Pumpkin Pie and more

These are my confessions: I bought frozen pie crust. And it was okay. It made more sense than buying flour, shortening, a pie plate and a rolling pin. If you are buying frozen pie crust, look for one made with lard, vegetarians be damned. Tenderflake is a good brand.

Now I may have taken shortcuts on the crust, but the filling is totally from scratch, including the pumpkin purée. Canned pumpkin is pretty good and totally suitable for pie, but pumpkins are abundant and cheap right now and roasting them takes very little effort. Buy a pie pumpkin, smaller than jack-o-lantern size. Pre-heat oven to 400˚. Cut in half, remove seeds and stringy bits (save the seeds!) with an ice cream scoop/a spoon/your hands. Smear the fleshy insides with butter, brown sugar, a bit of orange juice and maple syrup. Place halves face down on a baking sheet and bake for about 40 minutes, until you can easily pierce the skin with a fork. Let cool and remove skin.

Brown Sugar Pumpkin Pie-adapted from Fine Cooking #35

• 2 - 2 1/2 lb pie pumpkin to yield 2 cups purée (prepare as described above)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 9 inch pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 375˚. Put the cooked and cooled squash in a food processor if you've got one and purée until smooth. If no food processor like me, whisk vigourously and try to remove any lumps.
2. Combine purée with brown sugar, eggs, cream, spices and salt and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake until firm, about 50-60 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Notes: I easily got 4 cups of pumpkin from the pie pumpkin I bought, so doubled the recipe for 2 pies. Also, this is epic with whipped cream. Leftovers are totally acceptable breakfast food.


Now what to do with all those seeds? Wash them, remove any stray pumpkin pulp, let them dry on some paper towel and get ready.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• However many pumpkin seeds you have
• 1 glug of oil (I used olive oil)
  
• Salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 325˚. Add oil to your bowl of seeds and toss to coat. Spread seeds on a cookie sheet and add as much salt as you like. You could also go with a spicy coating perhaps, or garlic. Your choice! Bake approx 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until seeds are golden.

We could not stop eating these. They are so simple to make and delicious, crunchy, salty, fatty. They are wonderful.