Halloween : All Roads Lead to Calabasas

Last Saturday, a young girl entered in a pie-eating contest suddenly realized with a dreadful certainty that it was a contest for eating pumpkin pie. “I hate pumpkin pie,” she said firmly, and withdrew.

She may well have been the only person at the Calabasas Days Pumpkin Festival who felt that way. A two-day total of more than 30,000 people attended the weekend event at Paramount Ranch in Agoura, the old home of the Renaissance Faire. Sunday drew such as crowd that police had to be stationed at the entrances to turn pumpkin fanciers back.

A complete sell-out; pretty good for a festival that’s only in its second year. The secret might be not only the attractions of a particular orange-colored seasonal squash--the city of Calabasas derives its name from the Spanish word for pumpkins --but the uncompromisingly non-slick, small-town, family-oriented nature of Calabasas Days.

In addition to the pie-eating contests, in which 130 pies donated by Koko’s Restaurants were demolished, there was pumpkin bowling in both children’s and adult divisions and a pumpkin seed-spitting contest. (The record for distance is Terry Hudson’s 34.5 feet, but the Ptooey Award, which combines accuracy with distance events, went to women both days: Debbi Babuccio on Saturday and Michelle Dotson on Sunday. On Saturday, third place went to a 12-year-old Finnish girl who spoke no English.) Needless to say, there were also a lot of food stalls, Old West entertainments and country bands.

In related events held the weekend before in Calabasas itself, there had been a pumpkin wheelbarrow obstacle race, a pumpkin weigh-in and a pumpkin bake-off, which ran heavily to pies, of course, but included breads, puddings, a soup and even pumpkin ravioli. Calabasas waxed Agoura in the wheelbarrow race, the winning pumpkin weighed 189 pounds and the first place recipe was Pat Alexander’s spectacular Bourbon-Pumpkin pie.

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If the little pie-eating contest entrant had tasted this, she might have thought twice about withdrawing. On the other hand, even a major-league pie-eater would have a hard time eating more than one pie of such startling richness.

BOURBON-PUMPKIN PIE

2 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

6 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed

6 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed

Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Nutmeg

1 cup half and half

1/4 cup bourbon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie crust

Nut Topping

Mix pumpkin, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, dash nutmeg, half and half, bourbon and eggs in bowl. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 425 degrees 15 minutes, then reduce to 350 degrees and bake 40 to 45 minutes more.

Remove from oven. Spoon Nut Topping over pie and place under hot broiler 3 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Nut Topping

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup walnuts or pecans, broken into pieces

In skillet over low heat melt butter. Add brown sugar and nuts. Saute until sugar caramelizes. While still hot, spoon topping over pie.