I’m still buried under work for my 1st shift job, and my second shift boss is a little tyrant. So I have no time for proper posts. But I wanted to reblog my pumpkin pie recipe from last year with its new updated, mom-time-saving tweaks.

Tweak #1 Pumpkin Pie Spice

I used to mix all the spices separately per the recipe I use. Now….. screw it. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie Spice is good enough. I just added up all the different measurements for the individual spices and threw that in the mix. The hubs says that my last pie needed just a touch more cinnamon. Otherwise, no difference in taste.

Tweak #2 Graham Cracker Crust

With the pre-made freezer pie crusts, the edges were always either breaking off in transit from the store to my house or burning before the pie could finish baking. This necessitated my putting aluminum foil all the way around the edges of the pie pan. And that’s time I just don’t have. Now I’m using the pre-made graham cracker crusts available next to the pudding in the baking aisle. There’s no edge at the top that could burn and it’s delicious. Win-win.

Tweak #3 Roasting The Pumpkin

There’s one thing I’m not willing to give up on…yet. And that’s making the pie from fresh pumpkin. But quartering the pumpkin and putting it in a casserole dish with water and roasting, blah, blah, blah. Who the hell has time for that. Plus, it always added water to the pumpkin puree. Alton Brown opened my eyes to just cutting the damn things in half and roasting them face down on a baking sheet. I didn’t have to wait for the water to cool down. The flesh separated from the skin very easily. And the house smelled amazing with MUCH less work. I didn’t even put salt on the pumpkins like he did, and it all turned out delicious.

Okay, that’s all the time I can spare for the blog. Check out last year’s pumpkin pie post for my recipe.