Ode to Thanksgiving – Pumpkin Pie Dip

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; Barry’s too. It’s a nice, relaxed day when you just sit back, eat until you think you might have to go to the emergency room, and watch football. I’m not really a football watcher, but I do look forward to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But we’re looking forward to buying tickets for Liverpool FC matches so we can watch the games live. So, in honor of my favorite holiday, we’ll dedicate this week to Thanksgiving. I’ll cover an appetizer (today), a side dish, a bread, a dessert, a centerpiece, and place cards. What fun! Have some fun with me….and you might want to look into renting a dolly.

I knew this recipe was a winner when my brother-in-law enjoyed it. Let me just take a minute and tell you about Brian – usually when I cook something and I ask him if he wants some he says, “maybe later.” That’s code for, “not ever gonna happen.”When I made this the first time he was eating and eating it…….and he LOVED it! We’re talking about a man who won’t eat anything unless it also includes ketchup and/or cheese. We were all chowing down on it before the main meal. When the meal came, I was full of dip. Oops. To make this, you’ll need pumpkin puree (go here to read how to make your own), powdered sugar, cream cheese, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, ginger, and cookies. You can tell it’s for Thanksgiving just by the ingredients!

You’ll need your cream cheese to be a little soft. I stuck mine in the microwave for about 20 seconds to soften it up……make sure you take it out of the wrapper first. It is NOT microwave friendly. Don’t ask how I know that. Add your powdered sugar and beat the mixture until it’s smooth with no little lumps.

Oh, by the way this recipe makes a big mess. Most of the time my kitchen is covered by a thin layer of powdered sugar. I like to imagine it’s snow and move on with my day.

Add the pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and vanilla. Mix well. It’s going to look pretty and speckledy. Did you know that speckledy is not a word? Who cares. I like it.

I added some pumpkin from my freezer stash, but if you don’t have any you can just use one can of pumpkin puree…..NOT pumpkin pie mix.

I noticed that mine was a little runny this time. So, I covered it with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge for a bit to see if it would thicken up. Normally that wouldn’t bother me because we just eat it out of the bowl…..without double dipping! Ew! But this was for a Coupon Workshop event, so I didn’t want it running all over everyone’s plate. That wouldn’t be very pretty. Tasty, yes. Pretty, no.

After a few hours, it was still too thin for me. Guess what? It’s an EASY fix!

I added more powdered sugar. Do you know I had to add about 4 more cups? Good grief! My mentor, Lori, told me what I did wrong with this batch. When you freeze pumpkin puree, it gets a tad bit watery, so you have to let it drain a little bit before you use it….in a colander with really teeny, tiny holes. Oops. My mistake keeps you from looking like a doofus. I don’t mind to take one for the team.

See! All better. It’s thick enough for me now. If yours is too thin, just add powdered sugar until you’re pleased with the consistency. But, if you’re just going to dip out of the bowl, it wouldn’t’ matter if it was a tad bit runny. This batch is sweeter than usual, but it still tastes yummy. I prefer it less sweet, but this batch will NOT go to waste.

Pour it into a pretty bowl and cover. You’ll want to refrigerate it a bit so it can let the flavors blend. Could be that this will get really thick overnight and I’ll be cutting my dip out. Ha, ha! If it does happen, I can just beat it again and thin it with some milk.

You can serve this with vanilla wafers like me or with cut up fruit. It’s also tasty with gingersnaps or graham crackers. This makes a pretty big batch. Especially if you have to add 4 cups of sugar. I was happy with that because now I have some for the workshop AND some for Thanksgiving Day. I killed two birds with one bean…..or something like that. So, learn from my mistake and use canned pumpkin for this recipe…..don’t be a doofus.