Best Thanksgiving Pies

The canned stuff is pretty classic and I get that but I started making my own puree and while it can be quite a bit of work it's something you can do way ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate until you'll use it. Plus, it makes the pie so very tasty.

You Will Need:
1 Sugar Pumpkin (or Butternut Squash, or 6-8 Yams)

-- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
-- Cut the pumpkin into 1/8 pieces after cleaning out all the seeds and gunk in the middle.
-- Place on a baking sheet lined with foil. Smear a generous amount of butter on each slice to help them brown and then, my secret method, sprinkle brown sugar (the nice thick dark kind) or some honey on each piece.
-- Bake in the oven until caramelized on top and when you are able to poke your fork through with relative ease.
-- Let it cool. Now take scoop all the pumpkin out of the skin and throw into a food processor and puree. If you don't have a food processor just mix and pound it until its smooth.
-- Now the hard part, using a strainer, strain about a cup at a time of the puree. Pumpkin has all these stringy bits that you don't want so this gets rid of them. You need to press the puree through the strainer with a spoon because it isn't liquidy enough to just strain by itself. This can be a bit painstaking but let the family take shifts or do it while watching a late afternoon murder mystery on T.V

Voila!

Oh yum!!! A classic apple pie recipe drenched in caramel and baked to make a sweet crust on top of the warm tart taste of green apples. I found this recipe online and it's now a family favorite.

Some of my ow advice:

-- ALWAYS use granny smith or other hard tart apples. You are adding sugar to the mixture so don't pick a soft sweet apple. It bakes into a soggy overly sweet pie.
-- Most recipes call for the apples to be peeled- NAH! keeping the skin gives it a real homemade taste and look. The pie bakes long enough that the skin gets soft and sticky and the taste is well worth it.
-- To keep your apples from browning, squeeze a small amount of lemon juice on them and toss. No more brown mushy apples before its even in the oven.

JUST click on the picture to get this AMAZING recipe.

A twist on a classic recipe. WARNING: After eating this pumpkin pie it's all your family will want. Creamy crunchy deliciousness. My moms favorite and soon it will be yours! Click on the picture to go straight to the recipe.

My Advice:

-- The recipe makes quite a bit of streusel topping and I personally find it a bit too much. I want the pie to stand out and not be too sweet. I am old school that way- so I use only enough to make a nice single layer of the topping on my pie. It's not a waste though- check out my gourds section to see how you can use this streusel topping again!

-- Beware leftovers- they will be short-lived. Bake two of these bad boys!

This recipe can be found in many varieties and can be used not only in pie but with filo pastry, as a dessert in itself, on top of a pound cake, and as a parfait or sundae. It's definitely a fall/winter dessert and perfect as an alternative to pumpkin pie.

What You Need:
***Try and stay within the season or buy locally but here are some of my favorite fruits to use. How much you use is totally up to you.

2 peaches sliced thickly
1 package strawberries (use whole or halved)
1 package blackberries
2 plums thickly sliced
1 pear cut into chunks
A handful of halved apricots
A vanilla bean (halved)
Whole star anise and/or cinnamon stick
Brown sugar (1-2tbsp)
1/2 cup of water

Pie Crust (see below for recipes)

1 Can Devon custard

To Do:

-- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
-- Boil water in a medium to large sized pot. Bring heat down to a low-medium and add sugar, stirring until it is fully melted into the water.
-- Scrape the seeds out of the halved vanilla bean into the pot of boiling sugar water and chuck in the bean as well. Add the star anise and/or cinnamon stick as well.
-- Add the cut up fruit starting with the harder fruit and then adding the softer fruits like berries (about 2 minutes later)
-- Simmer (or stew) the fruit on a low temperature until all the fruit is soft and the water has a thicker more syrupy look.
-- Scoop fruit into prepared pie crust avoiding pouring in too much of the liquid and flash bake on 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Turn down heat to 350F and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes or until outer crust is golden brown.
-- Let is set for at least 10 minutes and serve warm with a dollop of custard.

Try your own stewed fruit variation and post it in the comments!

Become a AllRecipes.com subscriber and get a Pie Countdown Newsletter! It's amazing and full of great pies. It's free too.
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Yes, it's true. My food processor and I have been having a love affair since December 25th 2009 when it was unassumingly sitting underneath a Christmas Tree in my parents house wearing what i can only describe as a festive clothing and a card that said exactly what I needed to hear, "i am here for you".

Black & Decker FP2620S Power Pro Wide-Mouth 10-Cup Food Processor with 5-Cup Blender Jar

Gourds are beautiful little warty things to keep on your table during fall especially during the Thanksgiving and Halloween times. If you are not a big pie person or simply predict many relatives fattening you up with pies all weekend long and you want something else for your own dinner- TRY SOME OF THESE!

Edible Gourds: Not all gourds are edible and you should be careful of this. Most of the edible ones other than the classic squashes like butternut, acorn and ambercup will have an "edible" sticker on them to indicate if they are for the table or for your belly.

What You Need: (per 2 gourds or four servings)

Each guest should have half a gourd. Buy a bunch of different types and serve each guest a different looking one. This makes for a very pretty and festive table.
1 can of lentils PER 2 gourds (four halves)
1/2 cup of crushed walnuts or pecans (I've even used crushed almonds)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 nutmeg and 1 cinnamon/ or 2 pumpkin spice mixture)
4 tablespoons thick brown sugar
2 teaspoons flour
OR use the leftover streusel topping from the pumpkin pie above

To Do:

-- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
-- After halving and cleaning the gourds scoop out half of their insides to form a kind of bowl. Keep the insides one side for now.
-- Rinse the lentils and combine with insides of gourds.
-- Put spoonfuls of mixture into each gourd bowl and keep flattening to make room for more.
-- Put on baking sheet and place on individual squares of foil that will later wrap up your gourds.
-- Topping: Combine butter, sugar, flour and nuts until it forms large crumbs.
-- Use the crumbs to build a crust over each halved gourd and cover it in foil when done.
-- Bake for 20-40 minutes depending on gourd. Halfway through cooking take off foil to brown the crust. TEST: If you can poke your fork through the bowl part easily without much resistance it is ready. The topping will also be browned and caramelized.
-- If it has not caramelized but the filling is cooked, turn up the heat to 425F and bake for 3-5minutes uncovered.

I'll be posting pictures soon!

Since we are from South Africa we choose to do an African themed fall table. The colors actually really compliment each other and textures and materials like straw mats, dried flowers and plants, and sienna, burnt sienna and browns are common in both.

Where are you from? How do you incorporate your customs or heritage into your Thanksgiving spread? Post it in my "What's Eating You?" section.