Thanksgiving Delights: Part One

I've been in charge of Thanksgiving breakfast since I've been married.  It is one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving other than the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the after dinner dessert, the family time...okay, let me rephrase, it's my favorite part of Thanksgiving morning.

Other than the parade.

Usually I send out a family email blast to let everyone know breakfast is still on and that they don't need to bring anything because I'm crazy enough to attempt to make 12 completely different desserts within the two days before Thanksgiving.

In case you're wondering about the dessert part, this post should explain everything: Thanksgiving breakfast

This year I found inspiration in summer party invitations I saw on clearance at Target.  The invitation was a two-tone ice pop (with stick and all) and on the back was where the details of the party were to be written.  I loved this, but couldn't see using ice pops for a Thanksgiving dessert breakfast.

After a little thought, the pumpkin pie invitation was born:

I always try to switch up the menu a little bit.  Last year was the year of the mini desserts.  Mini desserts are great because guests are always afraid to be the person who takes the first slice of pie or cake.

The tough item to make mini was pumpkin pies.  Pumpkin pie should take only about 30 minutes (at most) of prep time.  Shorter even if you are using canned pumpkin and a pre-made crust.  But me, I'm married to my better than pumpkin pie recipe which uses fresh butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin.  Making this into mini pumpkin pies took collectively about 3 hours of my time.

It was so worth it.

What helped the process move along smoothly was this pancake pen I bought ahead of time:

I am absolutely in love with this item.  The pumpkin pie mixture for this recipe is extremely liquefied.  Knowing this before hand, I figured a pancake pen would make life so much easier.

Boy am I happy when I'm right.

Some of the other items on my menu were:

Just like, in fact better than, Starbucks petite vanilla bean scones.  While scones are typically a little more on the dry side, the icing on these trap the moisture in and each bite is moist with vanilla bean deliciousness.

My sister-in-law, Kristina, helped me pick this one out:

Baked French Toast.  Oh-my-goodness.  While I know this isn't really a dessert, I wanted to have a somewhat breakfast item to offer.

That's what I said to my sister-in-law as we discussed and decided on Baked French Toast to fulfill that desire of mine.  The truth was I wanted to make cranberry butter, and I figured this would be the perfect thing to put it on.

It was.  It most certainly was.

Look for the recipe for cranberry butter in one of the upcoming posts.

I love cheesecake brownies, it is my go to treat at Starbucks these days.  I thought I would concoct my own cheesecake pumpkin bar.  As Thanksgiving day got closer, and my body got run down with an unwelcome seasonal cold, I hadn't yet settled on what I would be doing to make my cheesecake pumpkin bar come to life.  That's when a coworker told me about these:

Please don't judge me when I say this, Paula Deen should be sainted.

There.  I said it, and I meant it.

I love her almost as much as I love the butter she uses in all of her recipes.

These Pumpkin Gooey Bars were just as good as the pumpkin cheesecake bars I was dreaming up.  The cake crust on the bottom gave a great balance to the sweet creamy pumpkin mixture on top.  They were yummy cold or even warmed up for about 15 seconds in the microwave.  Either way, top it with a little cool whip and you've got pumpkin heaven in bar form.

About a week before Thanksgiving, I realized I had no chocolate on my breakfast menu.

No chocolate.  No a lick, drib drab, ounce, drip drop, or even an iota of chocolate on the menu.

For shame, I know.

I looked through my clipped recipes that I have yet to make and found these glorious masterpieces:

Smores brownies.  Oh yes.

I've made another version of smores brownies before and was highly disappointed.  While they were decent brownies, they were hardly worthy of being considered smores brownies.

These most certainly were.  They were the one item on my breakfast table that I didn't have any left overs of.  Now that has to say something about them!

Go here for the recipe: Inside Out Smores Brownies

It seems this was the year of last minute additions.  I am typically not into fruit desserts.  Cherries, however, I have a soft spot for.  When I saw these mini cherry pecan pies in an ad for Lucky Leaf Cherry Pie Filling, I knew I had to make them....if I could find the time.

They were mini, which made them even more necessary to add to my breakfast table.  They took a little longer to bake than the recipe said, otherwise they were perfect.

For the recipe go here: Cherry Pecan Pies

I've saved three recipes to give you a blow by blow, step by step, look at.  Up first will be Cranberry Butter.  

You won't want to miss it.  

How to Make Pumpkin Puree

Until this summer when I made my Better Than Pumpkin Pie I had never made pumpkin pie before. Therefore, I also had never bought canned pumpkin and used it to make pumpkin pie.  I also never had a mental debate over whether to use canned pumpkin or real pumpkin.

After I made Better Than Pumpkin Pie, I became determined to make my own pumpkin puree to use for real pumpkin pie.

Then I decided that I liked Better Than Pumpkin Pie so much, that there was no need to search out a different pumpkin pie recipe.  Pureeing a pumpkin was still in my future though, only I now planned to use it in a pumpkin bundt cake.

This leads me to today's How To.  Sorry for all the detours.  I wish I could promise that it won't happen again.

You'll want to get yourself a few adorable sugar pumpkins.  Buy them a few weeks before you plan to make your pumpkin puree so that they can decorate your house and make you smile.

