Today I baked five pies, a feat that I am thankful for. The first one was baked and cooling by 7:30 a.m. and the apple/cinnamon aroma has been teasing me ever since then. Later in the afternoon I began my pumpkin pie marathon. During the preparation I kept receiving telephone calls which was difficult because I was operating two ovens and had pies going in and out at differing times. The proof of my success - or lack thereof - will indeed be in the "pudding".
As I was adding ingredients, I was thankful for an old workhorse - my forty-plus year old hand mixer. A Sunbeam Mixmaster, which I doubt is even made any more. In fact, I am not certain that the Sunbeam Corporation even exists now. Since I prepared four pumpkin pies, the little mixer got quite a workout and by the end of the fourth's batter, the motor wasn't purring quite as efficiently as when it first began. It is possible that its days are numbered.......but then aren't all of ours?
I was thankful that I had all the necessary tools and ingredients to get the four pumpkin pie fillings into their dough-crusts. As I was opening up can after can of either raw pumpkin or evaporated milk, I was reminded of one of the inconsistencies in the tin can industry. (Actually, I do not think the cans are made of tin any more but that is what I still refer to them as.)
If someone could please explain to me why, on can labels, where they print the dotted line and often have a picture of a pair of scissors to show the consumer where to cut the label in order to remove it, is the same place where the glue is placed??????? This makes no sense to me. Being a creature of habit, I always remove my labels so I can separate the recyclable materials. It is so natural to run the tip of my scissors down the dotted line because - well because it is there. Rarely, and I do mean rarely, will the paper even begin to separate from the can where the line is.
OK, the last two paragraphs have little to do with what I am thankful for even though........it is late and my brain is fried - perhaps from the frustration of trying to quickly remove paper labels from cans.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ancoma incarbo
