Jeff and I went to Utah last week for Nicole's wedding. We had so much fun with all the family and friends we were able to see. Jeff missed two days of school and flew home right after the luncheon. I stayed for another six days. My parents came into town the same week so I helped baby sit Allie while Jess and Trey were in Florida. Here are some picture highlights from our trip.

We were sad to say goodbye, but the good news is Christmas is just around the corner.

Real Pumpkin Pie

Here's the recipe I used for my pumpkin pie made from a real pumpkin. I found the recipe from this website and it goes into a lot of detail. This is my simplified version.

Pumpkin Glop: Clean, cut, and seed a pie pumpkin. Cook wedges until very tender. You can either do this covered in the microwave with a couple inches of water at the bottom, steam wedges on the stovetop, or bake in the oven until very tender. I just did it in the microwave and it turned out great. Scoop the pumpkin out from its skin and puree in a blender.

Depending on how much pumpkin glop you end up with, you may want to alter the following ingredients. I only had 1 ½ cups of pumpkin glop so used half of everything below.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• one half teaspoon ground ginger
• one half teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups pumpkin glop
• 1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Combine ingredients and mix well using a hand blender or mixer. Pour into pie crust to ¼ to ½ inch from the top.

Bake at 425 F for the first 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 F and bake another 45 to 60 minutes, until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

The pie tasted the best when we let it sit overnight in the fridge so all the flavors could meld. I've already made this twice and can't wait to make it again!