a wild undertaking: nothing says Thanksgiving like ... carrot pie?

One roommate is house sitting, the other had a quilting meeting ... and so, I was on my own until around 9 pm on Thanksgiving. I'll give everyone a moment to feel really really bad for me.

Haha, I'm just kidding, I get summer weather and sea breezes, it's all good. :)

The day before I had gotten everything that I needed. But when I had gone to purchase the pumpkin, it was CRAZY expensive (it's summer here, so they aren't exactly 'in season') and they had flesh that looked more yellow than orange, and the skin was a gray speckled color. I decided that I couldn't afford to buy the amount of fresh pumpkin I would need (they were sold in pre cut slices) to make the amount of purreed pumpkin that I would need to make my pie(s).

Across from the pumpkin, however, was a display of carrots being sold for a dollar a kilo. Now, this was more my price range. So, I bought two kilos of carrots because I had found a recipe online that said that carrot pie or 'faux pumpkin pie' tastes JUST like pumpkin pie. I dediced to give it a try, and that day I went home and told my roommate that I would be sharing some American culture with her on Thanksgiving.

"Have you ever had a carrot pie Liz?"

That night I made my crust (a French pastry crust recipe) it was nice because usually when I translate French recipes I have translate not only the words, but also the measurements, and while I still had to do a little of that (changing it from metric to english measurements) just so I knew what was going on, I didn't have to do it all. The recipe called for 500 grams of butter (I'm not going to tell you how much butter that is ...) so I went to the store, and bought 500 grams butter, it was already sorted on the package how much 500 grams was. And I added 65 ml of water too, because Liz's cooking things are mostly in metric, but thanks to their Canadian daughter-in-law, it isn't all, so I was still able to put in 'cups' of flour.

But the real fun began the next day, Thanksgiving, when it was finally time to put everything together. The crust was ready to go, and I had already boiled the carrots, but now the task of pureing them was before me. Now, I didn't know where anything was ... but after a bit of a search I had found a food processor. I tried, it didn't work, or at least, I couldn't figure out how to turn it on ... so I had to scratch that ... in my searching for the food processor, I had come across a mortar and pestel. Seeing as how I was unemployed, and had an entire day to make one pie, I thought, meh? Why not. It could be another nod to the Pilgrims.

So I turned on the TV, pulled out a little tray, and began mashing the carrots with the mortar and pestel. I would like to say, that after about an hour, I had done a farely deccent job, however, it started to become apparent that while the carrots were getting decently mashed ... they certainly weren't getting that necessary pureed look. So further searching (a bit of it) yeilding in the golden treasure find of Thanksgiving, a hand mixer!

Then FINALLY, from about a kilo and half of carrots (around three pounds), I had about three and half cups of carrot puree.

The rest was the easy bit. Combining all the ingredients I needed, forming the pie in the pie plate, and pouring in the carrot pie mixture. The oven is small, and a little older, but it did a good job of baking the pie (I worried a bit that it might not), it came out, cooled down enough to be put in the fridge, and was chilled and ready by the time Liz came home (I like it chilly). To join in the festivities, Liz bought ginger beer (they like here TOO! yay!) and double cream for the pie which is soooo thick that you can spoon it out of the container (Aussies, I have noticed, are a healthy bunch of people ... but they like their meat and their dairy products, and have no issue indulging in double cream that has almost 60% milk fat content ... haha, but it was good!).

It was a splendid day, and a great way to enjoy the holiday, and reflect on all the things that I am grateful for.

I didn't take pictures of the first pie (it was gobbled up too fast ;) ) BUT I did take pictures of the second one I made with the leftovers from the recipe on November 28 ... haha ... I wasn't as ... erm ... observant of this pie as I was the other ... and ended up burning the crust (I had covered the crust in tinfoil for the first pie) ... haha, oh well.