And so it begins...

I started my Christmas baking last night with two batches of Chocolate-Peppermint cookies and one batch of Mint Surprise cookies. It felt so, so good to bake something Christmas-y...and now I am full of holiday spirit.  And cookies.  

I made my Chocolate-Peppermint cookies as I have for the past several years.  My cookie is based on Hershey's Double Chocolate Mini Kisses Cookies recipe.  I simply decrease the amount of vanilla to one teaspoon, add one teaspoon of peppermint extract, and substitute the Mini Kisses for Andes Peppermint Chip Baking Bits.  Heaven!

I tried a new recipe and combined chocolate with mint to make these Mint Surprise cookies, which is based on Hershey's Triple Chocolate Cookies. I added one teaspoon of mint extract to the batter, omitted the chocolate chips entirely, and used Hershey's Mint Chocolate Truffle Kisses for the top. 

These were absolutely delicious!  The bag of Kisses contained twice what I needed for the recipe, and at the rate these are going, I'll need to make another batch soon. And next time, I might throw in some mint chocolate chips in the batter (instead of the mint extract--or maybe in addition to?) to turn the mint flavor up to full-blast.  Seriously, you should make these--they are amazing!

Then, because the oven was on and I needed to use up some pumpkin puree leftover from Thanksgiving, I made pumpkin doughnut muffins.  Because I can't live on just cookies, you know?

Actually, I could live entirely on cookies.  My health would be dreadful and my teeth would rot out of my head, but I could make it work for several years before being claimed by scurvy.

My holiday baking is now 15% complete.  That is, if I don't eat all of these cookies myself. If so, then it's back to the drawing board kitchen for me.  And I am completely fine with that.

My Martha street cred

My Martha street cred has gone through the roof.  Seriously. 

Let me explain: my goal is to be like Martha Stewart as much as possible, and when I can't do something just like her, I'll put my own spin on things.  This applies to anything Martha does: homekeeping, crafting, entertaining, gardening, decorating and more.  Now, though, I've truly done it. 

I made homemade pumpkin pie, using puree made from PUMPKINS I GREW IN MY OWN GARDEN. 

Just. like. Martha. Stewart.

I have achieved Martha-ness.  I grew something, harvested it, AND TURNED IT INTO A PIE.  Let me tell you, it feels amazing!  This must be what it feels like to rule the world!

Ahem.  Sorry, I got carried away there.

The great news in all this is that not only have I achieved (if only for a few hours) Martha-ocity, but you can too!  Making pumpkin puree is actually quite easy, and you don't even have to grow your own pumpkins to do it.

I simply followed the directions on Martha's website.  Start with a small sugar or baking pumpkin.  Pierce the pumpkin all the way through with a sharp knife, and bake it for 60-90 minutes at 400F.   Martha's directions state to put the pumpkin in a baking dish along with an inch of water, but my pumpkins were too big for that. I placed them on a foil-lined cookie sheet with a bit of water, and just added more water as necessary.

The pumpkins get nice and soft, and the rind starts to separate itself from the pulp.  Very easy!

When the pumpkins were cool enough to handle, I cut them apart.  Seeds and stringy stuff when into the compost bin, and pulp went into a big bowl.  When I had enough in the bowl, I ran it through the food processor.  Of course, I should have put the pulp right into the food processor and not dirtied up a dish, but I didn't think about that until the process was over.  See what I mean about putting my own spin on things?  That's just how I roll sometimes!

Puree went into quart size freezer bags.  Four pumpkins gave me approximately eights quart bags of pumpkin puree.  The puree from the fully mature pumpkins will need to be squeezed out before I use it, but that can be done easily using a cheesecloth.  Or, I might turn that batch into pumpkin soup.  The rest of the puree will be used for pies, Martha's delicious Pumpkin Donut Muffins, Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing and more.  Yum!

Here's where that amazing "Oh-my-God-I-am-just-like-Martha-Stewart-gaze-upon-my-creation-in-awe!" feeling began to wear off and turn into a "gee-whiz-that-is-a-ridiculous-amount-of-pumpkin-puree-and-I'm-really-tired-I-could-use-a-break" feeling:

Achieving Martha-ness is awesome, but it sure does make a mess.  Next step: acquire Martha Stewart's staff of 40 to start cleaning up after me.  And then the student will truly become the master. 

A girl can dream, right? 

Martha Monday--Martha's pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.  That, and the turkey, are what make the meal. The sides can change (well, not at my house) but pumpkin pie and turkey are the holiday's constant companions.  Now that my turkey recipe and procedure are tried, true and set in stone, I decided to experiment a bit with my pumpkin pie.

Using puree made from pumpkins I grew over the summer (more on that tomorrow), I made two pumpkin pies:  the Libby's version and Martha's version.  Of course, my two favorite chef's assistants helped.

As I mentioned, the pumpkin puree came from my own pumpkins. However, the one used for these recipes was quite immature when I harvested it, and it had a milder pumpkin flavor than what I was used to.

Martha's pumpkin pie baked up nice and golden, though I must say that it took almost 50 minutes to bake, not the 30 minutes as stated in the recipe.

The Libby's version, which is the pumpkin pie recipe printed on their cans of pureed pumpkin, also did well with my homemade puree.

To be fair, I conducted a blind taste test with my neighbor Yogi and with my coworkers.  Overwhelmingly, people liked Martha's version of pumpkin pie more.  Because her recipe uses a full cup of brown sugar, instead of the 3/4 cup of white sugar, it is a sweeter pie.

