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National Pumpkin Day - supping Pumpkin soup and more!
For National Pumpkin Day QUICK AND HAPPY FOOD FUN:
instant pumpkin soup and other ideas:
- preheat oven to 400F.
Using any orange pumpkin - large, small, spagetti or classic
Quarter, seed/clean pumpkin. Save seeds and process as you wish, or discard.
Bake, inside-down, in a large roaster, with the sections nested to form a sort of tent, if you can with some water in the pan for just a bit of moisture as it bakes. Test with fork after 30 minutes, but may take an hour...will smell right :-) ( option: if you like the spice aroma while it bakes, go ahead and sprinkle some at it - cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, and a sprikle of salt - nice smells. But plain is fine, too)
When done, allow to cool, then scoop out the pumpkin and discard the shell, soft or hard. Now the fun begins and is easy:
Nearly Instant Pumpkin SOUP happens in under 5 minutes:
Place some of the baked pumpkin in your smoothie maker or processor , with enough water to make it "go" easily - and pulse till smooth.
Place in dish or soup bowl , add spices and butter to taste and heat till hot. Bubbly can get messy and burn you with splashing, but if it feels witchy-tasty, go ahead.
THAT'S IT - just plain tasty and wildly nourishing, too!
OPTIONS: Add a meat stock or hot dogs or sliced carrots or peas or beans, potato...whatever... use your imagination. BUT TASTE-TEST IT IN A SMALL AMOUNT OF THE SOUP FIRST, BEFORE ADDING IT TO THE WHOLE AMOUNT, in case your imagination is not quite on the mark and it fails in flavor.
ORRRR ...more fun with all that pumpkin:
- Side dish VEGETABLE - serve in chunks or loosely fork mashed as you would any other squash
- smoothed to thick chunks like apple sauce, sweetened and spiced, even HOTspices, alongside a thing.
- I have not tried to make pumpkin chips but I'll bet they could be done, with the baking stopped while the pumpkin was still part-firm, so it could be sliced and quick fried or broiled. Butter and salt if you like. maybe?
And of course
- PUMPKIN PIE - follow any pumpkin pie recipe for pies or tarts.
- Cookies and muffins and cupcakes and pumpkin bread or cake - delicious and colorful health.
YES.. especially if you baked a large pumpkin: use some/ freeze some, by simply putting a few cups into a freezer baggie. I have no idea how soon to use it because mine has never been there long. :-D
Here is a link to the "National Day Calendar" for a Happy National Pumpkin Day! - and more recipes, too!
The Murder of the Part-Time Wardrobe - a holiday fun mystery in 500 words!
fun thing for Thanksgiving weekend improvisation
Four Art shows! Count'em - four! And no sales from this venue of the previous five years! A lifetime first- no sales. Alone now, and thrilled to be running around and doing life in full health after a disability that could have been fatal, the need to recover the MONEY to full health was now the key.
And so it was easy to slip the charge into the back of the large gold frame that enhanced my entry in the largest of the shows!
My art had won prizes since girlhood, church and state, all the way to the White House, and so the zero sales were NOT okay.
For five years, the huge gallery had been "home" - so much time there, setting up, screening, doing drop-offs and pickups and receptions, promotions and related side-shows! The place had become a wardrobe of a sort - the contents inserted and removed as needed - changed all the time, but not entirely, and provided a magic portal to world-class events, thanks to the very hard work of all involved. A Part-Time Wardrobe, Indeed!
No sales directly associated with the place - NONE. A lifetime first- NOT ONE SALE!
Life had been good, then tragic , then redeemed, but not really unless the money would redeem as well.
NO sales? No sales meant NO redemption in this real world.f
I am a redcrosslady and non-violent, but gee! So poison charges in the frame would do the trick - nothing deadly, and triggered at pickup, the art would be fine and no one hurt - but fogged enough to stink the place up, to high heaven, till Spring!
YES....
I got busy helping with the take-down, and enjoyed the “wardrobe” one more time - taking in all the art, as the artists collected them at show’s end. Then as I took hold of my own “part of the art” I released the stink bomb capsule into a corner not visible to anyone who did not already know it was there.
Bye Bye - Happy Holiday! So good to see you all again - was quite sincere- they had been good and kind and great fun and restored the dead to life with their art and its related work for five years with me as a respected member! Bye bye- and hit the “on “ switch to my stinkbomb , then the “off”switch to my “Tempoary Wardrobe” and danced happily off to fine family holiday reunions.
Leaving art events smiling , with me, usually means that people liked the work and bought some - even a little.
I left smiling - and let them think so…….
This story fun to pass on from a facebook game begun by actor Benedict Cumberbach - click to join, if it is still there...if not, here, at least, is a screenshot to help you understand "what on earth?"