Until now.

(Inserting foot in mouth)

I now introduce you to the wonderful, the almighty, wish-they-had-little-cheeks-to-pinch they're so cute....

Drum roll please................plrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

(is that how you make the noise to drum?!?!?!?!?)

Check these babies out! They are too cute! How could you not want to make these suckers. I got my inspiration from OurBestBites.com.

These are great as gifts and/or to eat yourself! And who's kidding who? You totally will eat them all yourself. I do.

To start, buy yourself some mini mason jars. You can use 4 oz or 8 oz jars. I used 4 oz jars because that was all I could find. Be sure to wash them before you use them.

Dry 'em and set aside.

Let's make some crust. Now, you can totally use store bought...I usually do.

This time I wanted to try a homemade crust.

Try it. You'll be surprised how flaky it is.

AND

It's yummy.

It's quick and easy.

1 1/4 c Flour

1/2 t Salt

1/3 c plus 1 T of butter flavored shortening

1/4 c Ice Water

Combine the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut up the shortening into small cubes and add to flour mixture. Cut shortening in. (To cut shortening into the flour use a pastry blender. If you do not have a pastry blender, use two beaters. Push the butter "into" the flour mixture with the beaters.) Do this until the butter is about pea size.

Now, this is were you need to use restraint. About 1 T at a time, pour ice cold water into the dough. As little as possible, turn the dough with your fingers. Continue adding water 1 T at a time until the mixture is just barely wet. (You don't have to use all the water by the way.) The goal here is to handle the dough as little as possible; you're only trying to wet all the flour. Your dough should come together fairly easily but it should not be sticky(too sticky means too much water).

(If you won't be using your dough right away, roll it into a ball and wrap with saran wrap. Place in fridge until ready to use.)

Take a handful of dough and roll in out to 1/8 inch thickness. Then, take your mason jar lid and use it as a cookie cutter. These will be your pie tops.

Place aside. Now take little pieces of dough and press it against the bottom and side of your mason jars.

Place aside. Now it's time to decide what kind of pies you'd like to make. I chose apple, cherry, and mixed things up a bit with apple-cherry. You can make any kind you like! Simply make the pie filling like you normally would and then scoop it in the pies. Place a dab of butter on the top of each. Mmmmm.

Then get creative! Retrieve your pie tops and place them on your pies any way you choose.

Here comes the best part.

Now you freeze 'em! This is what makes them great as gifts or as a make ahead dessert. Bake them at 350 for 40-45 minutes frozen, 30-35 minutes thawed.

Give 'em away or eat them=)

And I'll tell you why.

Pies don't require much finesse. Just bake a crust and dump some ingredients in the middle...and va-la...you have yourself a pie. What's the big deal about that?

I want something that inspires me...(think BIG here)...that makes me want to dig deeper to create some fantastic, mouth-watering, want-to-eat-so-much-more-of-you dessert.

So this brings you up to speed to my dilemma for Thanksgiving. I was supposed to bring a dessert for our family get together, but nothing was popping out to me. And a pie, well, it's just a pie, and you already know how that goes.

However, I found this recipe that brought "just a pie" to a whole new level.

Intro: Pumpkin Pie Spectacular

Now this is a pie I can get behind. It has 6 different facets to it. It requires skill, albeit not much, but some.

I made the pie and it turned out great. BUT it could have been that much better. Why?, you ask. Because I forgot to add the last layer of oh-so-delicious goodness to my pie=( The whip cream. And it wasn't your everyday whip cream. It had ginger and cinnamon in it.

Sigh

No one will know the true potential, the true greatness, of Pumpkin Pie Spectacular. (Well, my Mom and I know the true greatness because we added the whip cream to the top when we got home. But there were 23 other people who did not get to taste the full effect.)

So you've gotta try this because it truly is one spectacular pie.