Two Pumpkin Pies

I got a little ambitious for Paul's infant dedication in October and decided to roast pumpkins to make the pumpkin pie from scratch.

It was an all-day activity and lots of work, but it was also kind of fun. (I'm old and boring.) I pureed the pumpkin and used it to make the pies and a batch of pumpkin butter for the dinner after the dedication. Everyone really liked the pie (and the butter), even the people who don't normally like pumpkin pie. I told them I'd frozen some of the pumpkin so there'd be more made-from-scratch pie at Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, I couldn't imagine Thanksgiving without the intense pumpkin-ness of pie made from a can. (The from-scratch pie had a more light, fresh taste.) So I decided to make two kinds of pumpkin pie and something that used to be one of the easiest parts of Thanksgiving became complicated.

I only had a big two-pie can of pumpkin puree, so I used half of it to make a pie. Then I got out the frozen homemade puree and made another pie. Then, to use the other half of the canned pumpkin, I made two loaves of pumpkin bread.

The pumpkin pies used to take me 20 minutes. This took 2 hours and dirtied WAY more dishes.

(The little pan in the top middle is pumpkin pie without a crust. My sister can't have gluten, so that was her pie.)