When A Pumpkin Pie Nearly Isn't

Turkey is on the way. It’s a little less than two weeks till Thanksgiving day. A couple radio stations have started playing Christmas songs, stores have been set up for Christmas for a couple of weeks now, they’ve had trees and decorations up since before Halloween.

Some people think it’s starting way too early while others revel in it, the discussions can get pretty heated about it. Me, I love the holidays. I love the fall and the lead in to Thanksgiving and Christmas, for a number of different reasons.

 As a chef (past career but still something I love), fall dishes are the most fun for me to cook. I’ve still got the Turducken on my bucket list, but I can knock a turkey dinner out of the park. I use my Grandmothers dressing recipe, which has literally been handed down and used for 60 plus years now, my guess is the true age is probably closer to 80 or 90.

Years ago I was the PM Sous Chef at the old Carefree Inn. We did holiday buffets and naturally had a big one lined up for Thanksgiving. We roasted cases of turkeys, broke them down, sliced them, used the bones and scraps to make fresh stock which was the base for giblet gravy.

We bought cases of fresh potatoes for mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and mushrooms for vegetables (mixed with walnuts and fines herbs). My friend and co- worker Mike was working on a couple of Ice Carvings, and kitchen was humming along.

Everything was finished up and I headed home for the night, feeling pretty comfortable and happy with everything. Cruising along I ran over everything in my mind, checking off the list, when I had one of those “OH MY GOD,” gut wrenching, adrenaline pumping, hot flash moments, generally reserved for life altering moments.  And my life unquestionably would have been altered, albeit temporarily.

Pumpkin Pies, PUMPKIN PIES! I completely spaced out baking 60 Pumpkin Pies, for a Thanksgiving Buffet. I fishtailed across a few lanes of traffic in a U-Turn and blasted back up to Carefree. Pumpkin Pies bake in about 45 minutes, but they need to sit for a few hours to firm up and cool. I was pretty sure I could pull it off…pretty sure, not positive, but I wasn’t going down in flames.

I did pull it off after a long lonely night in the kitchen. Walking out around 4:30 am Thanksgiving morning I ran into Jerry, the AM Sous Chef, on his way in to fire everything up for the day. He never did ask me why I was just leaving work at that time, and if he reads this, now he knows. We had Pumpkin Pies for the hungry hoardes.

Check that list, and have a blast getting ready for Thanksgiving!