This past month I did a lot of new things. I made my first pumpkin pie. Not only that... I made it from an actual pumpkin that I cooked and pulped myself! In fact, I made four dishes to share at our various Thanksgivings...
What wasn't new though, was that I screwed them all up. Yup.
1. The potatoes, carrots, and onions for the mashed potatoes got burnt in the pressure cooker. (Gave it a "smokey" flavor... My mom claimed not to notice. She must have eaten the ones my brother brought. Or she's a liar.)
2. My Pink Dip for the veggie tray I brought (chopped myself from the organic farm I get our produce at. No pre-made veggie trays here!) got messed up. I had bought two bricks of cream cheese at various times in advance. One disappeared off the face of the planet. The other never made it into the fridge. Eww. I had to sub in whipped cream cheese (that was on the wrong end of the expiry date!) and some Ricotta to stretch it out, since I had planned on a double batch. Ugh. Tasted fine. Texture was naaaaaasty.
3. I made a roasted root vegetable dish with parsnips, celery root, turnips, rutabaga, potatoes, carrots, and onions. It turned out GREAT... except it wasn't ready in time so no one ate it at the first Thanksgiving, and I put it in the oven to reheat and no one took it out and put it on the table with the rest of the food at the second. My brother-in-law cooked it up with eggs for breakfast the next day and said it was really good though.
4. And my pies. My pumpkin pies. I found dye-free pie crusts (yes. Darn you
Pillsbury and your fake colors and preservatives!) I had cooked and scooped and pureed my organic sugar pumpkin. I started out with an online recipe, so added the can of evaporated milk. Then my sister suggested I use her awesome recipe. So I switched over and added the spices as listed for hers. We had to use the tetchy oven, that cooks 15 degrees too hot. Tempting fate, but it worked beautifully! They looked and smelled amazing. The texture was creamy and perfect.
The problem? The first recipe called for evaporated milk and sugar. My sister's called for sweetened condensed milk. Do you see where I went wrong? That's right. No sugar. Argh. And it's not like I know what I'm doing. How was *I* supposed to know you're supposed to taste the batter before baking, especially when using fresh pumpkin (which can vary more in sweetness than canned.)
Oh well. I left them there and they experimented with drizzling on maple syrup and honey the next day. Plus my brother-in-law will eat anything. So they didn't go to waste.
Link up the first Tuesday of every month!
