A Million-Dollar Pumpkin Pie

This is not an ordinary piece of pumpkin pie. It's a piece of "Grandma's Million-Dollar Pumpkin Pie" made from a recipe at the back of the Thanksgiving installment of Martha Freeman's holiday themed, Chickadee Court Mystery series.




Actually, that's not whipped cream on top of the pie either, but a fake-o whipped topping recipe (found here), using unflavored gelatin, and powdered milk...and it works, it really works!

I'm afraid, I was not prepared for pie making quite this early in November. And, I usually prefer to leave the pumpkin pie for right at Thanksgiving. But, in order to encourage my 9 year old daughter to attempt reading the 28 chapters of Freeman's book, I told her when she finished reading it, we'd make the pie together - just the two of us.

I had no idea she could read so fast. Apparently, the mystery, which revolves around a missing family recipe, and ends up revealing a deeper family secret, is a captivating one. Like the Doyle and Fossey Science Mystery series, I've been reading aloud with the children, this one features a couple of young (11 year old) friends, Alex Parakeet (a boy), and his neighbor Yasmeen (a girl), who solve the mystery together, with the help of the Parakeet family's cat - Luau.

The writing is witty, and quirky, but not silly. It's what I think the Doyle and Fossey books are trying to be, but haven't quite become. And while Freeman doesn't offer any science experiments at the back of the book, you do have to read the story in order to find the secret ingredient needed to make the pie. I thought that was a nice touch.

Kudos to Martha Freeman, for prompting my 9 year old to read a 200+ page story, and for an excellent, pumpkin pie recipe. The secret ingredient was surprising - but tasty.

For more children's book reviews, and recommendations, check out this week's What My Child is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.







It's great to be a homeschooler.