pulverizing a pumpkin

some big pumpkins at superstition ranch market, in mesa, were $.10/lbs.
this pumpkin was around $.95

bonus pirates of the caribbean sticker

with the goop

sans goop - thanks mostly to a handy grapefruit spoon

boiling pumpkin seeds for later toasting

olive oil and salt for seeds


roasting in the toaster oven while pumpkin is baking in the oven

roasted!

there used to be more on that pan... someone ate some

I was slightly concerned after ignoring the pumpkins for about 1.5 hours to open the oven to this

I think a roasting pan would be a better option than a baking sheet for oven cleanliness

the sunken pumpkins

flipped!

it scooped out of the sunken pumpkin surprisingly easily


the leftovers

the goods

directions for puree
directions for seeds

As I have 99.9% of the time (if not more) only used pumpkin from a can for my baked pumpkin goods it should be interesting to see how much of a taste difference there will be with "fresh" pumpkin.
That will probably require another post soon.

pasta sauce

cheese- - -check.
dough ingredients- - -check.
pasta sauce- - -negative.
google- - -check.
recipe found- - -check.
ingredients called for in said recipe - - -good enough.

this was easy - I used canned diced tomatoes (like they said not to in the recipe) and pulsed them a little in the vitamix for a more normal sauce consistency. I let it cook for a while on med/low to thicken (reduce). no lemons in the house for the zest - skip. used, I am guessing, 2-3x more red pepper flakes then called for and probably more tomatoes... It was good, easy, a little spicy, and went well with a fresh basil pizza. I'd make it again!

blender waffles

This is yummy

it's made from this

and a couple of these home laid beauties

and... milk, yogurt (for oil), baking powder, sugar, and salt.


makes 6-8 waffles:
1 C. milk
1 C. uncooked whole wheat kernels (calls for +1 T. but I usually forget)
2 eggs
4 T. oil (which I substitute... yogurt, sour cream or applesauce)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 T. honey or sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

put milk and wheat in blender. blend on highest speed for 4-5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend on low. bake in waffle iron until done.

these are good to eat right away or to freeze wrapped in saran for later consumption

crackers and corn tortillas

The crackers of the day - imitation wheat thins and saltines

Kathleen came over and brought her cracker making experience as well as daughter and taste tester, Claire.

Kathleen rolling the dough

sprinkling the (Kosher) salt

Claire likes them and she's cute so... they must be good



Then we went on to make some corn tortillas

can you trust Masa to be authentic when there is a picture of a Caucasian Quaker on the front of the bag?
that is the question

unfortunately, we did not test both bags of Masa and used this kind

non-appetizing raw tortilla balls

the "I don't have a tortilla press" rolling out process - between grocery bags. It works.
and this is a belly shot...

rolled and cooked

we even ate some for lunch (with other stuff)!

That was a fun time indeed.

buffalo sammies

I was thinking about making some BBQ chicken sandwiches. The thing is though, buffalo chicken sandwiches are... ummm... tastier. So I found this. I had around 7 hours till Pete usually leaves for work so there was just time enough (hopefully!). I began.

Frank's happens to be delicious. I've heard it is used by Jack in the Box for their new Mini Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches as well as rumors of it being the base for Native New Yorker's Hot Wings. If you like wing sauce, you might want to give it a try.

here we have chicken with some ingredients scattered about and around for a do-it-yourself kind of ranch salad dressing mix. I did not have a store-bought ranch mix on hand.

The chicken was ready in about 5 hours - I turned up the heat towards the 2nd half of the cooking time to try to ensure it being ready early enough.

After I started the chicken in the crockpot I was thinking how we'd have to go buy some rolls. this occurred to me after I had started making bread in our bread machine less than an hour before. Oh yeah... you can make rolls!

Here is the recipe. I split the flour pretty evenly whole wheat/white.

pre-risen dough

dough ready for it's second rising

voila! 2nd rising complete

pre-baked

ding!

post-baked

I didn't get a picture of the sandwiches put all together but they were really good. Really.

and while we're here let me introduce one of our newest kitchen utensils: Cleaver.

Welcome, Cleaver.
You might not get much use, but you look pretty neat just being around

Queen of Torts??

I've made corn tortillas before - those are easy

the good news is - these are easy too!

I got the instructions/recipe from here.

These were made with 100% Whole Wheat Flour

:Ingredients were simple : mixed the dough : "de-ringed" for kneading:

:let dough rest: poked for no apparent reason: shaped and rested dough again:


:rolled on oiled surface: cooked:


:ate them:
OK - not all of them, yet. A number of them since last night, but not all of them.

thus saying, I plan on making these again but with less salt (probably half the salt). I don't know if I put a heaping tsp. in or if I did the classic Tbsp. for tsp. or what but the tortillas by themselves are much too salty. Thankfully covered with cheese or filled with peanut butter and honey they are just fine. That was a close one.

I made these this time because I was planning to go to Trader Joe's to purchase some of their 100% ww tortilla's and other baked goods. Then I realized I could try to make them. I think this was a better deal (money-wise, and probably comparable time-wise too since TJ's is about 35 min. away) and these are good - maybe even as good as TJ's!