At Least The Filling Was Good

This is the smooth, rich, yummy pumpkin filling that I used for my pies.  In light of the pie crust fiasco instigated by the Pie Gremlin, you may want to find your own crust recipe.  If you have an awesome one, I'd love to try it!

Ingredients: 
1 c sugar

3 T flour

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 pkg (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

3 eggs

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

insert pie crust ingredients here

   

Method:

1.  Bake your pie crust, show off.

2.  Heat oven to 375° F.

3.  In large bowl, beat sugar, flour and cream cheese with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. 

4.  Add remaining ingredients to mixture.   Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Pour into pre-baked crust.

5.  Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent excessive browning.

6.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

7.  Cool completely before serving.   Store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

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Pie Carumba!

So, here's how it all went down...

Wednesday, I decided to make a few pies. Just a couple. No big whoop. The pie fillings are awesome. I've used them plenty of times before. But, I don't have a go-to recipe for pie crust. That's where it all went south. I blame the Pie Gremlin. He hangs out with that other punk, the Great Pumpkin.

I wanted to make my pumpkin pie all fancy-like, so I rolled out some dough and used the little leaf cutters that I bought with Christy at Sur La Table.  Because I was going to add them just before the pies were done baking, I decided to place the little leaves in the fridge. I didn't have any cellophane, so I pulled out some heavy duty foil.  While laying a piece of it out on the counter, I got a giant aluminum paper cut. Fantastic.

Even More Thankful!

This year's place setting was very similar to last year. I just added an orange clove pomander. They smell yummy. Of course, my dad being my dad, pulled all the cloves out and ate the mandarin orange, peel and all. He's crazy like that. You know, most of the vitamins are in the peel!

I made the paper "thankful leaves" bigger this year because our blessings are more and more every year!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Now, I have to pull out the Christmas decorations! Angel Party is a week away!!!

It Must Be My Lucky Month!

Just thought I'd spread the fun news...my photo of my Thanksgiving place setting was one of 10 winners (out of 130 entries) on marthastewart.com. My prize is Martha Stewart's Cooking School Cookbook.

Thanksgiving Everyday

We had our first Thanksgiving in our house this year.  My parents-in-law, sister, brother-in-law and parents came over for a late lunch. It was great. We had cranberries, potato salad, acorn squash, corn casserole, two kinds of stuffing and a fried turkey. I tell you what--that fried turkey was so good that I don't think I'll ever eat turkey the other way again. I like the dark meat with crispy skin. It's like a layer of turkey jerky with juicy goodness underneath!

Here's "my" famous corn casserole recipe that one of my favorite friends, Jennifer, shared with me. It's really her mom's recipe:

Carolyn's Corn Casserole

2- 6 oz. pkgs cornbread mix
1 stick butter
2 eggs
2- 15 oz. cans kernel corn, drained
2 - 15 oz. cans cream-style corn
2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Melt butter in 9"x13" pan. (I use Pyrex)
3. In a big bowl, beat eggs
4. Add in corn, sour cream, sugar, cornbread mix and melted butter (from the Pyrex pan) and mix well.
5. Pour batter back into pan
6. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until brown on top and around edges.

I spent the night before Thanksgiving decorating the table and dessert table which is the console that I usually have in the living room. I bought a brown table cloth and pumpkin place mats. They matched my amber and fig Pottery Barn plates perfectly! And, I was very excited to be able to use my Grandma's amber drink glasses. Since I only have four, I just alternated them with clear glasses. (I'm going to start searching for more amber glasses to match Grandma's on Ebay.)



Instead of using place cards, I decided to make place decorations that would serve as a Thanksgiving activity. So, I cut leaves out of sturdy paper then used a couple beaded picks which I wrapped together with floral tape and tied them all together with a brown satin ribbon. Before we ate, I asked everyone to write things they were thankful for on their leaf and to take it home and put it somewhere they would see it everyday, like on their mirror or in their wallet. That way, whenever they see it, they can stop and thank God for their blessings and have Thanksgiving everyday throughout the year. I think everyone appreciated it. Yay for Thanksgiving!

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