Yes, pumpkins were hurt in the making of...

Have you ever made "from scratch" pumpkin pie before? I looked online for recipes and found all kinds of great ones, each and every one of them calling for at least two cans of pumpkin. I'm not sure when canned pumpkin became a "from scratch" item, but with all the BPA warnings, and with a little time and a lot of curiosity on hand, I not only volunteered to make our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie this year, I opted to make it truly from scratch, meaning, that is, from a pumpkin. So I tried another online search, this time for "how to make pumpkin pie from a pumpkin," and I took the very first recipe that came up. It wasn't a fancy looking site, but the method seemed good, so Calvin and I shopped for our ingredients on Monday, and settled into the kitchen for an afternoon of baking on Wednesday (well, actually Calvin was settled into his bed for a nap and only I was scurrying around the kitchen). Turns out the recipe was relatively easy, and way better than relatively good, so now I'll share it with you.

I'll give you the rundown below, but The site link is here: http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/pumpkinpie.php

The only thing I did differently was to soften my pumpkin by cooking it on high in the microwave for 3 minutes before attempting to cut it in half (the site mentions using a hand saw, but I thought this was a better idea).

I got my 8inch organic pie pumpkin from Arbor Farms, softened it in the microwave (3min on high) before cutting it in half and scooping out the pulp.  I then cut it into small enough pieces to fit into my microwaveable dish (which, to me, means NOT PLASTIC, unlike the pictures on the recipe site), added an inch of water, covered it, and microwaved (again on high) for about 20 minutes (I had to do mine in two batches because it wouldn't all fit in the dish).

When done I was able to remove the skin by just lifting it off.  I then pureed the pumpkin using a hand held submersion mixer (great tool for this project!), and set it in the refrigerator for an hour while I made the crust (I used her recipe with whole wheat flour, but think my no roll recipe would work fine) and cleaned up the pumpkin mess. 

After pouring off any excess water I measured out 3 cups of pumpkin (I froze the remaining 2 or 3 - that was a lot of pumpkin!) and added to it the following:  1cup raw sugar, 1.5t ground cinnamon, 1t ground cloves, 1t ground allspice, 1/2t ground ginger, 1/2t salt, 4 eggs, and 18oz organic evaporated milk (which I found also at Arbor Farms - got to love them!).  I then mixed well with my hand mixer, poured into my waiting pie shell and slid it into the oven.  Just as she says on her site, man was it liquidy!  And boy did it cook up nicely.

Baking: I started it at 425 for just 15 minutes, then dropped the temperature to 325 for another hour.  She says to keep it at 350 for 45-60 minutes, though, and I might do that next time.  The usual clean knife rule applies here.  I also coated walnut halves with brown sugar and butter and added these to the top for the final 5 minutes of baking.  Also, I had plenty of leftover crust and dough, so I painstakingly made minipies in a cupcake tin (getting the crust in takes forever!) and added them to the oven for the final 45 minutes.  Not bad.

Sadly, I have no pictures of the finished pie itself, mostly its murderous beginnings, but hopefully you'll get the chance to make one and see it for yourself - yum!

Irish Boiled Dinner

Tonight was pumpkin carving night and that meant Irish dinner.  Why?  Because according to many sources the Irish brought us the Jack-o-lantern (and can really be thanked for much of Halloween, for that matter), and so to celebrate the roots of this season enjoyment we started our evening with Irish Boiled Dinner.  The way my mom makes this feast is by boiling corned beef, but I tried a new recipe tonight and boiled fresh organic brisket in beer.  I have to say, I'd rather have the corned beef and the beer on the side, and I disagree with the cooking times the original recipe listed, so I'll tell you what they said, and what I did.  The recipe came from Cooks.com:

Put 2lb beef brisket in dutch oven; add two 12oz bottles of Lager beer, 2c water (or enough to cover meat), 2 bay leaves, 10 black peppercorns, 1/2c parsley, and 2t salt; start water.

In saucepan add 2T olive oil, 3 cloves garlic (sliced), 2c leeks (chopped), 1 md onion (sliced); sauté for a few minutes, then add to dutch oven.

Bring water mixture to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours or until meat is tender.  Meanwhile chopped your veggies to add later:  3/4lb carrots (cut in large pieces), 3/4lb red potatoes (peeled), 2lbs green cabbage (cut in sixths, leave part of the core in to keep leaves together).  Add carrots and potatoes in last 25 minutes and cabbage in last 15 minutes.  Remove from water and serve hot.

Notes:  I already mentioned that next time I'll use corned beef and drink the beer.  Also, I used more carrots and potatoes than they called for, and I think they're wrong on their cooking times, so next time I plan to cook my cabbage for 25 minutes and my other veggies for only 15.

March 17, 2009 -  I made this again tonight using the following alterations - I used corned beef (yes, you can buy it organic), boiled it in water, and drank the beer.  The cabbages and potatoes I added 35 minutes before the meat would be done, and the carrots only 15.  The carrots could have used a little less time, perhaps, but otherwise this was delightful.  Try it with Irish Soda bread - yum!