The Cheater's guide to Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie

My mom taught me how to make these as soon as I was tall enough to see over the counter and strong enough to stir the mixture. The ingredients and directions are right on the back of every Libbys 100% Pure pumpkin can and it is also on their website but I'll go ahead and share it anyway because it is my favorite desert in the fall. Now the only reason I refer to this as the "Cheater's guide to Home-made pumpkin pie" is because the pie shells and pumpkin puree are store bought but the taste is absolutely authentic!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 4 large eggs

• 1 can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin (29 oz)

• 2 cans NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk (12 fl oz)

• 2 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell ((4-cup volume))

Preheat oven to 425







My best friend and I decided we'd bust a move in the kitchen to kill some time before American Horror Story: Freak show came on.
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-horror-story/episodes
So the first thing you want to do is mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl. 
In a separate larger bowl beat eggs Add the pumpkin and sugar mixture to the eggs and mix thoroughly
Slowly stir in evaporated milk (it will splash)



Open up your Pie shells, I personally love to use Marie Callendar's frozen pie shells
I bought mine at winco foods in the frozen section
If you choose to use the same DO NOT THAW shells
Pour the mixture into the shells straight out of the freezer



Once mixture is well mixed slowly and steadily pour your mix into a pie shell


After one pie is filled you will have enough to fill your second pie shell



Perfection! Now place your pie shells on cookie sheets (I like to put each one on its own sheet to prevent spilling and it makes it much easier to place in the oven and remove) 




Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes mire or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. (I never need to stick a knife in the middle after 45 minutes it should be cooked through and through)



Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. 
Do NOT cover pie with lid, foil, or wrap it in anyway while it is cooling, this will cause pie to sweat. I usually let my pies cool for 2 hours if I don't have a wire rack 
And my favorite topping for pumpkin pie is whipped topping

OoH La LaBone appetit!!

How to Stain wood -- reclaiming wood

Hello everyone, I thought I'd kick my blog off with my favorite project I have done thus far. There are plenty of how-to blogs and videos out there for revarnishing/refurnishing wood furniture but most of the ones I seen aren't very detailed and when I started this project I was so scared I'd mess up if I missed one single step. 

This is the table I bought from an ISO post I made on one of those nifty facebook sale pages. I posted a photo of an identical table with and ISO message attached and a woman contacted me letting me know she had the exact table and we later met up and I purchased it for 15$. Solid oak end table with drawer.

Once all unwanted varnishing was removed I used a 220 grade smoothing sandpaper to make sure the surface areas  were all smooth and buff out any blemishes.

The stain color I chose was Minwax's Dark Walnut and I absolutely love it. I bought the smaller can because it is a small project so the total came out to around 5$ with tax. (link below) I wore gloves and used an old long sock to stain the table, invest in some good gloves or your fingers will become stained and don't forget your face mask!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Minwax-8-oz-Oil-Based-Dark-Walnut-Wood-Finish-Interior-Stain-227164444/100376173

To protect your furniture piece from "water rings", scratches and to just seal in the stain it is always smart to put your clear coat on over your stain.I chose the clear satin option because I did not want too much of a glossy shine to my table and being that this was my first time ever revarnishing I did buy "oil-based" polyurethane and later received a long lecture on it from my construction working father. Next time I will buy the "water-based" polyurethane.

 This choice is up to you entirely, the water-based dries much quicker and is a lot easier for clean up because in this step it is best to use a paint brush to apply the top coat and oil-based anything is very hard to clean but especially difficult to clean from a paint brush, so note to self: Do not borrow dad's 20$ Purdy Paint brushes when working with oil-based anything. 

Okay so back to the steps:

•  Apply your choice of polyurethane with a fine paintbrush pliable to all paints and let dry 4-5 hours
• Apply second coat (as I did) if desired

 

I left my table outside for an entire day to ensure it was dry and I was so excited to bring it in. 

This is my final product and I absolutely love how it turned out. The areas where I left some of the old varnishing came out lighter and it really did give it the "barn wood" look. I'm in Love!

Because it is October I immediately added some pumpkins and my "happy harvest" decor sign I purchased at Ross Dress For Less for 5$.

If you were wondering why I had a red cushion (purchased at goodwill for 75 cents) under my table, I hope this photo speaks for itself. Animal Planet's Jackson Galaxy says to include your cats with your furniture and that is exactly what I did here. My little Allie bear loves her new bed and I love my new table! Win win!

So I hope my how to on this was helpful, feel free to ask any questions and thanks for reading!