This pie is made mostly the old fashioned way. I caramelize the sugar in an iron skillet, but I make the rest of the filling in the microwave. My mom taught me to make this. She just dumps the ingredients in, though, so I had to make her let me measure before she "dumped" so I could write down the recipe. This recipe sounds long and involved, but is really easy. I do it from memory now. My kids won't even try caramel pie from a restaurant. They say they can tell by looking at restaurant caramel pies that they won't be as good!