Pumpkin Pie Part 2: Success!

If you haven't yet, read Pumpkin Pie Part 1 first :)

On Friday, Mika came to stay the weekend, something I had been looking forward to for weeks. When I first asked to invite her, my host mom realized that it would be Thanksgiving weekend (because her daughter is in the U.S.), and said we must have a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with Mika. That was why I originally wanted to make the (disastrous) pie on Wednesday.

When Mika arrived on Friday, I had to explain why we would not be eating pumpkin pie the next day. She laughed at my pie fiasco story, and we decided we would think of something else to make. We were going to go out that night, but Mika had a really bad cold (okay, that’s an understatement…she looked like she was about to die) so we decided just to stay home and look up recipes. We decided on chocolate chip cookies, and also found recipes for mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce for our “Thanksgiving dinner” the next day.


Mika and I in my room

After breakfast on Saturday, we went to this little grocery store by my house to get the ingredients. When I got the ingredients for the pumpkin pie on Wednesday, I went to a huge grocery store in Valencia, because I figured it was sure to have everything. However, while walking around in this tiny hole-in-the-wall grocery store in my neighborhood I spotted….a pie crust!! There was still a ton of pumpkin left from the original pie attempt so I decided it was fate: we had to attempt the pumpkin pie again. Then we went looking for cream and I found…sweetened condensed milk!! Yes!

When we got home and told my host mom we were going to attempt the pie again she was (understandably) reluctant. But I had a good feeling it was going to work out this time. We converted the recipe to grams and milliliters and measured everything perfectly. Then we waited to bake it because everyone started showing up to eat.


the pie before putting it in the oven

the cooks!

In the end, we didn’t make the stuffing, mashed potatoes, or anything else, because everyone brought a ton of food. Apparently my host mom went all out in making sure I had a Thanksgiving dinner this year, which was incredibly sweet of her. My host dad’s mom and brother came as well (with baby Julia! She is such a cutie!), so in the end there were nine of us. We didn’t have turkey, but we had chicken, which was just fine. It was even stuffed with something (when I say “something” I mean I really have no idea what it was…).

It was a wonderful meal, even though poor Mika was feeling really sick at that point. My host dad’s brother is a doctor, though, so he gave her some medicine. He promised it would have no side affects other than making her hair fall out and making her speak fluent Spanish. I told him I wanted some as well.


What a cutie!

The food

Everyone at the table (minus Paula, who's taking the picture)

My host dad cutting the chicken

Mika and I decided to go out that night, and just before we left, the pie had cooled and we all tried it. Success!! It was perfect, and everyone loved it. My host mom even asked if she could take some to work to share with her friends. Yes! We were very proud of ourselves.


Success!!

Our night out was rather uneventful due to the fact that it was absolutely pouring, but it was fun nonetheless. We got back early, around 2:30am (early for Spain, that is), and went to bed. The next day we walked around the city a bit and took pictures, and then I took Mika to the bus station. It was sad to see her go; we have so much fun together. But we’re going to our beach apartment for Christmas, so we'll see each other soon.


Under the umbrella on Saturday night

On a random street in Valencia


Well, that’s all for now. Besitos!