Fresh Pumpkin

I love the taste of fresh pumpkin, really it is so much better than that canned stuff!
Each year we plant several mounds of pie pumpkin seeds in the garden in hopes of a big harvest.

Here are two of my helpers scooping away.

After the insides are cleaned, we steam bake the pumpkins, under foil, until soft.
375* for around 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Then we clean out the inside.

The warm pumpkin mashes easily with a fork or mixer.

This fall we've made a pie, several pans of bars and several batches of muffins.

Any pumpkin not used within a day or two is frozen for future use.

My boys thought their muffins needed a little decoration. :)

TTT Fall Crafts

Fall explodes with a unique coziness after a hot summer.
I love the smells and activities of the season;
football, bonfires, sweatshirts, hikes, gourds, squash baking, beautiful leaves ...

Fall is a breath of fresh air after a hot sticky summer, which I also love, but only for a season.

We enjoy the addition of fall crafts during our school day.
Below I've highlighted a few.
If you have a fall craft you enjoy with your children, please share in the comments!

Fall Leaves


We are going to try these leaves this week.
photo from Better Homes and Gardens

Maple Flavor Leaf Cookies

Paper Pumpkins
photo from Martha Stewart

Owl Paper Puppet
photo from While She Naps

Fall Trees
photo from 1+1+1=1

Leaf Me Be

I have been quite emotional this past week.
I'd like to blame it all on hormones, but the truth is God has been nudging me to open my heart and embrace what He has for me. It's been tough, I've been struggling with it. Why? Because to me, the road looks long and weary. I know better, but still I 've been wrestling with Him....

So what do I do when I am challenged by God, need time to process information, an a little extra emotional?
Well, bake of course.
This time it was leaves.

I love the way these turn out.

No two are the same.

These cookies add beautiful color to a tray of goodies and taste yummy too!
I've posted the recipe before, but here it is again. Feel free to add details with frosting if you wish. However, I don't think they really need it.

1 cup butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
6 T maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp maple flavoring
1-2 T real maple syrup
2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups flour

*Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs. Mix well. Blend in maple syrup and flavorings. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Divide dough into 3 parts. Color one red and another one orange, leave the last one plain or color it green. Wrap each section of dough individually in plastic wrap. Chill for 3 - 4 hours or over night.
Gently fold about 1/4 of each color of dough together. Roll out on a floured surface. Dough should look marbled. Cup with leaf cutters. Bake at 350* for 7- 9 minutes. Don't over bake.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Remember our abundant crop of these?
I've found a delicious way to use them...
In Pancakes!

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 pound sweet potato, cooked, skinned & mashed ~ I weighed the mashed amount, not the raw potato
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir flour mixture into sweet potato mixture. Cook on a medium/high griddle until light brown, flip once.

NOTES: I added a few extra tablespoons milk because I thought the batter was rather thick for pancakes. When I was washing the dishes I realized I forgot to add the melted butter. Hummm maybe that was why I needed the extra milk :) So, make them with out the butter if you desire, the will turn out just fine.

The recipe makes quite a few pancakes, 15- 20 depending on the size you make them.We froze our extra and either warmed them in the microwave or used them as toaster pancakes.

These are made with white flour

The second time we made them we used whole wheat flour.
A little darker, but just as good!

Candy Apples

An easy, delicious dessert.
Not healthy, but none the less, tasty!

It is best to use a firm, tart, apples such as Granny Smith. The apples we used were from the orchard, I can't remember the variety. You will see in the final picture, our baked apples didn't hold their shape. A firmer apple will hold it's shape and will look nicer after being baked.

Start by halving and scooping out the centers. I used a small cookie scoop to dig out the seeds.

Next make a crumb mixture of:

• 2/3 cup soft butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup flour

Remove about 1/2 cup or a little more and set aside. To the remaining add 1/3 cup melted butter and stir together. Your mixture should look wet. Fill the apples with the wet mixture.

Sprinkle the dry crumbs on top of the apples.

Bake at 350* for 30- 40 minutes or until the apples are tender.

Serve warm.

It's over

We've pulled everything from the beach for the year.
There will be no more swimming until 2011.
We will miss you swimming!

But, as the kids said,
we can still 'swim' on the grass.

It's almost as fun.

And floaties make great bumper tubes for the slide!

Sweet

Potatoes
The size of a pie pumpkin!

After scrubbing them yesterday, Ashlynn was trying to decide which one to pick up to take inside for me.

She finally decided on the biggest one, of course.

But it proved to be a little bigger than she could handle.

I have no idea how my potatoes grew to this size.
We have a few so immense I'm sure not they're fit to eat.
I've never seen potatoes so big.
There is more out there.

Sweet potatoes anyone?

Fall Leaf Craft

You will need:
*Leaf Pattern
*Tissue Paper
*Mod Podge
*Paint Brushes or Fingers
*Scissors
*String, if you want to hang the leaves up

Cut the tissue paper into small pieces

Pour some Mod Podge (MP) into small containers

Paint MP over the leaf patterns

Put Tissue on top of MP

Paint another thick layer of MP on top of tissue

Let the leaves dry for 12-24 hours. Cut out leaves and hang up or use them to decorate the center of your table.

Maple Fall Cookies

I've posted the recipe for these cookies before. However, they are fun and yummy. I think they deserve another post.
These cookies have a unique maple flavor to them.

FYI: If you have a baker on your Christmas list, this rolling pin is a great gift!

Mini cookie cutters are great for using up the scraps of dough.

No need to frost these!