Squashed Pumpkin Soup

Warning, crappy pictures in this post.  I was too lazy to get good pictures (or at least try to get good pics) because I wanted to stop procrastinating and just blog already.

Just before Halloween a farmer I know from work gave me a couple of pumpkins he grew. He said they were called "peanut pumpkins" and were hard to find, and he grew them every year and gave them away to friends.  I offered to buy a couple, but he said I could have them.  They were interesting, and I thought I'd save some seeds and grow them next year.  He said they were good for pies, so I also wanted to cook them down for puree. 

Last week I was looking through my Baker Creek 2013 seed catalog, dreaming about the garden.  You've got to get one of their catalogs...just amazing.  So I was looking through the catalog and found the peanut pumpkin! Turns out it's called Galeux D'Eysines, and it's a type of squash.  I read it is used in France for soups, so I decided to make a soup out of one of mine. 

So I cut it in half, removed the seeds, and baked it in the oven until it was tender.  Then I scooped out the flesh and put it in a pot with some sauteed onion, salt, and pepper.  I heated everything together, then pureed it in the food processor.  Then I returned it to the pot and added cream and come curry powder.  It's delicious!

David isn't a fan of it (he said the texture was like baby food), but I love it.  It's just how I imagined a good pumpkin soup would taste. 

Oh, and the seeds are drying so I can grow my own this year!  I have plenty of seeds, so if anyone would like me to send you a few, just let me know in the comments and I'll get in touch with you! 

A New Year

Yesterday morning the sun rise was so pretty.  I happened to wake up and look out the window, and it was pretty enough to make me jump out of bed and run downstairs to get my camera.  I call this shot "Sunrise Over the Chicken Coop."  Heh.
















I figured it was a good way to start out my New Year's post.  I haven't done a New Year's post in the past few years, but I figured I'd jot down a few goals of mine for this year. 

1.  Blog more.  Our computer is old and slow and I get so frustrated when I try to blog, so I end up not blogging as much.  Maybe this year will be the year I can finally get a laptop, so I don't have to sit in the basement away from everyone while I'm on the computer.  My husband just asked why I needed to blog, and it's because it's nice to look back and see what we've done.  It's a great way to document pictures and activities and stuff like that.  It's like a scrapbook, only without having to do all that cutting and gluing.

2.  Take care of myself more.  I would like to add in more exercise and make it part of my routine instead of an occasional thing.  I have had back troubles lately (herniated disc), so I need to strengthen my back and make sure it's healthy.  It's hard to take care of livestock when you can't move.  I'm also going to try to add in more veggies, though I feel like we eat healthier than the average American.  We can always do better.

3.  Speaking of eating more veggies, I'd like to have a better garden. Every year I start out with good intentions, and the garden gets off to a good start.  Then summer heat hits and makes me not want to be outside at all, we get a drought, the weeds take over, etc.  I'd like to find ways to get around that, by either mulching more or using irrigation under black plastic, which will help our very sandy soil retain water.  I start looking through seed catalogs in the winter, and it makes me have huge dreams for the year's garden.  Hopefully this year I can really do my best to make it happen.

4.  I've had goals with the animals before...like getting meat rabbits and raising pigs.  I did both of those last year.  This year I'd like to focus more on the rabbits and get them producing more.  One litter in one year isn't exactly stellar.  We may or may not raise pigs again this year, it all depends.  Hopefully both of the goats, June and Ida, are bred, so we'll have plenty of milk if we do decide to get pigs.  Pigs love goat milk.

5.  Purl & June.  I'd like to expand Purl & June and concentrate on getting more product out there.  I'd really like it to be more profitable.  I'm finding it takes more than just making soap to sell soap.  There's a good bit of marketing involved. 

6.  The house..  Every year I say I'm going to paint the mudroom, or the bathrooms, etc.  I'd like to do a little work in the house to make it a little prettier.  We don't need any major remodeling, just final touches.  Our closets desperately need to be organized, so I'd really like to finally get little stuff like that done. 

Well, that's about all I can think about right now.  I'd like to come back as the year goes on so I can read this post and remind myself what I want to get done.  I'll also try to blog about changes so I can keep track of them as we go. 

What are your goals this year?  I'd love to hear them.

Christmas Time

I haven't been blogging much lately because life has been busy.  David's mom is at Hospice, so that has been our main focus lately.  Add in the holidays, and the blog gets put on the back burner. 

I can't believe another Christmas has passed, they seem to go by so quickly.  We had a good one though!

Santa came!

He brought the kids some really good stuff.  Devin got a poster of the General Lee.  He has been watching The Dukes of Hazzard at his mom's house. 

Kylee got a new doll, so now her other doll has a friend.

Kylee got a sewing machine!  And Devin got a really cool Snap Circuits set.

Santa also brought Devin two new Nerf guns, so now he and David can have Nerf battles. How awesome for me. 

Chilli the cat spends most of her time in the basement (because that's where the pellet stove is), but she decided to grace us with her presence as we opened the presents (like my homonym?).  It was a Christmas miracle.

Kylee got a kick out of the chocolate "coal" in her stocking.

Buford and Elmer both got new bones.  They're rope toys with cow hooves attached.  They love them.

I knitted Kylee a mitten and cowl set. I love the yarn (Karaoke).

And Devin finally got a needle felting kit! He has been begging to try needle felting for a while now.  He's so excited to try it. 

I didn't take a picture of our meal, but I did get a chance to snap a picture of the ham.  This was the first ham we cooked from our pig.  It was really good.

I got some really great presents too.  I'll have to take pictures of them and blog about them another day.  I hope you all had a great Christmas too!

What She Said

My sister and I think alike usually (except when cilantro is involved), and I wanted to share her recent blog about the event that occured in Connecticut last week.  I agree with her completely.  You can see her post here, at her blog, The Stockpot. 

Christmas Elves

We've spotted a couple of Christmas elves at our house!

New Holiday Items in the Shop!

I just added several new holiday items to the Purl & June Etsy shop, so check them out!  There are limited quantities of the holiday soaps, so if you want them order now!  

Here's the new Hot Cocoa soap! This soap smells so good you'll want to eat it!

  

And my personal favorite, the Fresh Cut Fir.

Cranberry...

And Gingerbread

And I also have soap gift sets available too.  Each one comes with a hand knit, organic cotton washcloth, a wood soap tray, and a bar of Cranberry, Fresh Cut Fir, and Gingerbread soaps.  If you want different scents, I can do custom sets as well.  These would make great gifts for teachers, babysitters, aunts, cousins, sisters, moms, you name it.

And last but not least, I just listed a new needle felted wool scene. 

Remember to shop hand made this holiday season!

Big Bertha

She is large and in charge.  This big momma is my Cornish Cross hen, who got a lifetime pass to stay here as long as she lives.  She was raised with the batch of broilers I raised for my sister, two and a half years ago.  She's still keeping up with all the other chickens, although she probably weighs more than three times what they do.  She roosts on the lowest rung, and she can get up into the nesting box too.  People say Cornish Crosses are freaks of nature and won't live long, but that's not always the case. If they're pushed feed, they'll have issues. If they're raised with plenty of exercise and not too much food, they can live long lives like this gal.  I can't help think how many meals we'd get out of her, but I already told her she's a pet.