Spitting Prohibited

pumpkins and "remains" and costumes

Well, actually just pumpkins...I'm tired.  We'll try the deathly remains tomorrow.

How in the world did it get to be a week past Halloween?  Good Gravy.

Here is the lowest of low-downs (would "down low" work in this phrase?  I'm not so hip to the jive turkey):

Wednesday night:  We finally got around to carving pumpkins.  I seriously considered that this could be the year we dropped pumpkin carving from the standard Halloween rotation.  So busy, and broke from fixing Tom's car.  Maybe we could/should just forgo pumpkins?

Of course not.  We haven't missed a pumpkin carving since we were married.

         

I am not sure what all the disgruntled faces are all about here.  Perhaps I intrude? 

Also someday I will do a photo montage of Grant and his gross pumpkin pictures.  I'm sure we have at least one from every year.  It is required.  Perhaps his first year away from home or something...

Anyway, here are the results of the Great Pumpkin fest:

   The picture I wanted taken.

                                 The picture they wanted taken:      

And the final results:         

I don't have a shot with candles....it's on my to-do list.  Hopefully the pumpkins won't rot before I get around to it.

Here's a glimpse of the evening...it was supposed to be the annual tradition of teasing Brooke, but it also illustrates the annual whining and attention seeking. View at your own risk:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Oh and my hubby the superstar, picked clean the pumpkin seed remains so we made Fabulous pumpkin seeds this year.  Every year I say I'm going to do this, but inevitably I hate cleaning the seeds so I throw them in the refrigerator to do "tomorrow" and a week later throw them out.  But if he cleaned them off, I would definitely make them.  They turned out FABULOUS this year if I do say so myself.  I should make them every year...as long as Tom cleans off the seeds for me.

Here's what I did:  soak the seeds for a day or two in salt water (about 1/2 cup or so of salt)

heat the oven to 200 degrees, spread the seeds out on a pan that you can have them mostly in a single layer.

Place in the oven and turn off the oven.  Let dry well (at least overnight)

The next day forget they are in the oven and then preheat your oven to 400 degrees (you can skip the forgetting about them part, unless you really want to be sure you follow my exact steps), start to smell something a little funny.  Remember the Pumpkin seeds!!!!!  Go check, see that they are just starting to brown slightly.  Run your spoon through them to make sure they roast somewhat evenly.

Pull out of the oven.  Salt slightly.  Sprinkle garlic salt on them.  Then about 1/2 tsp of chili powder and 1/2 tsp of cumin.  This gives it such a yummy slightly smoky but not hot flavor.  They taste like they were freshly made even days later.  YUMMY!

We seriously had to stop ourselves from devouring them all that very night.  Oh so very good!

Fab Food Friday: Pumpkin Hummus

I know!  Finally!  Another Fab Food Friday!  I know you all thought I forgot about this.  That it was just another dead and died segment in the sinkhole that is Sketchydom.  But no!  I was just bored.  And my newly veggie friend expressed interest in my Favorite Fabulous Hummus recipe.

My Journey with hummus began around Christmas last year.  My cousin Karina was home for the holidays and was coming to my Christmas Eve dinner.  Karina is not only my favorite up and coming fashion designer.  Nor yet another reason my family is awesome.  She's also a vegan. 

I have explored a few veggie recipes over the years, but I hadn't really delved in the veganish cooking.  Just seemed a little, well crazier, then I wanted to go on the vegetable band wagon (yes it's true vegetables have their own wagon).  However, being the hostess with the mostest I am, I wanted to be sure I had food for her, so I went looking for vegan recipes...to be clear, I wasn't so nice as to make the entire meal vegan, but I wanted a few dishes for her so she could eat something...I am not nice enough to prepare an entire meal of vegan food.

