Category: pumpkin

Pumpkins

Posted by – 2 Nov ’11








I know Halloween has past, but I couldn’t help but share a few of the amazing carved pumpkins and decorations we saw this year. Oh and an adorable black cat.

November is here and already our month is full of big things. Over the next few days we’ll be trying to see as many film as possible at AFI Fest. There is such an amazing selection and so many that I want to see, I can’t wait. Then, in a few weeks our two good friends, Baxter and Alicia, are getting married. Hooray! Then it’s my birthday. Then it’s Thanksgiving. That’s pretty much all of November! It’s going to be a busy month.

Halloween Pumpkin Mantle

Posted by – 17 Oct ’11

Generally speaking when it comes to Halloween decorations, I lean more towards the actual scary than the cute. On the other hand, I love pumpkins and I knew for our mantle I wanted a ton of pumpkins.

I bought a handful of fake pumpkins from the craft store (they never go rotten!) and went to town. I thought I’d stick with a black and white theme and at first I was tempted to make them pretty with patterned stencils, but was inspired to paint cute faces on them when we found a light up pumpkin at a Halloween store. We turned that one into a makeshift light putting it on an antique tripod.

Of course with the black and white theme, I was able to incorporate the ghosties I made.

Look at that happy pumpkin face! They were all painted with acrylic paint we had laying around the house. Pretty simple and pretty fast.

This is the just the beginnings of our decor. We have some more creepy awesome stuff that I’ll share over the next weeks. Not to mention that next weekend is our horror movie marathon and all the treats and decorations that go along with it. Can’t wait!

Autumn fun

Posted by – 4 Nov ’10

Let’s pretend, just for a moment, that it’s not nearly 100° here in Los Angeles. Let’s pretend this city actually has seasons and we’re in the midst of a cool, beautiful fall. It’s a perfect autumn day and we’re going on an adventure to the corn maze.

at the farm

Here we are, excited about the pumpkins and fall squash a plenty.

pumpkins

Gorgeous pumpkins and gourds of all colors.

crazy squash

Squash bigger than I’ve ever seen. You could feed a whole family with one of those banana squash.

into the corn

But we’re here for the corn maze, so let’s enter, shall we?

corn maze photos

Let’s enjoy the afternoon and take some photos.

the beginning

We’re surrounded by lovely lush corn. It’s an adventure for sure. Who knows where we’re going…

we're lost

In fact, we might be lost and the GPS isn’t helping.

this guy

And you have to be careful of masked men in the corn.

corn

The sun is moving lower in the sky and the corn is so tall we can’t tell which direction we’re going.

safe

But we escaped!

Getting lost has never been so fun.

Halloween Spirit

Posted by – 24 Oct ’10

This weekend we had our 3rd Annual Halloween Movie Marathon. It wasn’t as crazy as last year, where we went for two weekends in a row, but we still watched movies from Saturday night all the way through to Sunday night.

I made some pb cups & peppermint patties, because you have to have some Halloween candy. Some roasted pumpkin seeds for something salty. And of course, some pumpkin spice & espresso cupcakes, well, because I’m good at it. I didn’t, on the other hand, take photos. Mainly because of our spooky Halloween lighting.

Shawn also made tofurky dogs for everyone to fuel us through the night. And lots of coffee. LOTS of coffee and popcorn.

Anyway…this is just a preface to say that my post today is neither cute nor delicious. In fact, it’s creepy. Shawn and I have spent a good deal of time at the Natural History Museum lately. We are trying to take full advantage of our membership there. Not to mention they have amazingly cool stuff.

I thought this might be the only time of year when I could get away with sharing some of the awesome photos I’ve been able to get there at the museum and at special events. Get ready for a bunch of bones, insects and dead things. So if you’re squeamish, you’ve been warned.

preserved

horns and antlers

Antlers in storage.

walrus skull

A walrus skull. Massive.

shawn and the blue whale skull

Shawn and a blue whale skull at the museum’s marine mammal warehouse. This whale was recovered after it was hit and killed by a commercial freight ship about 30 years ago.

bones

The Natural History Museum is part of the network that collects dead animals that have been washed ashore for research.  They have the second largest collection of sea mammals, right after the Smithsonian.

hippo skull

Hippo skull. I’m pretty sure this is Bubbles, but now I’m not positive.

spider

spider

spider

trantula

horns and taxidermy

We ended our pre-Halloween weekend by going to the museum’s haunted cave party. It was really a family thing, but it was lots of fun wandering around  after hours in costumes. I’m totally obsessed with all the taxidermy they have. I am really just obsessed with everything in the museum.

