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I love pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and I will eat butternut squash right out of the rind once it's roasted. I bake pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie in autumn, not really for the holidays so much. I generally love squash. I once made pies from a squash in Peru just because it was a novelty. These squashes/gourds are so big it takes two people to carry one. It's important to remember that pies aren't just a desert - they are often the main course, filled with meats, vegetables, and spices. My family usually has pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we also get tired of traditional holiday foods. Frequently, for Thanksgiving or Christmas, we will decide to have something different at the table. Last year we had an incredible Italian dish that my father prepared for Christmas, and I smoked chicken and baby back ribs for Thanksgiving. It didn't change the spirit of the holidays at all for us. So, I guess the important thing is that you enjoy what you cook and eat during the holidays.

I was a vegetarian between the ages of 13 and 22. One night (about 2 months ago) I decided that I simply wanted a steak. Right there and then I went to a diner with my best friend and she watched me down a steak. It was incredible. Not only was that night amazing, but since then I have SO much more energy than I did before. For nine years I had issues with energy. It hit a climax last year when I literally could not stay awake at 2pm every day for months. That went away after I started to take insulin pills (I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at that ime), but I was still kind of low on energy, moody, depressive...

I swear eating meat has been my savior! I feel like a new woman! I literally feel like a completely different person. I have energy now! And I'm not as moody or depressive... wow, things are different! Plus I feel more like "me"... I never saw myself as the girl who'd eat a salad at a steakhouse while her date had a rare one. I saw myself as the down-to-earth-red-meat-eating chick even when I didn't eat meat for 9 years.

I love steak! I can't ever be a vegetarian again!

Why is this listed under Passover recipes??? It sounds delicious but has a graham cracker crust which is NOT for Passover. I have made Rose Bernbaum's cheesecake from the Cake Bible for years for Passover as it has no crust and can be made ahead and frozen.

mmm pumpkin pie is fabulous and should never be forgotten especially on thanksgiving! save the pumpkin pie! :)

I haven't swooned over pumpkin pie yet, but I sure do like it served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I want to swoon over it, though.

@Lippy: I must find that Beard pumpkin pie recipe with preserved ginger and brandy. I've got some Raynal V.S.O.P that needs a job.

I'd like to see one of those here and now! My local farmer's market is no longer getting fresh eggs due to "lack of refrigeration space" and I've been at a loss this week trying to track down a new place to get freshies.

*holds out 3 dollar bills and sobs*

Cheesecake is my favourite, except perhaps for carrot cake. This one looks delicious.

Jooree-You could make your own cream cheese http://vanielje.com/blog/2008/07/12/make-your-own-cream-cheese/

I never much liked meat or chicken or milk or eggs - even as a baby - but ate it reluctantly until about age 22 (I'm 43 now). I gave up fish a few years after that, when I got scared of contaminated water, overfishing, and mercury levels. I've been off and on dairy and eggs through the years, more of a digestive issue than a moral one. For the last few months I've been CRAVING sardines and salmon, and no vegetarian substitute or seaweed would do. I finally gave in and had some sardines and salmon the last 3 days and I FEEL WONDERFUL. I guess it pays to listen to your body as much as listen to the experts.

Thanks to all of the posters above for helping allay the fear that I'd get horribly sick in some way. I still doubt I'll eat meat or chicken, so you can have my serving of bacon....

I was a vegetarian for a while, maybe around 8 years, one of which was spent in India, where it is supereasy and superdelicious (if you love Indian, especially South Indian, food like I do) to be a vegetarian. A few years later, I moved to Brasil where it is a lot harder to be a vegetarian, but I lived in Liberdade (Asian neighborhood) in Sao Paulo, and with all the access to cool mushrooms, noodles, seaweeds, etc., I was pretty happy.

I remember reading that book "Eat Right for your Type" which theorizes that people with type A blook do better with a predominantly veg. diet and people with type O blood do better with a carnivorous diet, and perhaps there's some truth to that.

Later, I was taken to a Brazilian rodizio (meat until you can't no more) place here in NYC and all that beef was delish, although my stomach rebelled.

Since then, I still don't eat much meat - small portions and lots of vegetables. Eating meat in huge amounts seems to only perpetuate the dominant model of a few lucky people getting the lion's share of the world's resources, and the factory farming of animals to be eaten still continues to be inhumane and motivated solely by profits. Mad cow disease is still much more of a problem than the major media and the government will cop to. I'm careful where I get my meats from, and still ya never know.

I becamse a vegetarian for a while in high school, but it was really only to annoy my grandmother, who I was living with at the time. She only had 4 stock dinners that she rotated over and over every week: meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes; roast beef, salad, baked potatoes; broiled salmon, broccoli, roasted potatoes; and spaghetti. She liked her meat and potatoes. There's only so long one person can deal with that if they're more adventurous. So I went veg.

These days I still only really eat meat twice a week. I feel like the US has a serious meat overindulgance problem.

Kraft sells Neufchatel here as a lowfat alternative to cream cheese...and it's packaged exactly the same way (8 oz. bricks) so I would think it would work OK in France as well.

The culinarily adventurous might try unflavored goat cheese...?

@brooke29 - I'm so glad I'm not alone on the milk thing! It goes especially well with the hearty dishes of my childhood (pot roast, apple pie etc,) and hey! It does a body good!

Hi all -- Hope you've been cheesecaking. I know, RYNGSDL, you won't be doing cheesecake until you get the bacon-infused bourbon with maple syrup down...

Jooree, I know exactly what you're saying -- those Kiri squares are teensy. Kiri seems to be the substitute that's always given for American cream cheese in France. That, or neufchatel, which I've never tried. I've seen Kraft Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese in some of the French markets, but it's soooooooooooooo expensive. I wish I had another alternative for you, but I really can't think of one. "Desolee."