A tale of pumpkins, large and small.

It was Saturday, aka Pumpkin Day. The kitchen was stocked full of ingredients to make the most decadent pumpkin delights. On the menu was Pumpkin Coconut Curry, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies and of course the king of pumpkin treats, Pumpkin Pie.

Scarlett, Melissa, Micah, and I were geared up for the evening.

We sliced open a large pumpkin, scooped out the inside, separated the seeds, and were on out way to taste bud heaven. The pumpkin seeds turned out great! Toasted just so with a little olive oil and some kosher salt.

However, the pumpkin curry is where the menu got derailed. It had barely any flavor, even with large amount of spices that were thrown in.

Now, on a side note, www.allrecipes.com led me deeply astray with the idea of boiling pumpkin. We did so and it turned out to be one sloppy, wet mess. We tried to make the pumpkin cheesecake brownies, but suffice it to say they were not that good.

Sunday came and with it a renewed dedication to making the last item on the menu: pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. I love the texture, the flavor, the crust. I love it all. And, I had been craving pumpkin pie since fall began. Micah and I busted out the remaining pumpkin (yes, the one that was so wet and sloppy) and tried our hand at straining it so as to get out the water. It didn't work so well, but we trudged on anyway. We rolled out the dough and carefully placed it in the center of the pie pan. Then came the pumpkin mixture and it was disastrous. I don't even know where to begin with how horrible it looked. It was stringy and oh, so thin (the recipe said to mash the pumpkin, not puree it). We poured it in its shell and put it in the oven. It baked and baked and baked. And it still came out slimy. Not one bite could I polish off it was so bad.

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And then came round two. Pumpkin may have won the first time, but I was not going down without another fight.

First off, we used a small pumpkin. It was round and cute, less intimidating.

Second, we roasted the pumpkin in the over instead of boiling it on the stove.

Third, we pureed the pumpkin in small batches instead of mashing it.

Other than those three things, we used the exact same recipe and it turned out amazing. I'm not kidding when I say it might be one of the best pumpkin pies I've ever had. It was just the right creamy texture. It was beautiful and we topped it off with a dollop of homemade whip cream.