[We could perhaps live by Thanksgiving vegetables alone, but why would we, really when there's pie? What's your favorite pie? Leave a comment on the recipe for a double-crust apple pie I call American Apple Pie, you can win a video for making perfect pie crusts. Winner will be announced on Wednesday.]

"If I were a guy, I'd only eat pie.
Oh my, oh sigh, please feed me pie."

Okay, so it's awful poetry, but the pie? It's completely dreamy.

I made this pie twice, once with fresh pumpkin (and burned the crust so no photo) and then again, as pictured here (where the crust is raw, yes, there was considerable trial and error learning how to make a Flaky Tender Pie Crust) with canned pumpkin. Which is better? Well, you'll have to decide because it depends.

FRESH PUMPKIN The fresh pumpkin made a pie sweetly pale in color and subtly delicate in flavor. It's the 'foodie' choice for people who are curious about food and welcome adaptation -- and it's my personal pick, forever and ever. (Plus, I getting requests from the taste tasters, "So when are you going to make another pumpkin pie?")

CANNED PUMPKIN But pie made with canned pumpkin looked and tasted exactly like we've been trained to know as pumpkin pie. It's the 'safe' choice for people who are saddled with tradition and only eat what they know.

The honey is wonderful as the sweetener, too, adding an edgy complexity to the pumpkin custard. I'll be making this pie again on Thanksgiving, it's just lovely.

TO PREP AHEAD

SEVERAL DAYS AHEAD Roast the pumpkin (here's how to roast a whole pumpkin) if you choose fresh pumpkin
MORNING OF Make the pastry and bake the pie; I especially like the custard chilled so once the pie has cooled, refrigerate it if you can. I know people make their pies the day before but I think the pastry suffers and if it's good pastry, you don't want to mar it.

LEFTOVER REPORT The custard is dreamy, even a few days later.

OTHER TIPS

• Be sure to buy a pie pumpkin (good ones can be sugar pie pumpkins, kabocha, hubbards and one I keep hearing about but haven't found yet, a cheese pumpkin), not one for jack o'lanterns or decoration.
• After roasting the pumpkin, drain the roasted flesh in a strainer. If it's full of water that drains out, taste it. Is it any good? If it's bland and watery, I'd use canned pumpkin instead.
  
• If you can't find a pie pumpkin, use a roasted butternut squash.
  
• If you go for the canned version, be sure to buy pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling which has already been spiced and etc.
  
• This recipe is for a deep-dish pie pan, one that holds a full six cups of filling. If yours is shallower, adjust accordingly -- or better yet, put extra custard into custard cups and put into a hot water bath in the oven while the pie bakes. (My recipe for pumpkin pudding shows how to cook with a hot water bath.)
  

INSPIRATION
The recipe comes from Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook which was published in 1965 and is out of print. Used copies are available and so popular that some editions are priced $40 - $60! This is the one cookbook I carry when I visit my dad and am expected -- based on tradition -- to make a pie every day so he can invite friends for pie and coffee in the evening. More than one guest has been known to put in an 'order' for a favorite pie months in advance. FUNNY STORY: Flipping through the pages, every once in awhile I'll find a note penciled in my dad's handwriting, "Make this." It makes me laugh, knowing he also flips through the pages, thinking, "Please feed me pie".

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