Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie

For some reason I always thought pumpkin pies were hard to make but it turns out that this is one of the quickest and easiest pie I have ever made.

9 inch pie crust

Filling:

1 can (15 oz.) 100% pure pumpkin

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Punch (1/8 teaspoon) each ground cloves and ginger

Heat oven to 350° F.  Fit crust to a 9 inch pie plate, Crimp or flute the edges.

For the filling mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk or use an electric mixer until well blended. Pour into the crust.  Bake an hour or until a pointed knife inserted  near the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack and cook 1 hour or refrigerate.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Dump Cake

This is the first time I have made anything with pumpkin and my first “dump” cake. I have no idea why I have not cooked with pumpkin before but every year my mother always make the pumpkin pies and cookies and when she passed on I brought the pumpkin pies. This cake was easy and actually taste as good if not better than any pumpkin pie I have eaten.

3 eggs

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 30 ounce can of pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 18 ounce package of spice cake mix

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup melted butter

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Use some butter to coat a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Mix the eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, milk,and white sugar.

Gently stir in the cloves, cinnamon, salt, and ginger. Add this mix to the prepared pan.

Spread the dry cake mix EVENLY on top of this.Sprinkle the pecans over the top of the cake mix.

Using the melted butter and evenly cover the whole cake. This is important because places without the butter will not brown correctly.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving  is my most stressful holiday. I  don’t mind cooking when I want to cook but I dislike having to cook on demand.

My mother loved to cook and her simplest meals equal my Thanksgiving one. She sat the bar high when it came to Thanksgiving – Roast turkey, raisin apple dressing, oyster dressing, plain dressing, homemade egg noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, baked beans, green beans with ham, molded cranberry salad, cranberry sauce, corn, home – made yeast rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, date pudding, persimmon pudding, jello, cake,and  ice cream.  I tried to keep her tradition alive after she died but it was just impossible especially when I had to work the day before and the day after. My Thanksgiving is based more or the fact that the family is all together for a few hours and not on the food. We still have the roast turkey, raisin – apple dressing and plain dressing (but they are combined in the same dish), egg noodles (I do not make the noodles from scratch), mashed potatoes in gravy, cooked frozen vegetables, brought rolls, baked frozen apple pie, jello with cool whip, and brought pumpkin pie. If they are lucky I may bake some banana bread this year.

Chris is at work and Bill is working at the apartment today. They had to take the rental car back so I do hope that at least one of the cars makes it out of the repair shop today because I am tired of not having my truck.

While they were doing their thing I finished  the photo ledges in the studio.  This is what the short wall looked like before. Not bad but it did not allow me to change out the pictures without adding new nail holes.

Short wall

I decided to put up two new photo ledges each measuring four-foot long.

These are the painted pieces that I had to mount on the wall today. For instructions on making these ledges see How to make a photo shelf.

I even have room for more pictures in the same space! This looks so much neater. I would love to work on that trim board today but ran out of time. I have jello, banana bread, apple pie and a blueberry pie to bake this evening.

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