Lori's NZ Blog

Cheersgiving

Finally got my Thanksgiving pictures in picasa. My friend Derrick took a bunch of pictures as well.

We had a little Thanksgiving celebration at work - I took a short video. Shane, our office manager, and Tim, one of our runners, roasted a turkey with vegetables and even made cranberry sauce. It was outstanding! All of us Americans and Canadians were touched, and I think all the other folks appreciated sharing in our holiday (and getting some free turkey).

On Sunday I hosted a small turkey dinner for some of my friends. I made the turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy and pies, and my guests brought the sides - kumara casserole, spinach salad, potatoes au gratin, pork egg rolls, tandoori chicken (did I mention it was kind of an international crowd?), cranberry sauce, garlic bread, corn souffle, and many bottles of wine. It was quite a feast! The only casualty was my pumpkin pie. After asking around at multiple stores for canned pumpkin and getting strange looks from store employees, I bought some raw pumpkin and a food processor and went about making my own pumpkin puree.

Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are nice and soft and bred for cutting with even the dullest knife. Eating pumpkins, on the other hand, are hard as rocks. Chopping up that pumpkin was like trying to cut through a cutting board. Finally I developed a method that worked: wedging the knife in the pumpkin chunk, then banging it against the counter until the pumpkin split apart like a piece of firewood, usually flying across the kitchen or falling onto the floor. After chopping, peeling, and roasting it for 45 minutes until it was soft, I spun it through the food processor three times to try and get it nice and smooth. It still wasn't as smooth as canned, but by this time it was 3 in the morning and I had to get to bed so I could get up early and make the actual pie.

When it came time to make the pie, I stupidly chose a recipe that I had never made before. Why I didn't call Mom and get her recipe, I have no idea. The recipe I used sounded good - it called for a wheat crust, lots of spice and molasses so it sounded rich and flavorful. But I think that Kiwi molasses is a lot stronger than the super-processed stuff we have back in the States. The pie was dark brown and tasted like... molasses. After spending hours and getting a blister on my hand chopping pumpkin, you couldn't even taste it. My guests were very polite and said it tasted good, but I knew better. Fortunately I had also made an auxiliary backup pie (apple cranberry) which turned out all right.

I had to redeem myself though, so I finally called Mom, got her recipe, and used some of my leftover pumpkin puree (I ended up with a LOT) to make a real Mom-style pumpkin pie. I brought it into the office to share with Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike. The Americans and Canadians were all over it, but the Kiwis thought the concept of a pumpkin-flavored dessert to be quite odd. They normally eat their pumpkin in dishes like soup, curry, salad, and sandwiches. So I got mixed reviews from the Kiwis - some said it was an "acquired taste" and that "it tastes like it should be served hot and as a side dish," but I did get a couple of converts. One woman emailed me and said it was her "new favorite dessert, even better than TIRAMISU!!!" All the credit goes to Mom - thanks MOM!

posted by Lori @ 8:46 PM