It's as easy as pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving is not just about dinner; it's an all-day affair in the kitchen. It's a holiday centered on food: on food you eat only once a year, on traditions, on coming together to prepare a feast. So, as you and your family come together for the feast, the last thing you need--as you simultaneously watch the cranberries, the turkey, the stuffing, the breads, and the rolls--is something complicated and time-consuming.

Every year my family and I make this pie on Thanksgiving. It's not what you'd expect. It's not a complex array of ingredients tactfully concocted together and lovingly prepared for hours. It's your average pie made from prepared ingredients, and cooked on the morning of the big turkey day.

This is Libby's famous pumpkin pie recipe. Who's Libby? Oh well. You know the Libby's brand pumpkin purée? Yeah, that's her.

The Recipe:

1 (15oz) can Libby's pumpkin purée
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon*
1/2 tsp ground ginger*
1/4 tsp ground cloves*
2 large eggs
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
2 pre-made 9-inch pie crusts OR 1 pre-made 9-inch deep-dish pie crust (either plain or graham cracker)

*if you do not have all of these spices readily available, feel free to substitute the cinnamon, cloves, ginger combination with 2 tsps of pumpkin pie spice (available from McCormick)

Preheat your oven to 425'F. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. In another, larger bowl, whisk together the eggs and the pumpkin purée, then add the dry ingredients. Slowly add the evaporated milk, whisking after each addition. Place the pie crusts on a cookie sheet to avoid any spillage or leaking. Fill the pie crusts, so that they are 3/4 full and place them on the center rack of the oven. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 350'F, baking for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours, serve with whipped cream.

Prepared...at Home: Tabouli

I thought it would be an interesting project to try and duplicate foods that we typically purchase prepared at home. Would they be equally, or perhaps even more delicious than their prepared counterparts? Would they pale in comparison? Well, I was going to find out.

The first thing that I wanted to try to make at home was tabouli, the traditional Arabic dish that you can find in the grocery store near the hummus. Tabouli is traditionally made with bulgur, tomatoes, parsley, mint, and cucumber and seasoned with olive oil and lemon. "That can't be too hard," I said, as I found a box of bulgur in the supermarket and proceeded to amass the ingredients specified in the recipe on the back of the box.

Last night, I whipped out all of my ingredients and arranged them on the countertop before beginning my cooking adventure.

Tabouli a la Back of the Box

1-1/2 cups dry bulgur
2 cups boiling water
3 tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 green pepper
1 bunch of scallions
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice

Let the bulgur soak in the boiling water for at least two hours. Then, drain the remaining water and put in a bowl. Chop all of the vegetables finely and add them to the bulgur. Create a dressing of the olive oil and lemon juice and let it rest 2 hours before serving.

That sounds easy, doesn't it?

I'm pretty sure that my kitchen revolted. It did not want to make tabouli.

The problem with this recipe was that it was too vague. Cucumbers are wildly different in size, as are bunches of scallions. The bulgur wheat needed more water than was specified, and I think that I added more water to compensate which made it slightly soggy. I did not chop the vegetables finely enough, which was my own problem, but I also did not think that the vegetables really worked. The sauce was also not right for some reason. The final product was moist, overly-chunky, oddly flavoured and not very satisfactory.

Maybe this was just my failure to make good tabouli, but I also tend to think that store-bought tabouli is just better for the money and effort.

The verdict: buy some tabouli, and make something else

Photo credit: http://hilahcooking.com/how-to-make-tabouli/