Friends Thanksgiving

This past weekend our friends hosted a Friends Thanksgiving at their beautiful house outside of Carlisle.  It was a great idea and such a fun afternoon.  We got to see a bunch of our friends who we only see on special occasions so we got to catch up with everyone and enjoy their company.  I didn't get pictures from the party (I was too busy catching up) but I made two pumpkin pies and I will share them with you!  

 I just used the tried and true Libby's pumpkin pie recipe on the back of the can!

Always a winner!

Pre-baking.  I always struggle with making my pie crusts pretty.  Any suggestions?

 Since my crusts are oh so plain, I decided to pretty up the pies a little.  I picked up the leaf cookie-cutters at our local Kitchen Shoppe.  I'm sure that I will continue to use them year after year since these pies turned out so cute in my opinion.  For the letters, I decided to free hand them and see how they turned out.  I was pretty happy with the end result, especially because I do not consider myself artistic to any extent.  I had quite the fun afternoon creating in the kitchen. :)

::A couple tips:: 

Bake the leaves and letters on a cookie sheet - I put mine in after I turned the oven down to 350* and left them in until they were slightly browned.  Add them to the pies once the pies are out of the oven!  

If you have leftover pie crust, cut it up into small pieces, mix with cinnamon/sugar and bake it on the cookie sheet with the leaves and letters.  This makes a nice little snack while you're waiting for the pies to finish up! ;)

PS: Today is 11-12-13!!