I thought about hummus before, but I haven't liked a lot of the commercially prepared ones I've found and the ones I have found seemed, well, pretty darn expensive for what is essentially mashed chick peas.  And don't get me started on the ones I've had in restaurants, I'm a garlic fan, but ::gag:: too much garlic!(Although I did have a rather yummy eggplant version last night, something like Baba Gajnoosh...yeah not completely sure on that name, the Baba part is right though.)

And then I found this recipe  ::cue heavenly music::  Smoky Pumpkin Hummus!  I have tried other hummuses (hummi?) since then (mostly when it is too hot to actually cook and a dinner of chopped veggies, crackers and dip sounds divinely inspired).

Smoky Pumpkin Hummus  by Julie Hasson

• 2 cups cooked or canned garbanzo beans, drained (also called chick peas

• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

• 4 tbsp roasted tahini (sesame paste) find in ethnic section of your grocery store

• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, pressed (I use the preminced stuff in a jar, so much more convenient if you use a lot of garlic...and I do.)

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• 1 tsp ground cumin (I've been known to step this up a bit, I like cumin)

• palmful of good paprika (if that stuff in your pantry barely has any smell, toss it.  You need good stuff, I use Hungarian Sweet Paprika from Penzeys) or chipotle to taste (I can't advice you on how much chipotle to use, I'm not really a fan of chipotle and haven't made this using that option, you are on your own chipotle fans.)

• Salt, to taste (I'll say about 1/2 teaspoon, to my taste)

In bowl of food processor, combine the garbanzo beans and pumpkin, pulsing until mixture is smooth.  Add Tahini, garlic, lemon juice and cumin, pulsing until smooth.  Add salt and paprika (or chipotle powder) to taste.

Serve with pumpkin hummus in a bowl, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika.

Particularly yummy with pita chips (or homemade pita bread if you can get it), or good crackers (I give the kids Ritz because let's face it they won't appreciate the good kind anyway) and veggies.

This has totally become my go to meal for the summer when I don't want to cook anything hot.  And my kids love it, they think they are eating chips and dip for dinner. 

Leftovers make a yummy sandwich, particularly if you go all out with that pita bread and have lots of veggies on hand.

And since that won't use up a whole can of pumpkin and why waste anything that delicious, why don't you save that 1/2 a can of pumpkin for tomorrow morning's breakfast and make:

Pumpkin Waffles (another yummy waffle brought to you by Betsy Rosbottom)

• 4 tbls (1/2 stick) butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbls packed light brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• Pinch ground cloves
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cooked pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 2 large eggs, separated

Preheat waffle iron, and if you plan to hold waffles until serving time, preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Melt butter and set in refrigerator to "slightly cool"

In large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  In another bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin, and egg yolks until completely blended.  In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until firm, but not stiff.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk/egg mixture, blending gently until combined.  Add the butter in a slow stream, blending until the butter is incorporated.  Gently fold in the egg whites.

Cook however your waffle maker does it.  If you're holding them, put them directly on the preheated racks in your oven in a single layer, not overlapping (this allows air flow so they don't get soggy, but stay crispy more like just cooked)

Serve the waffles with topping of your choice, but this is really yummy:

Pecan Toffee Crunch Butter (also by Ms. Rosbottom)

• Vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted
• 1/3 cup toffee bits
• 2 tsp packed dark brown sugar
• Generous pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tsp butter, melted, plus 8 tbls (1 stick) slightly softened

Arrange rack at center position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease it with the oil.

Toss together the pecans, toffee bits, brown sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  Add the melted butter and toss again.  Pat the mixture in the center of the baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake until the toffee bits melt and spread, 4-5 minutes; watch carefully.  Remove the pan from the oven and cool the mixture until it hardens.

Gently lift the cooled toffee mixture off the foil onto a chopping board and, using a sharp knife, chop it coarsely.  In a medium bowl, combine the chopped toffee mixture with the softened butter, mixing well until incorporated.  Transfer the mixture to a small serving bowl.

Can be made up to 2 days ahead, cover and leave at cool room temperature.

Now how fabulous am I?  3 Fab recipes, to improve your fabulosity!