Pumpkin and Spice

The holidays are rapidly approaching- it's truely the most wonderful time of the year! I love that once you hit October, you get a holiday every month until Valentine's day! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, New Year's, Valentine's Day- it's the best. It makes me feel all Hallmark card squishy inside.

 This time last year, I was in Utah with Sissy, and we spent our Thanksgiving with a co-worker and her family. This year, my parents are coming from Kansas, my brother is coming from Kentucky, and my in-laws and sister-in-law are coming from a couple streets over to our apartment for a big family Thanksgiving. It's going to be my first year hosting the Big Dinner, and I'm a ball of excitement and nerves.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I'm going to be posting some seasonal recipes to inspire you and get you in a festive mood. First up, the most important part of the meal- pie!

This is an easy peasy pumpkin pie; the filling is creamy and rich, with plenty of spices and a touch of molasses. The crust is a departure from the normal pastry crust- a crust made from crushed gingersnap cookies adds a chewy, spicy bite to the pie. (This also makes it perfect for those of you with crust-phobia. We'll address that malady at a later date... don't you worry.) The crust will be a bit chewier than a graham cracker crust, due to the molasses in the ginger cookies. Of course, you can just as easily use your favorite pie pastry in place of the gingersnap crust.

Spicy Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Cookie Crust
makes one deep 9" pie

For the crust-

• 2c gingersnap crumbs (About 40 cookies, depending on their size.)
• 1/3c sugar
• 6T butter

Melt the butter. Mix with the crumbs and sugar. Press into a deep 9" pie pan (You can use 8" pie pan, but you'll have extra crust and filling. You can put those in a little glass baking dish and make yourself a mini-pie to snack on. No shame in that.) Bake at 350F for 10-12min. Set aside and allow to cool.

For the filling-

• 15 oz (one can) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling, just the plain puree)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 1/4c molasses
• 1/2t salt
• 2t cinnamon
• 1t ginger
• 1/8t each nutmeg, allspice and cloves
• 10 oz evaporated milk (or heavy cream)

Whisk together all the ingredients until smooth. Pour into cooled crust. Bake at 350F for 60-70 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.