2 weeks ago, my sister Renee, Paul, and I ran the Big Sur Half Marathon. I made the mistake of getting dressed in the dark (so as not to wake my sister Anne who was not running) and accidentally putting on an old pair of pants. These pants decided to rip along the seams of both of my inner thighs. I ended up with chafe so bad that my inner thighs were raw and bloody, black and blue with bruises, and swollen to three times their normal size. I had to bandage them for the next week and a half and I ended up missing two days of work because I was incapacitated. But I ran the whole damn thing (ok, technically, I ran the first 8 miles, then walked a mile, then tried to ran again and started to cry because of the pain, then walked the last 4.1 miles, but damn it, I finished the race).
Goofing around pre-race.
One of the photos the camera crews snapped of me, around mile 7. As you can see, the views along the race course aren't too shabby.
After recovering enough to limp around a bit, I returned to work, only to get the flu. And I am not talking about any old namby pamby flu. I was so ill and threw up so much that I lost 8 pounds in 24 hours (I kid you not). So I was then incapacitated for another week. The week of Thanksgiving, I might add. So while everyone else I knew was enjoying delicious holiday treats, I was eating this for every meal (not the most delicious celebratory feast for a foodie):
As you can probably sense, I was just ever so slightly bitter about missing the holiday festivities at the cabin my in-laws rented up in Idyllwild for a holiday weekend respite. But I decided not to let the flu defeat me completely. Determined to have some fun once I returned to solid foods after 5 days on a liquid diet, I baked myself my favorite Thanksgiving dish - a pumpkin pie. Since I was sick, I didn't do anything fancy or improvise at all - I simply followed the Libby's pie recipe right off of the can and I used a frozen pie crust because standing for more than 5 minutes felt like running the aforementioned half marathon with how weak I was. But even though the pie wasn't fancy or gourmet, you had better believe that it tasted like manna from heaven after all of that damned chicken noodle soup. And after all, when it comes to the holidays, sometimes tried and true is really the best way to go.
Hope you all had a fantastic holiday!
Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) Libby's pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
1 frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
Frozen pie crust - works for me!
Mix sugar, spice, and salt together. Beat eggs in separate bowl and then mix in spices and pumpkin:
Your mixture should look something like this:
Add evaporated milk and the mix will look something like this:
Pour into frozen pie crust and bake at 425 F for 15 minutes, then decrease to 350 F for 40 to 50 minutes (or until knife inserted in center comes out clean). It should look golden and delicious, like so:
Top with whipped cream and enjoy!
3 comments:
Glad you're feeling better! :)
Kels
Thanks!
Yay to running the marathon! Yuck to the flu though--I absolutely DREAD stomach bugs like that--the weakness and muscle aches are almost worse than the puking (almost). Glad you are on the mend though. I made a killer vegan pumpkin pie this year--it was pure heaven since I rarely get to eat dessert with my dairy allergy.
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