Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin and mildly sweet winter squashes are a few of my favorite winter vegetables - soups, poduthuvals, dals, risotto - I like to add them to dishes as often as I can. Pumpkin is a rich source of nutrients, high in fiber with an inherent mild sweet taste that goes well with most dishes, including sambar and pachadi - South Indian staples.

Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Moo-less Chocolate Pie, Banana Cream Pie (and any sortof smooth-textured pudding-like pie filling), Strawberry Pie Glace are some of the kids' favorites, Cherry Pie being the least favored one.

I don't make pies often. Typically, something about the Holiday Season, with shorter days and colder weather inspires me to bake cookies, breads, and pies more often.

We made a Pumpkin pie during the Thanksgiving holidays recently. The recipe is the classic one found on the label of Libby's Canned Pumpkin.

The only simple changes I make to this famous recipe (as I have a chronic inability to follow a recipe exactly) are:

1. substitute brown sugar instead of sugar
2. only ½ cup of brown sugar instead of ¾ cup
3. use ready-made Pumpkin Spice mix

If making pie shell from scratch, I follow the standard single-crust pie pastry recipe, cook it, cool it before filling it and baking the Pumpkin pie.