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Tag Archives: pumpkins
The Pumpkins Start Here
I’ve got the viney plants started on the window sill. These are the watermelon. See anything? Neither do I. I don’t have high hopes for the watermelon but I’m going to try again.
Also, I downloaded an app that’s supposed to make my photos prettier. What do you think?
Yeah, this one is definitely blurry, but I only took one because I am in a hurry. Things have kicked back up into insanely busy while simultaneously throwing new and surprising problems my way.
These are the Cinderella pumpkins. They look pretty good.
I had a low tire so I swung by Les Schwab on my way home from work. How long has it been since I sung the praises of Les Schwab? It was 30 minutes before closing. They were fairly busy and the phone ringing. Unfailingly polite – like they it was the highlight of their day looking at my tire. I love that place.
I had a screw in my tire and it’s fixed and I was on my way by 6pm. And one problem, easily solved.
The little tiny sprouts are basil. They get to stay inside. The next one is the single cantaloupe sprout and then more pumpkins.
I still don’t have a shower door. Boo! I haven’t had a decent shower in over a month. I remember writing about the front door knob but can’t find the post. Whatever I did to fix it was only temporary so we need to deal with that. I still don’t have any tomatoes. It goes on and on. I always feel like I’m one day off from getting caught up.
I’m taking off for the weekend. Hopefully it will be blissful sitting around. Also a hotel shower. Yay.
Pumpkin Has Landed
Sorry I got carried away. This is a tad over-processed. No time to do over.
As per my entire life, I have to be somewhere in 20 minutes and I need to take a sponge bath before I go because I have been hedge-whacking and I’m filthy, so I don’t have time for my planned post.
I think I’m going to change the name of this to: I Don’t Have Time For My Planned Post.
Here’s the short version: I rolled my ankle a few weeks ago but didn’t think much of it until I noticed that it was completely swollen and that nobbin on the outside was big smooth dome. It doesn’t hurt when I walk but doesn’t feel great in any other position than normal. I kind of ice it when I think of it. I’m sure it happened when I was running around in my garden shoes because I did it again this afternoon.
Toughen up ankle, I’ve got work to do.
Also I have a surprise project planned but here’s a hint: I’ve been googling “how to” topiary and aliens. Half-assed post about it, possibly, someday.
Pumpkin Patch
This is the pumpkin patch out front.
After a couple of disappointing years I have high hopes for this group.
There is something snacking on the leaves.
I don’t understand why the snails and/or slugs aren’t more discouraged. I’ve done nothing to make them feel welcome.
I think this year is going to be a dud for tomatoes. I’m thinking about wrapping the cages with plastic wrap to coax them along.
One of these days I’ll write a real post. Stay tuned.
Unpack Your Adjectives
Lake Vancouver
Yesterday afternoon Bob came home and said: I’m a verb. I’m always in motion.
I said: I’m a noun. I like to sit still.
Bob said very pointedly: You’re an adjective because of the way you do things.
It is nice to have that settled.
Remember the pumpkins? The smallest two I used for Thanksgiving. I made a pie and put the rest in the freezer.
The big one has been sitting on the counter and I could tell it was getting a little hinky and was going to have to live out its days in the compost if I didn’t do something with it stat.
Last weekend I processed it and made a pie. (this one) and I got a bar of dark chocolate and chopped it up and sprinkled on my blind-baked crust. Before I poured the pumpkin in I used a spatula to spread the melty chocolate around. It was extremely delicious. If you haven’t before, try this.
I also made pumpkin chili and I had a recipe for pumpkin cornbread but at that point if I had to do any more dishes I was going to punch someone in the teeth so I skipped that one.
I still had plenty of pumpkin and I didn’t want to freeze it since I already have lots in the freezer. So I made Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain cereal and stirred a bunch into that. It was amazing. We added blueberries from our freezer and finished the whole pot.
I still had pumpkin leftover so I made a pot of lentil and coconut soup (substituting wuss peppers for the peppers in the recipe because really hot peppers frighten me) and stirring in the last of the … pumpkin! Also super delicious.
So the lesson is, you can be very creative with pureed pumpkin.
I have a ton of notes here for posts I want to write but I’m on a huge writing roll. I haven’t missed a day since October. So priorities in other places. Plus, things are going to be busy for the next few weeks and then guess what starts March 12, 2012? Did you guess Timbers? You win!
Pumpkin Baby
The amazing view outside my kitchen this morning when I got up (with cool retro effect added). It’s grey and rainy now.
Check out the dismal pumpkin result from my Baby Pam pumpkin. I had some other pumpkin in the freezer that I used so I didn’t have to process one of the giant ones Kent gave me.
Pie’s done and out of the oven. I’m going to make the rest of the meal as soon as I log off.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Pumpkin Crop
This is the single Baby Pam pumpkin that I managed to grow this year. It didn’t even get orange until mid-October. Bob brought it in for me over Halloween weekend because he was afraid some kids might smash it.
I’m going to whack it and use it to make the Serious Eats pumpkin pie recipe. Last time I made a Cooks Illustrated recipe and I wrote an angry note in the margin that says, “Takes all day!”
