Weekend Update

Kansas Dad and I were ambitious in the kitchen last night. We made pumpkin masoor dal and were pleased with the results. The dal is not spicy, but we added some cracked red pepper (only one tablespoon) to the topping so mixed together it had a little heat. We could only find brown lentils, so we missed out on the nice orange color shown in the picture. It certainly made a lot of dal! We'll be eating it tomorrow again. Does anyone know if dal freezes well?

Other news on the Range:

We had no water pressure Thursday night. Kansas Dad bought a bunch of gallons of water and we lived without running water overnight. We were very happy the plumber was able to get it fixed on Friday for much less than we feared. Our pressure tank, though, is apparently on its death bed, so we'll be saving up for a new one. For the moment, though, we have better water pressure than since we moved in and our pressure tank isn't cycling every few minutes.

Due to the lack of water, the kids and I spent Friday morning out instead of on our lessons. We visited the library and a big park. I think spending some extra time outside in the beautiful weather we've been having is a perfectly adequate use of our time. Soon enough it will be too cold to venture out every day.

Kansas Dad tripped and sprained his ankle Saturday night. He says it's not as bad as it could be, but he's on crutches. (First Son still calls them crunches and First Daughter calls them scrunches.)

Second Daughter said mama this morning. I'm not really counting it because she was just mimicking me, but I anticipate the real thing soon.

First Son carried an alligator and snake he made yesterday to church this morning, intent on giving them to his Sunday School teacher. Once there, though, he refused to give them up. He told us, "I need to think about it a little more." So home they came. His teacher was quite understanding.

More Pumpkin Goodness

I've still been cooking lots of pumpkin - almost one a day though I think we'll slow down a bit now.

We've tried:

Pumpkin Soup - This was alright, but I think Kansas Dad isn't a pumpkin soup for dinner kind of guy. Next time, I'd like to try a more robust recipe like this one.

Money Saving Mom's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins - These were good, but we think we like the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking one better. (I just double the pumpkin bread recipe and make 18 muffins as well as a loaf of bread. Bake the muffins for 18-25 minutes, depending on the recipe and the oven.) We also want to try the Cooking Light pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. They were pretty good!

I made some of this pumpkin bread recipe, too. I substituted 1 cup of the white flour with wheat and some of the oil with ground flax seed. I also included the cloves. It was pretty good, but they seemed a little strong on the spices so I might leave the cloves out if I make it again.

Soft Pumpkin Cookies (The link for these was wrong in my earlier post.) These are excellent soft pumpkin cookies. They taste just like little cakes. I didn't bother with the glaze, but I think that would be a nice touch. I wish I had stored them with wax paper in-between. They stick together a little.

By far the best thing we have tried is Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal. It is scrumptious. Kansas Dad says it's even better than our blueberry oatmeal. (The kids wouldn't try it, though. More for us!)

I thought I had a long list of new recipes to try with all our pumpkin, but then Money Saving Mom posted a link to The Finer Things in Life list.

I have some more baking to do. (Just as soon as Kansas Dad gets home with more butter.) I really want to try Brandy's oatmeal pumpkin cookies!

Pumpkin Recipes

Last Thursday, Kansas Dad and I baked a pumpkin. Well, I asked him to cut it in half for me because I was a little nervous to handle the knife myself. Then I baked and purred it. It made a lot! You can read a nice post on baking and processing your own pumpkin here. I mainly followed these instructions. I just baked them cut side down (no water or anything) in the oven for an hour at 350. The ice cream scoop mentioned on the Money Saving Mom post was much easier than a spoon, but I didn't bother cutting off the stem. It pulls right off after baking if it seems to be in the way. (All based on my vast experience with one pumpkin on Thursday and one today.)

I think Kansas Dad said we grew Connecticut Field pumpkins. They may not be the best for baking, but we've been enjoying everything so far. We've made:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread and Muffins from Whole Grain Baking (I modified the recipe and didn't like it as well as I remember. I'm going to try it again without modifications.)

Pumpkin Muffins which were light and fluffy. I topped them with turbinado cane sugar instead of the brown sugar mixture and they were delicious. (I keep it on hand for our sour cream blueberry muffins so it was easier than mixing something up for a topping.)

And the Ultimate Pumpkin Waffles, which really are tremendous. Mmm...

Of course we saved the seeds. I made the Fiery Pumpkin Seeds from How To Cook Everything and the Savory Seeds mentioned here.

First Son wouldn't try one, but here's First Daughter enjoying a pumpkin waffle:


There are lot of other recipes I want to try here and maybe this one, too. Oh, and these and this! I may also try out Money Saving Mom's pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

I've got pumpkins on the counter and on the floor and about twenty cups of puree in the freezer, so there will be lots of pumpkin for experimentation.