Once upon a time, more than 10 years ago, I went over to my Grandma Lois's house to find her tending to a pan of something orange on the stove. It was a crisp autumn day, and with a grin, she explained that she was cooking pumpkin for a pie. "This is how Mama used to do it," she said, referring to my great grandmother, Lily May Winger. "And I just got a notion that I wanted to do it." She told me she wasn't really sure what she was doing, but she bought the pumpkin anyway, and memory seemed to guide her. Years later, I'm missing Grandma Lois, and a few weeks ago, I got the notion myself that I'd like to cook some pumpkin. I don't know what I'm doing, of course, but if all goes well, we should have a heck of a pumpkin pie come Thursday.
This, my friends, is a certified organic Sugar Pie pumpkin. It's supposed to be for baking. I bought it at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market.
Compared to a jack-o-lantern pumpkin, it's smaller and has fewer seeds.
Dang that rind was tough! (I skinned a knuckle cutting it up.) This is probably why someone once decided canned pumpkin would be a lot easier.
The pumpkin is now simmering on my stove. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment, in which I bake a Thanksgiving pie.
3 comments:
This calls for detailed instructions, Trish. You *have* to make us all disciples of Great Grandma. Seriously.
Wait 'til I make the actual pie and determine if it was worth it or not! I ended up cooking that pumkin for about four hours! Not that it was difficult, but you need four hours to put around the house, piddle, stir occasionally.
So? Where's the pie?
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