Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Halloween cometh.

A few days have gone by since I last posted, so I thought maybe I better sit down and say "hello, I'm still here".  My brain has been getting a lot of exercise lately, being so preoccupied with the coming festivity.  I'm starting to get that nervous panicky feeling because my "Bed & Breakfast" is only 2-1/2 weeks away, and I have SO much to do.  I'm still trying to figure out my menu, which is the worst part because I can't finish my flyers until I know what my menu will be, and I am really STUCK.  But here is a little taste of what my flyer cover looks likes.

I am making 10 of them.  Eight of them will get sent out in the mail, which is why I feel rushed to get them done.  After I get those done, I have all the decorating to do.  Oh my, there's so much to do!  Stephanie, I need you!!

In line of trying to figure out my menu, I came across this little book in the commissary:

Chuck always snaps his tongue and protests every time I buy another Halloween recipe book, but I had to have it because:

#1  I am doing a pumpkin theme this year and want some ideas

#2  I have all these pumpkins to play with:

And I'll probably buy more pie pumpkins if I see them.  Walmart is usually the place to buy them, but they sell out real fast, so I consider myself pretty lucky if I can get any. The general manager is a friend of mine, so I have that going for me - she knows I'm looking for them and will let me know when she's got some in stock. 

So, I am planning on trying all kinds of new pumpkin recipes in the next couple weeks.  Some are good, some not so good.  I tried two different recipes for homemade pumpkin pudding and both turned out of to be bombs.  The first one (made with chia seeds) wasn't that bad, but Chuck didn't like it.  Maybe he's like it better if I toned down on the spices. The second recipe, made with cornstarch, didn't taste good at all, so I chucked the whole batch in the garbage.  What a waste, I know.  But the way I look at it, if I learned something from it, it wasn't a total waste. 

I give up on making homemade pumpkin pudding.

Time to move on to something else.

Today I'm going to try making a pumpkin coffee cake.

Here are a couple smoothie recipes that I tried out of that little book:

In case you're interested, you can try them yourself.  I thought they were both pretty good, and as you can see from the ingredients, they are also good for you.

I think I like the bottom one a little better.  I added some coconut water to make it a bit thinner.

Here is another idea that I've been playing with:

This is a slice of acorn squash.  Usually I just cut them in half so they are a bowl, but that is always too much to eat in one meal.  So I tried making slices and it was just enough.

So basically, I've been awfully busy with visions of pumpkins dancing in my head at almost all times.  

So it's nice to think about non-related things once in awhile.  Such as our first snow:

It's not much, but it came early.  We woke up to this on the last day of September.

Kiska's summer adventure days are starting to wane:

"Hmm...should I or shouldn't I?"

 

She LOVES to go outside, but when she saw the snow, she hesitated.  She did finally go out there, but only just long enough for her paws to get cold.  She wanted no part of it.  To her benefit, the snow was all melted by the afternoon, and she disappeared for several hours as usual.  We haven't seen any new snow since then, except for what falls on the mountains.

That's about it.  Gotta get back to wracking my brain on those menus again.