This & That

Honey Pumpkin Pie

We are a little finicky about our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. The Thanksgiving menu is one of those things that's pretty much set in stone here at our house. There's very little variation, and while we've added things into the list of "must-haves," the tried and true things never disappear. There's always a pumpkin pie. My husband likes pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pie. My husband likes it from the ground up, very literally. It's acceptable to go down to the farm stand and buy a pumpkin to cook for the pie filling, but it's never acceptable to use canned pumpkin puree. I have to agree with him on this point. If you don't care for pumpkin pie, then it really doesn't matter what you use or don't use, but if you like it...it will be just that much better with the small added effort of cooking your own pumpkin. 

This year we happened to grow small sugar pumpkins in the garden and the squash bugs were on hiatus, so they survived. My husband likes this pie so much he's willing to do a lot of the grunt work to make it happen. Quarter the pumpkin, scoop out the innards and put the innard-less pieces on a cookie sheet.

Cover it with foil and bake it in the oven for a couple of hours at 350°.

Let it cool a few minutes and then scoop out the baked pulp.

Then use it just like you would a can of pumpkin. A 15-ounce can is about 2 cups of cooked pumpkin. You can even make up your pie filling and freeze it right then and there. Just pull it out of the freezer the day you're going to bake your pie. We had a standard recipe we used every year, but last year I tried one from the cookbook I'm using most often these days. We have a new pumpkin pie recipe now. It uses honey instead of white sugar which is also right up my husband's alley, and cream instead of evaporated milk. We love it. Serve it with some whipped cream on top and you've got a dandy pumpkin pie....if pumpkin pie's your thing.

Honey Pumpkin Pie

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (Here's a recipe for making your own)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream (half & half or even whole milk will work in a pinch)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Mix the puree, honey, vanilla, salt, and spice together. Mix in the cream, then gently beat in the eggs. Carefully pour the mixture into the pie shell.

Cover the edges of the crust with a pie shield (or foil) and bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Remove the shield/foil, and bake for another 20-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean. Cool and serve with a generous dollop of real whipped cream. Refrigerate the leftovers. Makes a 9-10" pie, depending on how deep your pan is. ***Notes on this recipe--If you freeze the filling beforehand, make sure it's thawed all the way before baking the pie. If it still has little frozen chunks in it, the bake time will be longer. (Ask me how I know this...)

 

Around Here This Week

I'd really like to have a post here, but I don't have access to the desktop downstairs where I do all my photo editing. 

There's a reason for this. My husband tested positive for Covid this week and is living down there in the hopes that I don't get it. So, discussion about this will have to wait until either I have access to the computer sometime later next week, or I figure out how to access everything I want in another way. I have a post set up for Monday already, but that will have to do until I can make things work.

Lots of Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with all the family connections and good things. Let's just say that my week has taken an interesting turn which we'll talk about on Saturday.

Usually at this time of year I am documenting my 30 Days of Thankful.

This year I'm lifting an idea from the creator of the Project Life app and doing it a bit differently.

It is a gratitude journal of sorts.

Just in a bit of a different format this year.

This will be a 6x8 album and perhaps won't be limited to just the month of November.

I kind-of feel like everyone (me) just needs a reminder of the good things that are happening in 2020.

I have especially needed the reminder this particular week, as my Thanksgiving isn't going to look at all like it usually does.

It's going to be OK. It's just different, and for 1 year we will all be OK.

Anyway, the idea is to find all the good things.

And there definitely are good things.

We just need reminders occasionally. Yep, we (I) do.

Brown Sugar Butter Syrup

Sometimes you're just ready for a change of pace, and sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. A couple of weeks ago I needed some syrup for breakfast. I was just wanting something a little different and was missing a couple of ingredients for my usual recipe, so I went to my good buddy, Google. I had a hankering for something made with brown sugar as opposed to white and eventually I landed here. While this syrup has a definite maple flavor, the brown sugar give it a kind of toffee-ish taste that's really good. I served it on German pancakes and will be making this again. It may have replaced the old recipe I've used for years. I'll trade it off with the Caramel Buttermilk syrup, which is also pretty deadly.

 

Brown Sugar Butter Syrup

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon maple and/or vanilla extract (I actually used both)

Combine the sugar and water in a medium size saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Lower the heat to medium and allow the mixture to boil for 4 minutes. Add the butter and stir until the butter has dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the extract if desired.

Let the syrup cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a pitcher or jar for storage. Serve immediately or store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to a month. Makes about 2 cups

 

 

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

My husband and Eric were on an adventure last week, and Eric sent some pictures of how fun it was. We have a sunrise picture here.

Just look at the temperature outside. Doesn't that look so fun? Don't you wish you were there?

