I dunno, from some "homade" pies I have had, I would take store bought. Just scrape the pumpkin filling off the lousy tough crust.

My friends who can't make pie crust just ask me to make the pies, lol, or they buy fruit, leave on doorstep with a note "hint"

I have a friend who doesn't cook...her mother didn't cook so why should she. Her late husband did any cooking that was done in their house but most meals were take out. She was incredulous that I thought my turkey and gravy was lots better than the stuff she buys at the supermarket deli section. She hosts thanksgiving and sets a beautiful table with her grandmothers white Havaland and her sterling and crystal....and the turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes are from the supermarket deli section. She orders and picks it all up, ready sliced and in steam trays...plates it up opens a can of cranberry sauce and another of pickels and olives and puts it all on platters and serves it up....and the pie is also from the bakery too....and can't imagine that anything could be better and how could you tell the difference??
Seriously....some people just can't tell...I guess!

I have to say, homemade is NOT always better. My sister-in-law who can't cook insisted that homemade is always better so for Thanksgiving one year she made lemon meringue pie. Yep, her homemade lemon meringue pie and everyone was to ooh and ah over it. A premade pie shell, dumped a can of lemon filling into it and she knew she couldn't make the meringue so what does she do? Pulls out a tub of Cool Whip. Even my sister wouldn't eat it. Come to think of it, after that, the burned spiral sliced ham, soupy, overcooked mashed potatoes and such it was the last time I ever ate there. I can't punish myself like that anymore. I went home and put a frozen pizza in the oven. It was also "home made", right?

Sorry folks, homemade is not always better than store-bought.

Omg, I laughed after I read the last post. Cynic, I don't know WHAT you would call that but thank you for sharing. Yep, some would call that "cooking".

I say let them eat "store bought". More "good" homemade for me. I agree that it isn't always better, but each person has their opinion of what is good.

I love salty stuff, others would gag at what I might love.
To each his/her own.

I love the old saying:
"Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff."
There's far too many other things to stress about this season.

Deanna

My mother-in-law made beautiful dinner rolls, but only THOUGHT she could make pastry and pies. I believe the newly resurfaced street out in front of my house is thinner than her pastry. Her "fix" was to liberally sprinkle every 2-crust pie with sugar.

I was delighted when she started making Bisquick Impossible Pumpkin Pies because the pastry on her pumpkin pies could have been used to repair soles of shoes and nobody ate it. In her later years she found "Mrs. Smith" pies in the freezer case at the store. She would transfer them to one of her own pie tins and would pretend she made it (LOL).

Pies are my least favorite thing to make, so bless everyone who makes them - however they get it done. Bless the food processor that makes such quick work out of it. Thank goodness I don't have to make them very often anymore!!!

-Grainlady

I have never in my life made a pie from scratch.. I've watched chef after chef whip up the dough in a few seconds roll it out and it's done.
I've made bread, pizza etc. but never a pie.Thank heavens for Mrs. Smith, I love her pies.
Now for you real pie ladies how do yours compare to Mrs. Smiths? What is the difference in texture etc.. I just may be tempted by your answers to take the plunge and do it myself.

Jane

Well, I'm going to admit this to all the world. For over 40 years I made my own pie crust--and it was very good crust--but lately I've been cheating with Pillsbury premade crusts. I think they're very good--it's the lard in them. But I absolutely make the rest of it, whatever type of pie it is, myself.

When I was first married (back in olden times!)I had so much trouble with pies. Finally I just determined that it wasn't going to defeat me. Now I do it without even thinking about it. I am still loving the new Nathan's Never Fail pie crust recipe that Sharon shared with us.

I will be making it today and freezing it for Thanksgiving pies next week. Pecan and pumpkin for sure and then I will take orders from the kids as to what else they want.

