An Ode to Libby Pumpkin 

My first year in Europe I decided to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. It wasn't my first, but it was my first pumpkin pie out of the country, my first made with a real pumpkin and my first with an oven in Celcius.

1989 was before the internet had gone mainstream. With no google, no translate mode and nothing to help me, I found a book with a math calculation on how to convert Fahrenheit to Celcius. Anyone who knows me well will realize that this is a scary prospect; Math and I do not mix.
I put the pie in the oven in the afternoon and hours later I realized I must have miscalculated. I ended up turning up the heat and laying on the floor in front of my oven wearing my pyjamas and wrapped in a blanket watching my pie baking. Shortly before midnight, I pulled it out of the oven deeming, "It has to be done, we will eat it this way!" Markus was thrilled, I was finally giving up.

The next day we sat down to eat and it didn't taste right. The pumpkin I had pureed didn't come out right; I had managed to destroy the most straightforward recipe of all time. I felt like an idiot and burst into tears missing home and the ease of knowing how to do things.

I have never tried to make a pumpkin pie from scratch again, I only use Libby Pumpkin in a can. Oh and conversion...I still don't know how to do that; thankfully we have Google who helps me out every time. Pre-internet expat life was a bit harder but cooking abroad still has its challenges as any expat will know.

P.S. I should write I love letter to Libby because I truly love their cans of pumpkin.

–Allison Ochs, Social Worker M.S.W. , Coach, Expat, Mother of three, Wife

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash