Punkin'

Last weekend my mom took Tyler and me down to Circleville for the 100th annual Pumpkin Festival. It was fun ... However, if I never eat another piece of pumpkin bread, donut, brownie, pretzel, funnel cake, fudge, elephant ear (and the list goes on and on :P), that would probably be okay with me ...

Anyways, on the way back up we stopped at a pumpkin patch that we spotted on the way down to Circleville. None of us had been to one in a long time. We had fun. We picked out pumpkins. We could have as many as one person could carry in his arms for $20. (Good thing that Tyler was with us!) We left with 6 pumpkins (3 of med/lg to large size and 3 that were too cute to leave behind - pic of smaller 3 below ... more to come on the larger 3).



They sat on the deck all lonely and sad looking ... and it made me sad to see them out there all alone and cold and neglected everyday. Not really fulfilling their purpose in life ...

Until tonight!



Aren't they fun? I personally LOVE the spider!!!! :) (And, they were actually rather easy to carve out ... much more so than I expected!)

And ... there are even pumpkin seeds soaking now so that they can be dried and baked in the morning! What a lovely and festive seasonal snack! (A slight contradiction to my earlier statement, I know.)

Adventures in the Kitchen

I've had a bigger food budget to work with recently ... and significantly more time on my hands ...

So I've been playing with new recipes ...

Two nights ago we had:

Zuppa Toscana!



And it was de-lish!! :) One pot, less than one dozen ingredients, and just over one hour ... and voila! Olive Garden at home. It was good stuff too ... super secret recipe here.

I would also like to remind my readers that, despite my young age, I am a bit of an expert baker. (Perhaps the few too many pounds I carry are testament to that ... :P) However, one thing has always scared me ...




Pies. Why? Simple. While I've been known to take what I consider the easy way out (baking with a box mix) on more than one occasion, I prefer to bake from scratch. In my world, the best brownies come from bakers chocolate and sugar, not a Betty Crocker box and cookies ALWAYS start with butter, eggs, and sugar. But I do stand firm on the fact that I don't use an easy way out if I can't make a better version from scratch. Hense, pie crusts struck fear deep in my baker's soul ...

*Flashback* My Gammy (dad's mom) makes the most INCREDIBLE pies. As an engagement present she gave me the recipe to my most favorite of her creations ... and in 5 years I haven't even attempted it because I just knew that I could NEVER make a pie crust. *End Flashback*

Last night I had planned to make a Toll-House Pie for dessert. I had surrendered to using a pre-made crust, even though I knew I couldn't make my own. We had some frozen crusts that someone gave us quite a while ago ... it was supposed to be fast and convenient ... Anyway, I took the crusts out of the freezer and discovered that there was mold on them ... EWW! So, (after a frantic side trip into the world of cleaning and sanitizing everything in sight) I made a decision. The filling was already in process and I was NOT going to waste perfectly good cookie-esque pie filling. So, I gave in. I went looking for my Gammy's pie crust recipe. Silly me figured it was included in the recipe she gave me 5 years ago. Nope. The recipe says "Pour filling into pie crust." No mention of how to get that crust. Just that it magically appears. Great. Now what?

Ahh ... recipezaar. Enter search for "quick pie crust" ... and voila!

My pie crust was light and flaky, buttery but not greasy ... really good for my first ever pie crust. And now ... I feel almost unstopable in the kitchen ... well ... at least in baking. Cooking is more of Tyler's area of expertise ... but perhaps with more time on my hands these days I can claim back that one too ...