Homemade Pumpkin Pie

This is a little late for Thanksgiving/Fall but I had to share this recipe I found on Pinterest! This is for Pumpkin pie made from homemade pumpkin purree. It.is.awesome. The recipe I found came from this blog: http://windowontheprairie.com/2010/10/14/pumpkin-pie-from-real-pumpkin-part-2/ it is an awesome recipe, it even has a recipe for an oh-so-easy made from scratch pie crust. This caption from her blog right here is what sold me on making my own crust. Way to go Betty Crocker.

The tutorial I used to make my own pumpkin puree came from this blog here: http://unsophisticook.com/how-to-make-pumpkin-puree/

This again, was an awesome tutorial. I found that when choosing what they call "Pie pumpkins" it really does make a difference, and they is a difference in pumpkins. The pie pumpkins have a thicker inner flesh that is white on the rind, they also smell sweeter when you bake them. When I baked my pumpkin rinds for the pie they turned out very well, I think the next time I cook them I will cook them for a shorter time to see if it brings out more pumpkin flavor.

I first began by making my crust, I found it took longer to make than the batter.

I made this while in college so I had to come up with some pretty creative ways to roll out my dough... I did not have a rolling pin so my giant nalgene bottle sufficed as a rolling pin. I rolled my crust between two sheets of plastic wrap in lieu of wax paper, this made it easy to peel off and place into my pie dish. I used a Pyrex glass dish which I greased with Crisco. Next I made the batter.

The recipe calls to either use milk, or evaporated milk, I replaced this with condensed milk. My grandma says if you're gonna make dessert you might as well go all out, this also added some sweetness to the pie. There is not a whole lot of sugar in this recipe and I would say this pie ranks a 5 in sweetness. I do not like super sweet desserts so I think this was a happy medium, it was very rich. I found that the measurements of spices used in the blog recipe were perfect, after the pie was baked it had wonderful flavor and texture. The tutorial above says to strain your pumpkin puree to remove excess water and refine the texture but I just put my pumpkin in, as is which resulted in a nice texture for the pie.

*Note: the most difficult part about baking this was ensuring you got the right shape of tinfoil to place over the crust midway through baking to keep it from burning. Cutting a perfect circle that isn't too thick or too thin takes a couple tries.

The finished product:

I made this pie to take to my future in-law's home for Thanksgiving, it was a hit. I did not know how it would taste honestly, not ever having made a pumpkin pie before, especially having never made a pie before, and definitely not from scratch! Thankfully it was delicious and I was happily surprised. I definitely recommend this recipe to everyone!

Miraval Tunic

 The Miraval Tunic

This is a tunic I crocheted using the free Miraval pattern that I found on Pinterest, I pinned it on my Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kaleebird/ I used worsted weight yarn, the pattern called for DK weight but I just could not find any there is only a slight difference between worsted and DK weight; my tunic ended up being a little bulkier because I chose worsted.

 I bought a pound skein and I used the majority of it for the body! For the edging I used a yarn from the Vanna's Choice collection. I bought my yarn at Jo-Ann's, this was a rather inexpensive project, just time consuming. I had never made anything like this before so this was my first time with an apparel crochet pattern. I have been crocheting for about a year now so this was a nice challenge. 

This is the beginning of the yolk of my tunic, crocheted in a round using a mix of dc shells. (You can see where my rounds joined, not too pretty) The tunic itself is crocheted as one whole piece and you go back later and crochet the sleeves onto the body.

I added a tie to my tunic using leftover Vanna yarn to give the tunic a little more shape. The project definitely was a challenge! I learned all new kinds of stitches and garment shaping techniques, the pattern I used also needed a little deciphering but I was able to figure it out. I altered some of the finishing because the worsted yarn made the decorations a little too thick for my liking so I simply reduced the number of rows for the fringe to make it less poofy. I love this tunic and think it would great in any combination of colors, I preferred a nice neutral taupe and brown with color flecks in it. This is definitely a great project which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a challenge!