"Pie-oneer Woman"

I love the Pioneer Woman.  I have used many of her recipes and used hers to create some of my own.  I love to cook, so I follow quite a few cooking blogs, but hers is my favorite.

Today she is going to be on the Food Network at 8pm- doing Throwdown with Bobby Flay!  My DVR is set!

Anyway, right now she is doing a series on holiday pies.  I am a pie person and prefer it to cake almost any day.  (Except my birthday when I get a white cake with pink cream filling and cream cheese frosting from Costco!)  I had been talking with my mom about inventing a new pumpkin pie.  I like pumpkin pie, but it's not my favorite.  My husband on the other hand is in LOVE with pumpkin pie and could finish a whole one himself- and has.  More specifically, he loves his mom's pumpkin pie.  I've tried to make it from her family recipe, he says it's good, but not like his Mama's. I hope I have a pie that Will is going to say that about someday!

Back to my pie idea.  I think what I don't like about a pumpkin pie boils down to 2 things:  the crust and the absence of something crunchy on top.  I'm more of a graham cracker crust kind of gal.  So my idea was to do a ginger snap crust with some kind of candied nut topping.  Apparently I'm not that original in my thinking because when I Googled it there were many examples.  Oh well.  I still plan on making this and will let you know how it goes!

One of the pies the PW made lately was this Pumpkin Creme Pie.  It looks amazing and I will be making that one soon too.  Also, there is talk among her followers of a mysterious chocolate bourbon pecan pie.  I will be waiting to see what that looks like!

Let the pie making begin!