One 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree = about one and three quarters cups of puree.  Two sugar pumpkins yielded exactly that for me.

Cut the pumpkins in half.  This is the hardest part.  I wanted to cry and call hubby home from work to do it for me.  If you can make it past this point, you'll be fine.

I should say, if I can make it past this point, you'll be fine.

After cutting the pumpkins in half, scoop all their guts out and place in a small bowl.

Lightly oil a baking sheet and put the pumpkin halves face down.  You'll notice that I cut off the stem of my pumpkin.  This is not necessary.  I just like to make life difficult.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.

While the pumpkin corpses are baking, grab your bowl of pumpkin guts.  Separate the seeds from the gushy innards and discard all traces of orange.  You must get every single speck of orange off or else utter calamity will befall you.

Just kidding.  But I had you worried, didn't I?  

My two sugar pumpkins yielded half a cup of pumpkin seeds.

I decided to make olive oil and sea salt pumpkin seeds.  

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the seeds and toss lightly.

Add about one teaspoon of sea salt.  Toss lightly.

Put the pumpkin seeds to the side as your pumpkins finish up baking.

For the love of everything pure, holy, and good, let the pumpkin halves cool for five to ten minutes.  I say this because my fingers are still burning due to my impatience.

After the pumpkin halves have cooled, use a spoon to scoop the pumpkin meat off the skin.  If the pumpkin baked long enough, this should be extremely easy.

If you are anything like me you'll look at your pumpkin skin and say, "Gee, I wish I could do something more with this,"

 

And then you'll realize that trash is trash.  So, you'll put those pumpkin skins in the trash.

Puree the pumpkin meat in a blender or food processor.

When it is smooth and looks like baby food, it's ready.

Either use it immediately in pumpkin pie, pumpkin bundt cake, or anything that calls for canned pumpkin or refrigerate or freeze until you're ready to use it.

When all the excitement of pureeing the pumpkin has died down, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and spread the pumpkin seeds out.

Bake at 350 until they start to brown or pop off of the pan like popcorn, whichever comes first.  Mine only took about seven minutes.

Toss them in a bowl and feel unashamed as you snack on the entire thing alone.  After all that work pureeing the pumpkins, you've earned this little treat.

 

Better Than Pumpkin Pie

Recipe: Better Than Pumpkin Pie
Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/better-than-pumpkin-pie/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=better%20than%20pumpkin%20pie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
Time: 1 hour 20 total
Ease: 3
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

Not Pumpkin Pie, BETTER Than Pumpkin Pie!

I am not a pumpkin pie lover.  In fact, I can't remember the last Thanksgiving that I ate a slice of pumpkin pie.  I always find them to be too heavy and the consistency to be too thick that after one bite I've had my fill of pumpkin taste.  (Then it's on to the chocolate desserts...)

Therefore, I've never made a pumpkin pie before.  I hear that using real pumpkin to make it can be a bit of an ordeal.  The challenge of using a real pumpkin (rather than canned pumpkin) is the only thing that ever tempts me to try my hand at making pumpkin pie.

But now I don't have to.  My good friend, Amy, who I've known a bazillion years, has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership.  This means that during certain months of the year she gets a share of the local farmers crops.  I'm pretty sure this is the most awesome thing in the world.  Whatever they have a lot of that week, she gets a lot of.  And when she gets a lot, I get to share in her bounty.  Did I mention that I love Amy?

She's brought over anything from kale to collard greens, from zucchini to cucumbers, from red kuri squash to this week's butternut squash.

Amy's mom, Wendy, who I also love very much, sent over a recipe to go with the butternut squash.  It's name: "Better than pumpkin pie" had me intrigued.  I had to make it immediately.

It was everything I have always wanted in a pumpkin pie.  Creamy and light, but not lacking any of the usual flavors of pumpkin pie.  The one exception was it doesn't use any pumpkin.  Not a lick of the orange beast.  As you might have guessed, the secret ingredient in this recipe is the butternut squash from Amy's CSA crop this week.

The squash was not very big, so I thought perhaps I wouldn't have enough for the one and a half cups that the recipe called for.  I was wrong.  It was absolutely perfect.

Peeling and chopping the squash up, on the other hand, was an interesting event, one I wish I had taken pictures of.  

After the squash was chopped, it boiled in water for a few minutes.  Then all the remaining ingredients needed to be blended together with the squash.

It wasn't until I poured my batter into the pre-made pie crust that I bought at Bottom Dollar Food just for this occasion that I remembered reading or hearing somewhere that pies like such should be placed on top of a baking sheet.  I remembered this tip when I tried to pick up the pie and the filling began to shake back and forth until it spilled drastically over the sides of the crust and onto my stove top burner.  (I guess I should mention here that I chose to do this on top of my stove....not a good life choice at all).

After the pie was placed on the baking sheet everything was coming up daisies.  It baked for 50 minutes and despite all that I spilled onto my stove top, the filling was perfect.

I am definitely adding this to my desserts to make for Thanksgiving breakfast*.

 
*I just realized, I've never written about Thanksgiving breakfast.  Look for it around Turkey Day.  You won't want to miss it.