It’s Thanksgiving in The Middle and Frankie Heck is bummed that her mom isn’t coming to dinner this year. She’s further annoyed to learn that Mike has yet to invite his father over for the annual holiday feast. Frankie says, “I want family in this house, Mike. Otherwise it’s not Thanksgiving. It’s just overeating.”

Sue wants to begin a mother-daughter tradition of making an apple pie from scratch. It’ll be super-rewarding because apple pie is the most time-consuming and difficult of all fruit-based desserts. Sadly, Sue’s not so hot with a knife. That’s fine. Frankie is able rinse off all the blood on those apple slices. A few kitchen nightmares later, mother convinces daughter to settle for a frozen pie. Frankie says, “As long as you heat it up at home, it’s homemade.”