Autumn | Ксения Леонтьева

Third Week🎃...

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everybody!

Last week was Halloween, so I wanted to share with you a delicious pumpkin pie recipe.

INGREDIENTS

Pie Dough

1 2/3 Cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
2 Sticks Butter
2-3 Tbsp Ice Water

Pie Filling

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
2 Eggs
15 oz Canned Pumpkin Puree see notes
1 1/3 Cup Evaporated Milk see notes

INSTRUCTIONS

Pie Dough

Add the flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the bowl. Use clean dry hands to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles sand and the butter is no larger than the size of a pea. Spoon in the ice water and use a butter knife to combine the ingredients together. Pour the pie dough out onto the work top and form into a ball. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Roll the chilled pie dough out to 1/8" or 1/2 cm thick and place in a 8" or 20cm pie dish. Cut off the excess pastry and using your thumbs and finger pinch the edges of the dough. Place into the fridge until ready to use.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

In a clean bowl add the sugar, salt, spices and eggs. Whisk to combine until there are no longer any lumps.Add the pumpkin puree and evaporated milk and whisk until you are left with a smooth and creamy custard Remove the pie crust from the fridge and pour in the pumpkin pie filling. Place into a 230C / 450F oven on the bottom rack and immediately turn the the temperature down to 170C / 325F. Bake for about 50 minutes to one hour or until the center of the pie only slightly jiggles when shaken. Cool the pie completely at room temperature. Serve with a dollop of freshly whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

NOTES

If you are using homemade pumpkin puree, cut a pumpkin in half and bake face down for around 40 minutes at 200C or 400F until soft. Leave to cool before scooping out the flesh and blending. Squeeze out as much moisture as you can by wrapping the pureed pumpkin in a tea towel and squeezing. White sugar can be replaced with brown sugar for a more caramel flavour to the pumpkin pie. Evaporated milk can be replaced with cream or half and half.

Second Week...

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everybody!

This post is supposed to be a post about the past week, but since there is little new and interesting going on, I can just say that on Monday we had our first test on the Additional Chapters of Queuing Theory, and on Stochastic Processes we started presenting our essays. Everything else is the same. The weather in recent days has not been particularly encouraging, it is getting colder and it often rains, although I love them, I prefer summer ones with thunderstorms. Just last week, the Cantata store had discounts in honor of the company’s birthday, so I was able to purchase new portions of various delicious teas.

That’s probably all, so I wish everyone a good week and see you soon!

First Week...

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everybody!

Have you already felt all this autumn mood when you want to drink cocoa and watch different movies or read books? I love autumn for that. But since I am actively studying now, it is studying that takes most of the time. This week, for example, I did several laboratory works on Scientific Programming at once. I also watched several videos about neural networks (here and here), because my future dissertation work assumes the use of a neural network to determine the optimal strategy for the redistribution of resources in a 5G network.

But I have one piece of good news, because last weekend I finally picked up a book from the post office that my friend brought me straight from my beloved Paris. This is a mystical novel by a belgian singer - Loic Nottet, whom I have been listening to since his performance at Eurovision and I am very happy now that I have his book.

By the way, if you don’t know what to read these autumn evenings, then keep a selection of my favorite books:

Victor Hugo «Notre-Dame de Paris»
Erich Maria Remarque «Arch of Triumph» and «Three Comrades»
Ray Bradbury «Fahrenheit 451»
Veniamin Kaverin «The Two Captains»
Guillaume Musso «An Apartment in Paris»

Have a nice week everyone, bye!