pumpkin pie zen

last night, I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch. Really! I started out with a Jack O Lantern pumpkin because that's what I had to start with. I scooped out the seeds and strings, carved it up, and cooked it on the stove to loosen up the pulp. The pureed goop was a bit watery so I lined a colander with paper towels and let that stuff drain while I made the pie shell. I mixed and made the pie shell in the pie tin, which I used a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and butter, only because I ran out of olive oil, and baked it for about 15 minutes.

Of course, I had to modify the filling recipe because I wasn't using a regular pie pumpkin but a large Jack O Lantern type pumpkin, which tends to have more water and is less sweet, so I added an extra egg and cut back on the evaporated milk and added a touch more sugar. I also made it a point to use only raw sugar and sea salt rather than the refined crap. The result is the best damn pumpkin pie I ever had. Not a bit of watery fluid on the bottom and the consistency of the filling was pretty damn good, considering I only used a whisk instead of a mixer. And the crust? Absolutely superb. It maintained it's flaky consistency and refused to get wet and sloppy, like every other store bought pie I've had, while imparting a semi-neutral flavor that only complimented the filling.

I suppose it would have been much easier to buy a can of pumpkin stuff, add the spices, and dump it all in a pre-made crust but that wasn't my intention. If I wanted to do it the easiest way possible I'd just buy the damn pie from a place that makes them by the hundreds, but this was supposed to be a zen exercise, not an attempt to acquire a pie.

This reminds me of something a boat builder once told me. He said, there are two reasons why someone would build a boat. One, because he needs a boat, and in that case, just buy a boat. And two, the joy of building a boat, in which case it doesn't matter if he ever finishes building it because he's building a boat for the joy of doing it.

I'm in the latter category. I didn't build a pie for profit, or to win a prize at the county fair, or because I was hungry. I made it because I wanted to.

If we all did our mundane chores with joy would life taste better?