Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's not until tomorrow, but as I don't have the day off work here, this seemed as good a time as any to make my pumpkin pie!  In past years I've made pumpkin pie actually from pumpkin (I know...) as you can't get tins here, but Dave and I were in Cardiff a few months back and found this shop that sold tinned pumpkin so Dave bought me two tins at an exorbitant price...

I therefore had to use the recipe on the back of the tin, but made a few changes: The crust I obviously had to make from scratch as I've never seen frozen crusts here like you can get in the States.  I tried a new technique from Hugh FW who admits that he nicked it off Elizabeth David -- instead of rolling out the crust (which I hate doing) you just press it into the plate -- and it worked!  Wouldn't work for a top crust obviously, but for something like this...

Duck eggs (from Bridget) instead of hen.  Cinnamon and cloves ground from whole so fresher and more flavourful.  Couldn't get evaporated milk so made my own by simmering twice the quantity I needed for much longer than the internet recipes say it takes until it reduced...  And it is SO yummy!!!  How long will it take me to eat the whole pie???

In various other news, we decanted some of the apple brandy -- and that's yummy too!

First frost Sunday night -- good thing we pulled the last of the root veg out beforehand!

I also made some lovely mayonnaise this evening with a duck egg yolk, Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil, and some mustard which is giving it that lovely colour -- delicious with the leftover roast chicken that I made on Sunday to go with the veg!

And of course, waste not, want not -- I've also got a lovely chicken broth out of it which will be the base of all sorts of future meals...