When I say from scratch, I really mean it.

My family does NOT buy pie crusts (we're actually quite snobby about our pies), but I've always made pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin, and it always tastes great.

That's what some people call "making it from scratch"...I suppose "not from scratch" would be buying it at the store?


The great pumpkin pie experiment of 2009 took place at my brother and sister-in-law's house this week. Leah and I have both always thought it would be fun to attempt pumpkin pie making sans the Libby's can (read: actually from scratch...real scratch!), so we went for it on Wednesday before the family gathered for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

What transpired was both easier and better tasting than I expected. Literally, this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. The key is to food process the heck out of the ingredients (either pumpkin + egg for enough liquid or the whole recipe before pouring into the pie shell).

Here's the recipe (adapted from All Recipes, makes one pie)

• 1 sugar pumpkin (we used organic pumpkins - they're small, but 1 does the trick!)
• 1 pie crust (recipe below)
• 2 eggs (we used 5 eggs for 2 recipes and it tasted great, but I assume 2/pie works also)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice + a whole lot more and extra cinnamon to taste
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

This is what we did:

1. Cut sugar (pie) pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees F for ~45 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Puree in 2 batches in a food processor (you may need to put the eggs in so that there is enough liquid to process very smoothly - that's what I did) .
2. In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, spices, and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition. Whisk the ingredients until NO chunks are present (the flour clumped up for us, but a whisk did the trick).
3. Pour mixture into the pre-baked (see recipe below) pastry shell. Place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over browning (this is key).
4. Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees F, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake an additional ~40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown (if needed - it may brown enough in the pre-bake of the crust). Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.
5. Please use REAL whip cream (and add a little vanilla, if you like) to top with...it's so much better!

Pie crust recipe (my grandma's famous, makes two crusts):

2 cup flour

2/3 shortening (vegetable or butter flavor)

1/4 cup cold water

1 tsp salt

1. Cut the shortening, flour and salt together using a pastry blender until mixed.

2. Add the water in tablespoons while mixing (with your fingers or pastry blender) until moistened.

3. Ball the dough up firmly, then carefully roll out on a flat surface. Leah is great at this: she rolls once, then flips the dough, then back again, etc. so that it doesn't stick to the counter and gets enough flour on both sides.

4. Pick up the dough by loosely rolling it over your rolling pin and place in pie pan (glass pie pans are the best)

5. Gather up edges and make pretty (see picture).

6. Pre-bake pie shell in oven at 350 F for about 10 - 15 minutes. This will make sure your pie crust doesn't get soggy when pumpkin is added.

pumpkin season

hi all.

sorry for the absence on here. i haven't been doing much cooking (or eating) lately - i don't think i've been grocery shopping in almost a month. tonight, i swear!

Anyhow, as Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and pumpkin is one of my favorite foods, I wanted to share my easy, low cal and delicious pumpkin recipes. I have big plans this year to make a pumpkin pie from an actual, honest to God pumpkin, so I'll definitely add that in when it happens (that fits in much better with the food ethic of this blog). Anyhow, for now:

Pumpkin Muffins

1 small can of pumpkin (or 1/2 one of those huge cans)
1 spice cake mix
1 cup applesauce
1 egg
spices to your liking (i add quite a bit of cloves and cinnamon)

Mix up, pour in muffins pans and bake at 350F for ~15 minutes, depending on how done you want them. So good and a definite crowd pleaser! I've seen dessert variations with cream cheese frosting - Oh LORD, those are amazing.

Pumpkin Mousse

SF (or not) Vanilla Pudding (prepared with milk)
1 container of Cool Whip
1 small can of pumpkin
spices (i use a lot of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)

Fold ingredients together for a light, tasty fall treat. If you're not into Cool Whip (for good reason - who wants to eat plastic?) I bet you could try whipping up some legit whip cream instead, but it wouldn't keep (where the above recipe keeps for days).

Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, wherever you are in the world.
KK

Cabbage, Koreans, and Kim = The Best

Cooking with Kim is the ultimate experience, and not just because it's an experience that could last days. My trip to Boston this summer was a week-long exercise in gluttony. Thankfully, most of Kim's concoctions are relatively healthy. Here is one dish, which I must admit I was originally skeptical of, and a couple of meals to incorporate it into.
Kim's "I Know You Think Cabbage Is Gross But I'm Here To Tell You It's Awesome" Cabbage Salad

1 small head or half medium head red cabbage
Juice of about 2 limes (can use rice vinegar as substitute or supplement)

Dash of soy sauce
About 1/2 spoonful salt
About 2 1/2 spoonfuls sugar
Sesame oil
Pepper to taste (white pepper if you have it)
Sesame seeds (optional)

Chop cabbage into thin strip type things, like you would for coleslaw. (But doesn't need to be shredded, unless you want to). Place in mixing bowl. Juice limes into small bowl. Mix in soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil, and white pepper. Mix until salt and sugar are dissolved. Pour over cabbage and toss.

