Living the 7th

The heat has been brutal and I’ve been wrapped up in arranging all the AC ducts in the house to be replaced. (Don’t ask. Ugh!)

But today Julia and I had time for some toddler cooking and I selected the easiest pumpkin pie recipe I could find online.

When informed it was time to cook, Julia announced, “I get to be the first chef! You can be the other one. Wait a minute… I’ll get my stuff!”

Next think I knew she was in the kitchen with her play apron, chef’s hat, a wooden ladle from her play kitchen and dragging a kitchen chair to stand on by the counter. Her open, sunny face demanding “Now what? Where do I stir?”

I made her give me the toy ladle and handed her measures.  Then I laid out ingredients and utensils so we could measure up

• 1 (16 oz) can Libby’s pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
•  1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 (12 oz) package firm Mori-Nu tofu
• 1 9 inch graham pie shell (Keebler Ready Crust Pie Crusts are vegan)

The lesson today was about measuring more than anything else. And having pie for mom to eat because mom was not going to feel like making breakfast later on and pie is easy.

I helped Julia get all this into my blender so she could whiz it smooth. She sniffed everything and stuck her grubby little fingers in to sample the sugar, pumpkin, and tofu. In fact, I had a hard time getting her to STOP grabbing chunks of tofu out and blobs of pumpkin so I could put the lid to the blender on.

Ater it was all blended smooth we poured it in the pie shell and I chucked it in to bake at 425 for 15 min and then 350 for 40 min. Cool and then refrigerate.

(And don’t think you can use a mixer instead of a blender. Many years ago I did a tofu pumpkin pie with a mixer. It looked fine until I baked it and all the bigger blobs of tofu that had hidden in the pumpkin batter floated to the top giving my pie a strange white freckled look. Tasted fine, but looked like bad pumpkin acne. )

After sticking the pie in the oven I started to clean up but Julia started to wave the spatula she’d been licking and sang… “Pie! Pie! Pumpkin pie!”

I laughed.

She gave me an impish look and sang, “Pie! Pie! Tofu pie!” to see what my reaction would be the second time. So I laughed again.

Then came  an all out jig with “Pie! Pie! Tofu pie! Pumpkin pie! TOFU PUMPKIN PIE!” because if mom laughs at pumpkin pies and she laughs at tofu pies, surely a TOFU PUMPKIN PIE must incite sheer riots of giggle fits!

We pulled ourselves and the dishes together and later we pulled out the result to cool and nibble at the edges:

Not bad, though Julia didn’t like it. She likes the raw batter better. I think it needs molasses and maybe regular Chinese style tofu instead of Japanese silken because firm silken is still too soft for me.  I don’t want this to be like a soft pudding pie — I want it more sliceable.