TWD Rewind: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

So, I think I've only ever made pumpkin pie one other time.  I'm not entirely sure why I haven't made it more, but I really like making it, so it will be a regular item on our Thanksgiving menu (much to Aidan's delight! - he loves the stuff!).

That said, even though I like making it, I'm still not as much a fan of eating it.  Go figure.  Aidan and Dusty like it though, so, there you go.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie we were given the option to do a rewind.  Since I had volunteered to help out with some pumpkin pies for an international student dinner for the holiday that my friend Becky over at The Vintage Mixer was helping organize, and since it was so close to Thanksgiving, I couldn't resist making the Caramel Pumpkin Pie (originally hosted by Janell) my rewind of choice.

I chose to use two different pie crust recipes I love that I found over on Epicurious.  One (the small tart) is a cream cheese pie crust (I've made it as written and it works great, but it was a little fussy for me, so I will hopefully get a chance to write down my 'easier' version soon for you - if you need it in the meantime, just email me - this crust is awesome and tastes SO good!).  The other is just a basic pie dough recipe (the large pie with leaf border), but it uses a combination of shortening and butter, which I think always gives the best results and is easy to work with.

For the leaves on both the pie and 'tart' I just used a large maple leaf cooking cutter I have and glazed the dough with an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar before baking.  I love making the edge crust this way because I often really stink at making a great edge - this way I get to cover it up!  

The egg wash not only gives the crust a nice shine, but it acts as the glue that helps hold that outer crust together.  You just layer all the pieces, slightly overlapping (my cookie cutter is a good 2 1/2 inches and took 10 leaves to cover the entire edge as shown) and brush the egg wash on.  Sprinkle with a little sugar for a little sparkle and crunch.

I did bake the pies most of the way through before adding the decorative border though - otherwise I think the crust edges would probably have just sunk into the wet pie filling.  I waited until the outer part of the filling was fairly well set before doing the border.  It didn't hurt the pie to come out of the oven for a few minutes to add the pre-cut leaves (I cut them when I originally rolled the dough, then just kept them covered on a lined sheet in the refrigerator until I needed them).  It was about 15 to 20 minutes before the pie was going to be done and I just let the pies bake until the filling was set and the leaves were golden.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Calling all my International Foodie Friends! 'Holiday Express' Help Please!!

OK, so here's the deal.  Aidan's 1st Grade class is doing a 'Holiday Express' of 10 countries around the world.  They will be talking about the countries and their holiday traditions.  I don't know nearly enough about most of the countries on the list to feel like I can do a good job with making a little treat or food of some kind for the kids for each country.... but I've offered to try!  I figure, even if I don't end up getting to make something for each country, or make it for school, I can only do good by reinforcing the lessons at home in my most favorite way possible - through food.

So, if you know something about any of these 10 countries, have a favorite holiday tradition you can share, a recipe, anything you can, I would greatly appreciate it.  As always, you all rock!

Thanks for any help you can give!

Hugs,
Holly

HOLIDAY EXPRESS COUNTRIES

Brazil

Australia

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

Germany

England

Russia

Italy

France

China

FFwD: Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux

Where oh where did I go.  Again.  Sheesh.  I'm not going to lie, I've just been very ambivalent, basically about everything.  We've all been sick, for about a month now, and swamped with life and dealing with a special needs baby.  I have still been baking and cooking, but mainly just to get by and make it through most days.  I did finally cave this week and go in to the doctor to deal with my 'cold'.  Well, let me just tell you, colds and viruses have pretty much just trashed my world since the end of September.  Kayla got her first cold and it has been quite the set back.  The easiest way to illustrate that is the fact that before her cold, she was almost (so close) to finally being off the oxygen after being on it since birth.  Now, she is on a higher prescription than ever, 24/7 and they won't be reviewing taking her off it again till after her birthday in February.  Awesome (yes, you definitely noted a heavy dose of sarcasm there).

So.

As you can tell, I just haven't had much positive to say and haven't had the most wonderful attitude.  I'm trying to pull myself out of it even though I can already tell we are in for another winter of discontent around our house, but I hope you'll bear with me if I need to occasionally whine about life.  I've been so blah lately that I haven't even found the energy to do my much needed venting over on my Sweet & Simple blog.  I'll be trying to force some of my angst out over there very soon in the hopes that it helps lift some of the blahhbiddy-blahs over here.

All that said, let me just tell you, my kids are awesome.  I love them dearly.  They are just complicated and I'm sleep deprived, which isn't the best combination on a good day.  

OK.  Now that I got that out, let's get on to the real reason you're here.  I made this roast chicken for French Fridays with Dorie a couple of weeks ago, with the full intention of trying to keep on schedule and post it, but am just now getting around to writing the post.  

I fiddled with the recipe just a little bit, because the only herbs I had on hand were dried ones.  I also really, really, really love using honey on chicken and root vegetables, so I did add about 1/2 cup of honey and some butter as a glaze on my chicken.  The herbs I used were dried Herbes de Provence.  All things considered, this may have been one of the best chickens I've ever roasted.  I followed all the other directions, and even though the honey made the skin on my bird brown excessively dark, it was still delicious.  The chicken stayed moist and tender, but, oh the vegetables.  They were my favorite part.  They were so good!  I ended making about the double the vegetables, because we love roasted vegetables.  I also used red potatoes because I had them on hand and was feeling lazy - after all, I believe that is allowed in the title of the recipe.

The original recipe can be found in Around My French Table, and version from more members of French Fridays with Dorie can be found on the blog.