AMA Pumpkin Pie

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Tom@Acescruising

October 29, 2023

AMA Pumpkin Pie

The orange glow of pumpkins is often pictured hand in hand with the warm colors of autumn, falling leaves, and the arrival of the holidays. However, this seasonal staple has a deeper history and used to be savored all year round. As early as 5,500 B.C., people throughout South America, Mexico, and the eastern United States cultivated this crop. The earliest explorers recognized the pumpkin’s sweet flavor and brought it back to Europe, where the first pumpkin pie was created and made its cookbook debut in 1675.

Enjoy this treasured holiday recipe with your loved ones in your home – or perhaps on board with us on a Thanksgiving river cruise journey!

Serves 8 People

Ingredients

Pastry Crust

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter, cubed
2–3 tablespoons cold water
Pie Filling (about 10 ounces of double cream)

1lb prepared pumpkin flesh, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large eggs, plus 1 additional yolk
5 ½ tablespoons soft dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Preparation

Pastry Crust

Step 1. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.

Step 2. Use a pastry cutter or your hands to massage the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that the mixture does not become greasy.

Step 3. Using a table knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together. You should always start with 1-2 tablespoons and add more if needed.

Step 4. Gently knead the pastry on a clean work surface until it comes together. Handle the pastry gently and as little as possible – just enough to bring it together to a smooth dough.

Alternatively: Put the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour. With the motor running, gradually add the water through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough water to bind it and then stop.
Pie Filling

Step 1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.

If using a store-bought sweet crust pastry crust: Use one that is 9 inches in diameter and 1 ½ inches deep. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 9-inch pie plate. Bake the pastry crust blind for 20 minutes.
Step 2. To make the filling, place the pumpkin chunks on a baking tray, cover with foil, and roast until tender. This will take about 20-30 minutes, depending on your pumpkin. Press the cooked pumpkin in a coarse sieve and extract any excess water. Set aside to cool before blending in a food processor to a pureé.

Step 3. Lightly whisk the eggs and extra yolk together in a large bowl.

Step 4. Place the sugar, spices, and the cream in a pan, bring to simmering point, giving it a whisk to mix everything together. Pour the mixture over the eggs and whisk it again briefly. Afterward, add the pumpkin pureé, still whisking to combine everything thoroughly.

Step 5. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Pour the filling into your pastry crust and bake for 35-40 minutes, when it puffs up around the edges but still feels slightly wobbly in the center.

Step 6. Remove the pie from the oven and place the tin on a wire cooling rack. Serve warm or chilled, with some chilled whipped cream.

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Pre Japan Trip

Itinerary I wrote before leaving

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I WROTE THIS BEFORE I LEFT

I always put together a pre trip itinerary for those who would like to review my travels.

Here is my trip starting Sept 26, 2025. Seattle to Japan through Asia.

Sept 26 - Flight from MCO to SEA. Staying at the W hotel near downtown Seattle. In the afternoon, Boating around Lake Washington.

Sept 27 - Nothing scheduled until later in the day, Mariners V Dodgers.

Sept 28 - Boarding the Westerdam at the Seattle port heading North to Alaska

Sept 30 - Juneau, Alaska. Bike RIde with beer tasting. Holland America excursion starting at 2p

Oct 1-8 - AT SEA (Office hours)

Oct 9 - Kushiro, Japan. (No activity Scheduled as of now.)

Oct 10 - Aomori, Japan. Walking tour booked via VIATOR

Oct 12 - Arrive in Tokyo, Check in at the Gracery hotel in Shinjuku

Oct 12-17 - Tokyo Sightseeing. No official agenda: On the dockett: Baseball game, good food, bike ride, bar hopping, temple bowing, onsen soaking.

- Oct 12 - Tour with Maru starting at 1. (3 hours) Perfect beer lab at 6:30 res for 6.)

- Oct 13 10am Biking with EDO museum, (coffee time with guests at hotel between) Private guided starting around 7pm with Alina

Oct 14 -

Oct 15 -

Oct 16 -

Oct 17 - Check out of hotel, transfer to Celebrity Millenium in Yokohama.

Oct 18 - Mt. FUji tour

Oct 19-20 Overnight in Osaka. First day is Kyoto private full day tour, second day is a bike ride around Osaka.

Oct 21 - Kochi - Private tour Shore Ex group

Oct 22 - Hiroshima Bike ride around the city

Oct 23 - At sea

Oct 24 Busan, South Korea. Private Guided tour

Oct 26 - Hakodate - Private guided

Oct 27 - Aomori - Private

Oct 29 - First cruise ends. Second cruise to Singapore begins, Same ship.

Oct 31 - Kagoshima. I have a tour with the cruise line to visit a hot spring with a sand bath.

Nov 2 - Taiwan - Cruise line tour small group Taiwan

Nov 4-5 - Overnight Hong Kong. private tour I found on tours by locals taking me to Macau. The next day I took a cruise line excursion to Lantau village.

Nov 7 - Chan Muy Vietnam - Ba Na hills and Golden Bridge with Celebrity

Nov 9 - Ho CHi Min city - Bike ride with Celebrity

Nov. 12-15 - Singapore

Nov 12 - 9am pick up at ship from Mozio services

Nov 12 - Tours by locals Food and sights walking tour 12:30PM

Nov 12 9am Pick up from cruise ship and we will all be dropped off at our hotels shortly after.

