Pumpkin Pie

 

Is a pumpkin a fruit or a squash?  According to Dr. Joe Masabni of Texas A&M Agri, a pumpkin is neither a squash, nor a vegetable.  A pumpkin is an old fashioned fruit because anything that starts as a flower is botanically a fruit.  Giving us some insight on a pumpkin's potential pie filling properties.

Pumpkins are a good source of Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Vit. D, B6, and Magnesium.  A good source of dietary fiber and about 95 calories for a small pumpkin makes it an excellent food source.  The pumpkin could even be verging on the primoradial edges of being a super food.  Just think pumpkins and bananas standing hand in hand on the precipice of food immortality.  

Generally beginning with the Holiday season, Thanksgiving thru Christmas and New Years, one of the staple experiences is Grandma's Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie.  The pumpkin pie takes all the good things about a pumpkin, the healthy stuff, and blends it with the stuff of the holidays that are only good for you during this time of year.  Things like: Sugar and Brown Sugar, Molasses, Allspice, Cinnamon, Butter, Evaporated milk, and of course cooked and smashed pumpkin all mixed together and baked in a real nice pie crust at 375 degrees for about an hour until the center of the custard is wiggly, yet firm and a toothpick emerges un-sticky.  Pumpkin Pie, yum.

In order to serve a good pumpkin pie properly the chef needs a large quantity of home made whipped cream.  This is fairly simple to create.  Some Heavy whipping cream, sugar, and a touch of vanilla is all it takes.  Mix it all together in a large bowl, stick a blender in the bowl and turn it on high until the ingredients are magically transformed into that frothy sweet stuff we know as whipped cream.  Oh boy...

Now the proper deployment of the whipped cream.  A method of distribution is to find the largest spoon, ladle you have in your spoon drawer and dip it into a cooled bowl of your homemade, thickened, whip cream and plop a healthy quantity on a goodly slice of pie.  The word dollop does not apply as it is not an adequate description for the proper amount of sweet whipped goodness on top of your pumpkin pie.   Grab a fork and dive in.  If need be a spring board can be made available. 

For me a good pumpkin pie does not usually survive a sitting.  You may have surmised by now that pumpkin pie is like mother's milk to me.  Pumpkin pie in my world is a year long experience, as it should be.  Pumpkins are indeed a Super Food.  Immortality is right around the corner, now to add some banana.

Peace and Balance,

John