Welcome toThe Cheaters Guide to Thanksgiving.

Whether you like it or not, Thanksgiving is a popular time to lie to your family.

Here’s one for your annoying pastry chef cousin: I made the crust myself.

A pie crust in a glass pie dish.

The primary goal is to get rid of the obvious store-bought look and find the best tasting pie shell.

There are many big name brands out there, and a handful of them are pretty terrible.

But, if you only have pre-fitted frozen shells to choose from, all hope is not lost.

A pie crust with the edge crimped.

Pick one that is fitted to a 9-inch aluminum deep dish pan.

Then:

1.

It needs to be pretty firm for this next part.

Fingers crimping a pie shell.

Once the crust is firm, loosen the edges and begin to peel away the aluminum dish.

Now theres only one thing left to do: Get rid of that machine-crimped edge.

This will also warm up the fats in the crust to make it more pliable.

Once youve erased their marks, make your own.

Might I suggest the old-fashioned way?

You could also crimp it with your fingers like in the picture above.

Press the crust into the wedge-space of the thumb and pointer on your other hand.

Dont strive to be perfect; a little inconsistency will make it look even more homemade.

Fill and bake as intended, or chill in the freezer for future use.

When your cousin asks you what recipe you used, just say you got it from Lifehacker.