Laura's Pumpkin Pie

It was two years ago that Laura was still able to get to school part of the day and go a few places. She was walking around with neuroblastoma spread throughout her body, in most of her bones, in her bone marrow, and insidiously spreading in soft tissue and in her liver.  Thanks to Zometa, her bone pain was controlled.  She was walking around with platelets in the single digits.  She could not tolerate even oral chemo anymore. Here is Laura in late November of 2006 working on a project for school with her trusty friend, Pepper, alongside.  

It's time to get ready for Thanksgiving.  What would Laura have put in the shopping cart?  Besides ingredients for the pumpkin pie, Laura always reminded me to get some refrigerator crescent dinner rolls which she liked to make.  Since they were little, Laura and Suse always liked to have a Shirley Temple with a special dinner and as they became older, they made the Shirley Temples themselves,  very much enjoying the pretty and festive drink.  Our way of making it was just to mix some grenadine syrup into ginger ale until you got the pretty color. (P.S Commercial grenadine syrup is highly sweetened. A less sweet alternative might be to use pomegranate juice which is what grenadine syrup was originally made of.)

The rest of the dinner included for us such ordinary things as celery and olives, Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce, numerous vegetables including little white onions (just boiled or in some kind of white sauce) as well as all the traditional items.

Laura felt well enough that Thanksgiving of 2006 to stand up and help make a pumpkin pie.  This is the recipe we used from an ad in a magazine.  We made it last year and will make it again this year.  It's called Perfect Pumpkin Pie but it really now is "Laura's Pumpkin Pie."

Laura's Pumpkin Pie

1 ready made graham cracker pie crust

1 egg yolk slightly beaten

1 egg slightly beaten

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 can (14 0z.) sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ginger

Brush bottom and sides of crust with 1 egg yolk. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Remove from oven

In large bowl whisk together 1 egg, pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and ginger until combined.  Pour into crust.  Bake on baking sheet at 350 degrees F about 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Garnish as desired. Store in refrigerator.