Every Thanksgiving, there is one dessert I know will be on our table: my mom's pumpkin pie.
My mom passed away in 2018, but I still make her pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving using her recipe. Of all the things I bake, this one is different. It's less about making dessert and more about keeping a tradition.
Food has a funny way of doing that.
A recipe can look like nothing more than a list of ingredients and a few handwritten instructions, but somehow it can hold an entire person inside of it. The smell of something baking, the dish it was always served in, or that first bite can bring back memories you haven't thought about in years.
For me, that's this pie.
Recipes Are Part of Our Family Stories
So much of what I love about baking has very little to do with making something look perfect.
It's about the recipes that get made year after year. The ones written on stained recipe cards. The dishes everyone expects to see when they walk through the door on a holiday. The things our kids will someday associate with home.
My mom's pumpkin pie is one of those recipes for me.
Making it every Thanksgiving is a small way of making sure she's still part of the day. My boys won't have the opportunity to know their grandmother themselves, but they can know some of the traditions she gave me. And someday, I hope they'll remember that pumpkin pie was always part of Thanksgiving in our home, too.
That's how traditions keep going.
Why We're Sharing It With You
This year, for the first time, I'm making my mom's pumpkin pie for more than just our family.
We'll be offering it as part of Indiana Manna Kitchen's Thanksgiving menu.
I went back and forth a little about sharing something that feels so personal. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt exactly right.
Indiana Manna has always been about more than baking something sweet. We believe some of the best food is tied to memories, family and gathering around a table together.
So this Thanksgiving, my mom's recipe gets to be part of a few more tables.
And I think she would have loved that.
Thanksgiving Preorders
Mom's Pumpkin Pie — $30
Made from my mom's recipe and baked from scratch for your Thanksgiving table.
Thanksgiving orders must be placed in advance and will be available for pickup on Wednesday, November 25 in Plymouth, Indiana.
Whether one of our pies ends up on your table or you're making a recipe that's been in your own family for decades, I hope you take a minute this Thanksgiving to think about the stories behind the food.
Because sometimes a recipe is so much more than a recipe.
Sometimes it's how we keep someone we love at the table.