Pumpkin Pie (and it's not even Thanksgiving!)

The kids wanted to make pumpkin pie. We had a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry so I figured, why not! Who says you can't make a pumpkin pie and eat it just days before Thanksgiving? So the scale went up a little over the weekend but, ahhh, it was a good weekend. (And really, with a large fam like ours, a pie doesn't last very long anyways so it isn't like it was going to still be around come Thanksgiving.)

 I tried something new this time. Well, a couple of things. We didn't have the evaporated milk so I used whole milk. Just one cup instead of 12 oz like the recipe called for. A cup seemed to be enough so I stopped there. I do think for some reason the evaporated milk yields a better flavor but I'd have to do a side by side comparison to make sure it was the milk. Hmmmmm.

The other new thing I tried was a braided crust. I love how the braided crust looks- so pretty! (Single crust pies with the crimped edge always cave into the pie while baking for me. I never know how to keep that from happening.) All I did was cut the  bottom crust flush to the top of the pie plate, put the filling in and then I wasn't really sure what to do next. Ha! So let me tell ya what I did. I sort of folded the bottom crust down to meet the filling and laid the braided crust on top of that. Clear as mud? I know. I'm sorry! 

Those ugly spots are where i poked it with a fork to check to see if it was done. oops!

I think next time my braid will look even prettier. Practice makes perfect, right?! This year I'm in charge of the apple pie. I'm not sure if I will do the braid or something totally different. I've got 2 days to figure that out before I get it baked. 

Hope you are having fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!