Wow. I guess I never considered anything other than making the crust from scratch and using real fresh fruit for the filling could be called home made. I confess I do use Libby's canned pumpkin and not fresh pumpkin for my pumpkin pie. I understand that a bad home made pie can be really terrible. My mother-in-law made her own crust but couldn't manage to get the crust to the pie pan unless it was at least a quarter inch thick! I couldn't believe it when my husband wasn't impressed by a delicate, thin home made crust. After eating my mother's pie he mentioned that he missed his mother's nice thick crust. I guess some people really don't get it :-( Another reason I prefer to make my own pies is because I can adjust the amount of sugar to suit my taste. I have never eaten a commercial fruit pie that wasn't too sweet. Oh, I also care about the apples that are used and swear by 20 ounce apples.
BTW, I made this pie in my toaster oven, and this time I managed not to burn the crust. I guess a good TO can do just about anything a stove oven can do.
Nancy

Jane, I think what it boils down to is how much you like homemade pie from scratch, but also how much effort you put into finding that one recipe that you think best represents. In the end, you may still choose Mrs. Smiths, but maybe you just haven't found that one recipe or that friend that has made that one perfect pie.

I have cheated with the pillsbury dough that you fold out, only because for Thanksgiving I make an extraordinary amount of food and desserts and some recipes are elaborate. But when you prebake and glaze it and you make your filling from scratch it's almost just as good. I still prefer a great recipe for thicker homemade crust, as long as you're careful not to burn the edges. It should have a delicious firm crunch to it, at least that's the way I enjoy it.

One thing though in my experience is that I always know in no uncertain terms when someone is eating something that I've made and they are in nirvana. It's a far cry from, oooh, this is good, how do you make it?

I think there are "Different strokes for different folks"! Some great cooks make great homemade pies and some homemade pies are not so good. The point of Thanksgiving is to enjoy the family/friends who are celebrating with you and giving thanks for the fact we have so many blessings. Who makes the dinner and where the pies come from is not the important part. I think though that if someone doesn't appreciate the time and effort you take making things homemade that could be hurtful.
Joann

I make all the pies for Thanksgiving because we would be having ritz pie shells with canned apple pie filling and cool whip (store brand) if I didn't. And those dear relatives would consider their pies homemade!

There's some things I can make better than store bought. Some store bought are convenience items. Sometimes the store bought is just because of time factors. I really like pecan pie but I can buy a pie at Aldi of all places that is honestly better than I can make and it's better than any other pecan pie I've had. So I'll buy them when they have them - problem is they don't have them as often as I want them.

So to any of you having trouble with meringue, remember "Broadzilla"'s trick - Cool Whip to the rescue! It's the same, isn't it?

So often people don't know their limitations. Some people can't make some things and shouldn't keep trying. I wish those people would concentrate on the things they do well and let someone else do the other stuff or just admit it and go with an alternative. But please, home made is NOT always better!

Happy holidays all. Make your lists, check them twice: Pie crust, lemon filling, Cool Whip, attitude... :)
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I guess that everyone has different tastes but after eating my Mom's homemade pies and then eating a restaurant or grocery store bakery pie..that was very disappointing. My Mom's pies were so much better and her's weren't so horribly sweet. I did however recently eat an apple pie from Giant Eagle that I was amazed by...it was just delicious and I don't really even like apple pie. The apples were made from fresh tart apples and not that nasty canned junk. Canned apples are NASTY IMHO.

There's bad pies made at home and there's good pies made at home. There's bad pies made in a bakery and there's good pies made in a bakery. Some bakery pies are good enough I've ordered a second slice. Some bakery pies are so good I've ordered a whole pie to take home.

I had a neighbor when we lived in NH that owned a bakery a couple towns west of us. D@mn, she made a good German chocolate pie! When she invited us for dinner she always made that pie 'cause she knew my love of that pie! I'd go to the bakery & order those pies a couple times a year. It didn't make a hoot of difference if it was one she'd made in her kitchen or one that came in a bakery box. It was the same pie.

