bea's pumpkin pie

Everyone knows someone who makes the best something. Your mom might make the best lasagna, your sister might make the best pot roast, your aunt might have the best bread recipe... for me I mostly think Rachael Ray does it best but that is just because I didn't spend countless hours watching and learning as my aunt made the best anything in the kitchen. She can attest to this- I believe her words are "I don't cook". I was child number 4 in her life with more than a decade separating me from the rest of her children. In addition, my aunt and I were busy girls and my uncle often worked the night shift. All of these factors caused me to become well acclimated to Stouffers' and mac 'n' cheese a la Kraft. What my aunt lacked in the cooking department she more than made up for in her love for me- and I appreciated her honesty ("I don't cook").

With that being said, there is one thing my aunt made (and not very often) that was made very well. I didn't grow up saying it was the best-- mostly because it was all I knew. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving Carolyn would make pumpkin pie, and all I knew was that I loved it. I would help her made them and I would help her eat them. As I say, I didn't necessarily hold fast to the idea that this was the best pumpkin pie and now that I am married I have even made pumpkin pie on my own and with different recipes. Let me say, they were not as good. No match, really. Now, I am not trying to throw my self-proclaimed non-cooking aunt under the bus here, but you should know this recipe is not just her own (she just executes it very well). My Grandma, Bea, is the one responsible for passing down this pumpkin pie recipe. This Thanksgiving I will be using Bea's recipe and I might even say that my Grandma made (and my aunt makes) the best pumpkin pie. And who am I to keep a good thing from you?

Bea's pumkin pie:

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tbs. flour

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1 ½ cups pumpkin (1 regular can)

1 slightly beaten egg

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

2 tbs. Dark molasses

Mix dry ingredients together well. Add remaining ingredients, and stir until smooth. Pour into unbaked 9” pie shell. Bake at 450* for 15 minutes, then reduce temp. to 325* and bake for 45 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean.