Happy Belated Pumpkin Pie Day!

So many things to be thankful for this year. Most importantly, that Danny and I are now here...

But also, on Thursday, the library came!  

(I know, horrible photo, but on a rainy day, it's dark enough at 3pm that my camera decides to use its flash...)

The library comes to Sanday every other month, and the last time it came was the DAY BEFORE WE MOVED IN, so I have been waiting for this for a while.  So nice to stock up on fresh reading material again!

This year's pie began with the world's biggest butternut squash (egg for scale).

This squash is from the Community Shop, but next year's will be one that we grew ourselves...

The pie itself was inspired by this recipe.

The gooey layer underneath the squash is basically chopped walnuts, brown sugar, and butter.  The overall effect is pumpkin pie baklava.  I went to all the effort of doing all the stuff with the crust that I normally am too impatient to be bothered with -- chilling the crust after rolling it out and putting it in the pie plate, blind baking it, and thoroughly cooling it before filling -- and it really is worth the effort -- possibly the best crust I have ever done if I do say so myself...

In other news, there was still one more chimney that needed topping, but this one is in the middle of the house and thus harder to get to so Danny the monkey did this one.  He says the views from the top of the chimney are lovely...

And Storm Arwen, though fierce, seems to have hit a lot of other places in the UK much harder than us.  This was all we had in the garden this morning...  For a snow lover, I really do have a talent for moving to places that don't get much...