Somehow I missed reading about the pie challenge at The Kitchn until about 9pm tonight. I’d been planning to roast my beautiful Cushaw pumpkin tonight, so why not throw together a pie? After a mad rush to roast, bake and blog by the stroke of midnight, I completed my entry form at 11:59pm on the dot … only to have my internet connection drop and return a few minutes later to the “error: the entry form is now closed” message. Nooo! Oh well, now that I have this pretty blog post prepared, hopefully you all will enjoy it even if it’s not a prize winner.

To complement my pumpkin, from our Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA in Virginia, I decided to keep it simple and use a few other quality, local ingredients, namely my South Mountain Creamery butter and Hilldale Farms organic eggs.

This summer I tried the Cooks Illustrated vodka pie crust, to rave reviews. It was perfectly light and flaky. This time, I made it with all (local, natural) butter since I generally prefer not to use shortening, and found the resulting dough a little less moist and easier to work with. It still requires chilling, though, before rolling it out, and I rolled it out between two pieces of plastic wrap to facilitate getting it off my cutting board and into the pie plate in one piece.

For the pumpkin puree, I split my pumpkin in half and roasted it cut sides down on parchment paper at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. This pumpkin is more yellow than your traditional pumpkin, but the cooked flesh was so luscious and creamy it barely needed blending. I used a hand blender just to smooth it out. I like my pumpkin pie custardy with a little creaminess, but instead of using condensed milk I used a little local yogurt instead.

Recipe: Rustic Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 9-inch pie crust (Cooks Illustrated, half the recipe)
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 organic eggs
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 cup plain, unsweetened whole milk yogurt

Instructions: Prepare pie crust and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together pumpkin puree and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk to combine. Stir in seasonings, then yogurt. Blend completely, then pour into prepared pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook until set, about 35-40 minutes more. Makes 8 servings.

Pour yourself a glass of fresh milk (ours was delivered this morning!), and enjoy the perfect midnight snack! Or, you know, save it for a holiday like a normal person. Either way, enjoy!

This is the first in a four-part series of FoodieTots Thanksgiving favorites - starting with dessert first, of course! Stay tuned for a few other turkey day recipes.

Today is the first day of the Eat Local Challenge*, which lasts the month of October. Despite my enthusiasm for the One Local Summer challenge, I hesitated a bit before deciding to join the ELC. It’s not that I don’t think we can eat entirely local, but more that I was wondering whether we really should. I’ve decided that we will give it a go, but not be overly dogmatic about it. And I hope to discover and share a few ways busy families can incorporate local foods into their menus without going to crazy extremes.

Our Eat Local Challenge goals for the month are to:

• Eat one local ingredient at every meal.
• Explore local sources/alternatives for seafood, snacks and sweets - the three “s” pitfalls.
• Extend the “buy local” enthusiasm beyond food.

As I was thinking about this post yesterday, I received an alert that DC’s oldest independent bookstore chain, Olsson’s, had abruptly gone out of business. They had recently closed my favorite location, one that (along with my favorite chef) helped revitalize a neighborhood of DC that I was told not to walk through after dark when I first moved here. Apparently they were unable to save the remaining locations in the bankruptcy proceedings. It’s a stark reminder of one of the reasons I started eating locally, which is to support our local economy, our local small and family businesses and farms. I love that we have the option, in our neighborhood, of shopping somewhere other than the Big Red Giant, and would like to keep it that way. I will be heading over to our new (!) children’s bookstore ASAP - and pledge to buy something in one of our neighborhood shops each week this month. (No, not gratuitous consumerism - I’ll be looking to get an early start on my holiday shopping.)

This month is also marked by Blog Action Day, October 15, when bloggers from around the world will blog on the topic of poverty. I launched FoodieTots on Blog Action Day last year, so you can bet we’re participating this time. Stay tuned for how.

Anyone else giving the Eat Local Challenge a try? Or here’s a starter challenge - will you buy one local ingredient each week? I’ll personally suggest a recipe or menu around your item if that helps - just shoot me an email at foodietots at gmail com! Happy eating, locally!