Pumpkin in Many Forms: Drunken Pumpkin Chili
Thanksgiving was yesterday, but Calin and I celebrated with his family, which this year meant that I didn’t cook anything. I showed up in my apron and looked busy staying out of the kitchen while everyone else did the hard work. We did bring cream cheese and some of my pepper jelly as appetizers for the chefs and onlookers, which I suppose counts for something…
Don’t worry – we are doing my family’s Thanksgiving on Sunday, so I’ll have loads of things for you next week. But since I didn’t do any of my own chefing, I don’t have a real Thanksgiving post for you today. But I don’t want to leave you with nothing to read on this beautiful no-work Friday, with your full tummies and relaxing souls, so here’s another episode of Pumpkin Love.
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Continuing my fall obsession with pumpkin, I found this fantastic recipe for pumpkin chili. This is perfect because 1) chili is the easiest, tastiest soup I know, and I make lots of it in cold weather, and 2) it has pumpkin in it, which makes it feel even more seasonal. I wasn’t 100% sure how the flavors would work out, since I don’t usually combine pumpkin with savory things (other than ravioli, which I haven’t made but I really want to), but love of pumpkin and love of chili combined to make this something I just had to try.
Unfortunately, the weekend didn’t quite go as planned, and I didn’t have an evening where we would actually be home to eat chili! So I decided to make it as an all-day crockpot extravaganza and have a week night dinner instead. This, of course, meant that I had to modify the original recipe, because it was designed for real cooking rather than slow cooking. (more…)
Cupcake Friday: Halloweeny Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin-Cinnamon Icing
Happy Friday everybody. :) Turns out I never posted my Halloween cupcakes post, and how better to celebrate the coming weekend? So here they are! Halloweeny pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin-cinnamon cream cheese icing!
Inspired by Katie, created by Miz Purple, iced and eaten by Helper Hubby.
It’s never the wrong time to make cupcakes, but cupcakes in the fall get high marks, especially if they’re pumpkin. (more…)
Apple Picking is Good For The Soul: Part 2 – Apple Crisp
Don’t miss Apple Picking is Good For The Soul: Part 1 – Cinnamon Applesauce!
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After the applesauce extravaganza, I still had quite a few apples left (surprise, surprise… 18 lbs is hard to get through!), so one night I decided to make an apple crisp. It was a night when I had help eating it, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Ultimately, although this tasted reasonably good, it didn’t turn out at all the way I wanted it to. The biggest problem was the volume of liquid in the crisp, which I think was because I used fuji apples. (They’re sweeter and crunchier, so I think they have more water in them? How to Cook Everything gave me an apple chart, and fujis were listed as “eating apples” not “baking apples” or even “all purpose apples”, so there’s probably a reason for that – although they were great in applesauce.) (more…)
Apple Picking is Good For The Soul: Part 1 – Cinnamon Applesauce
In honor of fall, the day before Halloween, and almost-Thanksgiving, here is the first in a three (possibly more) part series about apples!
A few weekends ago we went apple picking!
We thought we’d just get a few pounds of apples. Turns out they’re heavier than they look! Two bags (we had to each have our own, of course) ended up being a little over 18 lbs. Whoops! So, of course, that meant I got to make things with them!
First up, applesauce! I love applesauce. A lot. But I especially love cinnamon applesauce. And the problem with store-bought cinnamon applesauce is that they don’t make a “natural” version without added sugar. So I decided to make my own.
Fall Bulbs – It’s Time To Dig
Here’s a few pictures of all the bulbs I ordered this year. There are lots of them. Lots and lots and lots. I’m very excited.
This is all of them:
LivingWithPurple 