Sometimes you Hate before you get to Love.

The year was 1995. I had gone with my best friend to the pumpkin patch, where we had picked out pumpkins from the far, far, FAR side of the patch. Did I mention she had a giant brace on her leg after her knee surgery? After huffing and puffing, laughing and lugging them back to the car, we took them home and carved them.

About a week later, as my pumpkin's grin sagged in a most unbecoming like manner, I decided to try my hand at pie.

I slaved, I sliced. I boiled, I bashed. I scowled at cookbooks, I surveyed strange spices.

At the end I had a textbook smooth, lovely golden crusted pie. I let it cool. I took a bite.

BLECK!!

BLECK AGAIN!

Tasteless! Useless! My sense of smell fooled me, utterly! Disgruntled, I stomped into the Safeway produce section, and marched up to a sweet older lady.

What happened? I howled. Seriously, I was 22 years old, with a huge set of pipes. I was mad. I howled at her.

She kindly gave me her stern grandma-don't-you-talk-to-me-in-that-tone-of-voice-no-sir-not-in-my-store look.

I quieted down.

She said, you need a Sugar Pie Pumpkin.

I do? I asked meekly.

Yes, and leading me with her vice grip hands, she took me to see what I needed to see.

So yes, I bake them every year. For the past 18 years, and I have never, ever regretted meeting Ms. Don't-You-Talk-To-Me-Like-That. Because she brought me straight to the sweet, Sugar Pie Goodness that I enjoy today. I bake them for the corner store folks. I bake them for the bicycle repair guys. I bake them for the homeless guy outside my grocery story( hey, I've been seeing the same guy for 8 years, whaddayagonna do?) and, I bake them for my friends and family, of course.

This year was particularly special, I grew my first living thing, outside, VERTICALLY, and it was pumpkins! I have a whole story to share with you about that on my site. I put tiny seeds in the ground, I whispered to them, I fawned over them, and my harvest successfully yielded 15 pumpkins for baking! I did it all in a 4 ft wide space in my apartment building. I can't wait to share the photos with you.

Naturally, this the spot where I take you to the best pumpkin pie recipe on Planet Earth-You can read all about it at The Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe.

Yours, in Spice,

Promise