I just made this salad to go with the garbanzo bean burgers I made.

The cabbage salad also goes really well with Bi Bim Naeng Myon, a spicy Korean noodle dish (thanks, Anna, for sharing this recipe with me!) Kim and I also fried up some tofu, wilted some kale (done in a similar fashion as the cabbage salad), and pan "fried" some cauliflower (toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper and cook in frying pan) to go with the meal. Also, we only had udon noodles, so we used those instead of soba noodles.

Bi Bim Naeng Myon (serves 2)
http://www.koreankitchen.com/bibimnaengmyon.htm

1 package buckwheat (soba) noodles
1/4 cucumber, thin julienne
1 egg
2 hard boiled eggs
Anna also included sliced pear, which was amazing with the dish
Kim and I didn't have pear or eggs, so we did tofu, kale, and cabbage salad

In pot, hard boil the eggs. Cool, peel, and slice in half.
In large pot, boil water and add noodles. Cook according to package directions (though they're usually in Korean). Soba noodles cook really quickly and get super sticky, so make sure to have enough water. Dump in cold water. Rinse noodles several times. Drain.

Mix the sauce (recipe below). Place noodles on plate, add sauce, and top with cucumber, pear, egg, and whatever else you have. Meant to be eaten mixed together (pear + spicy noodle + cucumber + egg = heaven)

Yang nyum jang (sauce): 2 tbsp go choo jang (Korean chili paste)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds

Mix chili paste and sugar together until sugar dissolves. Add sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Add water, soy sauce, sesame oil to taste. I also sometimes like a little extra chili paste for heat.

Cook for Good

You may have already heard about this site, but a friend of mine just passed it along today and I had to share!

cookforgood.com is a site dedicated to saving time, money and the environment by, essentially, using the slow food movement. The thing I find really neat is that they started out trying to spend less than the North Carolina food stamp allowance, and not only have accomplished that (actually, they're way under), but they also have a "green" plan which incorporates more organic and local foods, and that plan falls under the NC allotment also. Pretty cool! Check it out, if nothing else, for the tasty veggie recipes.

Great Summer Fruit Pie!

1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbs flour
1 tbs lemon juice or 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
(combine and mix)

2 1/2 cup (fruit/berries)
(mix in)

Pie Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup salad oil
5 tsp cold water
(add mix into pie crust)

Bake in preheated 400 for 25 minutes* or 55 minutes total

* optional topping (I've made it without this and still like it)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 tbs butter
(take pie out of oven after 25 minutes and sprinkle topping on)


recipe from Simply in Season pg. 158

A Perfect Saturday Afternoon

While some call it alcoholism, I call it a damn good time. 

I raise my glass to the Saturday afternoon (ok, post  11 am) Margarita. Need I say more?

1 part Tequila

1 part Triple Sec
1 part lime juice (freshly squeezed please)
Spoonful of simple syrup

Mix and sip.

The Dirty Dozen

A friend from South Africa recently visited me in Seattle, and I spent a lovely week showing her around a bunch of amazing places in and outside of the city. It was great. We went to Pike Place Market one day, and I was surprised that, on a Wednesday afternoon, it was so busy. Food galore. Which got me thinking:

How can I afford to buy local/organic?

I know I'm not poor by any stretch of the imagination, but as a kid raised by bargain-hunter parents (who still won't buy berries in season or meat unless it's "on sale"), 6.99/lb for cherries makes me cringe. Or, then there was the really cute produce guy who offerred me a slice of the most amazing white nectarine I've ever tasted, but I was astonished to see that it would probably cost me ~$2 for one piece of fruit! Blasphemy!

This made me recall an article I read a while ago about the most essential food to buy organic if budget/availability does not allow a fully organic diet. There are a million of these lists, but check out this one from The Daily Green called the Dirty Dozen. In the article, there is also a link to a list of "safe" foods that we don't have to worry about buying organic. Essentially, these categories make sense (thicker, less permeable skin = less serious pesticide build-up threat), but I remember being especially interested in buying strawberries and carrots organically when I first read this.

Anyhow, take a look. I totally have a final I'm supposed to be writing and grading I should be doing, but this is way more fun. I'm hoping to try some actual recipes sometime soon which I will post, pending success!

Peace to you all,

Katie (K)