No Carriage for This Pumpkin

Debra bakes up some of her favorite fall treats.

As part of our fall/Halloween décor, we always display a few real pumpkins out on the front porch. This year we wound up with two giant pumpkins. (Purchased at the orchard where we go apple picking in September.) They proudly graced our front porch for part of September and all of October. But last weekend the time had come for them to serve a less decorative, but highly more delicious, purpose. We cut them up and turned them into yummy treats.

The first one we opened up was kind of 'icky' inside. Brown patches and the seeds were dark and a bit slimy. So, unfortunately, that one went into the trash. But the second one was perfect. My hubby did the honors of slicing it up, and then we both put our hands into the gooey insides and pulled out the seeds and stingy stuff.

The seeds were coated with butter and salt and put into the oven to roast. We're rebels and don't rinse the seeds like most recommend, as we like the flavor when some of the pumpkin insides are left on.

The large pieces of now seedless pumpkin were baked, which softens the skin so it can be removed more easily. This garnered us about four cups of pureed pumpkin and two more large freezer baggies filled with chunks of pumpkin flesh for another time.



The next day I gathered the rest of my ingredients and baked. First on the agenda was pumpkin cookies. These are not only a favorite of ours, but a favorite of Kyle's: the little boy featured in An Unexpected Blessing. Since we've been working on avoiding 'the whites' as part of a new health plan, I baked the cookies with whole wheat flour instead of white. I think they taste even yummier that way.

Then came pumpkin bread. This was a new recipe I found on line. Again, I substituted whole wheat flour for regular flour and used raw sugar instead of processed white. I'm not saying this makes the bread 'good for us', but we certainly feel a little less guilty eating it.

And, just in case our willpower totally broke down, I cut both recipes in half...only making a couple dozen cookies (an entire batch would be over four dozen) and one loaf of bread (a full recipe makes two). Of course I know there's plenty pumpkin left in the freezer for future batches!

So, although there were no godmothers in sight turning our pumpkins into carriages for a princess to go to the ball, we wound up with lots of yummy pumpkin treats. Which makes it a very happy ending!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

This Feels Like Home - now available in paperback from The Wild Rose Press and Amazon...FREE on Kindle November 19-23!

Life Imitating Art

As many posts have shown recently, our writing often is inspired by real-world moments that catch our attention for some reason. But what happens when it works the opposite way? This week a real-life happening occured that was right out of the pages of my new novella, An Unexpected Blessing.

In the story, my heroine, Katy, is a firm believer that Thanksgiving should get its due and be celebrated before any thought of Christmas takes place. Katy is a woman after my own heart. I modeled this part of her character on my own thoughts about the subject.

In one scene, she comes to the door and sees the yard covered in snow. She is not happy. It goes something like this:

One morning Katy opened the door to Joe’s smiling face. Her answering smile faded as she noticed the snow shovel in his hand.
“Why do you have that?” she demanded.
Joe looked down, then his gaze flew to hers. She immediately read the wariness in his eyes, but was so dismayed by what the shovel meant she didn’t take the time to reassure him she wasn’t harboring any thoughts of him doing violence. For the time being, she ignored the sadness slipping through her. She didn’t want Joe to think she was still afraid of him, but at the moment, a more immediate matter occupied her attention.
She peeked over his shoulder and moaned. A light dusting of snow covered the lawn. It sparkled in the sunshine. But she couldn’t appreciate its beauty. “No,” she whined. “It’s only November. It cannot snow.”
Joe raised an eyebrow.
She paused in her tirade to appreciate the effect it had on his face. But only for a brief second. “Snow is for Christmas. Not Thanksgiving. Ugh.”
He chuckled. “Wow. You are really hung up on that, aren’t you?”


In real life it went something like this. I was driving home from a meeting on Monday. A few flurries fluttered through the air. As I got closer to home, a few turned to many, which was extra apparent in the shine of the street lights. I announced my displeasure to my hubby as soon as I walked in the house. By the time I went to bed, some of the snow was starting to stick. In the morning I woke up to this:

Ugh. Ugh. And Ugh.

Luckily, just like in the story, it melted in an hour or so and we were back to the proper ground covering for Fall.

It made me think...if I would have known I was so good at predicting real life with my stories, I would have included something bigger and better. Maybe in my next book my heroine will win the Lottery!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com