Once Upon A Time . . .

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away from this house, stuffed with multiple gang factions of cats, a remarkably stupid yet insidiously clever dog, an active, imaginative Boy who approaches cooking much like a mad scientist approaches his lab, and a finicky Husband who cannot be trusted because he will eat absolutely anything and only confess that he really hates it the third or fourth time you make it, I imagined that I enjoyed cooking.

I tried new recipes on a regular basis.

I actually made pie crusts from scratch, and angsted over flakiness vs. tenderness.

I made up recipes.

I thought it was fun.

Now, obviously, I have come to my senses. If you can't make it in a wok (crock pot for special occasions), it probably isn't going to happen.

The Husband (secret identity: The Potter) was instructed to make a set of dishes.

Said Husband appeared shortly thereafter with eight bowls.

That should tell you something.

Anyway.

It's Thanksgiving.

Time to bake.

This is the pie I make for every major holiday involving pumpkins -- Elegant Pumpkin Walnut Layered Pie.

Except I don't bother with the attractive leafy pie crust bits.

And my crust tends to have fingerprints. Mad Scientist variety.

And I use pecans (it's a Texas thing).

I do at least have the decency to whip the whipped cream with bourbon, so perhaps Southern Living will not offer me a grant to move to Maine.

Reading the recipe, I don't think I spice it correctly, either. We're more nutmegey and cinnamoney than that.

Pie is a very forgiving medium.

Perhaps the Mad Scientist can be convinced to make Nuclear Fudge while I do the pies . . .

Update: The sweet potatoes will be making an appearance this year as a pie (can you top a pie with marshmallows?), not because I found a wonderful recipe I must try but so I don't have to wash a casserole dish. Yeah, pathetic, I know.

And for the record, I don't own the horribly overpriced book. I have the original magazine that featured the recipe. I pulled it out the other day and put it somewhere safe and handy so it would be ready for today. Naturally, I can't find it anywhere, and the reason I felt compelled to post about pie was simply because it took nearly an hour to find the recipe online because I was looking for Pumpkin Pecan Pie. Believe me -- there are quite a few Pumpkin Pecan Pie recipes out there. After repeated searches, Google finally asked me if I had thought about Walnuts, and there it was. Finally. Eleven hundred million Pumpkin Pecan recipes later.