butternut squash moonlighting as pumpkin

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!! As I look out the window at the sun and my neighbours laundry drying in the wind I can't believe that it is already thanksgiving! It doesn't feel like thanksgiving...heck it doesn't even feel like fall this weekend...not to mention the fact that tomorrow I will be at work while my Canadian family and friends are waking up with turkey hangovers and getting psyched up for round two...it isn't thanksgiving here in the UK, but I am trying my hardest to make it happen!

Luckily...as an excuse...it is David's birthday tomorrow...so we are having a small family lunch today to celebrate.  I have to be careful to call it David's birthday around him...but secretly it Thanksgiving lunch...tee hee! I set the menu ages ago and set myself the task of finding canned pumpkin to make the piece de resistance... PUMPKIN PIE!! So...do you think for the life of me I could find canned pumpkin? There are a few places I knew I would be able to get it...one was sold out and the other was impossible to get to with tube strikes and late nights and everything...

Having conceded that canned pumpkin was not going to magically appear on my local supermarket's shelves overnight I searched around for some recipes using fresh (gak!) pumpkin puree...finding one that seemed simple enough I was then faced with the problem of finding a pumpkin...oh for flippin pilgrim's sake! Short of stealing one from a neighbouring plot in the allotment I was pumkinless and feeling the thanksgiving blues.  Luckily...butternut squash is a fantastic substitute for pumpkin and...while not as vibrantly orange it still produces the same texture when pureed. 

So once roasted and pureed I was ready to go...