Saturday, November 28, 2009

Pumpkin crazed days

I went a little crazy with pumpkin-flavored recipes goods this year. Inspired to try cooking from scratch, I roasted two sugar pumpkins and ended up with 4 cups of pumpkin puree. From this I made a tradition pumpkin pie, pumpkin brownies , baked pasta shells with pumpkin puree and pumpkin crumble. I was a little sick of our little orange friend after that. I usually indulge in a few pumpkin spiced lattes but I’ve only had two this year (good for the waistline, I guess). I have now moved onto sweet potatoes and cranberries. For my cookbook club, I made a sweet potato bourbon cheesecake and for my husband, I made his favorite cranberry bread. Needless to say, I’ve been in a baking frenzy.

When I was a kid, we’d spend Thanksgiving with my mother and her side of the family. My grandma would spend days preparing the side dishes and her famous dressing (which isn’t so famous as it’s just the recipe in the Bohemian Cookbook). My mother was always in charge of the desserts. She never made pumpkin pie but she always made two coconut cream pies -- whipping the heavy cream, browning the coconut. Those pies were heaven.  For some reason, I can't bring myself to make one. Maybe I wouldn't get so sick of pumpkin?

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