I really understand how you might have had your feelings hurt by your friend but truly not all commercial or "mass produced" food is terrible. And, for sure, not all homemade is better. On a trip in about 1994 to the Gaspe Penninsula we drove through Maine. It was fall & we passed many small farm stands along the way stopping at several. At one, the obviously homemade apple pies looked so delicious we decided to buy one for our dessert later that night in the hotel. OMG, it was so bad even our Chow traveling with us would not eat that pie! She took one sniff, looked up at us, and walked to the other side of the hotel room plopping down hard on the floor in disgust! :) We still laugh about that pie every time we drive by a similar farm stand selling baked items. DH will say, "Are you hungry for apple pie?" (grin)

On T-Day though it's all good! Unless something's so awful it becomes family legend (and we've probably all experienced those!), I'm much more apt to remember the conversations than the food. At our house, the food just sorta blends into the background of visiting, laughing, family story telling, games with the kids, singing together around my piano, and football. Even after all the hours in the kitchen preparing the meal when we're finished eating we all push back our chairs, comment what a great meal we've had, and that's it for T-Day dinner until next year. Nobody in my family would remember that was the T-Day that Tricia used red box pie crust for the chocolate pecan.

/tricia

The local bakery here in my town will let you bring in your own pie dish, and they'll bake their own pies in it for you! Not a bad deal!

Store-bought cake irks me more than store-bought pies. I can't understand why people scramble for those slab cakes with the super-sweet, flavorless frosting.

Cool Whip is another one of my peeves. It has zero appeal to me. Tastes awful.

When DH and I were first married, I asked him to pick up some "whipping cream" from the grocery... meaning a carton of heavy cream, because that's how it's labeled in the dairy section. He brought home Cool Whip. The discussion that followed that purchase is one I'll never forget.

You haven't got any reason to be mad at your friend. You tried to make her feel like she was doing something wrong by not cooking, and she reciprocated by making you feel bad too. If the pies she's buying are made using quality ingredients and a good recipe, I'm sure they're good. They don't inherently taste bad because they weren't made in someone's kitchen.

Nancy, I don't understand why you are having trouble as you put it, "keeping your mouth shut." What difference does it make to your life if your friend buys pies from a store? Or if another friend doesn't care to cook and would prefer to buy a pie? Have you had a pie from this particular store? Maybe they're very good pies. If I had a friend who told someone that she bought a pie that was just as good as the ones I made, I would take it as a compliment that she was using my pies as a standard of excellence for comparison rather than assume she was "dissing" my pies. Your friend would probably be horrified if she knew you were hurt by her comment, I'm sure she meant no insult to you.

I never could get a pie crust the way I liked it. My mother prided herself on her apple pies, but I didn't care for them. She liked to cut the apples in big chunks, and added very little sugar. Since she did not precook the apples at all, the crust would be in a huge mound, and I think she brushed the crust with egg, so it was quite brown and shiny. Very pretty, but the apples would shrink way down as they cooked so when you sliced it the top crust broke all into pieces. The apples were never cooked enough and there was no "goop"...just baked apples with tough crust. But she had put her time and love into baking that pie for us, so I always ate it with pleasure.

That was something she taught me. When someone takes the time and trouble to cook dinner for you, it is more than rude to complain, criticize, or "pick" at your food, it is ungrateful. You aren't just eating tough pie crust, overcooked turkey or the horrifying (to me) green bean & Campbell's soup casserole. You are eating their time, effort, and love...enough to season any dish.

I finally learned to make a decent pie crust from my stepmother who could put a pie in the oven 10 minutes after she decided to make it. Best pie crust ever. But I wish my mother were still alive to give me a slice of her undercooked apples and tough crumbled crust.

Cynic, I'm curious about the brand of pecan pie available at Aldi's? I might try that.

When I was a teen, and loved to cook and bake (still do), my grandma Fay taught me the art of of pie dough.....(I never used lard tho, as we always had Crisco in the pantry).

She showed me how to cut in the shortening to the flour first to the size of peas, then a second cut in to a finer texture, ....using ice cold water or ice cold 7-up. Very light physical handling of the dough itself, how to roll the pin adroitly on the dough, sweeping up and off lightly. And how to transfer into the pan, patch the errant tear, pinch the edges artistically.

