pumpkin carving - better late than never!

we know, we know. it's two weeks after halloween, when jack-o-lanterns sit on front steps and we "ooo" and "ahh" at the patterns and glowing lights.

but why save that magical pumpkin-y glow just for that one day? today was the perfect day to finally dig in to the orange globe and carve away.

jessie grabbed all of the little orange carving tools, i grabbed some bowls for seeds and pumpkin innards, and we went outside to join zoie in the cool november air.

after some tracing, poking, pulling and scraping, we had a pumpkin ready to be lit up.

since it was just a little after one in the afternoon, we brought our little masterpiece into the bathroom and struck the match. magic!

happy halloween! two weeks later...

later on we washed the slime and goop off of the seeds, split them into two bowls, and rolled them around in some canola oil, brown sugar & cinnamon, and olive oil & sea salt, respectively. after about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, they came out toasted, crunchy, and perfect for snacking. yum! maybe next weekend we'll carve my little pumpkin.

-catie

more apple treats? yes!

after our first adventure to hickory nut gap farm, we had a quarter peck of crisp, tasty apples ready to be eaten in any way we could think of.
a couple were sliced up and enjoyed with peanut butter, some were diced and mixed into a gluten-free cinnamon muffin batter, others were pressed into cider that we also picked up at the farm, and two select apples got the most important job of all.
they were sliced into little half moon slivers, sauteed with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, and cooked down to a state of almost-melted apple bliss.

here's my best attempt at a recipe:
. 2 apples, preferably a little tart and firm, but you can have one tart and firm and one sweet and soft, if that's what you like
. 2 tablespoons of butter or something butter-like, like earth balance
. 3 or 4 shakes of cinnamon, more if you want
. probably about 1 or 1.5 tablespoons of dark brown sugar, or 3 good size pinches

slice up the apples, and heat the butter in a saute pan until it's melted. add the cinnamon and the apples and stir to coat. sprinkle the brown sugar on top and stir to mix, and then let the apples sit for a minute or two, and stir again.
i left the heat on about medium-high, and it probably took about 10 or 12 minutes until when i stirred the apples, a bit of stringy delicious caramel started to form. at this point the apples were getting soft, so i took them off the heat, but if you want to make the caramel thicker and richer, you could keep cooking the apples.
just be aware that it's a thin line between slightly crisp sauteed apples and the beginning of applesauce (always good, too).

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unfortunately, the apples didn't last long enough for us to take a picture, but just imagine something like this:

(thanks to thezoeblog.blogspot.com for the picture!)

next cooking adventure......pumpkin!

-catie