Pumpkin

There is a very good reason for the existence of canned pumpkin. I lived this reason today, when I spent the better part of the day preparing pumpkin puree for the rapidly approaching Thanksgiving holiday. I am attending two Thanksgiving dinners and hosting another small one- for all of these events I shall be making pumpkin pie, however, canned pumpkin is not something to be easily had in Berlin. I am sure I could have found it in an American store or at KaDeWe and have paid a ridiculous amount for simple Libby's canned pumpkin, but I thought, why not use fresh pumpkin? And hence two hours spent filtering mashed pumpkin through a sieve.

After baking the halved and cleaned pumpkins in the oven for an hour and a quarter and then letting them cool sufficiently, I undertook the messy job of scooping the pumpkins' insides out and then mashing together the bits not as soft (my oven runs hot and has a hot back right corner). This was nothing, however, in comparison to the joy of pushing the mashed pumpkin through a very fine strainer. Because, you see, in order to have silky smooth pumpkin pie- as any custard pie should be- you ought to make sure all the stringy bits are gone- so the sieve comes in handy. It is hard work and hopefully not thankless. If these pies are not among some of the best pumpkin pies ever created, I just might cry. Or be really sad. Either way, they better be amazing!

So now that my day has been spent among the pumpkins- with no great pumpkin to be had- I am going to veg.