Holiday Baking!

Aaron brought home a small pumpkin from his fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch before Halloween. Somewhere between there and here, he hatched a scheme to make a pie with it. Not wanting to be the mommy who dashed his dreams, I agreed.

So I faithfully cleaned out the pumpkin and steamed it last weekend in preparation. And found out that even though my recipe says one 8" pie pumpkin is enough, this one wasn't. A mad search for pie pumpkins ensued, and I finally found a few at Brookshire's. I had to pick through what was left and find two that weren't rotten. Luckily, I got what we needed. So I steamed those last night. And managed to run the pan out of water, which smelled up the entire house.

Finally, FINALLY we had enough steamed pumpkin for a couple of decent pies. The next step was to make the glop smooth and creamy.

That stuff is messy! Eeeewww, my finger!

Once the pumpkin glop was sufficiently silky, Aaron and I rolled out the crusts.

Then we measured out all the ingredients. Aaron thinks it's funny that I crack eggs with a butter knife. Interesting how the granite guy forgot to mention that rounded edges on countertops do not lend themselves well to cracking eggs.

I let Aaron do the mixing. Power tools, y'know. Notice all the flour on his sleeves. He loves to cook!
(Don't worry - we didn't put any Karo Syrup in the pumpkin pie - it's for the pecan pies we're making next.)

Once Chef Aaron was satisfied that the mixture was adequately beaten, I poured it into the crusts.

The pies are in the oven now, and they smell yummy! Maybe I can get photos before the pies are desecrated so I'll have something to post about tomorrow.