Climbing the Third Stair

Today's production at work: 200-something dinner rolls (each cut and shaped by hand), 24 loaves of pumpkin cranberry bread (16 small, 8 large), 2 pumpkin pies, 2 maple walnut pies, 11 pie shells. That's my personal output: I had a bakery assistant working today but I put her in charge of the bakery's non-holiday stuff. Tomorrow's production will be bigger--about double the amount of dinner rolls, to start with--but I'll have my assistant manager to help.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post my Ancestral Pumpkin Pie Recipe. This recipe came to me from my mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from her sister (my great-aunt Florance). It is possibly the best pumpkin pie in the world, a statement I make only because of the number of people who have abandoned their own family recipes and started making mine. Warning: Do not take this pumpkin pie to a family gathering unless you are comfortable with being declared "The Person Who Will Bring Pumpkin Pie To Thanksgiving For All Time". I'm not kidding--it happened to a co-worker of mine. ( Click here for recipe and notes )