pumpkin pie
So the other day Mitch and I beat the odds and managed to make a pumpkin pie practically from scratch because british people have never heard of pumkin pie. First of all we went to three different grocery stores looking for pumpkin puree....since british people don't make pumpkin pies they obviously don't have pumpkin puree. Therefore, we went to this fresh fruit and vegetable grocery store where they had two pumpkins left over from Halloween, so we took the biggest one they had and we pureed our own pumpkin. I have never pureed a pumpkin before so I had no clue that one pumpkin could provide us with about 10 cups of puree....Oh well. Then, after we found the pumpkin we thought that it was safe to go ahead and by the rest of the ingredients. So we spent another hour in Tesco looking for all other things that british people don't have, such as ready made pie crust. We finally find their version of ready made pie crust that is meant for tarts, and it isn't even frozen. So we decide to just buy some dough and make the crust ourselves. Well, then we went back to Mitch's flat we started baking all day....We were baking fiends. Since we had so much puree and a lot of everything else as well we merely doubled the recipe and made 4 pies. They are all really really good too. Mitch's roommates, all being British, had never experienced the wonder of pumpkin pies before. They didn't realize it was a dessert. They thought it was like a mince pie, silly British people. Needless to say one and a half pies are already gone, due to Mitch and his roommates. I had never made a pumpkin pie before, and certainly not from scratch. In fact I have never really cooked like I cook here. I am actually learning how. Especially when I come up to visit Mitch. We both impress ourselves because everything we make is really good. For the past few nights we have had tomato, basil, and cheese ravioli with peppers, onions, garlic, and mushrooms sauteed and mixed into a pesto sauce. Then, we marinated salmon in olive oil, rosemary, and garlic and we backed it the next night. Then last night, since we were on a role with baking, we made a tomato and mozzarella tart, a recipe I got from Dalene, that has become a favorite between Mitch and I. We have decided that when we come home we are going to have one night a week where we cook dinner for ourselves, watch a movie, and drink wine. It'll be awesome. It would be unfortunate if I went back to America and lost my new found passion for cooking, but hopefully that won't happen. We'll see.