Pre-baking, one-shell, 2 shell, preventing poof-ups, and totally mounding big and high the uniformly sliced fruit, to allow for shrinking back into the pan (with attention to no, absolutely no peel left on, or apple core seeds or the seed hollows left behind on the perfectly selected fruit).

She taught me well!

I was quite good, I must admit, but don't bake as much anymore, although I still enjoy it!

Nevertheless, when I made pecan pie, I never liked the way the pecans always floated to the top, leaving the empty gelatinous filling below. So if there is a secret to that, (which I wonder if lightly dusting the nuts with flour before incorporating them into the liquid would work?) or if Aldi's pie's pecans are scattered throughout the depth of the pan, I'll bite!!!! LOL

Acey

Acey, my solution to the floating pecan/gelatinous filling problem was to use more pecans than most recipes call for. I chop plenty of pecans to mix in with the filling, and then lay pretty halves on top in a sort of starburst pattern covering the whole top of the pie. I wish I could give you a recipe, but I just use any recipe and chop extra nuts until it looks like enough. This year, I swear I will write the recipe down as I make my Kahlua Pecan Pie and post it.

Rachelellen, 10 minutes?? No chilling the dough or anything?

The secret to a pecan pie full of pecans is add more nuts than the recipe calls for....but I love that gelatenous goop...its all sugar eggs and butter!

She always kept a container of pie crust mix all done up to the point of adding the water in her fridge. She'd dump a double handful of it on the counter, pour a bit of ice water into a little well in the middle, fold it together and roll it out before it knew what was happening. She did it so fast it didn't have time to lose the fridge-chill.

Filling was nothing. A jar of her own mincemeat, a pile of fresh blueberries or peaches. Depending on the pie, a handful of sugar, pinches of this spice or that, dabs of butter & sprinkles of flour.

If she had to pare, core and slice apples, it might take her an extra 3 or 4 minutes...how she still has all her fingers, I'll never know.

I'm nowhere as good or fast as she was (she's still alive, but since my Dad died she doesn't bother with pies much) but copying her and pretending my house will burn down if I don't get the crust done FAST has improved my pies no end.

My Dad was the instigator in all this...he'd ask casually, an hour or so after supper, if there was anything sweet in the house? Out would come the rolling pin, the mince, the bag of blueberries picked and frozen last Summer, or the bowl of apples. By the time the nightly news was over, there would be a pie cooling on the counter, ready for when he was ready for it.

Acey, I'll just add to the suggestions above by saying my recipe calls for 1 cup of coarsely chopped pecans and one cup ground. The ground makes a huge difference to the filling. Just something else you might want to try :)

Sorry Acey, I realize that didn't help much and went to get the recipe. I think you won't be disappointed. I treat all my crusts the way he does here, and I have also used the pillsbury folded dough crust for this one, partially baked and glazed.

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie - from "Taste: One Palate's Journey Throught the World's Greatest Dishes" by David Rosengarten

Makes one 9" pie

For the crust:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbls confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbls cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 tbls cold vegetable shortening (like crisco), cut into bits
1 large egg, separated
ice water

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening and blend the mixture with your hands until it resembles coarse meal. In a clear measuring cup combine the egg white (reserving the yolk) and enough ice water to measure a total of 1/4 cup. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, and combine until a dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it into a 4" disk, dust it lightlly with flour, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrig for 1 hr.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a round that's appproximatly 1/8" thick and 13" in diameter. Transer he dough to a 9" pie plate, preferably glass. Press the dough into the corners of the plate. Trim the outer edges of the dough so there is an even, 1/2" overhang. Tuck the overhang under the dough that's sitting on the edge of the pie plate and, working with your fingers, flute the edge of the dough. Chill for 1 hr more.