Oh and in case you were wondering what we watched this weekend…here is the playlist…

  1. Halloween
  2. Ghostbusters
  3. Chopping Mall
  4. An American Werewolf in London
  5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
  6. Scanners
  7. Child’s Play
  8. Carrie
  9. Poltergeist
  10. Simon, King of the Witches
  11. The Prowler
  12. Crawlspace
  13. The Shining
  14. Interview with the Vampire
  15. The Exorcist

Pumpkin curry

Posted by – 22 Oct ’10

It’s pumpkin season. Hooray!

This is the year I had to actually roast one, not just get the puree from a can.  I wanted to make something different than the usual pumpkin bread or the like.

I would like to introduce you to my version of pumpkin curry…also lovingly known as the orangest of orange curries.

So it started innocently with this little pumpkin. It was sliced in half, all it’s guts removed and then placed face down on a baking sheet.

Baked in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes until it was tender and  left it to cool.

Then the fun part…peeling the skin off. Well, I thought it was fun.

roasted pumpkin

Then this pumpkin got chopped up and ready to meet it’s other orange friends…

sweet potatoes

Two sweet potatoes. (Also appropriately chopped for the occasion.)

orange cauliflower

Even an orange cauliflower showed up for the party.

curry and coconut milk

Where was I going with this?

Sorry I was hypnotized by the swirl of coconut milk and curry paste.

orange curry

There’s all the orange veggies having a party in a pot. Making curry love. Ok, that’s creepy.

Some carrots were supposed to come to this party too but they may have been eaten on the way there.

Oh dear. I think it’s past my bedtime. I’m writing about vegetable parties.

Here comes the recipe!

Orangest of Orange Pumpkin Curry

1 roasted pumpkin innards

2 sweet potatoes chopped

1 head of orange cauliflower

2 Tbsp coconut oil

3 gloves of garlic, minced

2 cans of coconut milk

1/3 cup curry paste, or more if you like

1 cup vegetable broth

Heat oil in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and curry paste and stir to combine for about a minute. Carefully add the coconut milk and then the vegetable broth and stir together. Add in the pumpkin. I decided to smoosh it in, but you could leave it as chunks if you preferred. Add in the remaining chopped vegetables.

Let simmer covered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When your veggies have softened, remove lid and simmer for 5 to 10 more minutes.

Serve over rice.

Thanksgiving 2009

Posted by – 27 Nov ’09

I’m going to keep the chatting to a minimum and just show you a photo tour of our Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!

It all started with a donut from Madeline Bistro.

The phillet no phish sandwich, Thanksgiving sandwich (which is pretty much all you could ever want from Thanksgiving), mashed potatoes and gravy.

Vanishing meal. Also consumed: biscuits & gravy, crepes filled with fruit. All amazing.

Visiting turkeys from Animal Acres. Luckily these guys will live long happy lives instead of being abused and murdered this Thanksgiving. Yeah, I said that.

Homemade pumpkin soy nog. My mom made this! I think that’s pretty awesome.

When making a pie, it is absolutely necessary to make a mess. It makes it taste better, I promise.

Best way to work up an appetite before Thanksgiving dinner. Okay so it was a rather leisurely ride to the beach. We were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.

Brussels sprouts with capers. Oh how I love brussels sprouts.

Perfectly fluffy and wonderful mashed potatoes whipped up by Shawn. He also made fabulous gravy to go on top.

There’s that apple pie! All baked up with the infamous crumbly top. This is the last thing I stuffed in my face today.

Happy Thanksgiving! (p.s. Shawn does not like to smile in photos. He really is having a good time, don’t let the serious face fool you.)

Pumpkin Ravioli

Posted by – 24 Nov ’09

Recently all I want to eat in the world is pasta with some sort of nutritional yeast sauce. It’s just so tasty and the perfect thing after a long day. In order to spice things up a little and tie in some of that fall flavor, I tried my hand at making pumpkin ravioli. Did you hear about the pumpkin shortage? Word on the street is there might not be any pumpkin left after Thanksgiving this year. Stock up before it’s too late. While you’re at it, you should try some of these raviolis.

