Thanksgiving Memories and Aunt Bertie’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Thanksgiving Memories and Aunt Bertie's Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Thanksgiving Memories and Aunt Bertie’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

There is a distinct division in cozy homes when the family gathers for the holidays.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Christmas and Thanksgiving where we crowded around the table, with a card or coffee table set up for the kids…

 Did you dream of making it to the grown-up table?  

This is the table I grew up celebrating around. My grandparent’s house. What memories this brings back for me!

And so, Thanksgiving. Its the most amazing holiday. Just think about it — it’s a miracle that once a year so many millions of Americans sit down to exactly the same meal as one another, exactly the same meal they grew up eating, and exactly the same meal they ate a year earlier. The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about? I don’t think so.– Nora Ephron

 Remembering family holidays and pumpkin pie

Much of our family is absent from this picture, but there would usually be my cousins and me hanging outside. My aunts would help my mom and Grandma in the kitchen.

My favorite Thanksgiving memory is when my Aunt Kathy came home from college. I missed her terribly when she left.

Being only 11 years older than I, she was a big part of my life. She brought home a belated birthday gift for me; a red duffle bag filled with Hello Kitty things. A tiny keychain address book. Lip gloss.

And, for the nieces and nephews- a craft. Turkeys made from apple bodies, marshmallow legs on toothpicks, raisin eyes. We laughed and created. Loved.

Leave the family stress behind

“We don’t come to the table to fight or to defend. We don’t come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity.

The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for. The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need.

In a world that prides people on not having needs, on going longer and faster, on going without, on powering through, the table is a place of safety and rest and humanity, where we are allowed to be as fragile as we feel.”
― Shauna Niequist, Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes

Bertie’s pumpkin chiffon pie

Seems like aside from people, food tops the charts for memory-making. My great Aunt Bertie shared this variation on a traditional pumpkin pie.

I hope you like it, the happiest of days to you. No matter how you spend them, I wish you well.

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

  • 1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
  • 3/4 c packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 c. milk
  • 1/4 c. water
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
  • 3 egg whites—reserved, along with 1/4 c. reserved sugar

Mix first 5 ingredients in the top of a double boiler. Stir in the other ingredients and mix well. Cook over boiling water, stirring occasionally, until gelatin dissolves and mixture is heated (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat, chill until mixture mounds when dropped from a spoon.

Beat 3 egg whites until stiff in another bowl. Beat in 1/4 c. sugar and fold into gelatin mixture.

Turn out into 9″ baked pie shell, chill until firm. Just before serving it is best topped with real whipped cream

You can download a free printable of this pumpkin chiffon pie here. Enjoy!

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