You know when you want to make a pumpkin pie, so you go to the grocery store and buy everything you’ll need, except for a can of pumpkin because you’re positive you have one at home?
And then you get home and realize that cans of butternut squash look very similar to cans of pumpkin…
Yeah.
So full disclosure – this isn’t actually a picture of a pumpkin pie. It’s really half pumpkin and half butternut squash. *facepalm*
I had half a can of pumpkin left in the fridge, and instead of making another trip to the grocery store – I went with it. That’s how new amazing recipes are created, right? By cooks not having the right ingredients. Right?! No? Oh well.
So just pretend my pie is 100% pumpkin, ok? It actually tasted pretty good. And maybe it was a little healthier? “Hey Siri, is butternut squash healthier than pumpkin?”
This is why I can’t be a food blogger.
Anyway, this weekend we visited a local pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin for us to carve.
We had tons of fun, and it was actually a really nice family outing. (Which is good since an hour before that at breakfast at iHop, Graham tried to strangle Maddie and broke her Halloween necklace, which sent orange and black beads flying through the air and almost landing in other people’s pancakes.)
I wanted to make a special treat for us to eat while we carved the pumpkin, and what’s better than pumpkin pie!
I followed this recipe, except I cleverly substituted some of the pumpkin for butternut squash, since it has more vitamin A than pumpkin. (Thanks Google.)
The pie crusts come in packs of two, and my artistic husband cut out an awesome jack-o’-lantern and bat out of the other pie crust. I baked the pie for about 40 minutes and then put the jack-o’-lantern and bat on top of the pie for the remainder of the cooking time. (My pie took about an hour total.) I think I’d put the jack-o’-lantern on a little earlier next time, because it didn’t get as toasted and brown as I would have liked. But it still turned out super cute!
Do you have any fun Halloween traditions?
