Thanksgiving and good friends (who are incredibly kind and gracious)

I spent Thanksgiving with my friends Jaclyn and Chris, Mary (Jaclyn's mom), Michele (Jaclyn's sister) and Greg, and Lindsay. Oh, and Julia, Jaclyn and Chris's beautiful daughter. Great people all around and always a fun time. I've spent Thanksgiving with these guys for several years now and each year my contribution is pie. Apple for Chris and pumpkin for everyone else. After this year, though, I'm thinking I should just bring ice cream and leave the pies to someone with more experience and a better oven, like Marie Callender or the House of Pies.

First of all, I shouldn't have waited until Thursday morning to start baking, or to go to the store for that matter. Second, I should probably wear my glasses when reading recipes and labels at the store. Third, I really need to learn how not to burn the crust. So, here's the story. My first pie, and the one I am actually willing to put my name on, was Pecan. Honestly, you can't screw up a pecan pie, and the crust didn't burn on this one (woo hoo). However, the making of the pecan pie brought up one very important point--check the cupboard before you go to the store to make sure you get everything you need, because you'll get home and realize you only have enough sugar for two pies and you'll have to figure something out for the third.

So, Pecan Pie in the oven, I started on the apple. Peel, cut, peel, cut, peel, stab yourself, peel, cut, roll out dough, realize it's not quite enough for the glass dish which is larger than the metal pans, roll top crust thinner and hope for the best. I barely had enough crust edge to overlap and not enough to make it fancy. Instead, I covered up with a heart in the middle of the crust and some fancy holes around the top. I guess the apple pie was okay, too. It tasted good and the crust only burned a little on the edges.

But the pumpkin...oh man. How does one mess up a pumpkin pie? Let's see:

1. Half Libby's can recipe/ half Betty Crocker cookbook recipe
   
2. Sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated or regular milk, as Betty called for.
3. Run out of white sugar, use only brown sugar.
4. Realize the condensed milk made it too sweet and overpowered the pumpkin taste.
5. Add another half can of pumpkin to make it pumpkiny
6. No cloves! eh, who needs cloves.
7. Bake an extra ten minutes until the center stops jiggling, and the crust is a charred mess.

I should have just left it at home and bought one along the way. Instead, I bravely brought it and it taunted me the whole day. Fortunately, Greg and Michele brought a pumpkin pie, or Chris bought one while he was out--either way, Thanksgiving was saved. I'm hoping my gracious friends dumped that monstrosity of a pie as soon as I left. You could have done it while I was there. No hurt feelings. I know it sucked. At least Lindsay got dessert this year thanks to Locali and their fine selection of vegan goodies. Oh, and Jaclyn made a pumpkin cheesecake that was delicious!

But, seriously, no more pies for me until I figure out what I'm doing wrong.