Pumpkin Pie

Last Saturday David, Christian and I made our very first homemade pumpkin pie. Now I'm not much of a pumpkin pie person, I eat it socially, but I'm not it's biggest fan, but this pie is definitely the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. We got the recipe off of a sticker on the bottom of the pie pumpkin we purchased, but since we Heberts never do anything conventionally, things were somewhat "approximated". Anyway, here goes:

First, go find the best pumpkin possible. The hunt might be tedious, but well worth it (our real pie pumpkin was found at Fry's, but that doesn't have the same effect now does it?)

Bring your pumpkin home, cut it in half (stem off), and pull out as much of the seeds and strings as you can.

Once cut, place open cut down on a foil covered baking sheet, and cover both halves with foil. Bake at 350 degrees until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove foil and let cool.

Scoop out the flesh and mash it with a potato masher or food processor until smooth. Make sure to drain it if it's too watery. Beat it just until smooth.

Combine 1 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1 1/3 sweet 'n condensed milk, 1 egg (we used cinnamon applesauce instead), 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 cup hot water (if using applesauce, you'll need to eyeball the water and use less).

Pour into a 9" pie shell. Now I wasn't ambitious enough to make my own pie shell this time, so I bought the inexpensive two-in-a-bag Kroger pie shells, waited until they thawed, removed the pie shells, blended them together in a ball, rolling pinned it out, re laid it in a pie pan, and made riveted edges with the end of a butter knife.

Make sure you're being properly supervised, every little hand can help!

Bake at 375 degress 55 - 65 minutes, the center will still move slightly, the top will be nicely browned.

Cool, add a favorite topping if you wish, and enjoy!! The recipe says that the mashed pumpkin will hold 5 days in the refrigerator, so maybe make some pumpkin bread with the leftovers? And if so, please be sure to send some my way :)
**As I said, we did things somewhat unconventionally. After adding some hot water to the mix we realized it felt way too water, so we added some more pumpkin and spices, all the spices were eyeballed. I would make sure the consistency of the mixture is soft but certainly not runny or watery.