Pumpkin Pie... Cooking for my Sweetie

Halloween was over, and like most of us, I had two decide the fate
of our large painted pumpkin. I was heading for the trash. My sweetie
stopped me. He told me how much he liked fresh pumpkin pie made with
real pumpkin. My husband's mom was a very good cook. I'm not saying
that my mom was not a good cook. My mom worked, and like most, used
prepared products, mixes and canned pumpkin.

The small kitchen of our first apartment was packed with a full
complement of appliances and dishes that I had received at my wedding
shower. My sister had given me an Oster food-processing complex. I
thought, how hard could it be to cook a pumpkin, I have all of the
tools. I opened one of my new cookbooks. I always preferred to do
things by myself. I followed one suggestion and baked the pumpkin after
I cut it in quarters. The old enamel oven heated the whole room, but
the pumpkin wasn't cooked. We needed a new oven. I followed another set
of instructions and peeled the pumpkin. (Try peeling a pumpkin. This is
why people buy it in a can.) I dumped the pieces in a large pot and let
it cook.

I had the toughest jack-o-lantern in the patch. After what seem
forever, the pumpkin was still in chunks. Aha! My new food-processing
complex had a meat grinder. I tore open the box and set it up on the
counter. This made perfect sense! I got my largest bowl and ladled the
hot pumpkin chunks into the grinder. I pressed down the mixture with
the plunger. Pumpkin goo shot across the kitchen spraying the walls,
chairs, floor and everything else in its radius. I re-read the
instructions. This should work! It continued to spray at a high
velocity. I put the pot back on the stove. I was steamed. Now I had to
clean the kitchen!

This project wasn't over! I was going to make dessert for my sweetie! I
mixed the ingredients and added the pumpkin. I whipped it a little with
the hand beater and poured it into a baking dish. I set it in a water
bath and cooked it.

I finally took apart my once-prized meat grinder to clean. I had left
both of the disks with holes that controlled the grind size inside the
machine. There was hardly any room for the pumpkin to get through
it!

I made pumpkin custard. It was good, but it was a little stringy.