The Pumpkin Pit

The bright orange pumpkins at Walmart have been calling my name for over three weeks.  Today, as I entered said establishment (for the fourth time in 24 hours) I was escorting my two daughters…. who both eyed the orange globes and then eyed their mother with pleading puppy-dog faces.  Larisa found a picture of a carved pumpkin with a picture of a wiener dog that said “Happy Halloweenie!” So with that geniously creative idea, I said OK!  It actually wasn’t that hard of a decision… $3.78.  How can you beat that?  It probably costs more than that to water the vine for the four months growing season!

There were two large bins with a sign that declared them ALL as medium in size.  We pulled a few off the top of the pile and glared hopefully into the pumpkin pit.  Indeed, they were not all created equal.  The queen mother was at the bottom… and I spotted her!  We began to pull the pumpkins off the top of the bin and fill bin #2.  Then when bin #2 was precariously full-almost-to-toppling, we piled the rest on the ground.  The path was clear to the queen mum.  Larisa and I both stepped up on the palate, tiptoed up until the top of the bin was at our waists, and dove in.  Seriously, with our feet off the ground.  It took us two tries, but we succeeded!

We must have looked like we recently came in from the pumpkin patch.  I was wearing what used to be a clean black t-shirt…. now totally covered in dirt and muck from all the pumpkins we moved… and probably from the bin too.  We found the queen mother’s twin sister in the bottom as well.  Another successful day of shopping at Walmart.

The moral of the story is: A pumpkin in hand is worth two in the bin.  :o)

Pumpkin Pie Pudding

Anyone remember when the pumpkin shortage was announced back in the Fall of 2010??  Well, I, for one, was not going to be short on pumpkin come Thanksgiving time.  I stocked up when I found the cans of orange goodness in a local store.  Then we got our adoption referral and left for Colombia the day before Thanksgiving.  You guessed it, I didn’t cook anything with pumpkin last Fall.  When Christmas rolled around, we had been home from Colombia with our new daughter for three days…. and cooking anything was not on my list.  I was in survival mode.

Fast-forward three-and-a-half months to this week, and envision me standing in front of my pantry staring at cans and cans of pumpkin.  It was raining, even hailing, outside… yes, we still live in Phoenix!  Pumpkin cooking time had arrived and I was ready to fully embrace it.  I searched through the cupboards and took inventory.  Next, I went to www.supercook.com and typed in the ingredients from my pantry.  They ALWAYS can come up with a recipe for you no matter how strange your items are!  Amazing!  Well, I didn’t have any cooking oil, so that severely limited my pumpkin choices, but one did catch my eye…. Pumpkin Pie Pudding.  Sounded divine.  I was salivating thinking that in an hour or so, I could be savoring a yummy pumpkin dessert.

Not so.  As it turns out, the recipe I found was yummy, and easy, and quick to prepare…. but it was a slow-cooker recipe.  SEVEN to EIGHT long hours in the crock pot were required before I could partake of non-shortage pumpkin goodness.  I prepared it anyway… and 10:00 at last night. 

When my husband’s alarm went off this morning at 5:00, I asked him if he could turn off the crock pot.  He replied in the affirmative…. but failed miserably to act on his promise once he arrived downstairs.  When I strolled into the kitchen at 8:15…. yes, it was too late to resuscitate the supposed-to-be-orange-now-dark-brown dessert.  Pumpkin Pie Pudding had morphed into Dark Pumpkin Brick from the HOT place.  Sadly, I got a spoon from the utensil drawer to investigate the darkness inside the pot.  To my surprise, it actually was yummy pumpkin pie pudding, encased in a thick skin.  I scraped off the top layer and removed the savory remains to a separate dish.  YEAH! 

All was not lost.  PPP was a wonderful, cold weather treat today!

Fall is Here – Part 4

Pumpkin carving is a Fall tradition that I’m happily not really an active part of anymore.  My participation will come again when Zaza arrives, but for now I’m happy to buy the pumpkins, hand out knives and point to the back yard.  Keeve is an eager beaver when it comes to creativity and pumpkins.  He couldn’t wait to stab the thing.  Last year I remember picking dried pumpkin off of the glass picnic table, so I assigned the grass as said carving area this year.

Yet another sign of Fall:  socks were actually worn in the morning, but discarded by noon because the weather isn’t cold enough yet to wear them outside for pumpkin carving.  And look!  Some of the grass is still green.  Time to overseed!

Keeve is heavily wrapped up in Myth Busters, hence the Busted pumpkin.  Whatever.  As long as I don’t have to pick dried pumpkin off patio furniture I’m good with it.  Are those little slimy pieces of pumpkin on that chair???  Please stay tuned for Harvest Festival photos. 

Long live All Saints Day!