For the filling:
6 tbls unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 c light corn syrup
1 tbls vanilla extract
1 cup finely ground pecans
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Prick the bottom and sides of the shell with a fork. Fit the shell with a round of waxed paper, and weight it down with rice or beans. Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove the paper and weights and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

In a small bowl whisk together the remaining egg yolk with 1/8 tsp water. Brush the bottom and sides of the shell with the mixture. Return the shell to the oven and bake for 1 minutes more (this will prevent the crust from becoming soggy).

Lower heat to 275 degrees.

Make the filling: in a bowl set over simmering water, melt the buter. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the sugar, salt, eggs one at a time, corn syrup and vanilla. Return the bowl to the heat and stir unitl the mixture is shiny and quite warm to the toch (about 130 degrees). Add the ground pecans and the chopped pecans.

Return the partially cooked pie crust to the oven to warm it (putting a warm filling into a warm crust also helps to prevent soginess). Remove the shell from the oven after 5 minutes and fill it evenly with the pecan mixture. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until the center feels set but still slightly soft.

Cool at least 4 hours before cutting.

Rachelellen, that's seriously impressive. Pie-making for me consists of three hours of emotional pain, followed by a patched-together pie crust and a noticeable decrease in my self esteem. But I'll get it right one day, gosh darn it.

Acey, it's the store brand that Aldi uses at the moment. I think it starts with a B. Belmont? I'll probably be going there later today or tomorrow and will make a note. However, if you don't like the layers, you won't like these. That's one thing I noticed last time I was eating it. The "goop" was nice and firm (granted, refrigerated) and the nuts were nicely layered on top. Maybe it's just that I get it so seldom, anything could be great to me!

I too tended to put in a lot more nuts than most. I'd buy the pieces and crush them a little more then top with the nicer looking ones but sometimes it'd be almost too many and they'd stick up and burn a bit. But the thing I've noticed with Aldi pies every one of them is the nuts are nice and big, they're not bitter, the whole pie has a great taste and even the crust is pretty decent. Like I said *I* can't make one better so I won't waste the time trying. It's like Reese's PB Cups. I don't really understand why people try to duplicate them. They don't make them better, at least I've never found anyone say they can - it's just that they're trying to duplicate something for the sake of saying I made it I think. With them so readily available, I'd rather concentrate on something that's harder to get. But that's me.

Want a great pie variation? Substitute cashews for pecans in the pecan pie recipe! I didn't have enough the one time and thought hey, wonder how cashews would work. Worked! OH, how it worked! :D

Well, I imagine that practice had something to do with it. She grew up the oldest girl in a country family with a Dad who liked sweets. No bakeries close enough, even if they'd had the money. Both her first husband and my Dad had a sweet tooth to satisfy. With three kids, a tight budget, wild blueberries free for the picking and apple trees in the yard, and a short growing season (Maine) that lends itself to making Mincemeat because you've more green tomatoes on your plants than you had red by the time the first frost is due...

Make several pies a week (at least) for a few decades and you'll probably get as quick. ;)

One bakery in town makes pies every bit as good as homemade , maybe even better. Fabulous flaky crusts, delicious fillings of generous proportions. The price reflects the quality , they start at $20 per pie and go up from there! Way too pricey when I can make my own but I can see why someone who didn't care to bake would buy them.

I can make a pie crust but I usually don't bother. I'm quite happy with the Tenderflake frozen pie crusts shells. The fillings are always scratch. Sometimes I make my own but honestly, no one seems to notice the difference.

I think $20 is cheap for a bakery pie - at Sweet Lady Jane, they start at $52 for a 10" pie, but that's a very big pie. At Susina Bakery, you can get an 8" pie for $28 and a 10" for $42. It is definitely possible to get excellent pies from a bakery, but it is equally possible to get bad pies, especially if pies are not a specialty where you buy them. I still confident that the pies I make myself are better than what I can get at the best bakeries, but then I used to bake pies professionally, and I can make them the way I like them.

