Pumpkin Pie Making or Pumpkin of Your Eye*

Over Thanksgiving my mom and I wanted to have an adventure.

So, we decided to...MAKE A PUMPKIN PIE FROM SCRATCH USING A PUMPKIN WE COOKED OURSELVES!! (I'm not shouting, just excited!) Yes we did!

Well, things started out wonderfully.

They really did.

How can they not with a beautiful pumpkin like this?

The pumpkin just knows it's about to become something very special...it can feel it in its bones, er, mushy insides.


First, we cut out a little square shaped piece from the top, like thus:

Then the pumpkin was cut in half and I took a picture of the gross looking insides. But, have no fear, things will get better...at least for a little bit.

It was so fun, even the dogs wanted in on the action!

In order to make the pumpkin useful those gross looking insides depicted two pictures up have to be, um, taken care of...ahem... like so...

(Btw, if you try this at home try to get as many of the strings "taken care of" as you can, otherwise you might have a little trouble down the road...learn from our mistake). But, definitely scrape all the seeds out.

Once all the seeds and strings were out, we put the pumpkin in the oven at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes or until fork tender (it might take longer, just check on it).

While the pumpkin was cooking, I took pictures of myself to pass the time:


After the pumpkin was cooked the useful part of the pumpkin was scraped out. Be sure to get every last piece that you can...your eyes need it. They really do! Doesn't that look like pumpkin ice cream? So beautiful!

If you're not planning on using the cooked pumpkin right away, be sure to put it in a festive snowman container and store it in the fridge for later.

The above steps were easy enough, they sure were. Right?

Are you still with me?

This is where the fun part began...

See, Black Friday is a wonderful thing. Here is why...

To turn the scraped pumpkin into something that is useful for pie or cooking, the pumpkin needs to be pureed. Well, we tried using a blender (it turned the pumpkin all black), we tried using a potato masher (it didn't get the pumpkin soft enough) and well, we didn't have a food processor.

Here is where the lovely thing thing known as *crazypeoplewhogetupat4amtogetgooddeals comes in (*more commonly known as Black Friday).

At Wal-Mart (Nast) there was a super crazy deal (or so we thought) of a little 1.5 cup mini chopper for $1.97. Well the problem is I am not on of those crazypeoplewhogetupat4am on the Friday after Thanksgiving and neither is my mom.

So, we didn't get the super crazy deal on the little 1.5 cup mini chopper because when we went they were all sold out.

But, all was not lost. We found another little food processor that could hold three cups and was a little more than $1.97, but we thought it would work so we bought it!

And then we took it home and tried to use it...and...it didn't work! (Partly because it didn't have instructions and partly I think because it was defective).

Yay! So, we went back to Wal-Mart and exchanged it for another one exactly like it (instructions included), only hoping that it would work this time...

It worked alright, but not to puree pumpkin.

We had to mash the pumpkin with a fork before we put it in the food processor...what is the purpose of that?

Isn't a food processor supposed to eliminate that step?

Anyway, it was mashed with a fork and then put in the processor. But since it was not very expensive there were two buttons: "HI" and "LOW" and we had to stand there and push them down while the food was being processed. We couldn't go and do something else...

Which, when I say processed, really means not very processed. We had to add a bunch of water and after about 20 minutes we got not quite 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin.

I just thought it would be faster than that is all I'm saying. And more processed.


(I hid the brand name so as to not cause any panic, but it ends in an r).

Two hours later we had finally finished processing all the pumpkin. Whew!

That part definitely made for good memories. My mom and I started laughing about half way through!

On to the baking part...

The Crust:

Instead of making regular pie crust, we used phyllo dough, you know, to cut calories and all. It turned out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves.

(Word to the wise...if you've never worked with phyllo before, be sure to read all the instructions on the box before beginning. Phyllo is pretty temperamental).

The Filling:

See the little chunks in there? Those are from the food processor that doesn't really work to make pumpkin puree.

The two were combined: The Crust + The Filling = Homemade Pumpkin Pie!


We made two pies. See the different milk designs? They both kind of resemble horses...or maybe a galloping horse and a unicorn (if you turn your head to the side)? What do you see?


With the pies in the oven we waited with anticipation...

Done!

How did it taste, you ask?

Well, despite two trips to Wal-Mart, one defective food processor, two hours of processing pumpkin, and the broken phyllo...they turned out pretty darn well!

Thanks for asking.

And that, my friends, is our adventure in home made pumpkin pie making!

And just to avoid any confusion, we have made home made pumpkin pie before but this was the first time making it using our own pumpkin and phyllo dough- usually it's just the canned pumpkin and regular crust.

