thinking about...

...my assignment for Thanksgiving lunch, decided I would purchase needed ingredients to make it early. Bought what I did not have on hand before I left work today, to put it together and go ahead to freeze now, then pull out to thaw and serve after overeating on Thanks day. Amusing to me is that I only make it once a year, but had the list for shopping accurately filed away in my head I did not even pull out the recipe card  until I came home. And was able buy supplies to complete the recipe and put it together today to freeze until needed.

The recipe was clipped from a magazine many years ago, glued to a 3 x5 file card to be summoned annually for assembly. It 's the only pumpkin pie I have ever made, so when someone asks me 'how to', I cannot tell details for baking: my version goes in the fridge and never even gets close to the oven. That's about the extent of my cooking these days.

No Bake Pumpkin Pie
1 large pkg vanilla instant pudding
1  cup millk
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (which is a combination of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg)
8 oz. bowl of thawed, room temp. whipped topping
1 graham cracker pie shell

Mix pudding and milk until well blended, stir in pumpkin and powdered spices. Gently but thoroughly fold in small bowl of thawed whipped topping, spoon into cracker crust. Chill or freeze until ready to slice and serve. Add an extra dollop of topping if you like.

There is another recipe stapled onto this one, that is also a no bake version. But it involves unflavored gelatin plus eggs, so you do actually have to cook it in a sauce pan on the stove, before adding other ingredients and spooning into a pre-baked pastry crust. I'm not giving that one because why would you go to all that effort when you can just slap it together and put in graham cracker shell and put in fridge? 'Way too much effort in my opinion! Plus the one with the whipped topping is mostly air so you can over-eat and stuff your self with too much turkey and dressing, gravy and rolls and still have room for a wedge of pie.