the tale of the pumpkin pie

For two whole weeks, a certain little boy kept asking if we could bake a pumpkin pie. 

I'm not one to bake because honestly, I suck at it. 

I can't follow directions and I forget to set a timer and often, my results are less than satisfactory.

But this little boy just begged and begged some more.

I don't know what fascinates him more, the act of helping me bake in the kitchen or the curiosity of how this fruit tastes.

So I caved. Not sure exactly what would come of the pie because I was certain he would not like it--you know, he takes after his picky father who could care less for anything pumpkin.

I was ALSO certain that I would have to eat the darn thing because I'm always stuck having to eat things those guys won't. But with this NO-SWEETS DIET I've been doing since mid-October, I planned to give the thing away to the coaches at husband's school. It's a great plan, is it not?

We cleaned off the counter tops, we gathered our ingredients, we fought for space.

We turned the oven on and began making a mess.

The little dude's eye sparked with excitement as he mixed and poured and cracked eggs.

The other little one begged for his turn.

We ate some butter, poured the mixture in the store-bought crust and stuck it in the oven.

A little someone kept coming by to see if it was ready.

And after 50 minutes, it finally was. But then came the agonizing minutes of letting it cool down. 

and then.... FINALLY, it was time.

I gave him his monkey plate with a sliver of pie. 

 ...and as suspected, HE HATED IT. 

What a frickin' goof ball. 

He took two small bites and was done with it. I put my no-sweets diet on hold and ate the rest of it.

He was right. It tasted yucky. I honestly don't know what happened. 

I may or may not have put too much ground cloves in it. 

I may or may not have switched sugar for Splenda.

There was one little boy who did enjoy it though {he pretty much enjoys almost anything}.

 And that was Jonah.

Regardless, I put the failed experiment in the fridge so that the husband could take it with him.

And just to prove to you how horrible I am at baking, I had some pumpkin mix left over but no crust. 

I thought to myself I could make a small pie and see if the store-bough crust was the culprit of the crappy pie. I looked online for an easy recipe and found one. A super easy one, too.

And I managed to ruin it. 

I may or may not have put too much melted butter in it.

I may or may not have forgotten to take it out of oven after 20 minutes.

In this case, I totally may have done all those things.

And don't you even ask how long this took me to take out of this pan!!!

Truly yours,

The world's worst baker,