Dinner at Our Place With New Friends

On Thursday my friend Julie and her husband Guy came over for dinner. I met Julie at a friend's party last fall, and the two of us have hung out together since, however, this was the first time the men joined in. Everyone, including Eddie the cat, got along very well!

Hello Pumpkin : Roasting, Toasting and Brewing

With American Thanksgiving on Thursday and Pumpkin Pie on the menus of many people, I thought I'd save my post about home-roasting your own pie pumpkins for this week.

One of the first things Nick cooked for me was a Pumpkin Pie from scratch. I was making him dinner at my place and he volunteered to bring dessert, and when I say from scratch I mean it. I was blown away by the fresh flavour of the 'real', not from a can, pumpkin (and clearly by the man who introduced me to it!)

So we've been buying pie pumpkins in the fall, and roasting them ourselves since then. The puree stores well in the freezer and you can enjoy pumpkin baking and soups throughout the year.

Pie pumpkins are those small ones about the size of a bowling ball and their flesh is tender. I wouldn't use the typical jack-o-lantern pumpkins for this as they tend to be stringy and tough. 6 pie pumpkins yields enough puree to make 9 pies (or soups, etc.), so at the price here of about $1.75 per pumpkin, the puree is only a little over a dollar per pie. So not only does this method result in wonderful flavour but it's very economical too.

Someone Found Himself a Sun Beam

You haven't seen this guy featured here for a whole month so it's high time, right? My lovely friend Sooae even clicked over last weekend to see him, but the weekly Pet Related Post had been usurped by this cute dog from the 'hood.

Well now, let's see if Eddie is doing anything interesting enough to warrant having his picture put on the internet ...

Pressed Leaves and Branches Bouquet

Here’s a way to bring some of Autumn’s beauty indoors, with a natural bouquet made of pressed leaves and branches.When I gathered these brilliant maroon coloured maple leaves I really wasn't certain what I was going to do with them, but the scattering of them on my path was just too pretty to pass up. I wasn't alone, because, as I selected the perfect specimens, I was joined by another woman who also wanted some.At this point I should say that in the past I have tried taking a fresh tree branch that still had leaves on it and making a display by simply plunking it in a vase of water. It didn't take long for those leaves to curl right up in an unattractive manner and cause me to deem that idea a 'fail'.  So, I knew that a lifelike display would require doing something more than that.  Here’s what I came up with.How to make a bouquet of branches with real leaves :Find some pretty leaves.Press and dry the leaves by placing them between the pages of a magazine that you no longer want. Note that pressing plants will cause damage to the pages they are pressed between, so if you want to save a leaf or flower within the pages of a treasured book, press it in an unwanted magazine first, until it is perfectly dry. Oh yes, and leaves must still be moist and pliable when they are put between pages for pressing. If they have already begun to dry and curl they will crack when put between the pages.Place the magazine with the leaves on a flat surface and put a pile of heavy books on top.After a few days they should dry enough to use.