Home Day

Wednesday is one of the days that we don't keep the grands. We drive an hour and a half round trip to our daughter's house and back 3 times a week, or more when something comes up. We love to keep them and enjoy them so much, but we also look forward to our "home days".

This morning, I've been catching up on cleaning and I've been baking pumpkins.  Fall holidays call for a lot of pumpkin dishes around here and we don't like the taste of canned pumpkin from the grocery store, so when the little pie pumpkins come out, I buy several and freeze the flesh. (I plan to plant them next year, but a garden just wasn't in the cards this year.) I don't cut them up before I bake them, I just wipe down the outsides with olive oil, cut a few slits around the top and bake them whole in a 350 F oven for an hour to an hour and a half depending on the size.

I let them cool completely and then cut them in half. The seeds and stringy stuff can be easily scraped off the flesh and the skin just peels off.  I give the flesh a few spins in my food processor and then put it into freezer containers. Most recipes call for a can of pumpkin (15 oz) so I freeze 15 oz. portions.

I'm looking forward to that first pumpkin pie!

Back in Harness

Welcome to my new followers!

Everyone is now in school and we're settled into our routine for the semester. Monday nights from 5:30 until our son in law gets home from work, we have the grands. Also Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, although it's just the "baby" then. I guess he has really graduated to toddler now, but he still gets called "the baby".

I am looking forward to a quiet weekend-hoping to get some cleaning and sewing done. It's still pretty warm here and very dry. I'm so ready for fall! I'm baking some pumpkin bread right now, except I didn't have any pumpkin. I had a cup of  butternut squash in the freezer so I added some applesauce to that and we'll see what happens-it smells good anyway! Some smoked sausage, mac and cheese and green beans for supper tonight.

Sorry my post isn't very exciting. When my dad was alive, we'd go visit him and he always asked "so what's going on that's exciting?" I always told him we did "exciting" as little as possible!

September

This month brings my favorite time of year.  Autumn comes gradually to Texas-temperatures are still hot most days in September, but it won't be too long before it begins to cool off. There's an almost golden light in the trees though the leaves haven't begun to change color much-a few drift down when the breeze blows. Things are definitely starting to wind down-spiders have spun their egg sacs and the crickets and locusts are getting quieter. Gold and purple autumn flowers are everywhere and we've started seeing more deer in the mornings and evenings. This time of the year finds me drawing in more-I want to stay home, do more baking and cooking for the freezer and spend more time savoring mornings on the porch with a cup of tea.  I watch the slow change of seasons and I'm content.