This ravioli is rich and filled with all the essence of fall. It is perfectly paired with one of my new favorite sauces, a buttery sage sauce. I was so hungry that I kind of skipped the part where I write down the recipe for these guys but I can at least give you a general idea. All measurements are approximate.

Pumpkin Ravioli Filling

1 can pureed pumkin

1/2 cup Earth Balance

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Sage

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the pureed pumpkin and stir to combine. Add the seasonings to taste and cook for about 5 minutes.  Simple, right? Spoon into your prepared pasta dough (or whatever you’re using), form into raviolis and cook for 3 – 7 minutes.

The sauce, is very similar to the filling but with a completely different tangy flavor. It goes good with almost any pasta dish, but you probably want to avoid that since it’s pretty rich. It will be hard to resist though. Just so you know in advance. I never said this recipe was good for you.

Butter Sage Sauce

1/2 cup Earth Balance

1/2 tsp sage

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

juice of 1/2 lemon

ground pepper

Again melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan until it starts to bubble. Add the sage and nutritional yeast and let cook for about 3 more minutes, until it thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Stir to combine fully and serve and devour!

Baked Pumpkin Fusilli

Posted by – 31 Oct ’09

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

If you haven’t noticed, Halloween is my favorite. I had to get one pumpkin recipe in for VeganMoFo, but of course, I waited for the last minute and didn’t have any ideas that wouldn’t take all day. I turned to my trusted cookbook collection and found the Baked Pumpkin Ziti recipe in Veganomicon. Of course I didn’t actually follow the recipe, but it’s nearly the same. It was a hearty dish for lunch on Halloween, with a bit of spiciness. I didn’t have a chance to make the seasoned breadcrumbs for the top, and instead substituted some seasoned flax meal. This is perhaps where my version was seriously lacking. I enjoyed the dish but it wasn’t terribly exciting. I find that often pumpkin can turn a generally tasty meal into something rather bland. Next time maybe I’ll add in some tomato or just more spices.

And that brings us to the end of VeganMoFo 2009. It’s been a blast and I’m a bit sad it’s going to be over. I’m also a little relieved. This month has definitely been a strain on my psyche, trying to blog every day while  filling every other free moment with projects and fun to celebrate fall and Halloween. I loved it, but I won’t pretend there weren’t times when the lack of sleep really did get to me. I’m so glad I found so many other really amazing blogs out there to read though and some great inspiration.

death by guillotine and the elephant man

Now I’m off to prepare for more Halloween festivities. I still haven’t finished my costume. And I’m already running late! Yikes. Hope everyone has a frightful and delicious holiday!

More autumn flavors

Posted by – 18 Nov ’08

I made some pumpkin bread last week that was absolutely delicious. Super moist with some subtle spice. This is only half the loaf since it all got eaten so quickly. Pumpkin is seriously awesome. I’m going to have to come up with some more pumpkin dishes before the end of November. There is still time yet!

Wonderful news though….I’m getting a big baking treat tomorrow! A special present to myself. I’m sure a lot of people out there could guess what it is. So excited. :)

Happy Halloween!

Posted by – 31 Oct ’08

pumpkin cheesecake

As I’m sure I’ll be out gallivanting tomorrow evening, I thought I’d do my Halloween post tonight. I honestly can’t get enough of Halloween. I’m going to dress up as a bat tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get some good photos to show you all since I made my costume, well some of it at least. I swear I do other things besides bake.

Above is the pumpkin cheesecake I made this week. It was good but it didn’t blow me away. Perhaps it was that I kept wanting it to be pumpkin pie and not cheesecake. I still have yet to find vegan graham crackers anywhere so I used a store bought crust. I guess it could have been more like cheesecake and that would have been better as well. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, I just wanted it to be even better.

Shawn and I carved pumpkins tonight. Since we bought them so late, they were only $5 for three good sized pumpkins. It’s been quite awhile since either of us carved any. I decided to go for something cute and carved a sugar glider in my pumpkin. Shawn made a traditional jack-o-lantern with big eyes that I love.

“bon bon” and “little ricky”

VeganMoFo has definitely inspired me to step up my blogging and has been very rewarding (although not always easy). I’ve had a total of 13 posts this month, which while not nearly every day is at least double the most posts I’ve ever made in a month.