It was Thanksgiving Day and all of my homemade pumpkin soup and pumpkin puree I had so tirelessly prepped during the week and froze cracked, broke, and poured into my tiny freezer. I was preparing dinner entirely by myself for the first time since Terry was volunteering at the homeless shelter, so fter a few choice words on my list of horrible experiences involving pretty much all of my recent experiences with Ball quart jars, I was forced to resort to the quick and easy "ingredients on hand" version of a pumpkin pie (or pies actually) that I could accomplish along with all of the other holiday tasks in time for our company. So...I took to the internet to find a version that was lower in sugar than the one printed on the can and, as usual, I ended up combining bits and pieces of recipes from all over to get the perfect pie I needed.

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pureed pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 large eggs, slightly whisked
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (rounded)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) pie crust
1 jigger of your favorite bourbon or whiskey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°
In a small saucepan, heat pumpkin, spices and salt over low heat. The pour into another bowl to cool to room temperature.
Whisk all ingredients except pie crust together in a medium bowl until combined.
Pour into crust and bake at 425° for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350° and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes.
Place pie on wire rack to cool and enjoy!

The guest and neighbors (whom I shared the pies with) loved them, especially with homemade vanilla whipped cream! And although I am not the biggest fan of baked goods not from scratch, after the debacle with my jars (which had all of my puree as well as my pumpkin soup - which I needed to make AGAIN from scratch) I was not feeling shy about cracking open those cans.

And if you are interested in why I was so upset...check below:



Yup, there are just two of the...oh, six or so quart jars that snapped in my freezer. All that prep work! *Sigh* But, at least we had a great Thanksgiving. I have tons of new recipes to carry over throughout the holidays and the carb rush gave me enough energy to get those decorations out the next few days!