Pumpkin pie

I'm sitting here eating a piece of the second pumpkin pie I've made this fall, and it's much better than the first one (despite a little mishap with the lid on the cinnamon jar leading to a LOT of extra cinnamon...). It always is. Because it always takes me til the second one to remember that I adapt the recipe a little. So this is slightly adapted from The Joy of Cooking.

Advance prep:
Buy a pie pumpkin. Scrub it clean, stab it a few times and bake it on a pan with a lip at 350° for about 1.5 hours or until you can easily stab through it with a bamboo skewer. Do NOT undercook — it makes the puree process brutal. If it's cooked enough, it will pretty much fall apart once you take it from the oven. Pull the stem off (I usually get about 1/3 of the skin at the same time), slice it in half, let it cool a little and scoop out the string & seeds (reserve seeds for roasting if that's your thing). Peel the flesh out of the skin (again, only easy if it's cooked long enough) and puree it in a food processor or blender. Puree will keep in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. About an hour before you use it, measure out your amount, fudge a little on the high side, and put it in a cheesecloth-lined seive to drain out all the extra liquid. You get a much nicer pumpkin flavor that way.

Pumpkin Pie
Make or buy your favorite pie crust (I use Pappy's frozen pie crust dough — not as good as homemade but way easier, and tastier than the Pillsbury roll-out kind). Joy will tell you to brush crust with an egg yolk and partially pre-bake. I've found that to be a pain in the ass and the crust gets soggy anyway, so I skip it.

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 eggs.
Add and whisk together:
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup heavy cream + 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 t salt
2 t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves

Pour into crust and bake 1 hour or until center is mostly set but still a little jiggly. (It should wobble, but not ripple, when you jostle the pie pan.) Let cool completely. I like to serve it with whipped cream sweetened with honey & seasoned with a little cinnamon.