I have to admit that at first, I preferred the Libby's version of the pie.  I am not a fan of eggs, and since Martha's recipe uses three instead of two, there was just a bit too much egg taste in there for me. However, once the pies had rested in the fridge for a day or two and I re-tasted them, I did like the Martha recipe better. It is a sweeter pie and comes across as a more sophisticated version of the regular pumpkin pie. 

For this Thanksgiving at my in-laws, I'll be making both versions again to get another round of feedback. The winner will get a permanent place on my Thanksgiving menu.  But if you are looking for a more elegant pumpkin pie, give Martha's recipe a try. 

Pumpkin picking

Last weekend we took the kids pumpkin picking. It was a very mild fall day and everyone enjoyed the outing.

The good folks at the pumpkin farm warned us that the harvest had been poor this year.  By the time we got there, the biggest pumpkins had been picked and most of the rest were claimed by bugs.  All I could think of when I looked at the rotting pumpkins was "Gosh, these would be perfect for my compost bin!"  But the Big Guy wouldn't let me put them in the wagon. Boo!

Little Guy and I happily traipsed through the fields looking for unblemished pumpkins.  It took a while, but we eventually found five small-to-medium size pumpkins that would work for our family.  I was really pleased that the Little Guy, without any reminder or assistance from me, remembered to pick out a pumpkin for Barley.

Little Miss was interested in the activity, but I think she was a bit intimidated by the tall weeds and grasses.  She didn't stray far from the wagon and was happy to jump back in when the pumpkins started arriving.

On the way back to the farm, we saw a black and orange caterpillar crawling on the ground.

Pumpkin picking was fun, but seeing this tiny creature might have been the highlight of the trip.

The kids were thrilled to "ooh!" and "aah!" over this bug for several minutes.  Good times!

Last year, the Little Guy and I went on our own to pick out pumpkins for the whole family.  Now that Little Miss is bigger, we've turned this into a tradition that the whole family can enjoy.  This weekend, we'll carve the pumpkins. While the kids can't help out too much because of their ages (giving a butcher knife to a 4 year old is never a good idea), that will change in a few years and pumpkin carving will become a tradition as well.

For basic pumpkin carving info, click here.  For great tips on carving pumpkins, click here.  Interested in making monogrammed pumpkins?  Click here.

Happy picking and carving!

XXX Pumpkins

So Aunt KB gave me 8 pumpkin seedlings in the spring, and 6 made it into my garden. A few weeks after planting them, I got this email from her:

"Thanks for the shout out on the blog. Good luck on the pumpkins. Just so you know - you have to have "pumpkin sex" to get a good harvest."

UM, WHAT???? EXCUSE ME????

KB continues:

"The girl pumpkin flowers are the ones with the green pumpkin balls under them - the boy pumpkin flowers do not have this part. You take a q-tip and get friendly with the boy flower and then introduce the q-tip to the girl flower. You will have a limited time in which to have pumpkin sex - so take advantage of an open flower. If all goes well the pumpkin ball will start to grow and turn into a big pumpkin.  KB"

After I finished reading this email bomb, I sat in my chair dumbfounded for quite a while.  I had to help the pumpkins reproduce?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MENTIONED WHEN YOU GAVE ME THE SEEDLINGS!!!!

Honestly, this was the first I had ever heard of helping plants produce fruit, and I know Martha has never mentioned this in her magazine/blog/website/show.  And also, isn't that what bees are for? 

I told KB she was crazy and bees handle this sort of thing and that I had no intention of helping pumpkins in the bedroom and this kind of thing really should have been discussed prior to me receiving the pumpkins and is this some crazy joke that more experienced gardeners play on newbies and OMG I gave one of those seedlings to MOM2 and are you telling me I need to have this conversation with her????

Fast forward several weeks later, when I have lots of flowers on my pumpkins (and zucchini for that matter) but no fruit.  I began to wonder if maybe KB was telling me the truth about the birds, bees and pumpkin business.

I attended a Master Gardener Q&A session where KB's wacky ideas about pumpkin pollination were confirmed. Turns out it not some crazy scheme cooked up by my aunt to make me do weird things to squash in my garden, but a way of helping nature out.  But believe me, I still tried to get out of the role of pumpkin pollinator.  I even whined to the Master Gardener, "Seriously, shouldn't bees be doing this?

And then she dropped a bomb on me..."Yes, but have you seen any bees in your garden this summer?"

And the truth is, I've only seen one or two bees all summer.  This is not good.

Dismayed by all this flowering-but-no-fruiting and bummed out by my lack of bees, I decided to bite the bullet.  I smushed some flowers together and hoped for the best.  Then I saw this:

See the golf-ball size pumpkin underneath the flower?  Maybe my pollination assistance had helped, even though the flower accompanying the baby pumpkin hadn't been smushed.  I thought my work was done, so I didn't mess with that flower.  I have come to regret that decision: here I am a week later, and it looks like that golf-ball size pumpkin is withering away rather than getting bigger.  Crap.

I'm having similar issues with my zucchini.  Lots of flowers but no squash so I started smushing flowers together there, too.

Now I do have three small zucchini growing, along with a question: Do I need to be pollinating every single female flower, or can I just do one or two and the plant will get the idea? 

This entire experience is leading me to think that next year, I either need to stay away from pumpkins or get myself a beehive in the backyard.  Pumpkin pollination might just be too much for this Martha wanna-be.  At any rate, I'll keep smushing flowers together and crossing my fingers that I get some pumpkins and zucchini in the fall!