GATHER
82 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 TASTEOFHOME.COM
Homemade HeroesDeployment
Pumpkin Pie Kit
Here’s the easy-does-it pie recipe I sent
my husband, Randy, in Afghanistan.
—Rowenna Hamper, Mishawaka, INPrep: 20 min. • Bake: 45 min. + cooling
Makes: 2 pies (16 ser vings)2 ¹ ₂ cups graham cracker crumbs
¹ ₂ cup sugar
² ₃ cup butter, melted
FILLING
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 can (12 oz .) evaporated milk
³ ₄ cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¹ ₂ tsp. salt
¹ ₂ tsp. ground mace or nutmeg
¹ ₂ tsp. ground cloves- Preheat oven to 425°. In a bowl,
mix graham cracker crumbs and sugar;
stir in butter. Press onto bottom and
up sides of 2 greased 9-in. metal pie
plates. Bake until lightly browned,
5-7 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. - In a large bowl, beat all the filling
ingredients until blended. Divide evenly
between crusts. Bake on middle oven
rack 15 minutes. Reduce oven setting
to 350°. Bake until the center is set,
25-30 minutes longer. Cool completely
on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator.
To a s te r ove n o p t i o n : Use the same
times and temperatures as specified for
conventional oven, filling crusts and
baking 1 pie at a time. If desired, use
prepared store-bought crusts, but do
not prebake them.
1 piece: 245 cal., 12g fat (6g sat. fat),
51mg chol., 239mg sod., 33g carb.
(23g sugars, 1g fiber), 4g pro.
STATION ED 7,000 MILES FROM HOME in Kabul, Afghanistan,
Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Randall Hamper longed for homemade
comfort as the holiday season approached. If he could get the
aroma of freshly baked pie wafting through the base, he knew
he could help bring cheer to those in his unit.
With a little ingenuity, Randy devised
a way to bake his homemade pies for the 40
military personnel, government civilians and
contractors in his unit. “I knew I’d only be
able to make enough for people to get a taste,”
he says. “But I hoped the smell of freshly
baked goods would raise everyone’s spirits.”
Randy recruited a few helpers, ordered a
toaster oven online, and asked his wife to send
a baking kit with the dry ingredients, canned
pumpkin, crusts and evaporated milk needed
to make a couple of pumpkin pies. One team
member talked the cafeteria into giving her a
few eggs. The day before Thanksgiving, they
baked two pumpkin pies in their makeshift kitchen. “I can’t say
that toaster oven pie was the best I’ve ever had, but I can say it
brought tremendous joy to the unit,” says Randy. “Our little
baking team started calling them deployment pies.”
When the team wanted to bake cheesecakes, they resorted to
inventive tactics. Someone brought ingredients 2,700 miles back
from Dubai —except butter, eggs and cream cheese. “We took
individual packets of cream cheese meant for bagels from the
cafeteria, which we gathered over a few days,” says Randy. “We
made a plain and an Oreo cheesecake; both turned out great!
“We joke about our deployment baked goods because, except
for the toaster oven, we had to scrounge for everything. We
didn’t even have a set of measuring cups or spoons, and we don’t
have easy access to ingredients.”
Randy is now home from Afghanistan, but he left the toaster
oven behind with the team. As he says, “They enjoy deployment
baking, and the whole unit loves the baked goods they make.”Home
Sweet
Home
Deployed personnel conjure clever ways to
bring holiday memories to their base in Kabul.
STORY BY DANA MEREDITHLt. Cmdr.
Randall Hamper