Nov 12 continued 12:30 Meet our guide for the food and walking tour. 56 Arab Street. There is a cafe called "% Arabica

Nov 12 Cont: 7pm Pub Crawl

Nov 13 - 8:30 am Historical Biking

Nov 13 - 2pm Biking tour with food and beverage

Nov 13 6pm - Street food walking tour

Nov 14 - 9am - Batam (Indonesia) day tour (return around 10pm)

Nov 15 - 5am - Sightseeing Day Trip to Johor Bahru Return around 3pm

Nov 15 4pm Airport

Nov 15 - 9pm flight.

Read full Article

Tom@Acescruising

August 14, 2025

Backroads 2024

Biking the Danube

Acescruising

In July of 2024 I did a 7 night tour with Backroads adventure travel. Here is a review and breakdown of that adventure!

Here are some pictures from the trip: Backroads 2024

For those of you not familiar, Backroads tours is a luxury adventure travel company that offers worldwide biking, hiking, adventure tours that incorporate top notch hotels and river cruises. In this instance, we were on AMA Waterways, the AMASonata.

To begin this trip, I took a private tour from Berlin with a stop in Dresden on the way to Prague. This took around 4.5 hours. You could also take the train or fly.

Once in Prague I checked into my hotel, Hotel Klarav a great hotel near Prague Castle. I always recommend this hotel first to people staying in Prague.

I stayed three nights in Prague, it ended up being one of my favorite cities in the world. Absolutely fantastic. While in Prague, I did a city tour on bike that included the Charles Bridge, Old town square with Tyn and St. Nicholas Churches. after riding around and seeing the sights, I met up with some of the other Backroads people to enjoy a local restaurant. The next day, a group of us did a walking tour that included Prague Castle! Ask me about Prague! Its full of adventure.

The first day of the Backroads trip departed the hotel first thing in the Morning. The bus ride was about 90 minutes, we arrived at Tittling, Germany around noon. Backroads had a beautiful lunch set up for us while they discussed safety and biking. After 26 miles of biking, we reached the ship in Vilshofen!

This was primarily a backroads biking adventure, so, you pay for that experience. You can do as much or as little as you want however, and take advantage of the river cruise experience as well.

I biked every single day besides one, we went to the castle in Cesky Krumlov instead. Cesky is a really cool place with a lot of history dating back to 30000 BC!

The most interesting ride was probably between Weirkirchen and Melk, the guide warned us the hill was steep, he wasnt lying! About 30 minutes riding up hill. Once to the top, amazing views of the valley and a great downhill to Melk.

Here was the entire itinerary of the river cruise.

Vilshofen

Passau

Linz (Salzberg)

Weissenkirchen (Austria)

Vienna

Bratislava (one of my favorite cities!)

Budapest

The rest of the trip was bike rides, world war two sites and history with a lot of Daube river valley in between.

Look for an acescruising.com hosted trip with backroads in 2026!

Would you ever do a biking vacation?

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Tom@Acescruising

May 11, 2025

A journey through Greece to Turkey

May 2025 trip itinerary

Acescruising

On May 19, I will start to make my way to Greece from Florida. Many have been asking me about my day to day, so, Here is a nice layout.

The trip will be a working vacation as I am hosting an Explora Journeys cruise for Signature travel network.

Flying from Orlando saved me about $1000 on the flight, so, I will take Amtrak from Jacksonville (about $40) to the train station near MCO. Ill stay at an airport hotel and just relax before my flight on the 20th.

I have a dual layover flight on Condor air (german operated airplane) with stops in Toronto and Frankfurt before arrival in Athens on the 21st at around 3pm.

I decided it was best to get a private car from ATH to the city center, the ride is about 45 minutes or so. That cost around $85. You can also take a regular taxi for around $70 or the train starts at $15.

From the 21st to the 24th I will stay at a hotel in Athens called The Stanley, which I have booked for guests in the past with good review and feedback. I will have a full review of the hotel upon my return.

I decided to book a night tour dining and walking tour, which should be a great way to refresh my my memory of Athens, as I have not been since 2017.

Lets rundown a quick day by day pre cruise schedule:

May 21 - Transport to Hotel, Evening food tour.

May 22 - City bike ride in the early afternoon and a food and wine tour at 5:30p.

May 23 - Yacht Tour. This is a 10 hour yachting tour with lunch and drinks with stops at Agstri and Moni (swimming and relaxing)

May 24 - Boarding day. In the morning I will do a walking tour with the Acropolis and museums. Around 3pm, I will board the ship and prepare for my welcome party that evening abord the beautiful Explora I.

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May 25 - mykonos. In the Day I will do a Catamaran with Project Expedition excursion providers. That evening, I will visit a Greek farm.

May 26 - Patmos. Im doing an excursion with Explora called "The Spirit of Patmos" (Cave of St. John, Monastery and a Greek show.

May 27 - Volos. Hiking and photography with Explora.

May 28 - Thessaloniki - Tombs and Relic tour with Explora

May 29 - Kavala- Historical tour with Explora

May 30 - Much needed at Sea rest day.

May 31 - Disembark in Istanbul.

Istantbul -

May 31- June 3. - Check into the Ritus hotel in central Istanbul.

May 31 - I have a full day. after dropping my bags off, I will do a tour with Viator that will include lunch and a ferry ride to the asian side of the country. That evening, I have a small group walking tour with Viator that includes rooftop dining and views.

June 1 - Im doing a full day tour of all the main sights in Istanbul (Blue Mosque ect) that will last around 8 hours with viator. After that, I am visiting a Turkish traditional spa with Viator.

June 2 - Bosphorus Yacht Cruise with Asian Side that I booked with Shore excursions Group and then a traditional dinner show that I booked with Viator.

on June 3, I fly back to Jacksonville and 7am.

Feel free to post or ask any questions!

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