Pumpkin Pie

For our first Halloween at the new house we decided to host a get-together with the neighbors on the back deck, taking advantage of our recently installed sliding patio door. Since we had a couple of pie pumpkins to use from our CSA and it being Halloween, we figured what better item to contribute than a pumpkin pie!

This wasn't our first pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin; we made one for Thanksgiving 2011. That one turned out pretty well, but I thought we could do even better, especially now that we've recently gotten pretty good at our all-butter blind-baked pie crust which would help prevent the bottom crust from getting too soggy. This time around I mostly followed the New Best Recipe cookbook recipe for pumpkin pie. Of course, we roasted our pumpkins, pureed and drained them, and then before making the custard I sauteed the pumpkin for a bit to try get out as much moisture as possible and caramelize the pumpkin a little bit. One tip I found helpful was to pour the last bit of filling in the pie shell after the pie has baked for a few minutes, which prevents making a mess in the oven and allows the pie to be as full as possible.

I thought it turned out perfect, and I hope we can replicate the success on future attempts!

The stems of the pumpkins were chew toys for the cats until we roasted them (the pumpkins, that is)

Yay pie success! Next step: learn how to shape the crust edge

Deck set up for fun

And finally, some cat pics that are actually relevant to the post! We put off pumpkin carving until the day before Halloween and took a shortcut by using my recently purchased spade bits to just drill holes in the pumpkins. That cats couldn't get enough of the "carving" process. Not our finest pumpkins but they lit up well and were super easy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! May you enjoy fellowship with family and friends this holiday... and pumpkin pie!