My Pumpkin Misadventure: Cooking up my Fall Decor Pumpkin

In January, I decided to break into my pumpkin from my Fall Decor.  I bought it in September and thought for sure it would be rotten inside, but just in case I didn't want good pumpkin to go to waste.   I cut into and it was perfectly fine!    I haven't done much cooking with pumpkin and was excited to try to find some yummy recipes to use it in.

My first task was to figure out how to take it from a whole pumpkin to usable for recipes.  I searched around and one of the solutions I found was to cook it like acorn squash.  Cut it up, put it the oven, fill the bottom with an inch or so of water, and bake until soft.  It kind of worked, but turned out to be a much bigger ordeal then planned.  The pumpkin was so thick that it took much longer to get the pumpkin soft then expected.  By the time it was soft in the middle the top had a nice crispy crust which I had to peal off in order to use the soft pumpkin underneath.  The other problem was because it was taking so long,  the water kept evaporating, so I kept needing to add more water.  One time, I wasn't thinking, and I added cold water to my pan instead of hot water.  The below picture was result of that mistake.  BAM! Explosion - glass everywhere.    :(   I'm sad too, because I can't find another blue glass 9 X 13 pan.

How do you cook a pumpkin?

The first thing I made from it were pumpkin pancakes.  They were quite yummy, soo moist.  I unfortunately don't know know what recipe I used.  Anyone have any good pumpkin pancake recipes to share? I'd love to try them out this season!

The one thing that I do remember was that all the recipes called for pumpkin  pie spice mix which I did not have because I don't like pumpkin pie  (yes, I know, how could I not like pumpkin pie? Well, I don't like cheesecake either. I'm weird - it's just a texture thing I have).  I looked up how to make it from scratch and all recipes included nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and ginger - all ingredients I had on hand.

The other recipe I tried was from a blog I like to read - Something Swanky: Desserts and Designs . Her blog is all about desserts and diy blog design tricks... kind of a weird combination but two things which I'm very interested in.  It appeals to both my tummy and  my brain.  :)

This recipe is to die for - so yummy and fairly easy to do too.  I recommend you don't pass this recipe up this fall season.

Photo Credit: Something Swanky

This is a pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting... oh so delicious.  Just give it a try yourself, you'll be glad you did.  I'm bringing this recipe to the next Thanksgiving gathering I go to this year.

Pumpkin Roll from Something Swanky.  

So the season for pumpkins is here again - What are your favorite pumpkin recipes?

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie

When I was a kid, my parents and I used to pick blackberries in Oregon. It was lots of fun, and I loved it.   So when I was talking a walk with my little girl the other day and noticed tons of wild blackberry bushes, I was quite excited.  I decided to come back the next day with a container to see if I could pick enough to make a pie.  (My husband loves pies, and is always bemoaning the fact that I don't make them enough).  The problem with berry picking is that you usually eat just as many as you take home.  In the end, we probably only ended up with enough for about half of a small pie.  I was determined to still make a pie, so I combined them with the only fruit we had in the house - nectarines. Sounds a little weird, right?  I've heard of peach pie, but not nectarine pie, but surprisingly it was quite delicious. 

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  :)








Start with blackberries and nectarines:

Mix ingredients together.

Bake.

Top with whip cream or vanilla ice cream.

 If you want to make your own blackberry and nectarine pie, here's the recipe:
(I'm assuming you have your own pie crust recipe.)

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie Filling

This makes a pie to fill a 7 inch pie pan. 

• 2 cups of blackberries
• 3 nectarines, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 TBS tapioca
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• milk (optional)
• sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine ingredients together in large bowl. Let sit for about a half hour to let the juices mix together. Pour mixture into pie pan lined with half of crust.  Top with the other half of crust. Cut slits in center of crust.  Brush crust with milk and sprinkly lightly with sugar.  Use strips of tin foil to cover the edges of pie. Let bake for 25 minutes, then remove foil. Bake for another 25 -30 minutes until bubbly and crust is lightly browned.


Enjoy!

Rhubarb torte

My Grandma Hunt makes a rhubarb torte as one of her specialties. She grows it in her garden. One of my recent visits with her, I sat down with her and got all her recipes so they would be written down. It was a good thing too, because she would give me the recipe to copy and then show me how to do it and it was always completely different then what was written. I'd never seen rhubarb before. It looks like red celery...very weird.

Well, when I returned home, I decided to try it one day. I bought the rhubarb and while I was in lin the grocery store lots of people talked to me because they had never seen it before.

Here is some pictures of it... It turned out well.