The Pumpkin Pie

Yes! Finally, the pumpkins are here! Aren't they beautiful? I've literally spent the entire day making various dishes with these lovelies. It  sometimes bothers me that Irish people don't really use pumpkins for anything other than jack-o-lanterns.  I have noticed a record number of said seasonal decorations all over Cork city, though, and they are gorgeous!


I've never been one to sit around lamenting and not doing anything so here is my pumpkin pie experience! I've put together a 'How To' style tutorial to show you what to do with your pumpkin when it's all big and orange and staring at you questioningly. The first step to any pumpkin recipe is to first purée the pumpkin. Once it's puréed, you can freeze it or use it for various recipes.

1. Slice your pumpkin in half, and then into slices. Scoop out the innard-goop and put it into a bowl. You can rinse them later and bake the seeds if you want to use every part of the pumpkin. The stringy bits are great for compost!

2. Place the pieces (skin intact!) into a steamer and steam for approximately 20 minutes until soft. Remove from the steamer and allow to cool before peeling. Do NOT try to peel the slices while they're hot! You WILL burn yourself.

3. Allow the skinless pumpkin chunks to drain in a colander for 10 minutes to get rid of excess juice. Sometimes this isn't necessary, if you feel your pumpkin isn't very watery, you can skip this step!

                                         

 4. Whizz up the pumpkin with a hand blender, or mash with a potato masher until it's a thick purée. Now you have your base ingredient, ready to use! If you have some left over, you can freeze it in a lunchbox or in small amount in freezer bags.

PUMPKIN PIE!

• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 tsps cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 0.5 tsp ground ginger
• 0.5 tsp salt (optional)
• 4 large, free range eggs
• 3 cups pumpkin purée
• 18 floz evaporated milk
  
  
  

1. Mix all ingredients together with a hand mixer. It will be a very wet mixture.





2. Line a pie dish with short crust pastry. I find that this recipe makes enough for at least one extra pie, so have some extra pastry to hand, just in case!

3. Pour in the pie-filling, not filling the dish more than 3/4 full, as the mixture will rise! Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for the first 15 minutes. 

4. Turn down the heat to 165 degrees Celsius and bake for a further 45 - 60 minutes, until a knife comes out clean from the centre.

When it is done, take it out and EAT IT UP, YUM YUM! :)






I hope you try this recipe! I originally found it online somewhere about two years ago and I've stuck with it. It's really delicious! I have a lovely recipe for pumpkin and spinach lasagne which I'll post soon. Let me know what you think! x

Coming tomorrow!

These last few weeks have been insane for me. Between work and traveling, I've barely had time to sit down. Between last Thursday and Tuesday I went from Cork -> London -> Gothenburg -> London -> Cork -> Dublin -> Cork with work from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening. So today (Friday) has been the first day that I've been able to go out and get some food shopping.

I BOUGHT PUMPKINS!!

Three of them. Beautiful little ones! I'm excited about making them into pies, soups, pasties and curry! It's been more than a year since my last Pumpkin Post. This time I promise to post recipes.

Vision Board

Yesterday I made one of those lame-ass vision board things. You're meant to find pictures of what you want in life and shtick 'em onto a poster. Or, alternatively flick through magazines and just cut out the pictures that capture you or spark your imagination.

I wish I had a camera so that I could show you what I put in. I'll have to improvise with Google Images.


FOOD:
Muffin with star:


Trifle:


Mackerel:


Raspberries:


Blueberries:


Vegetable soup:


An orange:


Cup of tea in pretty flowery china teacup:


A laattteee:


Woman in apron holding a tray of cupcakes:


FLOWERS:
A yellow flower:


Lavender x2:


Girl with bunch of flowers:


Misc:
Girl spinning in pretty purple dress.


Needle and thread:


1940s lady looking mysteriously happy (Yes. I know this is Grace Kelly. She's closest to the picture):


Paper party streamers:


Cracked Tree trunk:


Flicked Liquid Eyeliner:



Plus the words GORGEOUS CURLS and five pictures of Robert Downey Jr.

When I went to sleep last night I decided that this meant nothing more that I was hungry when I was making it. Which is true, but something is clear here. I like food. A lot. I only recently realised for certain that good food is one of my passions in life. No matter what I end up doing - if I work in SuperValu stocking the frozen section - cooking, baking, growing and eating food will ALWAYS be a part of me. I was brought up around recipes and ingredients. People knew we were about excellent food. It's true that I would like my career to involve food. That is one of the reasons why "event management" is such a positive thing for me to do - it's stretchy. It means I can incorporate my passions (music, food, dresses, people, singing, talking) into my life.

There's kind of a crossover there with nature. Flowers and fruit.

I'd love to let a psychoanalyst analyse this for me and tell me what it meanssssss!

ALSO! Since I pasted all those pictures, my camera arrived from Ebay. :D So I may post one later of the chart! :D

Taci! Taci!

On the Sky Arts channel on Saturday there appeared to be some sort of opera marathon. I came in for a bit and watched a documentary on Caffé Taci in New York City. It's a restaurant that has regular opera nights. Singers come and serenade the diners once a week. It sounds amazing. I would so love to sing or eat there. Or both. It seemed so lovely - such a warm and understanding, supportive atmosphere. I wish we had something like that here in Cork. It would be amazing to be able to have somewhere to perform frequently if we liked. I wonder if anyone would come. I'd say they would - there appears to be quite a devoted opera following in Cork. Imagine an open mic opera night!! Amazing!!

If only I could snap my fingers and hop of a flight to New York. I could do a musical tour of the city and go to Broadway and Julliard and Café Taci and the Metropolitan Opera. I need to do this.

Excuse me while I tell ever single one of my New Yorker friends about Caffé Taci.