Lars

OK, OK!!!!! I really wrote my first entry tongue-in-cheek. We aren't really mad at each other, but I was a little off kilter from her attack on my homemade pies. For years she and the other friend have always asked for and praised my apple pie. I was surprised when I first learned that my friend didn't make her own pies because she is a good cook and doesn't use many short cuts. I do think she owes it to her family to provide a really good pie on Thanksgiving. Years ago, when I realized she didn't make her own I asked her why and she said she couldn't make crust. I couldn't make crust years ago so I used a package of Betty Crocker dry mix. I always apologized to anyone I served my pie to because of the packaged crust and they always said it was great and they couldn't tell the difference. So, after many years, I stopped telling people the truth about my crust. I offered to teach my friend how to make crust with the mix she had said tasted great. I figured that I could start her off using the mix, which is very forgiving, and then if she wanted to she could try her hand at home made crust. That is how I finally learned to get the crust off the pastry cloth and onto the pie plate. My friend is a very self confident and optimistic person and I am the complete opposite. I guess she can just shrug off her inability to make crust and I, on the other hand, had to struggle until I learned. Interestingly, this lady also never makes gravy. I know of only one other woman who won't make gravy for her family on Thanksgiving. Again, I offered to teach my friend to make gravy and she refused. She is confident and optimistic and expects her family to feel her Thanksgiving dinner is wonderful without gravy or home made pies. I, on the other hand, would feel as if I were sinning if I didn't make at least Thanksgiving and Christmas gravy and home made pie. I know where she buys her pies and they are good--just not of the quality of home made by a cook who makes nice home made pies.
Nancy

My mom used the Betty Crocker pie crust mix all of my years under her roof. As far as I know, she still uses it and her pies are wonderful. My dad loves her pies and she made chocolate, banana cream, butterscotch, mincemeat, lemon meringue, pecan, etc. etc. all the time. She made more pies than any other kind of dessert. (She would take sugar, eggs, and butter to our neighbor - who couldn't cook - but who could make great pound cakes - and ask her to make a cake!) All her fillings were made from scratch, but never the crust.

All this talk of pies has me wanting to make some mini apple pies - just the thing to do on my day off Friday!

Teresa

Thank you all! Cindac, Rachellen (add more nuts!!! Wow, Why didn't I think of THAT!)Velamina, that recipe sounds just divine and I will try that!!!

Thanks again!

I've passed the Pillsbury folded pie crust off on Dad several times, all he ever said was "you didn't make this with lard, did you?" I always agreed that he was right, I didn't. (grin) Of course, I don't much like pie crust.

the only real problem I have with store or bakery pies is that so many use canned commercial pie filling and I can't stand the stuff. Well, I like the fruit, but I really don't like the gelatinous goo that the fruit comes in.

So, the part of the pie I really like, the filling, has to be fresh with no gelatinous goo! Grandma used to make pumpkin "pie" for me by putting the filling into custard cups and baking it so I didn't have to deal with pie crust.

My Mother, now she can make the most perfectly beautiful pie crust you've ever seen, it's lovely. Unfortunately, you'd need a chain saw to cut it, but it would look great in a magazine, LOL.

Annie

This subject comes up under different guises every year at holiday times. The food item may change but the basic topic remains the same: Homemade = love and not homemade = doesn't love/care about family/guests enough.

Nancy, it sounds like you subscribe to that theory and your friend doesn't. For some people, the holiday is about getting together or fellowship and the cooking is secondary. Trying to convince her that making a "from scratch" pie is necessary to show her family she loves them sounds like it's going to be a hard sell.

Ruthanna,
You have summerized the situation quite well. My friend grew up with lots of relatives and keeps in touch with them still. Maybe getting together with everybody really was a lot of fun. I don't remember ever going to either grandmothers' house for any family dinner. My father's family was dysfunctional, my mother's family was shattered by the death of both sons. Certainly my own family was dysfunctional and I married into another bickering, miserable bunch of people. The family my ex and I created never had a chance. Maybe the gathering is the best part of a holiday, but that is not something I ever experienced. I guess the elaborate meals with lots of treats we couldn't regularly afford were the high point of my family's holidays. We never were anyone else's company and we never had company at our house for the holidays. This has been an interesting discussion that really isn't about food.
Nancy

Nancy, perhaps focusing on the food preparation, making sure you did your absolute best was your way of gleaning the positive you could out of a basically negative situation. Taking pleasure in the craft and art of cooking, setting and meeting your own standards (we are always the hardest on ourselves, aren't we) and taking satisfaction in doing your best and seeing people enjoy the results likely provided the satisfaction you craved in an unsatisfactory situation?

