Pumpkin time! FRESH

Finally, I have enough energy to do things again! I have cleaned the house (well, started anyway) and made some food, though B is still helping me out on that front. But he loves it!

Yesterday, he bought a new grill. Now, we had a grill, but that grill is extremely small. The last apartment we lived in had only a small balcony on which to do anything outside (I'm talking two chairs, a small drinks table in between, and we still had to squeeze around to sit in them), so the grill was literally the smallest little charcoal grill we could find. Now that we have a house, with a beautiful front lawn, we decided to go ahead and make the purchase: a new, bigger, charcoal grill.

Last night, we broke it in. Two beautiful steaks on one side (almost two pounds of meat!) and a tray full of peppers, onions, and mushrooms on the other. I made some cornbread in the oven, and after we started our meal, B added a few ears of sweet corn to the grill, so we could eat them hot when we were ready. It was heavenly.

And on top of all of this, the weather is finally starting to cool down. We ate outside and actually got a little chilly. Which is all to say that I love fall and all the flavors that come with it. When we went to the store to pick up the meat, I couldn't help myself from adding a few pumpkins to the cart. I just had to have fresh pumpkin.

If you've never had fresh pumpkin, straight from the oven off the rind, you are completely missing out. The smaller ones are sweeter, and the grocery store even had the ones labeled "pie pumpkins" so it was really easy to choose the right one. And they were only $3-4! I love when something so yummy to turns out to be so cheap.

Anyway, I got two of these small pumpkins, each about 4 pounds or a little more. I came home and prepared the first one instantly. Instructions: Cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out all the seeds and strings in the middle (this is the fun part) and put them in a bowl for later. Plop them in the oven (I like to put them cut side down on a cookie sheet covered in parchment) and cook in 350 oven until the flesh is tender, about 30-45 minutes for my pumpkin. Remove from the oven, let cool, and scoop out into a bowl. Put all this flesh into a food processor and puree. And then eat. Eat to your heart's content. Because goodness can also come in a taste. And that is fresh pumpkin.

I made a pumpkin pie from all this pumpkin, but it turned out not so well. The crust got soggy in the middle, and there is too much ginger. I tried a new recipe and followed it pretty well, so I guess I'll just have to return to my mom's. And I have another pumpkin just waiting for me on the counter, so I think I might try again.