That’s right. Today, February 2nd, is the big day. Punxsutawney Phil, the official predictor of Spring, will make his annual appearance and declare 6 more weeks of winter. Or not.

I’m not going to go into the history of Groundhog Day, but if you’re curious you can visit the little rodent’s Club. Instead I will tell you a little family memory….

One year when our kids were middle school age, I decided to invent “Groundhog Pie”. Like Sheppard’s Pie, but using “groundhog meat”.  It looked a lot worse than it tasted. When I cut into the crust and served the first piece, I was reminded of a childhood song that had “greasy gopher guts” in the lyrics.

They must have suspected it really wasn’t groundhog, yet everyone played along. Even my pickiest of eaters scarfed it up. These kids, who diligently removed each and every piece of onion or mushroom from their spaghetti, blindly ate groundhog pie. Go figure.

This was many years ago. I want to add the recipe to my cookbook, but I didn’t write it down in my cookbook notes. Maybe I hadn’t started the book yet. Regardless, I will let you in on what I do remember.

Groundhog Pie

• 1 pkg. of Pillsbury rolled pie crusts (has 2 in it)
• 1 pound ground meat (beef, pork, or chicken will work)
• 1 bunch of fresh spinach (rinse well)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced fine
• 1 small can of chopped tomatoes, drained.

Remove pie crusts from the fridge and allow them to warm to room temperature while preparing pie filling. Brown the meat in a large skillet until done. Drain and return to skillet, adding spinach, garlic and tomatoes. Stir together for 1 minute at low heat.

Line a pie pan with 1 crust, making it fit tightly to sides and bottom. Poke bottom a couple of times with a fork. Leave 1/4 to 1/2 inch of crust edge above the rim of pan. Add filling.  Cover with top crust and pinch the bottom and top edges together to seal. Poke top crust a couple of times with fork.

Bake at 350° for about an hour.

You can also sprinkle cheese on the filling before covering with top crust if desired.