Why Hide it? and Pumpkin Pie Libby Style

Shane has a routine.  He refuses to eat his breakfast until he gets a treat.  Sometimes that treat is a raw hide chew (aka “chewy”).  I stuff a little piece of dried meat inside the crevices and then Shane nibbles away to get the dried meat from the rawhide.  He then leaves the room with the chewy, comes back to the breakfast table and grabs a different toy for us to toss around the room.

We have no idea why he leaves the room nor where he goes.

This morning, Ted got curious and looked all over for that raw hide chew. First stop, behind the TV which used to be Shane’s favorite hiding place.  Not today. Apparently the formal living room on top of the sofa is the new ideal place to put the chewy.

We’re wondering, since the Christmas tree and gifts are in that room, if Shane has hopes “Santa” will add more raw meat to the crevices of his chewy?  Who knows WHAT goes through a dogs mind?!

For A Good Cause: 

Arbonne is participating in the annual TODAY Show Holiday Toy Drive. This year, we are donating more than $170,000 in product to various shelters, children’s homes and community centers across the U.S. The donations include product from the FC5 and Arbonne Cosmetics lines. Be sure to watch Arbonne CEO Kay Napier on the TODAY Show live on Friday morning, December 16 to announce Arbonne’s donation on TV!

Arbonne is also making a second holiday product donation to help lift the spirits of cancer survivors. We are partnering with Look Good…Feel Better, a global program that uses donated products to teach beauty techniques to cancer patients and help them with the appearance-related side effects of treatment. Arbonne is donating more than $350,000 in retail value of cosmetic products to this worthy international cause on behalf of our Independent Consultants worldwide, who every day inspire others to look good and feel better.

PUMPKIN PIE for the holidays

In my mind, you just have to have pumpkin pie for the holidays.  There isn’t anything healthy about the following recipe only that it contains pumpkin and you all know that pumpkin is  antioxidant rich, very high in potassium (1 cup = 560 mg), high in fiber, good for your skin and all sorts of other reasons to eat pumpkin. 

Four to six weeks out of the year I treat myself to down home, old fashioned baking.  I’m not concerned with fat, sugar, empty calories, I just want to bake good things for friends and families to enjoy.  This isn’t to say we don’t enjoy our more healthy treats, but during the holidays, I let my hair down (so to speak – but never when I’m baking! ) .

The first recipe of the season is my favorite pumpkin pie which is based on the original Libby’s recipe.  Naturally I had to change it add/subtract my own 2 cents.

Makes 2 9” pies

DOUGH (Buy the refrigerated, pre made pie dough if you want to save time)

• 3 cups flour (OH, OK!  So use whole wheat if you have to!)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups cold unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup cold milk (If you’re still concerned, use 1 %)

FILLING

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 TBS ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
•   pinch of salt
• *1 tsp orange peel (this is my addition)
• *3 large eggs (I reduced the eggs in Libby’s recipe by 1, which called out 4 eggs)
• *2 tsp vanilla extract (this is also my addition)
• 29 oz pumpkin puree
• *12 oz can evaporated milk + (2) 10 oz cans evaporated milk (I reduced the milk by 2 oz)

DOUGH:  Mix flour and salt.  Cut in the butter to resemble course meal.  Sprinkle the milk over the dough and mix with your hand only until it holds together. This is when you can really ruin pastry if you over mix it or handle it too much.  Divide the dough in half and flatten to a disk. Wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

Roll the dough out into a 12” round.  Fit into a 9” pie plate (do this with both dough disks so you have 2 pie crusts ready for filling).  Crimp edges and pierce all over with a fork.  Put back into the fridge for 1/2 hour while you mix the filling and preheat the oven to 425 F.

Mix the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and orange peel.  Whisk the eggs and add the pumpkin plus vanilla to the eggs and whisk again.  Add the pumpkin egg mix to the sugar-spice mix and blend really well. Gradually stir in the milk.

Divide filling evenly between pie shells and bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp. to 350 F and back another 50 minutes.

Top with homemade whipped cream when cooled (about 2 hours for cooling).

I’m not concerned with cracking in the top of this pie.  It’s very moist and not in the least over cooked.  It just turns out super good every time.

Do you have a favorite pumpkin pie recipe? What’s different about it?