My Ode to Pumpkin

Wow! It has been a great weekend! My wonderful friend Jessica M. came up for a few days, and we had a blast. We both share a love of nourishing food, finding bargains, making crafts, dancing, and so many more things. We cooked, we shopped at thrift stores and yard sales, and we went to a football game on Friday night. The only sad thing was we ran out of time to do everything we wanted to do together.

The first night she was here we baked up a pumpkin and experimented a bit. 

Jessica took the seeds and mixed them up with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. We put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure they cooked evenly. We took them out when they turned golden brown. 

These were the best pumpkin seeds I have ever eaten. They were slightly sweet and satisfyingly crunchy. Not too shabby for some chicks with zero pumpkin seed making experience.

 Second, we made pumpkin oatmeal cookies. They were extremely tasty. We only made half the batter on Thursday and I have to confess that I finished off the other half by myself today. Ah, it was that good.   Before I share the recipe with you though, I want to tweak it a little. We thought the batter tasted super rich, and even buttery even though there was no butter or oil in it. But after baking, it lost some of that great richness. I want to experiment making it a no-bake with some different techniques and ingredients. 

Finally, I say you are due for a story.

Jessica and I were eating apples. Yes, I am still working on the 25 lbs. of apples that I picked at the apple orchard in September. You have to realize that these apples have been in my fridge for almost 5 weeks now. Another thing you have to realize is that normally I eat the whole apple; seeds and all. 

I was running around the kitchen working on dinner and wasn't looking at what I was eating. I took a big bite through the middle and it tasted funny. I looked down at the apple and there was a worm wiggling in my face. Yes, I definitely screamed and did a silly dance in the middle of the kitchen that represented my shock and amazement. I can't believe that it has stayed alive so long. 

I guess you could say that this is the risk and the blessing of eating real food. Even though you may encounter more bugs or more dirt, the amazing thing is you know it is living and nutritious. I know that I will continue to eat real food, and continue to eat my whole apple. I will just look twice now before I bite into the middle of it. :)