Apples and Pumpkins
For the first time our backyard apple tree not only has tons of apples, it has tons of pretty ones (relatively). Last weekend I picked two giant bowls full and canned applesauce.
It really isn’t that much work but I timed it poorly so I was trying to cook dinner and keep track of my canning which involves lots of things boiling at the same time. It all worked out and now I can have a stash of applesauce.
I thought it would be funny to label it all 2005 so when we pull it out in February we can gasp and wonder how it had gotten lost in the cupboard for so long. The canning specialists tell you to eat it within a year but I’m here to tell you I’ve let stuff go way longer than that and no one died.
I have a recipe for slow cooker apple butter and I was thinking of doing a quick batch of that since I have tons of canning jars. But I already have 10 other projects going this weekend and canning would probably push me over the edge.
Check out these pumpkins Kent gave me. His are the two big pretty ones. The sad little one is mine. Babe the pig is there for perspective.
I gave him some seeds a few years ago and now he likes to grow them, too. He brought them to work and I walked over to pick them up. I put one in a backpack and carried the other one. Everybody smiles and says hi and makes chitchat with you when you’re carrying a pumpkin.
Some guy asked me for directions to a place that was completely in the opposite direction. I pointed in the direction he needed to be going and told him it was a hike. He shook his head and said I must have misunderstood and then very carefully enunciated the name of the place he was looking for. “Yup, it’s still the other way,” I said. He said he must have just overshot it and would backtrack. He’d overshot by about 12 blocks.
Three Tidbits
This was one of the first promising looking early pumpkins that then withered without explanation.
A couple of weeks ago a guy called the office. I answer the phone with the name of the business. He said, “Yeah? I had a missed call from this number.”
Me: Okay.
What is he expecting me to do with this information? I don’t know who he is. Sure, it’s only a 2 person office, but it doesn’t really feel like my problem to solve.
Him: (on the verge of dying of annoyance) What is this again?
I repeat the name of the business.
Him: (Derisive snort) Well?
I asked if he had business with us. Co-worker overheard me and called, “I dialed a wrong number earlier.” I tell greatly inconvenienced lunkhead this.
Him: (Another derisive snort and then hang up.)
I’ve already have the answer but do people really do that? If I see a missed call from a number I don’t recognize it would never occur to me to call it. If someone wants me, they’ll try again. I wish we’d kept his number because I would call it from a different phone every day and hang up.
One dinky Cinderella pumpkin. Barely worth the trouble to process it.
We got a notice from our bank inviting us to refinance. They’re getting itchy because our house is almost paid for. The profit margin on us is dwindling. They used to do this to me in person, too, but I asked them to put a note on my account not to try to sell me stuff when I go in. They still do sometimes.
This one was funny because it has a graph with what our payments would be if we refinance for 30 and 15 years and then how much we’d save on interest. Those boxes were blank with an asterisk that said, we wouldn’t actually save any money on interest.
Nice try!
This is the new variety Baby Pam, which doesn’t seem to want to turn orange. I’m so sad about my pumpkin crop. A friend brought me some Cinderella pumpkins he grew from seeds I gave him. I’m going to pick them up after lunch.
This past weekend I had the time so I put the garden (mostly) to bed.
One reason I was putting it off is the birds have been loving the sunflowers. Every morning on the weekends I would see all kinds of activity out there. We had several days of cold rain and the sunflowers looked like refugees from a Tim Burton movie.
The cucumbers which have sent out all kinds of vines and nothing else finally started producing about 2 weeks ago. I’ve eaten two and put 4 in the fridge. Gee, thanks for nothing. I took out two of the tomatoes and optimistically left two in in case they want to keep going.
I dug up everything else and I now have about two pounds of beets in the fridge. We’re going to have something beety this weekend.
Pumpkin and Puzzle Update
Guess what I got in the mail today?
Another puzzle book.
I finally sorted through my immaculate record keeping system and found a number to call about my subscription. The person who answered the phone was very nice.
She told me that they received my subscription payment and I was fine on that.
She said the puzzles would have been a mail-in offer.
I don’t think I could have done that and forgotten about it.
For a second I thought someone was playing a trick on me but I couldn’t envision how that would come about. Some of my friends doing tequila shots and then saying, “You know what would be hilarious? If we secretly sent Pam a 40-pack of puzzle books.”
After some research she discovered that another order was mistakenly assigned to my account. She sort of laughed and said, “You have a subscription, too.”
I am free to keep the puzzle books I already have, I’m assuming my subscription is canceled and the person who actually ordered them will be getting his soon. Whew!
This is it so far in the pumpkin patch. The yellow one is my usual Cinderella variety and I’m guessing this green one is the Baby Pam. I fretted last year about my pumpkins being so late and they did fine. We’ll see how this year goes.
Future Pumpkins
Whenever I’m running around I always think of a ton of things I want to post about. Then when I’m sitting here I can’t remember. I also have tons of notes but then when I sit here I don’t understand them.
Like this one: “white space”
I have no idea.
Also, I finally posted my photos from the Portland Timbers v. Seattle Sounders game.
