Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving! Every day it is good to feel gratitude for what we have. Not only does it feel good in the moment, but it changes the energy level around you and after a while it is a permanent shift. I don’t think you can feel gratitude for everything at once because you would spend all day reading a list and still forget some things. There are so many things to give thanks for when you think about it. A great exercise is to purposefully think of at least three things a day that you’re grateful for, I’ve recently noticed people passing this idea around on Facebook, and I’m happy to see it. Each night in bed I express gratitude by thinking to myself, “I send love and kindness to ____,” and fill in the blank with things I don’t think I’ve said previously. If you ever can’t fall asleep, this is a great way to pass the time and put yourself to sleep.

I’ve been doing this exercise for a long time so I’ve already covered the obvious stuff. Today I send love and kindness to paperclips, I send love and kindness to the kitties I saw at the pet food store, and I send love and kindness to pumpkin pie.

A few years ago, I decided to be a purest and cook my own pumpkin to make pumpkin pie. You buy one of the smaller, baking pumpkins (they’re only a dollar at the farm market that I pass on the way home from work). Obviously you have to clean out the seeds and all of the guts, just as if you were carving it for Halloween. It’s a pain to clean and cut just for the purpose of putting it in the oven, which then takes an hour at 375 to get it soft enough to scoop out of the shell. Finally, you want to puree it in a blender so it has a smooth consistency for baking. After I finished the whole process, I read the ingredients on a can of pumpkin and it said simply, “pumpkin,” and I thought, “So why the Hell did I just waste all that time and energy?” If the pie would have tasted better than any I’ve ever had, it would be worth it. Call me uncouth but I couldn’t tell the difference.

Now I use canned pumpkin. In fact, I don’t even worry about it being organic because, although it’s not a popular enough item to be tested for pesticide residue by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program,^[1] related foods do not rank high in pesticides. Winter and summer squash rank 25^th and 26^th (apples are worst at #1), and sweet potatoes rank 37^th.^[2]

My favorite pumpkin pie as far as flavor and texture (get ready to groan, foodies) is honestly the recipe on the Libby’s pumpkin pie can, BUT we do not want to use evaporated milk anymore, because it is processed with disodium phosphate or other stabilizers and carrageenan. Besides causing gastrointestinal problems (people may not realize their problems are due to carrageenan), it also causes colonic polyps. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer identified sufficient evidence in 1982 that carrageenan poses a carcinogenic risk to humans, carrageenan is still used widely in processed foods in the U.S.^[3] This is one chemical that you really have to watch for if you buy anything that has been on a conveyor belt, because it can be found in foods labeled “all natural.”

My daughter made the pie crust and it’s the nicest I’ve ever seen.

Pumpkin Pie
1 pie crust recipe
2 eggs
1 can pure pumpkin
3/4 C organic coconut palm sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla (leave out if you used vanilla soy milk)
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1 1/2 C half-and-half (or almond milk, etc. for dairy-free)
Preheat oven to 425. Prepare the pie crust. Beat eggs. Stir in pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spices. Gradually stir in milk; pour into unbaked pie shell. Mixture may seem thin, but it will set as it bakes and cools. Bake for 15 minutes at 425, reduce temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool at least two hours to set.