Adventures in Pumpkin Pie Making

So... I had the brilliant inspiration (from Uncle David) to make a pumpkin pie... completely from scratch. The crust? Piece of cake... ummm, pie? No problems there. I've got that one down pat. The pumpkin... hmm, not so easy. It was a "small" pumpkin (2-3 lbs) but I didn't have a cutting utensil big enough to go through it. What resulted was a comedy routine worthy of the Apollo. I was tempted to borrow Grandpa's chain saw, but eventually prevailed with a butcher's knife.

All you need for a single pie is 2 cups of cooked pumpkin, but as I was cutting it up, I discovered my "little" pumpkin yielded WAY more than I needed. Dilemma: What to do with all the extra? 1) Cut up the whole thing and make more pies, 2) Cut it up and freeze it raw, 3) Cut it up and freeze it cooked, or 4) Leave it uncut and freeze the whole pieces. After a few unsuccessful phone calls to my mom & siser for advice, I decided to go ahead and make more pies. Whoops. Didn't really think that one through. AFTER making the filling, I discovered I had enough for 4 pies... BUT only 3 pie plates! Oh dear. What to do? What to do? Being a firm believer in Improvisation, I dug out my creme brulee rammekins and made a bunch of mini-pies. They're really cute!

Start to finish, this pie-making adventure lasted 3.75 hours! I had a lot of fun but now have a new dilemma: What am I to do with all these pies???? I can probably count on Levi to eat 1 by himself (one of his favorites) but what about the rest?? Anyone want a pie... or two? :-)