As Thanksgiving Day was fast approaching, members of my intimate family circle started hankering for a homemade pumpkin pie.

I’ve been cranking them out with reasonable success for seasonal festivities over the past couple of years, much to the delight of my pre-teen grandchild.

Pie-making is exactly in my culinary wheelhouse. I’ve never mastered the fine art of pastry despite having an excellent recipe stashed in the cookery files. It’s the rolling out of the dough to just the right size and thickness that is my stumbling block. At least I have a handle on a perfect recipe for the filling.

Unlike poor old Charlie Brown, I hold no expectation of finding the Great Pumpkin growing out in the garden patch. That actually happened a few years back when a vine sprouted out of the ground several months after I had tossed pumpkin guts into the compost heap. That wouldn’t be an option this time around.

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