(I meant to post an unmolested photo of this pie first, but it was attacked while my camera battery was charging.)
So the first true baking of the autumn has commenced. I meant to start this a few weeks ago, but I got distracted by a recipe for corn and bean and pumpkin stew, so I made that instead and never got around to turning on the oven.
So last night I *completed* my first attempt at homemade pumpkin pie, and a very successful attempt it was, too! I say completed, because I began making it on Saturday night, and completely lost motivation, which turned out to be a huge blessing, because for once I actually chilled my pie crust overnight, and boy what a difference that makes!
The pie crust was a shortening crust from scratch, because my roommate ate my butter and I didn't feel like going to the store at that point- so, that dusty jar of crisco in the back of the cabinet it was!
I froze the crisco overnight, and then made up the crust the next morning and chilled it all day. Best pie crust I've ever made, despite my definite preference for butter crusts!
The pie crust was just a simple 2-1-1/2 recipe, with flour, shortening, and cold water. It came out delicious and flaky and okay, a little bit burned around the edges because my oven is not very precise. So once I cut off the very edges of the crust, it was delicious.
The pie recipe was a modification of this recipe: Suzanne's Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie
The modifications were these:
I replaced the evaporated milk with a tin of condensed milk.
Instead of white sugar, I swirled in some molasses at the end.
I definitely used more than a 1/4 tsp of each of those spices.
The result was sweet and full of lovely spices, and because I didn't run my pumpkin through a food processor, had nice bits of pumpkin in it. I like the pie a little chunkier, which is a major pitfall to using tinned pumpkin.
Also, what better than a little poetry with your pie?
As I was sitting on my kitchen floor, engaged in a conversation with my friend and waiting for the pie to bake, my roommate came into the kitchen to share a poem from the stunning poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly with us. And now I can't get the poem out of my consciousness.
Blessed is the Field
In the late heat the snakeroot and goldenrod run high,
White and gold, the steaming flowers, green and gold,
The acid-bitten leaves....It is good to say first
An invocation. Though the words do not always
Seem to work. Still, one must try. Bow your head.
Cross your arms. Say: Blessed is the day. And the one
Who destroys the day. Blessed is this ring of fire
In which we live....How bitter the burning leaves.
How bitter and sweet. How bitter and sweet the sound
Of the single gold and black insect repeating
Its two lonely notes. The insect's song both magnifies
The field and casts a shadow over it, the way
A doorbell ringing through an abandoned house
Makes the falling rooms, papered with lilies and roses
And two-headed goats, seem larger and more ghostly.
The high grasses spill their seed. It is hard to know
The right way in or out. But here, you can have
Which flower you like, though there are not many left,
Lady's thumb in the gravel by the wood's fringe
And on the shale spit beneath the black walnut that houses
The crow, the peculiar cat's-paw, sweet everlasting,
Unbearably soft. Do not mind the crow's bark.
He is fierce and solitary, but he will let us pass,
Patron of the lost and broken-spirited. Behind him
In the quarter ring of sumacs, flagged like circus tents,
The deer I follow, and that even now are watching us,
Sleep at night their restless sleep. I find their droppings
In the morning. And here at my feet is the self-heal,
Humblest of flowers, bloomless but still intact. I ate
Some whole once and did not get well but it may strike
Your fancy. The smell of burning rubber is from
A rabbit carcass the dog dragged into the ravine.
And the smell of lemon is the snakeroot I am crushing
Between my thumb and forefinger....There could be
Beneath this field an underground river full
Of sweet liquid. A dowser might find it with his witching
Wand and his prayers. Some prayers can move
Even the stubborn dirt....Do you hear? The bird
I have never seen is back. Each day at this time
He takes up his ominous clucking, fretting like a baby,
Lonely sweetling. It is hard to know the right way
In or out. But look, the goldenrod is the color
Of beaten skin. Say: Blessed are those who stand still
In their confusion. Blessed is the field as it burns.
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