Shopping for Pumpkin Pie + 6 of my favorite ways to celebrate pumpkin

Last night Larry and I went shopping for a pumpkin pie.

Usually I make something pumpkin, but this year I’m so immersed in working on my new website that it was enough to make the organic turkey and and gluten-free cornbread stuffing and yams and cranberry sauce sweetened with local apples and green bean casserole. So I thought we could just buy a pumpkin pie this year. And I’m living with Larry’s family at the moment, so want to make a Thanksgiving dinner that will be familiar to them.

So we went to Whole Foods because I thought they might have house-baked pumpkin pies, but they didn’t. They had two brands of packaged pies. One was not even organic and had a lot of additives that don’t belong in pumpkin pie. The other was gluten-free and vegan and the second ingredient was tofu, so that was not an option for me because I don’t eat soy. Plus it was $20 for a smaller-than-usual pie.

We actually ended up purchasing a huge pie made with organic pumpkin from Costco, which seems to carry more and more organic food every day. Eleven-inch pie for only $7.99. And none of the additives found in the Whole Foods pie.

Times are changing. Whole Foods is no longer Whole Foods. Their basic operating principles are gone.

Next year I’ll go back to baking my own, but it was interesting to see what is going on in the world of pumpkin pie.

Here are some recipes I’ve shared in the past for pumpkin. I highly recommend the Pumpkin Pie for Everyone if you want something close to the standard pie, but try some of the others too. All yummy.

Pumpkin Pie for Everyone

The ingredients are so simple, practically everyone can eat it. There’s no crust (though you could add one if you want) so there are no grains, and there is no sweetener of any kind (though it tastes remarkably sweet!). And it’s so delicious you won’t miss the usually-soggy crust or the sugar. It’s my favorite pumpkin pie ever! RECIPE >>>

Twice Baked Pumpkin

You probably know twice baked potatoes…I roasted the pumpkin, fluffed up the roasted pumpkin with a fork in its shell, added butter and molasses, and some toppings, and baked it again. The result was “awesome”, according to my taste testers. Both preferred this to pumpkin pie and so did I. You get to see the pumpkin in its natural shell and natural state, not pureed, but as nature made it. A wonderful celebration! RECIPE >>>

Twiced-Baked ”Pumpkin Pie”

This tastes like pumpkin pie but is made with a very sweet little squash called “Sweet Dumpling.” If you can find this squash where you live, it’s the best squash. It’s very smooth and creamy and SWEET. So no added sweetener of any kind is needed. RECIPE >>>