Well, yesterday was Halloween, so I was headed to my grandma’s to have dinner with her, and my mom and her husband. I was supposed to bring the pie. Yes, supposed to. If you inferred from that that I, in fact, did NOT bring the pie, you would be absolutely correct. But not for lack of trying.

It was a Turtle Pumpkin Pie, and it looked amazing. I went out and got all the ingredients on Tuesday night, and made my pie… and it didn’t set up. It was one of those deals where you mix it up, and let it set up in the fridge for an hour before finishing it off. I couldn’t figure out where I went wrong. I knew it didn’t look good from the beginning… once all mixed up, the pie filling completely overflowed the pie crust– and that was without the additional cool whip, caramel and pecans!

So yesterday, after I got home, I was scanning the recipe, trying to figure out if I’d made a mistake. Pumpkin, coolwhip, milk, instant pudding mix, cinnamon… it was all there. So I was cleaning up the last things on the kitchen counter when I came across one of the empty pudding boxes, and went to throw it away.

Wait. What does that say??

“Cook and serve.”

Damn! A pie does not set up if you do not use instant pudding mix… cook and serve pudding does not set up if it is merely mixed with cold milk. Oh well… don’t know how I managed to get cook and serve instead of instant in the first place, but that was the problem. I think it was the problem anyways! I’ll have to try my pie again at some point. I’ll just need a new pie crust, cool whip and pudding mixes. Instant this time, I swear.