By Brooke A. Brown

Last weekend, the Lovely Miss S and I were lucky enough to be invited to a pre-Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving feast. This premature activity felt perfectly appropriate to me as I have plenty to be thankful for this holiday season (this blog, great friends, good health and my sweet Miss S, of course). Naturally, I’ll be celebrating again come November 22nd.

Anyway, this particular feast was especially memorable for two very distinct reasons: (1) It was our first taste of deep-fried turkey, and (2) it was also our first taste of ‘pump-can’ pie. Let me first say that the turkey prepared in such dramatic fashion was hands-down the most delicious and moist bird we’ve ever encountered. One may think such a thing would be unbearably oily, but such was not the case. Knowing beforehand that this was the type of turkey we would be having, I was well-prepared for the tastiness that ensued. The same cannot be said of the pie.

In classic fashion, I stuffed myself with stuffing, turkey, both mashed and sweet potatoes, gravy, green beans, a bit of corn, cranberry relish and, yes, even a healthy salad of mixed greens before retiring to the TV room for football and digestion. It was gluttony at its most sincere.

After several snaps of the pigskin, the offering of dessert – in the form of ‘pump-can’ pie – was presented to me. How could I possibly resist? To clarify, ‘pump-can’ pie is simply a hybrid of both pumpkin pie and pecan pie, the former acting as the base and the latter as the top. (My friend Drew dubbed it the turducken of pies.) It’s really pretty genius if you think about it, not to mention decadent and extremely scrumptious. Being that it’s two pies in one, it saves much needed space on such an occasion when counter and table-top become overrun with plates, serving dishes and the like. Dare I say it? Pump-can pie is a Thanksgiving miracle!

I wonder what the Plymouth Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians would think about deep-fried turkey and pump-can pie? I wonder what you would think? Well, I can’t help with the dunking of the bird, but I can offer the following recipe for the pie. Give it shot and let me know the results. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• 1 cup LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecan halves

DIRECTIONS

1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
2. COMBINE pumpkin, sugar, egg and pumpkin pie spice in medium bowl; stir well. Spread over bottom of pie shell.
3. COMBINE corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla extract in same bowl; stir in nuts. Spoon over pumpkin layer.
4. BAKE for 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 9:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.