*Why is it always apple of your eye? Why don't people ever say pumpkin of your eye?

Chair of Bowlies*

"Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only be aware to stop and savor it." Ratatouille

I have many reasons that I love coming home. The following are two of them- the first reason is that I absolutely love visiting with my family and the second is that I make things, as in food things, that I don't normally make when I am living in my apartment. Actually, my mom and I make them together. We spend time baking and mashing and stirring.

And since the results taste great, we spend time eating too.

Want to try some?

This bread started "singing" when we took it out of the oven.

"How do you tell how good bread is without tasting it? Not the smell, not the look, but the sound of the crust. Listen, oh the symphony of crackle. Only great bread sounds this way." Colette (from Ratatouille)

Homemade strawberry jam is so much tastier than store bought!

Milk on it's way to becoming yogurt.

Cherries, you are so sweet!

A bowl of cherries from the trees in my parents' backyard.

Red and round. Cherries are lovely things.

What did you think? Good, wasn't it?

*Bowl of Cherries

Copyright © 2010 by Natasha M.

Addendum

I have an announcement to make...

According to a comment by an "anonymous" person (ahem, my mom, ahem) in the last blog post (right below), I neglected to tell you about Snickers Pie.

A little background information...our family had (notice past tense...for some reason I really like parentheses today...and ellipses) a favorite restaurant in Columbus named Josiah's that we frequented- may it R.I.P. (it was a very sad day when it closed). Anyway, they had this dessert there that we ordered almost every time and we would share a piece of it. It was called Snickers Pie. We tried very hard to pry the recipe from the owner, but she refused and wouldn't share her secrets (my dad even offered to work there washing dishes for her in exchange for the recipe, but it was a no go) - the restaurant was closing, but she wouldn't budge about sharing it. So we set out to find the recipe for the peanut butter part on our own. We tried one or two recipes but they just didn't cut it. The consistency or taste wasn't quite right.

Then we found this recipe. It sure tastes really close to the one that the owner used at Josiah's. Here's how you make it. First you need to buy the ingredients: you will need the ingredients that she mentions for the pie itself but you will also need peanuts (salted and roasted work just fine - really any kind but raw) and caramel apple dip.

First, you make the crust (you can follow along with The Pioneer Woman's nice pictures). After the crust has cooled you add the caramel. I don't remember if we used the whole container, just use your best judgement. Next, you add a good layer of peanuts, but the actual amount depends on how much you like peanuts. Then you add the peanut butter topping from the recipe. Lastly, you dig in and eat it! Oh, wait, first you should probably chill it, but you might not be able to wait that long.

It's enough to send anyone into a diabetic coma, but it's oh, sooooo good!! Happy eating!

"I'll lick the bowl" OR "How did those disappear so fast?"

Today I made Granny's rolls.

Not my Granny, but someone's granny. The recipe made 22 rolls. Yup, go ahead and count 'em.


How many do you think were left after dinner?

Yes, that's right.....

there were only three left!

Yes, we ate nineteen of them. Granted, guests did make an impromptu visit and their children ate several of them. But, believe me. They are just that good. Now you're probably thinking "but bread takes so long to make." Trust me, this recipe is easy. They do rise twice but other than that they are really easy since you can knead the dough right in the bowl. Go ahead and make them. You will be happy! (Note: the first time I made them I cooked them for 20 minutes as it says on the recipe and they were kind of burnt. This time I cooked them for 10 minutes and they turned out fine).

My mom and I also made peanut butter pie today. I took pictures, but I will just let her pictures speak for themselves. If you love (or even like) peanut butter and butter and oreos and cool whip, you need to make this pie. Really, your tongue won't regret it, even though your hips probably will. Ooops, did I just say that?

On Sunday we also made chocolate babka. We started on Saturday morning and then finished on Sunday. The recipe takes two days since you have to give the yeast time to rise, etc.

First you roll out the dough


and then add the chocolate mixture


next, you roll up the dough


and then measure it to make sure you have 12 inches...is your mouth watering yet? Mine sure was...


and then you cut them into two inch pieces

and set them in the pan to rise.


Just look at all that chocolatey goodness. Yum!



After they have risen in the pan, you toss them in the oven (just kidding on the toss part) and set the timer and out comes....wait a minute, why are there two pieces missing?


The recipe said we needed to wait one hour to eat them. Do you really think we waited that long? Noooo, as evidenced by the picture, we didn't...and they tasted just fine. Phew, that was a lot of baking.

Now, don't you wish someone had invented scratch n' sniff internet just for occasions like this? Don't deny it, I know that's what you're thinking... But, what are you waiting for? Get baking and you can have your own smells!