The Peoria Dispatch

It is Saturday morning (9am) and the temperature outside is 29.5F or -1.4C. All the leaves from our Maple and Ash trees have fallen to the ground. I’m wondering if we are still up to raking up the last of the leaves this weekend. I have just finished talking to a friend of mine from India; she was my guide when I was there in 2006 and we have kept in touch since.

Next week is Thanksgiving weekend, we are foregoing turkey this year for ham. I’m also going to have to dig up my pumpkin pie recipe. This reminds me of the year I made pumpkin pie in NZ. Just FYI, pumpkin puree comes conveniently in a can here but pumpkin puree in NZ is “pumpkin” the fruit. I had to make puree from it. Funny, I’m sure it’s all natural to many ladies out there on how to make puree, but it wasn’t for me. I had a laptop open with step by step instructions. I broke a sieve in the process, almost chop my fingers off (these are not the cute pumpkin you see during Halloween. If this pumpkin drops on your head, I’m positive you’ll suffer a concussion). The process involves, cutting the pumpkin into pieces, bake them and then mash the pieces through a sieve. It was funny how involve it became compared to opening a can .

Pumpkin in NZ

Pumpkin in US

Both are 100% pumpkin puree

Personally, I prefer the pumkin in the can for baking (yes, I’m sure Martha Stewart frowns upon it). It’s much more convenient and shortens the time it takes to make pumpkin bread or pie.  As for roast pumpkin, that will of course require a fresh pumpkin.  It’s kind of difficult to reform pumpkin pieces after it’s been mashed to a pulp .