Pie Contest

My nephew Greg has a green thumb. He carefully plotted, prepared and planted a large garden behind his parent's home in Marysville. They have been harvesting all sorts of goodies this summer. But this weekend yielded the big prizes: pumpkins. So my sister-in-law Kathy, who doesn't typically bake much, decided to make some pumpkin pies. She looked up how to cook the pumpkins, got a recipe from a co-worker and set to work. In the middle of all this, I sent her an email. When she answered she told me what she was doing and I recommended the very best pumpkin pie recipe I know, which I wrote about last fall in "Mary Holmstrom's Pumpkin Pie." Well, it just so happened that Kathy had enough pulp for 4 pies, so decided to make two of each recipe. Here is what she had to say, along with the alternate pie recipe and a picture.

First job was to cook the pumpkins. I used 4 pumpkins from Greg's home-grown pumpkin patch. I cut all the pumpkins in half, cleaned the seeds and string out. One half at a time I microwaved for 10 minutes, then scraped the pumpkin from the rind. When all the pumpkins were cooked I mashed with a potato masher. (This all took me about 3 hours, what a job. Thank god for canned.) But it was fun

I prepared the two pies, one with the recipe you recommended on your blog and this recipe, which I got from Mona, a co-worker:

1 cup fresh pumpkin
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon

Cream all ingredients together with electric mixer. Pour into baked pie shell and bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

The decision was split 50/50. Some liked the sweetness and spiciness of your recipe while the other half liked the milder flavor of the other recipe. I liked your recipe, with the taste of the molasses and how it gave the top of the pumpkin pie a glaze.

I still have enough to make 4 more pies or muffins and bread! Have to think about what to do next.