Years ago when I was living with my grandparents while going to school away from home, my grandpa and I decided to make a pumpkin pie. We used a flashlight inside that year's Jack-o-lantern to keep it from being fouled with smoke and candle wax. We found a recipe in my great grandmothers handwritten cookbook and started to work. When our filling was ready, we turned to each other and asked "do you know how to make pastry?" With the answer a communal "no" we ran to the store and grabbed some frozen pie crusts and proceeded. Well, an hour or so later, we were salivating in front of the oven window while the aroma of homemade pumpkin pie filled the air. But alas, as I reached into the oven to take out the first pie, my brain temporarily turned off. The only pies I had ever taken out of an oven were those made by my mom who used glass Corning ware pie plates. Guess what?...instant frozen pie crusts don't come on corningware glass pans! We ended up with pumpkin soup all over the inside of the oven as the filling never set, and the tinfoil pan collapsed like a house of cards! We still laugh about my first pie!

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