October 18, 2012 - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

I've discovered the slightly immature butternut squash, when cooked, pureed and mixed with a cooked fully mature squash, makes excellent pumpkin pies.   I decided to make my own pumpkin pie mix for the freezer, using two of the smaller immature and two ripe butternuts.


I peeled, diced and steamed the squash until it was very tender, then pureed it in the food processor.  The butternut was really thick, unlike the pumpkin I have used in the past.  I had to let the pumpkin sit in a colander for a bit to strain off the excess liquid, but the butternut makes a puree that is so thick it has to be processed in small batches.  For the pumpkin pie mix, I added the sugars, both white and brown, and all of the spices, then processed it all once more to make sure everything was completely combined.


I ended up with enough freezer pumpkin mix for three pies, one deep dish pie to be baked right away, and a bit left over for a small pumpkin custard.  All I'll have to do for the pumpkin mix is thaw it out, add two eggs and a can of milk, and it will be all ready to pour into a pastry crust and bake.  One big kitchen mess for four pies!


Add whipped cream and enjoy!


The 6-1/2 ounces of parsley I picked last Sunday filled a 1-1/2 pint jar when dried.  That will be more than enough to last through the winter months.


Link up with Robin over at The Gardener of Eden to see how others are using or preserving their harvests.  That is, if you can find her, as she's off on a vacation cruise, lucky girl!


20 comments:

  1. Hi, Granny...
    Lovely! Your pumpkin pie looks gorgeous! i love pumpkin pie! the last time i had this was back in 1997 ,that was during my student year in Illinois...*drooling* :P~

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    1. HangKebon, you are back! I thought you had given up on your blog, so now I see I have a few of your posts to catch up on! I am eating yet another piece of pumpkin pie right now. At this rate, I'm going to have to go buy some larger clothes, LOL! It's so good, I just cannot resist it. With over 100 pounds of the winter squash, I think we'll be eating a lot of "pumpkin" pies this winter!

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    2. Yes,i'm still around as a silent reader & i'm not giving up on my blog yet, Granny...;)that's a lot of squash u have there...i betcha those pies are delish! how i wish i was your neighbour so we could go shopping for new clothes together! LOL u have a great day, Granny! ;)

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    3. HangKebon, I wish you were my neighbor, too. We'd sure do a lot of eating and clothes shopping :-)

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  2. Yum. I often freeze butternut squash puree in the freezer as like you I make one big mess at a time. I basically cover my roasting pan every time I make squash then freeze. I don't put the rest of the ingredients in as I usually either make squash casserole or pie and rarely squash soup (I'm still looking for a squash soup with beans version that I like). And I wish I had your parsley. My parsley bit the dust this year. So I have to keep using up last years. I prefer to have fresh dried herbs every year.

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    1. Daphne, I usually have plain squash puree in the freezer, too. This is the first time I've added the sugar and spices, as (as you well know) someone in this house used to be a butt head about eating squash pie. Now he requests it, LOL! I found two squash and bean recipes on line that sounded pretty good, I'll email them to you. I haven't yet tried them.

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  3. We'll keep this recipe on file for sure. To bad we don't have both degrees of ripeness. All of ours are pretty much the same.

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    1. Jody, if I had my way, all of them would have been ripe. Unfortunately, I had at least six really nice ones that just didn't have time to fully mature, and I didn't care for the flavor of them as a vegetable. I was happy to find the mixture of ripe and under ripe made such a good pumpkin pie (or can be used as pumpkin in any recipe calling for the puree).

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  4. Now I'm really drooling and all I can think about is a homemade pumpkin pie...it's only 9:30 in the morning, and I'm at work. BAD Granny! Oh what I would do for a slice of that pie right now. *sigh*

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    1. Barbie, I had a big slice just before I went to bed last night, and a case of heartburn at 3:00 am! It would have been better to have it for breakfast!

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  5. I have never liked pumpkin pie. My husband is crazy for it though. But I do love pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin bread. I wish my butternuts had produced, so I could give this a try.

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    1. Anywhere, with so many squash, I searched for 5-star rated recipes on line and found several I want to try. There's no way we could eat so many as a vegetable with our meals, I need to use some for cookies, breads, muffins, etc.

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  6. Replies
    1. 5olly, I dry it in the microwave. I snip off the stems and pile the leaves on a double layer of paper towels, and zap them for 1 minute. Transfer them to another layer of dry towel and zap a second minute. More dry towel and zap a third minute. No more than 3 total minutes, I have had them catch on fire! It's usually quite dried after the three minutes, but if it's not real crispy I put it in a barely warm oven for 30-60 minutes to finish it off. Microwaving does give me lovely bright green parsley.

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  7. I need to get the wife to do this! Sounds like you use the same recipe. Joy of cooking perchance?

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    1. David, For the pumpkin pie? From a Libby's Pumpkin can label :-)

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  8. The pie looks tasty! Did you tell Mr. Granny that it has butternut in it? :)

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    1. Dan, yes I did! He actually admits it tastes just like pumpkin, and we are currently eating our third squash pie in a month!

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