Cushaw pie about to happen

Cushaw pie is a pretty labor intensive process, because you can’t go to the grocery and buy a can of it like you can pumpkin. 

We grew a few cushaws this summer, mostly for fall decorating, but I like to make pies with one or two. It’s a thanksgiving tradition in our family. 

Cushaw is similar to pumpkin, but it’s lighter in color, more yellow than orange, and to me has a milder creamier flavor. The pie calls for more nutmeg than cinnamon. Actually, this recipe doesn’t have any cinnamon, come to think of it, which is how I remember the cushaw pies of my youth.  I loved their nutmeg flavor, but I think my sister did not for this very reason--they tasted like nutmeg. 

I love this pie cold, and it’s better after it’s been made a couple of days or so. 

Mom always made these pies at Thanksgiving because they are my dad’s favorite.  

I made them last year because Mom was in the hospital at Thanksgiving. She was released in time to eat dinner with us here at my house, but she didn’t get to make any of her specialties. 

I don’t have her original recipe, but this one is very similar. In the past, if I had questions about how to make it, I’d call her and ask her. 

This year, I can’t do that. I think of things I want to ask her all the time. 

But I’m going to attempt these pies, and I may shed some tears while doing it, but I need to make them for Dad, and for the rest of us who like them. 

So, I cut the cushaw, that large green striped curvy squash of a thing, into big chunks and roasted it a couple days ago. 

Cushaw is like butternut, it’s hard to peel, but if you bake it a while, it softens and is easier to peel. 

Mom did not do it this way. She somehow peeled those big old squashes with her old worn butcher knife, holding it Brenda Gandt style. She’d cut it up in neat cubes, then cook it. 

I’m not that patient, so I roasted mine so I could rip and tear and slice the soft yellow flesh from that tough skin. I was not neat about it. I'm rough on my food.  It doesn't stand a chance.  

Tonight, I cooked it some more so that the flesh is very tender. If it isn’t cooked well, it’ll be stringy and unappetizing, and we can’t have that, lol. 

It’s also important to drain the cooked cushaw in a colander before mixing in the eggs, cream and spices. We don’t want our pie runny and unappetizing either. 

So my cooked cushaw is draining in the sink as we speak. 

Tomorrow I plan to bake these pies. 

Hopefully they will be edible, good even. 

Hopefully they will do Mom’s cushaw pies some kind of justice. 

We’ll see.