Pumpkin Love

Halloween 's been over for a week now. Sigh. Our pumpkins are shriveling on the front porch.

I scooped a whole lot of "glump" (as my son likes to call it) out of our pumpkins last weekend and so we made lots of pumpkin food!

Like roasted pumpkin seeds...



And yummy pumpkin pie! To my absolute delight it was fantastic!



To be honest, I was afraid to make a pie. I had never made one before and I had the idea that pies were really difficult. But this was super easy! So if you have the same reservations about pie making as I had, try this pumpkin pie recipe. You won't regret it.

This is the recipe I used for the flaky butter crust. Amazing! I made the crust the night before and refrigerated it.

I cooked the pumpkin "glump" (seeds removed) and a butternut squash in the oven until it was soft. Then I pureed them together in the blender and used 2 1/2 cups of it for the recipe.


Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups of pumpkin/ squash puree
1 1/2 cups of demerara style brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 heaping tsp of cinnamon
2 tsp of all purpose flour
4 lightly beaten eggs
1 can of condensed milk
2 Tbsp of water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
some juice from freshly grated ginger (to taste)

Directions
When I took the crust out of the fridge the following day, it was way too flaky to work with so I added some additional butter chunks to make it more workable. I rolled it out and pressed it into the 9" pie plate.
Then, I mixed up all of the ingredients for the filling and poured it into the pie crust (I had a bunch of filling left over).
I baked the pie at 400 for 15 minutes, reduced the heat to 350 for 35 minutes and then watched it carefully until it looked as though the center of the pie was fully set.



This pie is the perfect sweetness for my taste and the butter crust was extremely easy and perfectly flaky.

After I was finished making pie, I still had a huge 2 liter jar full of pumpkin/ squash mush left over. So, of course I made pumpkin soup!



Pumpkin & Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
2 L cooked pumpkin and squash
2 onions diced
3 tsp allspice
3 pinches of nutmeg
1 pinch of cloves
2 pinches cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar
3 drops of pure vanilla extract
a touch of maple syrup (to taste)

Directions
Sauté the onions in butter and olive oil until translucent
Add pumpkin and squash and mix well
Dump this mixture into your blender and puree adding water if necessary to facilitate blending
Place mixture back into pan on stove top and add your seasonings
I started with the allspice and then added the others to taste
Once warmed through and spiced to your taste, serve with pumpkin seeds as a garnish

Love a pumpkin today!

♥ Andrea ♥