Trying recipes I found on Pinterest | 2. Easy peasy Pumpkin Pie

Last week you will have seen the first post in my new series (Stuffed Pumpkin Peppers), trying recipes I find on Pinterest. After last week's spooky success, we're back today with another recipe.

Anyone who knows me will know that around this time of year I'm all about Pumpkins. It doesn't matter if it is decorative or edible, I have a certain yearning for anything pumpkin. I'm not sure why maybe it is since I've become a blogger, I just feel the need to have pumpkins in my house. But either way, I'm a little obsessed. I've already got my little munchkins from Aldi to adorn my coffee table and I'm ready to start decorating the house in all my Halloween/Pumpkin decorations brought down from the loft. 

Although I've maxed out on all things Pumpkin visually, I've not really had much experience of them in cooking/baking. There is, of course, the almighty Pumpkin Spice Latte, but as I don't like coffee, I've not had one. So in an effort to introduce more pumpkin into my life, I decided I must try the coveted Pumpkin Pie.

I found this super easy recipe on Pinterest, tracing back to American Heritage Cooking, and started on my mission to find all the ingredients. They were pretty easy to find once I stumbled upon canned pumpkin in Sainsbury's. I was going to do it the old fashioned way and cut up a pumpkin to roast (or steam) but this seemed a lot easier.

If you'd also like to make this pumpkin-spiced dream, then read on and get cooking!

You will need...

1 can of pureed pumpkin 
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs, slightly whisked
1 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) pie crust (shop-bought or homemade, preferably quite deep!)

Before starting this recipe preheat your oven to 220 degrees. Don't worry, we start high but then drop the temperature down after some time in the oven.

Next whisk all your ingredients together in a bowl, excluding your pie crust (obviously), making sure everything is well combined.

Pour your mixture into your pie crust and bake at 220 degrees for 15 minutes. Make sure to keep a watch to ensure it doesn't burn! When it's had its 15 minutes turn the temperature to 180 degrees and leave for another 35-40 minutes, or until a sharp knife comes out clean from the centre of the pie). If you don't want to put a knife in your pie, you an jiggle your pie. It's done when only the centre 1 inch diameter jiggles.

When your pie has cooled at room temperature, put this in the fridge in a sealed container, or cover with foil to make it last longer. It will also keep for several days at room temperature if you prefer.

The cooking process of this was super easy, although my pie rose really high in the oven, which you can see from the lumpy skin, which I'm not sure if it was supposed to, it came out cooked and ready to eat. 

Now for the taste test! As I don't like cream, I didn't have any with my pie, but I think that's the done thing. It is AMAZING. So spiced and lovely, the perfect thing for a cosy night in. I think I'm going to have a piece with some ice cream. I would say it is quite sickly, so have in small portions.

What do you think, are you going to try your hand at making a pumpkin pie?

Sticky Fingers, Middlesbrough and PieMinister Pies!

A few days before Christmas Matt's parents told us about some amazing pies they'd had from a place in Middlesbrough. We'd heard of the place before, Sticky Fingers, but never had the chance to visit. Now with this glowing review, we decided to venture out and see what they had to offer.

We went on Boxing Day, which also happened to collide with a Boro home match (meaning town was busy!), about lunchtime to sample a pie! As we got there just as they'd opened, the pies took a while to warm but we didn't complain just waited patiently to fill our hungry stomachs!

There was a selection of pies on the menu all made by a Brighton based company called PieMinister, specialising in good quality pies! I chose 'Moo' which is basically steak, and Matt had 'Moo and Blue' which was steak with Long Clawson Stilton. I had mash, peas and gravy with mine whilst Matt went with the peas!

The pie was delicious, just as a pie should be. Packed with flavour, gravy, meat and veg it was yum! Matt felt the same but added that with his you could taste the cheese but it wasn't overpowering.

Before this Matt hasn't had a pie in around 4 years, and after this one, he went back a few days later with a friend for another! Shows how highly he thought of the pie.

Sticky Fingers is a nice quaint bar with a rock and roll vibe. It's nice to find somewhere a little different and I think adding these pies to the menu was a great shout as the word is spreading across Middlesbrough.

Have you been before? What's your fave pie?!

The Bay Horse, Hutton Rudby

On Friday night me and Matt decided last minute that we'd go out for tea to a local country pub. We'd been to the Bay Horse before so thought we'd go there, however, there are so many pubs named the Bay Horse in the area that we weren't aware of at the time. When the sat nav brought us to this one we were confused but we went decided to try it out. It turns out we'd been to the one in Great Broughton before and this one is in Hutton Rudby... Nevertheless, we trudged inside to find a quaint little pub in which all the locals were staring us down as we looked for a find a table. We chose our meal from a board on the wall as they didn't seem to have any proper menus. The wait time was quite long for the food but when it came we could see why! The food looked gorgeous, like so much effort had gone into perfecting it. I chose the steak and mushroom pie whilst Matt went for a sirloin steak.

It's been a while since I had a pie so I was excited to try this one and it did not disappoint. The pastry was lovely, thick and crumbly with the steak inside being very tender and juicy. The sauce was quite rich and the mushrooms were whole which I thought was different! I had so much on my plate it was hard to finish and I didn't even touch the extra gravy! Matt enjoyed his steak and said he really liked his peppercorn sauce although it had a lot of full peppercorns! We didn't stay for dessert as we felt like we were about to burst but I wish we had as I am sure that would have been just as home-made and yummy. I'd definitely recommend the Bay Horse to anyone in the area as the food was very lovely and it was a nice place to spend a night. They even had a outside garden area for a sunny day.

What's cooking? Recipe ideas!

I've always said on my blog how much I love to cook. I much prefer taking some time out of my day to make a meal than to sit with a ready meal after five minutes in the microwave. It's better for you to cook and I think it makes you feel good about yourself like you've achieved something for cooking a lovely meal.

Over the past few weeks, I've been cooking up a storm making all sorts of hearty meals for the rest of the family.

So what have I been cooking?

Beef casserole - This was really easy to make with a store bought sachet and fresh ingredients. Simply cut the beef and carrots, add them to a casserole dish with water and the sachet and then cook in the oven for an hour and three quarters! Yum!

Cauliflower cheese - Super easy to make! All you need is cheese sauce, which you can make fresh, buy or use a sachet and cooked cauliflower. Mix these two in a casserole dish and cook for 10/20 minutes.

Chilli con carne - Again I cheated and bought a sachet to help. Basically this entailed cooking the beef (and I added mushrooms) then adding a tin of tomatos, kidney beans and some water. You then let this simmer for 20minutes. Done!

Nachos - This was one of those days when you just can't be bothered to cook anything! So all I did was put some nachos on a plate, added salsa and cheese then place under the grill for 5 minutes until the cheese was melted.

Pie, mash and vegetables - This was a store bought pie that took about 30minutes to cook and whilst it was cooking I made the mashed potato and vegetables!

Butternut squash soup - We bought a butternut squash in the shopping hoping to make soup and the same week I came across Abundance of Erica's recipe. This made a yummy sweet soup!

As you can see these are all pretty simple dishes that you can easily make in no time. Although I did take the cheats way out on a few of these dishes I think it is much better for you than eating ready meal rubbish!

I hope I inspire you to get in the kitchen a bit more? Let me know if you cook anything!