Home Cooked Pumpkin Puree

Home cooking your pumpkin at home can be a great alternative to buying canned pumpkin from the grocery store.  It can be substituted in any recipe calling for canned pumpkin, and gives recipes a fresher taste.  Its all a matter of opinion, but I think home cooked pumpkin makes everything taste better!  You can freeze the puree and store it for use later also, and its super easy.  

Ingredients:

Sugar pumpkins (2 sugar pumpkins generally fit on a cookie sheet once cut in halves)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Cut the pumpkin in half, stem to base. Remove seeds and pulp. Place face down on a roasting pan.  Fill pan with a small layer of water.
3. Bake in the preheated oven 1 hour, or until tender.
4. Scrape pumpkin meat from shell halves and puree in a blender. Strain to remove any remaining stringy pieces. Store in the freezer in freezer safe bags if desired.

Weekend

Ahhh what an amazing weekend I had!! This post will have absolutely nothing to do with cooking, but I felt like sharing how great my weekend was.  First, I took a girls trip with my friend Noelle on Friday to Julian, the land of pretty trees and apple pie. Loveeee it! We saw horses and donkeys and wild turkeys and the camel farm on the way, browsed the cute little shops, enjoyed the scenery, and stuffed our faces with freshly baked Julian apple pie.  Yum!! Its so nice to have a little girls day every once in a while!  We found the cutest little used bookstore and were in awe of the beauty of Julian in the fall.  Of course, our trip ended with BLASTING Celine Dion on the car ride home-- ahh, a perfect day!


Then, Saturday morning Kev and I took off to LA for the day, where we met up with Brandon and Cayla and embarked on a crazy, psychotic, frightening, beautiful hike in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena.  This place was off the charts BEAUTIFUL!

 We hiked up the mountain until we reached a gorgeous 35 foot waterfall, a sort of "natural water slide" that we slid off of!! It was so fun, but a little terrifying.  The water was FREEZING, so right when you hit it you lost your breath completely.  I ended up thinking I was drowning because of how badly my lungs hurt and my inability to catch my breath while in the freezing cold water.  I thought I was swimming to shore, but my arms actually weren't moving! I just froze.  It was such a scary feeling! Kev ended up having to get back in the freezing water (he had already done the slide twice and was all dried off) and come save me.. yikes! It was a complete rush. Definitely something I didn't really believe I was going to do until I found myself sitting on the top of the waterfall and pushing myself off of it. Its a beautiful hike though, that I will definitely do again sometime! (Pictures and video of our trip to come)

After our hike, Kevin had a horrible headache (we are pretty sure he got a concussion from the waterslide) so we rested a while until he felt better, and then headed to Pasadena to get a bite to eat with Brandon and Cayla. We ended up eating at a cute little pizza place called Bella's gourmet pizza (I think?) and spending the rest of the evening browsing around cute little Pasadena.  Unfortunately, I let myself go into Pottery Barn-- Dang it, I want everything in there!!!! After dinner, we said our goodbyes to Brando and Cayla and went to meet one of my best friends in the world, Kate, at her hotel in Pasadena.  (She lives in Oregon and was in town for a football game)  It was so fun to see her and her sister in law Lydia.  I love them!  Kate is one of those friends who I can go months without seeing (and unfortunately often have to due to the long distance) but we always pick up right where we left off. She is such a great friend, I only wish I could have spent more time with her this time!  Hopefully Kev and I will make a trip up to Corvallis soon to visit :)  


Ahh, as if all of that wasn't enough, on Sunday the Schwartzel's came over to me and my mom's apartment for dinner.  We had yummy grilled quesadillas (with chicken, monterey jack cheese, blue cheese, cilantro, grilled onions, black beans.. yum!) as well as plenty of side dishes (jalepeno popper dip, corn souffle, spanish rice, etc.) and some bread pudding for dessert.  It was so fun to have them over.  What a great family they are, I am truly blessed to know them.  What fun I had!  It is so nice to spend time with Family and friends that feel like family.. I love you all!


Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!

Lickin' the Bowl

Does anyone else's bowl look like this after making a batch of cupcakes?? Or, for that matter pretty much any type of delicious baked good involving a batter of some sort? A little gross, I know, but once the batter is successfully in the oven, I can't seem to help myself from turning into a 6 year old again and just goin' at it.  If you're a serial bowl licker like me, you may appreciate this tip.  I just made my mom's famous pumpkin muffins for the first time (its technically a cupcake recipe, but they are so delish we have always eaten them frosting-less and called them muffins.)  Anyway, today I plan to make them as cupcakes, just for the beauty factor (and to give it a try.. a little bit of frosting makes everything better!) and I discovered that this is hands down the yummiest batter I have ever come across!  I'll post the recipe for the finished product of these a little bit later!

In other news, this is a very exciting day of cooking for me! First of all, my sourdough starter is READY after only 2 days and one feeding!  What an advanced little baby he is! He is headed to the fridge where he'll wait for me to use him in sourdough bread!  

Secondly, I have all the ingredients I need to make Chevre (goat cheese) and will serve it on mini toasts tonight with dinner.  I've never made cheese before, so needless to say I am EXCITED! We went out to dinner last night for Sushi, which was delicious, but lately even one day away from the kitchen makes me miss it.  In fact, when we got home I made a simple desert- raspberries with fresh whipped cream.  Truly, I am starting to respect Kevin more, whose hobbies include playing golf, playing xbox and riding dirt bikes in the desert (well, the last one he usually only does once a year, but he did just get a dirt bike of his own! I hope he gets a chance to ride it more often. )  Poor guy doesn't get to do any of those things nearly as much as I get to indulge in my hobby!  In fact, I'm pretty sure not many people do.  So blessed I am! Thank you Lord for giving me the wonderful life I have!  Enough for now, my pumpkin cupcakes are ready to come out of the oven.. time to make some frosting! Have a Blessed day everyone! 

I NEEEED

So recently I have been going through a SERIOUS apron obsession.  I mean, I've always loved aprons (one of my favorite gifts I've ever received was from my Meme a few Christmases ago-- 3 homemade aprons and a variety of kitchen goodies.) But lately, since I've been cooking so much everyday (thank you unemployment! ) I'm especially craving some new, cute aprons.  These are some of my favorites from Anthro, but since they run about 30 bucks a pop, I'm definitely considering getting some apron patters and cute fabric and busting out my sewing machine! Ahhhh I loveeee.







Soure: Anthropologie

Tea Party Time!

So my beautiful sister got married a couple weeks ago, and this summer my mom and I had the privilege of throwing her a bridal shower!  Being the girly girls that we are, of course we decided on a vintage tea party theme. We had SO much fun planning and decorating for this special day! We even cross stitched invitations (which ended up being WAY too time consuming-- but totally worth it).  The menu consisted of various types of teas and finger sandwiches, spinach salad, scones with lemon curd and devonshire cream, lemon bars and finally, my mom's famous southern coconut cake!  We had a blast and definitely enjoyed a day spent indulging our feminine sides (and our voracious appetites.)

My Beautimous Sister!