2024
    March 2024
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Ellen Gray

    Professional Pie-isms & Seasonal Sarcasm

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Artwork by Retsu Takahashi
© Ellen Gray All Rights Reserved 2014
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pies About Town
  • Pie-Ku
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index