Cooking some pie
Here's the recipe for the yummy pumpkin cream pie- ok I love pumpkin though, so if you don't love pumpkin you might not think it's anything special = ) It didn't settle the greatest, I don't know why.
Ingredients
- FOR THE CRUST:
- 1-1/2 package Graham Crackers (about 15 Cookie Sheets)
- 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 stick Butter, Melted
- FOR THE FILLING:
- 1 box (3 Oz. Box) Vanilla Pudding (Cook And Serve Variety)
- 1 cup Half-and-half
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
- Pinch Of Cinnamon
- Pinch Of Nutmeg
- Pinch Of Ground Cloves
- 2 Tablespoons Whiskey (optional)
- 1/2 cup (plus 3 Tablespoons) Pumpkin Puree
- 1/2 cup (additional) Heavy Cream
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- Extra Graham Cracker Crumbs, For Garnish
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Grind graham crackers in a food processor (or, if you don't have a food processor, place them in a large ziploc and pound 'em with a rolling pin.) Add powdered sugar and melted butter and process until totally combined. Press into the bottom and sides of a pie pan until nice and firm. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until warm and "set." Remove from oven and allow crust to cool completely.
In a medium saucepan, mix dry pudding mix with half-and-half and cream. Add spices. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly and thick. Remove from heat and stir in whiskey, if using. Add pumpkin and stir to combine. Place lid on pot and set aside to cool. When cool enough, place pot in the fridge to cool completely.
When mixture is cool, remove from the fridge. In a mixing bowl, add 1/2 cup heavy cream and brown sugar. Beat until very light and fluffy. Fold in pumpkin cream mixture until combined. Pour into cooled crust.
Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight. Serve with graham crackers crumbled on top.
I'm not going to lie- I had already bought the frozen pie crust so I just used that and it was still yummy. Good thing mom was here though because I almost didn't cook it before I put the pie filling in. Yes, I did, but she caught me! I'm liked Pioneer Woman's advice- "live a little and use the whiskey in the pie" so I did. I don't think you could taste it though.
My ingredients
Yay the final product- so good
Thursday morning I woke up early and got the turkey in first. I just bought a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey since it was just the 4 of us eating. My parents had brought a ham too, so I made some side dishes and got those baking along with the ham. While I was making/baking the sides my mom was making the deviled eggs- mmmmmmm, love deviled eggs. Andrew got off work at 2 so we had everything ready, except he had to carve the ham and turkey for us = ) I knew he wouldn't mind though, he likes doing the carving. We had deviled eggs, ham, turkey, dressing, sinful potatoes (hashbrown casserole), green beans w/bacon & brown sugar, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin cream pie, and kahlua pecan pie. My goodness it all turned out amazing- YES you read that right, I actually cooked a meal and everything tasted great!!!
This is the famous stuffing. I got the recipe from Sharon at work. It's the best stuffing ever, I'm not kidding either!
Kahlua pie mom brought- very good
Got only 1 injury from cooking- burnt it on the stove. At least it wasn't a trip to the ER this time = )
Mom and I told my dad he had 1 job on Thanksgiving- that was to get the paper for us with all the Black Friday Ads in it. YES, we are the crazy Black Friday shoppers. We, well I found some deals to stand in line for. Wal-Mart started some of their deals at 10pm. So we got to Wal-Mart at 6pm Thanksgiving night. What else are you going to do?!? Sit at home and be bored just eating more- yeah we could've went to the movies but it's fun to get out with the other crazies and people watch! We stood in line for an Xbox360 with the Kinect bundle. It was a great deal for $199 and came with a $50 Wal-Mart gift card at check-out. Andrew has been wanting an Xbox because there's not much to do in the winter. He'll usually go fishing on days off or free time but not in this weather. He was working security at the same Wal-Mart I was at (yeah I could've went to a different one but I love the Pleasant Grove one) so he got his Xbox. It's a very early Christmas present. However, if you know me then you know I always get gifts early from parents and it's hard for me to wait to give gifts if I already have the gift.
Mom ended up going and standing in the game line (which was a mad house and she got trampled but came out with games, woo hoo mom) and Whit ended up coming up to Rogers to stand in line for a 40" TV and her mom stood in line for a 32" TV for Big Kara. We ended up with 2 Xbox360 (one for Whit's cousin), 4 Xbox 360 games (2 for the guy in front of me that asked my mom if she could try to get him some too ha), 2 TV's and a Sharp steam mop.
The line in front of me for the Xbox360- I was about 10th in line. Notice we're by the yogurts, I had to move quite a bit because people were grocery shopping- I thought that was crazier than we were!
I think I liked starting shopping Thanksgiving night instead of getting up at 3am like last year. Mom and I got up around 7am to go do more shopping Friday. We didn't need much though- I got some new curtains and JcPenny's was having a great sale on rods.
I took some fabric for curtains a little over a month ago to a lady in Fayetteville. They were finally finished last Wednesday. I love how they turned out- they look great in our bedroom.
Here's a closer look at them. I already had the gray fabric just needed to buy the black trim at JoAnn's (half off). I love, love, love them! Thanks to those that helped.
Friday my parents left right before the game and Andrew and I went to Louie's to watch it. It was a great game just sad that we lost. Our Hogs had a great season but I'm sad it's over. The countdown begins until next fall, WPS! I'm ready for a bowl game (maybe Cotton) and Andrew and I will be there! I get very into the Hog games and when we made the interception I jumped up out of my seat and knocked over Andrew's drink. I guess I knocked my chair over pretty hard too because I accidently made a booboo in the wall. I wasn't the only one though- every time something exciting happened then something got knocked over.
Check out this picture Whit sent me last week. It's from the candlelight ceremony on monday night for Grant Uekman. He was definitely in everyone's thoughts/prayers.
Andrew and I got our Christmas trees put up this weekend. We have one in the living room and a Hog one in the man cave. I also have random decorations throughout the house but I'll spare you with all the pics = ) I'll show some though. I still need to buy fabric to put around the bottom of the trees so I don't have to see the ugly legs = )
We had a Ukraine meeting last week and will start planning fundraisers for next year's trip. I would love to go again, I miss it everyday and if money wasn't a priority I'd jump on a plane now and go back. One little girl gets to come home very soon, her parents will be leaving in a couple weeks to get her. There's some others that will hopefully be getting adopted in the next year if all the paperwork process goes smoothly. Pray for the little ones over there that they will find a great family to care and love them. We will be putting bio's on the kids we saw in the orphanage on our website- if adoption is something that you feel is for you please take a look- www.teamworksukraine.com/?cat=4
For all my Ukraine readers- I was watching "Say yes to the dress" the other night with my mom. Well a girl was on there with CP (cerebral palsy) and she was from Ukraine- she discussed how grateful she was because her parents decided not to put her in a special needs orphanage and instead moved to the US to get her great medical care. Now she was looking at wedding dresses for her wedding- I loved her story and thought it was AWESOME!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Now on to Christmas = )
~Kara~
