Monday, November 25, 2013

PLEASE PASS THE PUMPKIN PIE! (A HAPPY THANKSGIVING PHOTO BLOG)

Hi Everybody!!
In the United States, we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week. For my friends outside the States, I have shared some info from Wikipedia about Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie! This is the time for Families to get together and have a big meal. I wish I could invite You all over for Dinner, but You would not fit. To join my family in spirit, I am asking You to make a pumpkin pie and eat it with us on Thursday! A pie for Peace-we could be on to something! Enjoy my fall colors in the trees. These are from a past fall at the link below! Enjoy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanksgiving Day (Jour de l'Action de grâce in Canadian French) is a nationalholiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, and has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.

Oven roasted turkey

In the United States

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but not universally, traced to a poorly documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-dayMassachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.^[8]^[9] According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.^[10] In later years, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.^[11]^[12]^[13]The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.^[14]

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and theContinental Congress,^[15] each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.^[16] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God".^[17]

In modern times the President of the United States, in addition to issuing a proclamation, will "pardon" a turkey, which spares the bird's life and ensures that it will spend the duration of its life roaming freely on farmland.^[18]

Pumpkin pie is commonly served on and around Thanksgiving in North America.

Thanksgiving, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year.^[33]

For other celebrations around the world, see link to Wikipedia Page above.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_pie

Pumpkin pie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pumpkin pie is a traditional sweet dessert, often eaten during the fall and earlywinter, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States and Canada. The pumpkin is a symbol of harvest time and featured also at Halloween.

The pie consists of a pumpkin-based custard, ranging in color from orange to brown, baked in a single pie shell, rarely with a top crust. The pie is generally flavored withnutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.

This pie is often made from canned pumpkin or packaged pumpkin pie filling (spices included), usually from varieties of Cucurbita moschata.

Pumpkin pie
Dessert

Place of origin:
North America
Main ingredient(s):
Pie shell, pumpkin, eggs, condensed milk, sugar,nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Pumpkin pie
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Pumpkin pie

Preparation[edit]

Pumpkin pie filling being made

The traditional method for preparing a pumpkin pie involves the use of a "pie pumpkin" which is about six to eight inches in diameter,^[1] which is smaller than a "jack o'lantern" sized pumpkin. The pumpkin is sliced in half, and the seeds removed. The two halves are heated until soft. This was traditionally done either in an oven or over an open fire, but nowadays, stove tops and microwaves are frequently used. Sometimes the pumpkin halves are brined to soften the pulp, rather than cooked. At this point the pulp is scooped out and pureed in a blender, to ensure its consistency. The blended and cooked pulp's texture is comparable to that in a canned product.^{[citation needed]}

This pulp is then mixed with eggs, evaporated and/or sweetened condensed milk, sugar,nutmeg, and other spices (e.g., ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mace), then baked in a pie shell.^[1] Some recipes may also call for substitutes to be used, such as butternut squash instead of pumpkin.