Celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving

On Monday, October 13 Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving. Living in a land far from the Canadian traditions of Thanksgiving and the coloured leaves of fall, I longed for a piece of pumpkin pie. Considering I can count how many times I’ve made a pie crust for a pie, I decided to seek out an easier alternative for my first attempt at cooking in an unfamiliar culture. To begin with I needed to find a recipe. Thankfully my mother provided the following recipe:

Quick Pumpkin Pie

4 eggs
½ cup margarine
2 cups milk
½ cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup fine coconut
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups cooked mashed pumpkin
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¾ tsp nutmeg

Mix all ingredients. Pour into 2-9” pie plates. Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Then I needed to determine where I could purchase each of the items, for it was definitely not a quick trip to the grocery store. While in Bangkok I searched for the spices, only to find cinnamon and vanilla. I salvaged aging nutmeg from the MCC guest house and chose not to use ginger; although, fresh ginger would have been an available option. Then I had to decide how I was going to go about finding pumpkin, the most important ingredient. Following a conversation with my English-speaking host sister, I accompanied my host mother to the neighbourhood evening market where we purchased a small pumpkin for about $.40. Margarine and milk I found in the host family’s fridge and eggs are sold at their mini mart and so were easy to find. The purchase of flour was somewhat more challenging. First I had to spell it “F-L-O-U-R” to clarify I did not mean “F-L-O-W-E-R” and then I had to describe foods that contained flour familiar to my family. After talking about French bread we went in search of flour at a larger mini mart with foreign food. The final ingredient was coconut. In a land of numerous coconuts, how does one purchase coconut to use for baking a pumpkin pie? I was told I would have to buy it fresh on the day I planned to bake the pie to prevent it from spoiling. I then began to envision the process of chopping coconut by hand. One the day I baked the pie, we stopped by the coconut shop. After describing how much I needed, instructions were given and within seconds I had a small bag of freshly shredded coconut for my pie and the final ingredient.

With all the ingredients assembled, I started the process of measuring and mixing. My host sister watched the process closely. Having no pie plates, I chose to use a large aluminum pan used for serving food at celebrations. And then, it was ready for the oven. The oven in my household is used only for heating garlic bread and so we experimented with the heat to find an appropriate temperature for baking a pie. In just a little under 50 minutes the inserted knife came out clean.

Pumpkin Pie was enjoyed by everyone and together we had celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving.