thanksgiving traditions: a favorite family recipe

Growing up, our annual Thanksgiving get together included up to 120 family members. No, that is not a typo. My mom has three siblings and 23 first cousins and when you throw in spouses and children, we would have quite the “gather-up”, as we called it. As you can imagine, we had quite a lot of food. I would load up my plate with everyone else but always made sure to save room for my favorite Thanksgiving tradition: Buttermilk Pie. It’s not your usual pumpkin or pecan but my aunt made it every year, and it was my favorite. One Thanksgiving, during my teenage years, my aunt declared that since I loved buttermilk pie so much, I should learn to make it myself. Learning to bake the pie in her kitchen is one of my more vivid Thanksgiving memories. As my generation grew up and acquired spouses and children of our own, these gather-ups have been downsized, dispersed and duplicated in different homes. Over the past decade, I’ve spent Thanksgiving hosting in my own home in Virginia, gathering with my siblings and their families at my mom’s house in Texas or with my in-laws in Michigan or South Carolina. But, no matter where I find myself on Thanksgiving morning, I wake up and bake my buttermilk pie every year. It’s nice to have a tradition that can be carried with me wherever I go.

If you’re looking for a new dessert to add to your Thanksgiving table this year, give it a try. You’ll even impress everyone with the homemade (but, I promise, super easy) crust. And, if there are any leftovers (and that’s a big if), it’s perfect for breakfast with a cup of coffee the next morning. Enjoy!

Pie Crust
1/2 cup corn oil
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 t salt
2 T sugar
2 T milk

Pour the pie mix into the unbaked pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. It will take a full hour to cook, don’t get nervous and take it out too early if it starts to brown on top.

• Author Details

Cathy Starnes

cathy@stylespeaks.com