You're right, it isn't really about food. Holiday gatherings tend to center around it, but because they are the times when whole families traditionally get together (for good or ill) family dynamics really take center stage and past joys and pains usually sublimated in the daily routine of life now come to the fore.

...but darn it if I'm eating pie, which is not good for me, shouldn't it be GOOD?

:)

I can't make crust. I could practice, but if I mastered it I'd probably gain too much weight. (This is why I will never try to make doughnuts). So I'll get premade crusts or make bad ones, but the insides are MINE MINE MINE. You can tell I made that lemon meringue pie when most people think it's too sour.

The vodka pie crust is extremely forgiving and is a darn fine crust.
I make it a week ahead, flatten into discs and have it ready in the freezer. Almost as easy as a Pillsbury piecrust and it tastes so much better.

Again, I think it is what you are used to. Years ago we broke tradition and went to a friend's house and they were astounded when I made "homemade whipped cream" - they never knew you could do that. Pies are one of my least favorite things to make and I have started cheating buying Pillsbury pie crust for my pumpkin pie the last couple years. I do make a homemade one when I make apple pie. I definitely cook more than my friends do, and some "order in" for Thanksgiving and have a lot more time to relax.... but (most years) I do enjoy making the dinner and desserts -- and making my kids peel the potatoes. (but that lemon monstrosity would have made for good conversation! - ha!)

As a child, the only pie I remember was an awful mince meat pie that my mom would make (take out of freezer and bake) for my dad. I am an only child and Thanksgiving was just the three of us. Then I married my DH and Thanksgiving changed dramatically. Homemade chocolate pies and dressing that did not have oysters--I was in heaven. My MIL's Thanksgiving dinner in the early days was to die for. As a child though, I thought our dinners were good--didn't know any better. Like someone said earlier, it's what you are used to. When I am shopping this time of year and see people buying Stove Top I just cringe--they just don't know what they are missing. But, I'm sure their family thinks it's just great--if only they knew.

Nancy, what interesting points you made. I think you hit the nail on the head.

I was raised by a mother who was likely to obsess over the food and place settings. She'd be so nervous and worked up that you could almost see the tension in the room. She got herself so wound up that she wasn't really engaged in the conversation. It was like talking to a robot-- she answered in short, judgmental bursts, usually without really knowing the specifics of whatever we were talking about. I have this strong conditioned negative association with that style of entertaining, but I also inherited it. If I stop and think about it, it's ridiculous. I spend this time and energy trying to make something perfect-- people may or may not notice-- and I get so worked up in doing it that I make everyone tense (and the only possible purpose of spending all that time on the food is people's enjoyment!) It's shooting yourself in the foot. I've seen gatherings where people don't obsess, but they actually enjoy each other's company. It's a glorious feeling-- it's in stark contrast to that unsettling house-of-cards feeling you get when you're trying to build a perfect holiday with people you don't like or trust. I love it when someone posts one of those panicky, detail-obsessed posts, and they get a response that says 'Do half of what you think you should do. Breathe. Remember to have fun.'It sounds trite, but it's extremely good advice.

It sounds like you want your friend to have the same good feelings that you get from pie. It's the same good intention as missionaries who want other people to get the same good feelings they get from Jesus. But people have different conditioned associations, different backgrounds. I could feel that you're lazy for using canned instead of fresh, and someone else could feel that I'm lazy because I didn't grow the pumpkin myself. And someone else could feel that person is lazy for using pesticides when they grew their pumpkin. It's all pretty arbitrary.