In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would depart from usual topics and address the time honored tradition of Pumpkin Pie! Our family recipe has passed through several generations now and is still a winner with the next generations. We have made a concession to modern times and switched to using canned pumpkin (not canned pumpkin pie MIX). If you want to cut up, cook down and puree your Halloween pumpkin, that works just as well.

This recipe is very simple, but it does take a long time to bake. We typically make the pies the day before so there isn't a crisis with oven capacity and turkey cooking times.

Moms' (and Nanas') Pumpkin Pie

1 Pie shell (I used unbaked, but a 5-10 prebake will give a crisper shell if desired)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree

1-2/3 cups milk

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

dash allspice

1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Mix together: sugar, salt, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice)

2. Beat in eggs to mixture above; add sugar and spices to eggs

3. Beat in milk

4. Add pumpkin

5. Add pie mixture to shell

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees for duration of baking time, which can be anywhere from 35 - 60 minutes, depending on the custard and oven properties. A pie in 'done' when a knife inserted into the middle of the pie comes out clean (meaning no custard residue sticks to the knife). Tip: Whipped cream topping hides any unsightly knife scars on the surface of the pie. :-)

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!