Bad blogger, bad!

Sorry I've been so awol lately. I was off eating Canadian Thanksgiving with Americans.

The good news is that I had two chances to master a DELICIOUS pumpkin pie!!

The first one was burnt burnt burnt. Okay so maybe I cooked it in a deep bowl type dish so the custard didn't set (at first) and then when I left it in for ten minutes I may or may not have fallen asleep on my friends couch in the oven warmed apartment and a shaft of friendly fall sunshine... it was charred beyond belief. My gorgeous friends all happily scraped the pumpkin custard from shiny black wedges that used to be tasty nut crust... oh well.

Okay Pumpkin Pie. I know that every single food blog and recipe book says to use pie pumpkin and not jack'o'lanterns (something about jack'o's being grown for cattle...) but COME ON they are so much CHEAPER. I say moo baby, moo!

One of my lovely friend-types can't eat The Gluten so this recipe is a nut crust. Turns out though that nut flavour goes so well with the pumpkin that I might just make this crust from now on!

In the spirit of my budget the ingredients for the two pies were provided by my friends in exchange for pie making abilities and left over pumpkin in their freezers. The jack'o'lantern only cost $2 and made both pies, no problem!

1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup walnuts (or whatever unsalted nut you feel like, walnuts are delicious and they were the cheapest)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 buckwheat flour (I used whole wheat flour in the second pie cause that group was gluten friendly)
1 tsp cinnamon

Buzz all this deliciousness in a blender or food processor. The food processor works better cause the blender has a tendency to make the nuts into nut butter but it still does the super, crushing, mixy job.

Cut 5 tablespoons of butter or margarine or solid coconut oil into the crust and press the whole mess into a greased spring form pan.

What does cutting butter or margarine or solid coconut oil into a crust look like? Well let me tell you.

You could buy a pastry cutter (I have one) or you could use two knives in a sliding slicing motion (does that make sense?) basically you just don't want to use your hot hot hands to work the butter into the nut mixture cause it makes the butter melt and then the pastry gets a bit tough. If your food processor is big just pulse the butter in there.

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes, maybe 7 and 3/4

Now the filling! This is the extremely economical part cause one jack'o'lantern should make two pies and delicious freezable leftovers (think pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, muffins, cubes of pumpkin all hot and dripping with butter, salt, and pepper, mmmmmm)

The fastest way to break down a pumpkin is to wash the outside, quarter it, scoop out the seeds and steam it in a large pot. Steaming pumpkin takes about 20 minutes but it washes out the flavour a bit. Roasting (quarter and toss into large roasting pan at 450) takes about 45 minutes. Do whichever you have time for but double the spices in the filling if you're steaming.

Cube and freeze what's leftover.

The easiest way to get the rind off the cooked pumpy-poo (I got sick of writing the actual word) is to make strip cuts about an inch long into the pieces of pumpkin and then ones going across those. The only thing to remember is to pierce the skin going in only one direction. When its in cube loosened strips then you can easily run the knife between the flesh and the rind. Et VOILA! Cubed pumpkin for eating in joy.

You need 3 cups of cooked pumpkin for this recipe
1 cup milk (I used almond in one and 1/2 whip cream and 1/2 milk in the other)
 Grate a nub, vaguely thumbnail sized, of fresh ginger (not a lot of recipes call for fresh ginger but I'm kind of addicted to it and the zingy heat turns this bad boy into a pretty sexy dessert)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Whooge this in a blender or food processor or whip by hand but remember to whip with fervour.

Bake for 15 mins at 450 and then turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 45mins.

Is that I finger mark I see? Greedy friends swiping licks!!

I really should have taken pictures of the pie before it got almost completely eaten but I was too busy eating it!!

Yum yum yum pumpkin pie gives me happy dancing food feet. For the record happy dancing food feet are when my feet dance of their own accord when I am eating delicious food. It really can't be stopped.