We grew a lot of pumpkins this year, so I was able to use fresh, homegrown pumpkin for the pie!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pumpkin puree (really, really smooth — blender it a lot, push it through a screen to pull out fibers. I also let it sit in the fridge for a few days and dumped off the water that separated out)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup maple sugar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2+ tsp ginger
• 1/4+ tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup almond milk

Stir all of the stuff together — it should form a smooth custard. Bake at 375F for about an hour. I used my walnut pie crust (but with almonds instead of walnuts), so I had the crust covered for the entire baking time.

I didn’t use this recipe for Thanksgiving this year, but it’s another one I keep meaning to write down online so I’m not digging out an old e-mail to myself!

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)
• 1 c cream cheese (room temp)
• 1/4 c maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Using the stand mixer and whipping attachment — beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy.

Add in maple, vanilla, salt, and lemon. Beat for about 5 more minutes.

• 1.5 cup pulverized walnut pieces (also works well with almonds)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4t sea salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2T sugar
• 2 egg whites (or one whole egg)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put walnuts into a food processor and pulverize – not just powdered, some 1/8″ pieces should remain.

Measure 1.5 cups of pulverized walnuts. Combine with flour, salt, and sugar.

Melt butter. Using a fork, cut the melted butter into the dry ingredients. Add egg whites and cut together until evenly moist.

Press dough to the bottom of a pie or tart plate (can be lined with parchment – makes removing the pie a LOT easier). Cook for 15 minutes. Crust should be crunchy and brown.

I’m saving a few recipes we used this Thanksgiving

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the whipping bowl into the freezer a few hours ahead of time so it’s really cold. When ready to whip, combine cream, maple, and vanilla. Whip — Anya likes to shake it in a jar or use the old-school hand-cranked spinny beater. I prefer a firm peak — when you see peaks and valleys formed as the beater moves through the cream & picking up the beaters leaves behind a little mountain of whipped cream.

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can coconut milk plus enough water to make 3 cups
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup long-grained white rice
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raisins

Method:

1. Put coconut milk, water, maple syrup, rice, and salt into pressure cooker. Pressure cook on High for 3 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes (natural steam release).
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs. A teaspoon at a time, add hot liquid from pressure cooker into eggs to temper. Once hot enough, mix eggs into rice pudding. Heat for about three minutes — it will thicken up.
3. Add vanilla and raisins. Stir to combine.