National Pie Day is Sunday, Jan. 23—a special day created by the American Pie Council to encourage you to bake your favorite pie, and to eat pie.

Such a delicious challenge! Who is the mad genius who thinks these things up? I love you, whoever you are.  

As the unofficial pie lady of Malibu (I think 17 ribbons in the Malibu Pie Contest earns me that title!), I’m adding a new wrinkle. On this day, I encourage you to bake a new pie recipe.

I could eat pumpkin pie any day of the year, so I would start there. Pumpkin pie is a champion multi-tasker. Think about it. Pumpkin pie is great for dessert, of course, but have you ever had it for breakfast? Divine.

So let’s start with pumpkin, and let’s put a new twist on it. That leads us immediately to Banana Pumpkin Pie, by Malibuite Laurie Principe.

Laurie’s creation earned her a second-place ribbon at the 2010 Malibu Pie Contest, in the seasonal category. Take a look at her happy face as she won the red ribbon last October!

A frequent entrant over the past four years, with apple, blueberry and other creations, Laurie the baker has also influenced her son Tripp, 9, a fourth-grader at Webster Elementary. He received a second-place ribbon in the kids category for his rendition of apple pie a couple years ago.  

Laurie, a registered nurse (she formerly worked at Cedars as a maternity nurse), keeps uber-busy as wife to Dennis, a TV producer, and mother to Tripp and Turner, 4.

She loves to run marathons (L.A. Marathon, Malibu Marathon) and do triathlons (Malibu Triathlon, a Day at the Beach Triathlon). And in her copious free time (that’s a joke!), she is PTA president at Webster.   

And most importantly, an award-winning pie baker!

Laurie Principe’s Banana Pumpkin Pie

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 cup evaporated milk or light cream
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Stir in pumpkin, bananas, eggs and evaporated milk. Pour into unbaked pastry shell. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until tip of knife comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool on a rack, and serve at room temperature.

Serves 6-8.