There was an afternoon fishing at the ponds. Roger thought this fish was pretty great. Can we all just have a collective "EW?"

My husband and I celebrated our anniversary cooking dinner together....trout from the ponds, roasted potatoes Evan grew in his garden, and some cauliflower.

These anniversary roses came. Fun fact--I would rather have almost any other color of roses other than red, so for our anniversary my husband always arranges for some other beautiful color. I loved the pretty coral of these. I also don't grow red roses in my yard....every other color, but not red. I'm not sure exactly why. I just know it's my preference.

They opened up beautifully. I've rarely had all the roses in a bunch open up, let alone look as pretty as this.

My husband has been on yet another adventure this week. Retirement agrees with his priorities. I was invited to have dinner with Marc's family.

We were celebrating Levi's mama's birthday. I do strange things like set reminders in my phone to take pictures.

So when the reminder went off, everyone obliged me.

It is my greatest joy to see my children happy and content in their lives, making the good, big choices.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this one of Eric's 3 younger kiddos playing in the snow we had a couple of weeks ago.

We celebrated Gwen's and Rachelle's birthdays at Sunday dinner.

Back east, James had his first day of in-person kindergarten.

It was all Jurassic all the time for the big day.

There was also this hilarious picture of John and David. Their mama sent it to me saying she made one phone call and came back to find them under the kitchen table with--get this--James' bag of Halloween candy.

She also sent this one of James asleep. There's almost enough room for him in the bed.

From Marc's family there was this picture of Jude kicking back, quite literally, with his lunch.

Keeping My Hands Busy, the Fabric and Paper Edition

Bit by bit, little by little, sometimes agonizingly slowly,

I finally managed to finish this quilt block. It's by far and away the most involved wool appliqué I've ever done, and I'm not sad to have it behind me. I'm on to a block with a squirrel.

I finished off a couple of partially-done card kits.

Both had beautiful papers in their own way,

so very little embellishment was required to finish them off. I did have some holographic paper and punched some hearts from it.

I've tried to stay pretty caught up with the annual 25 Days of Tags event hosted on Tracey McNeely's blog.

This is always a fun series to play along with.

The projects are small-scale, so there isn't a huge time commitment involved.

Sometimes the inspiration is direct and obvious,

and other times it takes a swerve around. 

Sometimes they're a little fancier, 

And sometimes deceptively simple. Either way, it's fun to feel creative, and since I know the holidays will bring a crafting dry spell, it's nice to get some time in now.

 

41 years

41 years ago today I married this man.

He retired this year and it's a learning curve trying to get used to those changes. We're working together because we love each other and even after 41 years, marriage is a work in progress.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

I had some cute boys help plant next year's garlic crop. For those who are unfamiliar, garlic gets planted in the fall, overwinters, and then is harvested mid-summer.

While we were out there, we took a look at the giant sunflowers and all the seeds in the heads. 

We had out first real snow of the season.

The juxtaposition of fall and winter was a little fun to see. The snow was pretty much gone by the end of the day, but cold weather is here for the foreseeable future....thank goodness. I'm still sleeping with the window cracked. I can see all you summer-loving brain-bakers shuddering at the thought, but I love sleeping cold with the weight of several quilts. Summer sweat sleeping is no fun at all.

Fresh snow is just so beautiful. I had to stop on the way into church on Sunday to take this picture.

While my husband was on an adventure this week, I did a little freezer meal prepping especially for the upcoming busy holiday season.

Another of my projects this week was getting the flag Collin flew for us while he was deployed in Afghanistan, into a frame. I was only 3 years behind on this project rather than the 10 it took me to get Bryce's high school pictures taken care of.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, it was warm in Collin's neck of the woods on their hike last weekend. Again, look at the size of these leaves!

And holy cow, the colors!

Just so beautiful. Is it any wonder that fall is my favorite?

I got this one of David. Collin calls him the king of the bed-head.

I got this one from Alison with a comment about trying to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Keeping My Hands Busy, the Electronic Edition

I've been working my way through recent My Modern Story prompts in the Project Life app. It's not often I get them done in the week they are assigned. Most of the time I have to let them roll around in my head a while before the inspiration and thoughts come. Sometimes I'll tweak the prompt a little to take a slant that's a better fit for me.

This prompt was about things I wanted to have happen in 5 years.

This one was asked if I believe in miracles.

And this was about something that's taking a good share of my focus right now.

I finished going through blog posts from 2009.

Some of these posts I haven't seen since I published them,

and they've brought back some interesting, and at times funny memories.

It's amazing to me that I'm able to do this kind of documenting through an app on my phone.

Who Could Resist?

I mean really.....

And that's why I want to be "Honey" forever.