Fresh Pureed Pumpkin

As I mentioned before, the Iowa Farmer grew lots of yummy stuff this year. He has a huge lot of cinderella pumpkins so we turned one into a stagecoach. Just kidding, but we did turn it into soup, crunch cake, muffins, and added it to applesauce. We even used the seeds too!! We started out by making into a puree...

Pureed Pumpkin

What you'll need:
1 large pumpkin (the baking kind not for carving; I actually never really knew the difference)
1 heavy duty knife, and maybe a nice strong man to cut it for you

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the pumpkin into fourths and poke with a fork like you would a baked potato. Put the pumpkin in a 13x9 baking dish with a 1/2" layer of water at the bottom. Bake for 1-2 hours until the pumpkin is soft in the middle (poke with a fork). Remove from the oven and let cool. After is has cooled separate the flesh from the shell and place into a food processor. Blend until smooth. There you go now you have pureed pumpkin for all those Fall and Holiday recipes. Super simple, a little time consuming but totally worth it based on the difference in taste. Check back to see what other recipes we used it in.

Note: 1 can of store bought pumpkin equals 2 cups, also fresh pureed pumpkin has more water in it than store bought.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

As I mentioned we even baked the seeds at the same time as the pumpkin...yummy!!

Preheat the oven to 350-375. Place foil on a baking sheet. Mix the pumpkin seeds with olive oil and a garlic seasoning mix. Pour everything onto the baking sheet and bake for 2 minutes, check on them and stir 'em around. Bake another 2-4 minutes until you hear them pop!

How to Pickle Jalapeños

The Iowa Farmer has grown some amazing things on his farm this year. I never made it out to the farmer to see his garden, but I've seen all of his produce. Tons of pumpkins, chilis, jalapeño peppers, fresh garlic, carrots, squash and many more. They had a lot of jalapeños hanging around in the fridge when I got there so we decided to pickle some. I never realized how easy pickling can be!

Here is what you'll need:
A Mason Jar for storage
1 part water
1 part white vinegar (I read somewhere that cider vinegar is yummy too)
Salt
Garlic (we used a dried version from the garden)

Slice the jalapeño's into 1/4-1/2" circles. You may want to remove some of the seeds depending on how hot you want them to end up. Most of the heat is in the seeds. Toss into the mason jar. Boil the water and vinegar we used about 1/2 cup of each for 8 peppers. You just need enough to fill the jar. Add the salt and garlic to the peppers. Boil for a minute and then pour over the peppers in the jar. Screw on the lid and watch as the peppers slowly lose their bright green color. Let cool and put in the fridge over night. Our peppers turned out super hot (the farmer liked them, but me and my sis could only eat half at a time). Less seeds for me next time please!!!

DIY Infinity Circle Scarf

I've seen this infinity scarf pinned millions of times on Pinterest, but had to search harder to actually find a good tutorial. This girl's video is awesome and I absolutely love the music in the background. I also think she used a material other than jersey knit, so I'm looking to try that in the future. I love how the 3 I made turned out and how warm and versatile it is!This scarf can be worn countless ways. The American Apparel website sells them for about $30 and they show girls wearing them even as a dress (mine isn't wide enough for that.) If you made it wide enough it could double as a baby carrier (sling style).  I used jersey knit, one solid, one print and it cost about $10 a yard, but I had a coupon for 50% off from MonaVie, and made my purchases on black friday (big savings!). There are lots of good deals online including eBay where you can get it for cheaper.

What you'll need:
2 yards of Jersey knit fabric
Sewing machine
Needle
Thread
Good scissors

You can use all of the fabric or cut it down width wise to make it a little thinner. I cut mine to 60" by 45" I used the scraps to make a mini scarf that Sweet P is modeling up top. Remember that you want to be able to wear it as a hood. This video is too good for me to explain the process any better. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!

LSU Win

I'm hoping there's a National Championship in our future...