Pictorial Guide to Pumpkin Pie

Even though Tiff beat me to it by posting her own favourite pie recipe, here's my own guide to the tasty Thanksgiving treat! (ps: tht title for this post was inspired by Ysolda's love of "the pictorial guide to..." book series)

Step one, go to the Ottawa Farmer's Market to buy 2 sugar pumpkins.
Spend about $20 more than the anticipated $4, and come home with a stash of stuff that includes raspberry pie for Mike (would I say no to pie?), fresh organic autumn harvest honey (the bees who made it were in their hive on the table next to all the honey!), and Miss Nunavit hotsauce made by a nice Jamacian man who grows most of the ingredients in his own backyard (he didn't think I would like it because I didn't want to sample all his flavours along with Mike, but that was only because I don't like hotsauces just plain. On the BBQ chicken we did that night, this stuff was yummmmmy!).

Step Two: Remembering both the advice from the pumpkin seller that these are very tough-to-cut pumpkins, and my amazing ability to frequently cut off fingertips while slicing bagels (the mark from the most recent slice is only just now disappearing!), put Mike to work cutting up the pumpkins while I hollow them out.

(sorry dad, I didn't save the pumpkin seeds for roasting...
didn't think they'd survive till I could bring them out to you at Xmas!)

Bake the pumpkin pieces, skin side up, at 425 degrees F for 50 minutes.

Step Three: Let the pumpkins cool while you go out and pick up a few things, and then scrape the pulp off the skin and puree it in your newly purchased inexpensive mini food processor (the black one on the left there) (ps: not sure if you can make it out, but you can actually see my own pumkin plants growing in the backyard - I have some of them elevated on the plastic chairs, in an attempt to keep the squirrels from sneaking in under the leaves and nibbling on them! darn rats with fur coats!)
Realise that Ms. Martha's recipe didn't mention that each 4 lb. pumpkin would actually make more pulp than is required for one pie, and so your decision to get 2 pumpkins was entirely unnecessary. Measure the pulp into 3 cup amounts (enough for 2 large pies at a time) and freeze it for later baking adventures.

Step Four: mix up your favourite pie recipe, pour it the mix into your favourite pie crust (mine is the frozen kind that you buy in the store!) and bake for 50 minutes.

Ta Da! Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving dinner!
to make this pie throughly unhealthy, make sure to serve it with real whipped cream.


the mark of a good pie recipe (this scene lasted all of 3 minutes before this last slice was eaten and the second pie was cut into!):

On Monday, Mike and I went to his brother's place for thanksgiving dinner - Tara (dave's wife) wanted to do the turkey since Mike and Dave's parents were down in the Chesapeake Bay on their boat. The only requirement was that I go over to help her make it. Once the bird was in the oven (both upside down and overstuffed, which we found out later when Tara's parents showed up!) and everything was ready to go, Tara put her sister Kathleen and I in charge of making a centrepiece for the table... Kathleen hollowed out a butternut squash, and then we borrowed Tiff's suggestion for maple leaf roses:
not sure that ours looked so much like roses, but close enough. :)

Dinner was a touch late due to too much stuffing in the turkey, so Owen had his dinner before the rest of us. I don't think he quite knew what to make of all this turkey stuff


Here's all the adults, in our post-dinner turkey induced stupor
Happy Belated Turkey Day everyone!