Which shade of pie do you prefer? Sweet potato or pumpkin?
Or, if those don’t do it for you… what’s your No. 1, all-time favorite pie?
Mmmm, pecan. No, lemon meringue. Maybe blackberry. Oh, it’s too close to call!
Let's eat
Responses to “Go big orange!”
November 8th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I think “shade” is the operative word here. Both are good, but sweet potato is just a prettier color, & also a tad sweeter 
The old Mark Twain Cafeteria at Summer & Waring used to make the best sweet potato pie, hands down, & on Thurs. it was only $.25 a slice. Such a deal! I sampled Schnucks pumpkin muffins yesterday & I am now a fan. They are light, not heavy, & they have a dusting of powdered sugar that sets them off perfectly. No nuts or anything else - just fluffy muffin with a huge top - looks almost like a pumpkin popover.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:02 am
I prefer pumpkin since where I grew up orange sweet potato was hard to find at the grocery store. From my last entry in your blog, I mentioned haupia and you said that you like it, well in Hawaii we have chocolate haupia pie and (purple/japanese)sweet potato haupia pie, both which are my ultimate favorites.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:13 am
It is not a holiday without pecan pie. And if I am feeling like I want something so sweet my teeth fall out - I will add chocolate chips to it. This year though, I am thinking of making these pecan bars I saw Ina make on the Food Network. Buttery shortbread type crust with pecan pie stuff on top. She even dipped them in chocolate - yummy!!!
November 8th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Chocolate Pecan pie are my favorites. Serve any of these (and Lord help me if you have all three!!!) and I am a happy diner. Have always loved pumpkin pies - and was the only one in my family who did so when Thanksgiving came around my mom would either bake one or buy one just for me…I happily snacked on it for days. Her one snafu was when she made one using a low-cal recipe - and used Sweet’N Low. YUCK. That one went straight to the trash! I did have a pumpkin cheesecake at McEwen’s once that was DIVINE but have not had one since…heck even my dining room is painted “pumpkin creme”!
November 8th, 2006 at 10:55 am
My mom’s specialty dessert is pumpkin pie, so I’ve always favored that over sweet potato.
The Ur-pie for me was a slice of blueberry pie I had as a kid at some greasy spoon diner near Arkansas’ Lake Norfork. I don’t know who made it, but clearly they used magic as one of the ingredients. There aren’t many dishes that I remember with fondness after nearly 30 years.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:29 am
My husband and I fight every year at Thanksgiving over which of our moms makes the better pecan pie. I mean, my mother-in-law’s is great and all, but my mom’s is made using my great-grandmother’s recipe which calls for “butter the size of two small hens eggs”! (This being from the day when butter was scooped out of the churn instead of unwrapped from a box.) Mom had to do a little hand-shaping the first time she made the pie to figure out the actual amount to use.
As for pumpkin vs. sweet potato — I go for sweet potato. Not a fan of pumpkin pie at all.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:32 am
For the holidays, it’s always southern pecan pie and pumpkin pie, but my all time favorite is chess pie. I’m still using the tried and true recipe that my great-great grandmother used over 150 years ago. I’m still using her biscuit-making bowl, too!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Pumpkin is the Thanksgiving tradition but my very favorite is chocolate meringue pie using my grandmother’s recipe. Of course, in elementary school, I always traded all the food on my tray for everyone’s else’s cherry cobbler…excuse me, I gotta go find a slice of pie…….
November 8th, 2006 at 11:53 am
I will take my dad’s minced meat pie over any others.
I did make individual pumpkin cheesecakes one ambitious Thanksgiving. They were great, but holy stuffing, Batman, they took a long time.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Last year one of my friends made a pecan pie and she accidently bought Emerald Glazed pecans instead of regular pecans. Talk about WOW! Best Pe-CAN pie I ever had! From now on I am going to make that same mistake…!!
November 8th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
I love most of ‘em but Chess is my favorite…or Coconut Custard…or Pecan (pa-cahn) with chocolate chips. I don’t eat a lot of desserts so I tend to lean towards the ultra-sweet ones.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
You expect me to CHOOSE!?!?! I’ve yet to meet a pie I didn’t like!
Between the two you listed, however, I’ll go for pumpkin. In fact, I’m a sucker for all things pumpkin. My husband, however, is a pumpkin-hating heathen.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I am definitely in favor of the sweet potato pie! Never have had pumpkin and I don’t care to. But my all time favorite is peach, followed closely by apple. I like all three as fried pies, too, and nobody beats my mama’s!
November 9th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
When I lived in New Orleans in the 80s, I worked at an Uptown restaurant on Oak Street (next door to the Maple Leaf Bar). The owner Danny made the most incredible Sweet Potato Pecan Pie I’ve ever tasted before or since. The sweet potatoes were mixed with the “ever so slightest” bit of rum and the pecans were glazed and practically cemented on top. The whipped cream was mixed with Madagascar vanilla. Sometimes makes me want to move back.
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