Let Him Eat Pie

Advent began last Sunday, so the countdown to Christmas has officially begun. And today is December 1...which means that there are only 24 days to go! Woo hoo! This really is the most wonderful time of the year. I'm going to be ticking off the days on this magnetic calendar, as excited as a small child awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus.

When I look out my window, it doesn't seem like Christmas is around the corner. The lawn is still fairly green--and I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not, but the other day I thought I saw new green shoots popping out of the brown, crusty piles of what is left of the daylilies that bloomed last spring. It's only about 6:00 a.m. here and it's already a balmy 40ish degrees. We got hit with a wicked big Nor'easter in October and had a white Halloween, but I'm not so sure at this point if we're going to have a white Christmas.

Tonight, our #2 son--the one who was all alone (sick in bed with the flu, the poor guy) on Thanksgiving day--is coming over to have a belated turkey dinner, with all the trimmings, with his father and me. He had no appetite at all last Thursday; but then when he finally started feeling better a few days later, he bought himself a pre-cooked chicken at the Wal-Mart deli, whipped up some Hungry Jack mashed potatoes, and tried to put together some gravy, using chicken broth and the meager drippings from the package the chicken had come in. "It wasn't too bad, but it just wasn't the same," he admitted--an understatement if I've ever heard one. It was a valiant effort by a young bachelor with limited culinary talents, and I had to give him credit for trying. But this would not do, I decided. I got to sit and relax on Thanksgiving this year at my oldest son's house, while he and his wife put on the feast. But I need to don my trusty apron and get to work, because I just can't let one of my boys go without an honest-to-goodness, homecooked Thanksgiving dinner.

I had already made two pumpkin pies over Thanksgiving weekend, and my #2 son doesn't even like pumpkin pie; so I really didn't have any plans to make another one. But last night when my husband and I were out shopping for supplies for tonight's dinner, he asked if I was making pumpkin pie--and if you could have seen the hopeful look on his face, you would have rushed to the baking aisle to get the ingredients just like I did. You have to understand something about my husband: pumpkin pie is his favorite dessert in all the world--I mean, to him 1 serving of pumpkin pie=1/4 of the pie. True story. When it's in the house, that's what he has for breakfast. He cannot eat a Thanksgiving dinner (even his second Thanksgiving dinner in the span of a week) without pumpkin pie. I'd much prefer a piece of cake for dessert myself, but I just have to let him eat pie. So I'm going to make him a pie.

I'm actually kind of excited about this pie, because I'm making a homemade pie crust for it. I love to bake cakes and other dessert items from scratch, but I've always been lazy when it comes to pie crusts. I usually just get the frozen ones when I make pumpkin pies for my hubby. But today, I'm making my own crust, using a recipe I found on-line--one that calls for butter rather than Crisco. Mmmm...butter... I'm hoping this is going to be the best pumpkin pie I've ever made. I'll let you know how this crust turns out, and if it's awesome, I'll post the recipe.