I've never embraced the Thanksgiving holiday but I think its because, until last weekend, I hadn't experienced a true Thanksgiving meal. For the six years of my life that I've actually spent in N. America, I've loved Thanksgiving for all the wrong reasons, namely, the opportunity to get away to warmer climates when I was in DC, and even more so, when I was freezing away in Montreal.
The first surprise came when I went to pick up the turkey. I assumed, for some reason, that turkeys were slightly larger than chickens. I discovered how wrong I had been as we lugged the 20 lb monster-of- a-bird back to the car and dropped it into the trunk. I'm going to stick in a picture of Nadir preparing the turkey just to show you what I'm talking about. (Side note: the turkey he made was amazing).
I was in charge of dessert for the Thanksgiving meal so I went online and found a non-traditional pumpkin pie recipe. I've never even tried a pumpkin pie or dessert but I figured from the 600 positive reviews listed , there had to be something to it.
Luckily, a week earlier, I had frozen some fresh pumpkin puree which I thawed out and mixed with some eggs, butter, cream, sugar, vanilla essence, and a touch of cinnamon. I poured the mixture into a premade crust which had been in the oven for about 20 mins (see below) and was beginning to brown.
I left the pumpkin pie in the oven for about 65mins (a little longer than the recipe requires) and took it out to cool once it had set. The pumpkin is more yellow than orange which can be attributed to the fresh pumpkin puree I used over the canned. It looked and smelled delicious.
After leaving it in the fridge overnight I served it at the Thanksgiving dinner with some cream. It was all gone within 20 minutes. I have a different take on Thanksgiving now; its about family and more importantly it completely revolves around food. There's a combination thats hard to beat!
Paula Dean's Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, optional
- 1 piece pre-made pie dough
- Whipped cream, for topping
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.
For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, if using, and beat until incorporated.
Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes (I baked it for 65 mins), or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.
