Pumpkin Pie Bars

I've never had to work so hard to have pumpkin pie before in my life! I'm starting to think that God is saying, "Don't eat pumpkin pie Nichole!" When we were living in Jacksonville sometime in the end of August or the beginning of September I was craving a pumpkin pie. I was searching stores to find a can of pumpkin with no luck! I seriously went to probably 6 different grocery stores and each one of them had a space for pumpkin, but none! I asked Kaan one night, "Who is the f*@cker who is buying all the pumpkin in this city!" I asked the stock boys at Publix and they told me that they only stock pumpkin at Thanksgiving. I told them I thought that was a crap idea (ok I didn't use those exact words, but I wanted to) and that I was from Nebraska where we have pumpkin on the shelf year round. The stock manager informed me that there was some problem with the pumpkin farms last year, too much rain or something, and so there was a major shortage. That explanation I don't like, but I can accept. I finally had to resort to a pie from the bakery at Publix that wasn't bad, but not the same.

Now, here I am in Turkey and Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I want a pumpkin pie. Of course, we have no canned pumpkin, but we have fresh ones. (They don't look the same in the terms of they are not the type that you could carve but they do taste good!) My mother-in-law went to the pazar, where they usually have pumpkin this time of year, but they had none. Yesterday I was searching for a turkey, that's another story for another day, but found pumpkin. So, this morning I cooked my pumpkin and made puree. I was looking for recipes for a pie when I realized I have no pie pan currently as my 2 are in the US packed up and ready to come in our container. I refuse to go and buy another pie pan when I already have 2, and really, who needs 3??? So, I started looking for another recipe. I remember my mom making pumpkin pie bars and the pumpkin consistency is the same as a pie, so yeah!!! Oh, wait....shit, no sweetened condensed milk! Ok, no evaporated milk for that matter either, but all you have to substitute is some cream, which I bought yesterday. Ok, so how do you substitute sweetened condensed milk? You need some suger, some water, and some dry milk powder. No, dry milk powder...hmmmm, so let's try some sugar and some milk, cooked and cooled until thickened...yes, you are a genius Nichole. It's no wonder you have a Master's Degree!

So, after much tribulation, here are the pumpkin pie bars that I made. They taste pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Oh, and for future info, I will be purchasing a large amount of pumpkin in the next few weeks and making puree to freeze so if I get a craving next summer I won't have to suffer!