Always bake from scratch

I have always thought that my grandmother made the best pumpkin pies. When I was little, I didn't really like the crust so she'd make a few special, little pies with no crust at all. Just filling. Just for me. That's love. I'm pretty sure she makes them from the canned pumpkin pie filling but she makes her own crust and always makes about 10 pies every thanksgiving and christmas. That means there is plenty for seconds, plus a pie for anyone who wants one to take home. You think I ever pass that up?

I got so excited the other day when I saw pumpkins at Trader Joe's here in Studio City. They're the first ones I've seen this year. I grabbed a big traditional pumpkin, from the bottom of the bin, and put it in my cart before I headed in. There were beautiful cinderella pumpkins in white and light orange too but they were more than double, so I'll just enjoy the one sitting outside my neighbor's door. I grabbed two mini ones from the produce section annnnnnnd one for a pumpkin pie! There was a sticker on it with the whole simple recipe so I grabbed some pumpkin pie spice, picked up a can of condensed milk and the thing was gone 2 days later. Between just me and Chase mind you. And I had extra batter so I even made myself two little crust-less pies. Yes they are all gone. Now there's no need to compare here, but my pies hold some pretty fierce competition to my Gram's. If it weren't for all the love she pours into the task... This is the grandma who taught me to love clay and sew and gave me an art room to do it all in.

The recipe is super simple and I simplified it further! If you have a TJ's, you can grab these perfect sized little babies and some of their pumpkin pie spice (which has nutmeg and clove and all the other spices a pumpkin pie calls for) and then get some condensed milk from the normal grocery cause they don't carry that horrendous, deliciousness.

*Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
*Cut the pumpkin in half without the stem and scoop out all the gunk
*Bake the sides face down for an hour and a half
*Scoop out the flesh when it's cool to work with
*add an egg
*add the spices (I just added like 5 tsp of the
pumpkin pie spice, you can add more if you want it stronger!)
*add the can of condensed milk and viola!
*Blend it all together, fill your pie tins and bake for about an hour

Soooooooo Delicious and rich and flavorful. When I bake, I always bake from scratch and there is a good reason. Everything comes together so much better, no matter how simple the recipe, when it's made from scratch, there's no comparison!