Cuddled on the couch. Check.
A sleeping Rusty warming my lap. Check.
Pot of tea is steeping. Check.
Prepping for Thanksgiving…fail.

To be honest, I don’t do much around here to prep for Thanksgiving. My Halloween decorations work throughout the entire season of fall so I don’t have to change my decor (I don’t have a decorative turkey in my house, however – that may have to change), and since my mom and dad host Thanksgiving I don’t need to worry about hosting anyone (not that hosting makes me worry – I LOVE playing hostess) or cooking for anyone. Except for the pies.

The pies became my job after last year’s Thanksgiving when I opened the eyes of my family to the tiny delights that is mini pumpkin pies. I found the recipe on Pinterest (where else?) and decided to give it a whirl. The result was amazing and thus began our new tradition of mini pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving dinner.

But this year, since I’ve been battling with that everlasting sickness, I’m a tad unprepared. Poor Paul has been my errands boy since last Friday (the couch has a permanent indent from my behind after barely moving for the past  6 days) and it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized I needed groceries to bake the pies. Due to long work days and slippery roads, I still don’t have the ingredients as of today (no blame on Paul whatsoever – I owe him for this past week). But have no fear Family, the pies shall be made.

I was hoping to have an entire blog post about the process of making the pies, but instead I’m just going to show you what they look like from a photo of last year’s pies and give you the recipe. :) So, enjoy friends and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! :)

Mini Pumpkin Pies Recipe (original recipe from Make and Takes – the bold parts are me talking :)):

Ingredients:

?Pumpkin pie filling for one 9-inch pie (don’t forget to read what you need to mix with the pumpkin pie filling on the can)

?2 9-inch pie crust dough (pre-made from a box – I use Pillsbury)

?Bowl or round cookie cutter 4 inches in diameter (I used my 1-cup measuring cup – worked great)

?Muffin tin (holds 12)

?Whipped cream

*It said it made 12, but I was able to make many more -almost double*

Instructions:

1. Prep your dough. Using a bowl or 4 inch round cookie cutter (or the 1-cup measuring cup that I used), cut out 12 circles from your 2 9-inch pie crust dough (if you use the 1-cup measuring cup you can make more – they’re a tad smaller but they’re still the perfect size).

2. Place each circle into a pre-greased muffin tin. Press them in, letting the sides come up for a fun look (because mine were smaller, they didn’t really come up over the top). Score the bottom of your dough with a fork to keep the crust from bubbling up as it cooks.

3. Pour your filling into each muffin tin cup. Fill them to the very top. I like to use the recipe for filling from the pumpkin can. But there are a lot of great recipes out there where you can use fresh pumpkin to make your filling (on her instructions she even said that she had some filling left over – like I said, this can make more than 12).

4. Bake your muffin tin pumpkin pies at 425* for 15 minutes. Then turn your heat down to 350* and bake them for 25-30 minutes(since they’re smaller, just check on them every 5 minutes to make sure the edges aren’t burning – I forgot to write down how long mine actually took).

5. Let these cool on a wire rack for a couple of hours to let the pumpkin filling set.

6. Add a dollop of whipped cream to each individual muffin tin pie.