I hope you have a relaxing weekend planned? We certainly do as the last three weeks have been really quite stressful for us due to all the building work we are having done, and the constant mess and chores resulting from it. On Friday, we were supposed to have our living room plastered, which we were looking forward to being done as that was the last task to be done this side of Xmas before we can move on with a proper clean-up and redecorate. Unfortunately, a Victorian house always throws one kind of curve ball or another. Once we ripped out the original skirting, which after 120 years has seen better days, we exposed a serious crack in the masonry wall behind it.
As the wall behind a skirting board that old is never really going to look ‘pretty’, I didn’t even notice there was a crack until my builder pointed it out. I really appreciated him bringing it to my attention and offering to fill it, as he could have just asked the plasterer to plaster over it and then just ignore my calls when the wall inevitably cracked at some point. He really came through for us in the end. He reckons that the crack was caused by either an old or an ongoing leak in that area of the house, which also explains the massively saggy floorboards. What a pickle!! I really fear what our floor restoration expert will find when he lifts the floorboards in January. As he is a very busy man, all we can do is wait and hope that the leak isn’t a live one and a few new joists will resolve the situation. I do hope so! Man, Victorian houses do keep you on your toes, don’t they? So as I am aware that a lot of you are probably anxiously prepping for Thanksgiving I’ve decided to do my own take on a Thanksgiving classic – pumpkin pie. While not being American and not having grown up in the pumpkin pie eating tradition, I am no expert, but I am really pleased with the taste and texture of what came out of the oven. The pastry is deliciously light and flaky and the filling rich, custardy and fragrant of spices. It’s such an autumn treat, I can totally see why it’s so popular! As the traditional pie of this type uses eggs to get that set custard quality, I’ve used silken tofu as it sets beautifully when baked, giving the pie that custard-like texture and its flavour isn’t detectable at all so don’t worry.
360 ml / 1½ cups pumpkin puree 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp smooth almond butter 150 g / 5.3 oz firm silken tofu (I used Clearspring) 180 ml / ¾ cup maple syrup 2 tbsp tapioca starch (or cornstarch) 1¼ tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1/3 tsp ground nutmeg 1/8 tsp ground cloves or all spice 1 tsp vanilla extract ¼ tsp sea salt
DECORATION
thick dairy-free yoghurt or whipped coconut cream chopped pecans cinnamon
ASSEMBLY
