TWD: Thansgiving Twofer Pie

This week's recipe is a combo of pumpkin and pecan pie. Now, we obviously don't celebrate Thansgiving in NZ, and I have never made pumpkin or pecan pie before, so I wanted to make this to try what seem to be American traditions. Unfortunately, I had to race out the door to work yesterday at 1pm, so I left it for the family to try first. I didn't get home til after midnight, but noticed half the pie had gone...always a good sign...so I cut myself a little sliver. Mmmmm, this was scrummy, so I cut myself another sliver. Oh my gosh, and that was not enough. Blow it, I helped myself to a hunk and sat down to enjoy it!!

What a yummy blend of flavours. It was easy to make. I used store bought pastry rather than making my own. I had a triffid pumpkin grow last autumn with a ton of pumpkins so I used one of those to make the puree. I have never seen pumpkin puree in a can before, and I am not even sure if you can buy it here. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I had to cook it for a little longer than recommended though.

Vibi from La casserole caree chose this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog. And please check out what the other TWD bakers thought as well.

TWD - Arborio Rice Pudding

I have not been cooking much at all lately. Been hideously busy at work, so doing lots of overtime. As I work 12 hour days, it does not leave a lot of extra time at the end of the day to venture into the kitchen. Plus I have been trying to finish a post graduate paper. It is very easy to get distracted by food, the garden or the computer, so I decided no internet until I finished the paper! And I have just come back from a small holiday in Oz. So, this week is really the first chance I have had to catch up on reading all the blogs, and actually getting back into the kitchen again.

I have joined the Tuesdays with Dorie group in which we bake an item from Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From my home to yours" each week. I already use this book a lot and it is definitely one of my favs.

This week's recipe is Arborio Rice Pudding. This is one of those great comfort foods that I remember from my childhood. I haven't had Rice Pudding for years. Both my mother and grandmother always added juicy plump raisins to the pudding and we often had different variations of it. I remember the last time I made it was about 10 years ago when I had a Japanese friend staying with me. He was quite disgusted by the fact that we used rice in a dessert. He likened it to having potato in a pudding if he was to make it for me. That does kind of sound eeewww!

Anyway, with the kids harping for a pudding I decided to make it last night. Again, like many of the others I wish I had read the message board first as I only cooked it for 35 minutes instead of 50. Apparently the 35 minutes in the book is a typo and it should be cooked for longer! It was still quite runny, but definitely edible. I added lots of raisins cos that is just how rice pudding should be!! There is a chocolate version too, but I had no chocolate so decided to juct make the vanilla version.

I would definitely make this again. It got the thumbs up from everyone here. See what the other TWD bakers thought. Thanks to Ina at Les Gourmandes d'Isa for choosing this recipe which is on her blog.