Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

I had planned on writing about the Full Moon tonight (Diviniation Moon) until I was reminded of a baking incident from Christmas 2002. Others might remember this better as I had completely forgotten about it. Anyway, the incident...

I wasn't able to go home and several friends were in the same situation so we all gathered at a friend's house. I had decided to make a pumpkin pie to bring. I was using one of those Pillsbury crusts that are in a box in the freezer section. They're folded in half, twice, and all you do is take one out and flatten it, smoothing down the crease, and place in pie pan. Well I didn't have a glass pie plate so I used a aluminum foil pie pan. This is fine, I've done this before no problem. I smooth out the crust and place it in the pie pan, which is sitting on a cookie sheet, ready to go in the oven. However, pie crust is deep dish but I don't have a deep dish pan, so there's a lot of excess crust hanging over the sides, which I'll crimp up after the filling is added.

I whipped up the pumpkin filling (Libby's pumpkin essence in a can where you add the spices as I like my pies spicer than the premixed canned pie variety) and filled up the pie pan. I had extra filling because canned pumpkin was for deep dish or two small pies. I didn't want to make two pies, so I put the extra filling in a glass container. I then took the time to prettily crimp the crust since I had so much and I wanted it to look nice. Placed glass container with extra filling on the cookie sheet and put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Not really sure how much time had passed (more than 15) when I hear this ..sound from the kitchen. I go investigate and see nothing amiss. Then I get this sinking feeling in my stomach and open the oven door, pumpkin pie guts and crust everywhere. All over the cookie sheet, sides, bottom and roof of the oven. Little glass container was surrounded in a sea of pumpkin pie with crust islands and the aluminum pan was ...askew with little pie filling remaining and the crust all heaved about.

I made the mistake of calling my folks (who were at my brother and sis-in-law's place) to see if they might know what the heck happened (my mom's a good cook and my dad, brother and sis-in-law are chemists). I realized the error of my ways when I heard the howls of laughter through the phone line.

"Hey, is mom there? I've got a pie question."
"Yeah sure, here she is."
"Umm mom, any idea why a pumpkin pie would explode? Cause mine did."
Silence...
"Mom?"
Laughter "Your pumpkin pie ..Exploded?!" more laughter
Background voice "her pie exploded?!!" Lots of background laughter and another voice calls to the peeps not by the phone "Her pumpkin pie exploded!!"
"Yes, my pie exploded" I sigh to my mom. "Any idea why?"

After I repeat and confirm to bascially everyone there what happened, we determine that there was a piece of ice between the crust and the aluminum pan. And since the frozen crust sat in the aluminum pan, on the cookie sheet, whilst I was mixing the ingredients, the pans had time to chill nicely. The ice melting caused a little puddle of water, which turned to steam, which built up pressure. So when the pans ...adjusted to heat (which was more ..violent than usual due to the chilling time they had had), they apparently sproinged (not sure the proper terminology or how to describe it) at the same time, releasing the steam, causing the crust to spring up resulting in projectile pie filling and crust. Rather like an explosion or a volcano.

I leave the pie in there to finish baking, though I turn the heat down and have to guess when the filling would be done since it was spread out thinly over every surface. Plus I didn't want the pie guts to catch fire. Cleanup wasn't too bad since everything was crispy and flaked off pretty well. Though my place did smell of burnt pumpkin for awhile. I swear I'm not a bad cook! I just sometimes have ...issues.

Needless to say, I didn't take the pie to my friend's house. I did call ahead and ask if she wanted me to bring something else since my pie "didn't turn out very well". She said no, everything was covered. I did fess up to my friends about what had happened. And yes, much laughter ensued.

Oh, the pie did taste good! It just wasn't pretty...