The Pie.

Fall is, hands down, my favorite time of year. There is nothing about this season that I can't appreciate: wondrous colors, chilly temperatures,  harvest time for gardeners, and for me, preparing some of my favorite foods - like pumpkin pie! Today I tried my hand at baking a pie from scratch. Okay, so technically I didn't make the crust, but when you find a really tasty (not to mention organic!) crust, why bother with the extra work? This fall day didn't make it particularly difficult to stay hunkered down in the oven-warmed kitchen.

(I managed to sneak in a few shots when we had a break in the snow showers)

My pie story begins in September. :) One of my favorite Saturday morning activities is going to the Boulder Farmers' Market to support local farmers. Honestly, my love for the Market is mostly selfish. Whether or not I buy fresh produce/cheese/meat/bread/etc. I leave with a feeling of fulfillment.  In early September, the farmers bring out the big guns - every vegetable you can imagine, including pumpkins. Ready to delve into the fall festivities, I bought a perfect little sugar pumpkin to take home and call my own... pie.

I found a great recipe to follow for my first homemade pumpkin pie.

Of course, there's plenty of time to make seasoned pumpkin seeds while waiting for the pumpkin to soften!

I tried to stick to organic ingredients, when possible, and ground my own cardamom, cloves, ginger and Celtic sea salt. In my opinion, this enhanced the flavor of the pie.

Here's the end product. The pie looks great! I had some left over pie filling so I added some flour and just a bit of baking soda to the mix and made some cupcakes.

The true test! With homemade pie, we couldn't settle for anything less than homemade whipped cream!

And some of us enjoy a little pie with our whipped cream.

The recipe (and my recipe-following skills) passed the test! The pie was delicious and totally worth the extra effort of preparing a pumpkin. This specific recipe called for a couple ingredients you won't find in the canned pumpkin pie mix and they really brought out great flavors in the pie. From now on, I think I'll stick to sugar pumpkins for my pie. I would suggest this recipe to anyone - amateur pie maker, or not - it's very easy to follow.

Well, for now, I bid you adieu so that I can cozy up in front of the warm stove. Good night!