Organic Produce and A Pumpkin Pie

So today's post has nothing to do with scrapbooking, and that's ok.

I got my first shipment from Door to Door Organics. A lady I work with was telling me about it, and I thought is sounded like a good idea.

If all my shipments are going to be as awesome as this one I think it's a very good idea.

This is what came in my produce box. I got the smallest option of mixed fruits and veggies. They send you a list of what they're going to send, and you have the option to swap items for others. We got,

3 pears
1 pie pumpkin (oh more on that guy in a sec!)
4 roma tomatoes
1 cauliflower
4 fuji apples
3 oranges
2 bananas
3 pomegranate and
1 thing of romaine lettuce.

All for $27 and they delivered it to my house! I'm already in love with it. My only problem is the bananas are yellow, and if you know me, you know that I don't eat yellow ones, only green ones. But that's a personal problem...and they look fine otherwise.

So the pie pumpkin was our controversial item. As soon as Jonathan saw the list he inquired about the possibility of pie in his future. I figured why not, I've never made a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, and as I was asking around to find out more about it, neither had a lot of people. So I photo documented the process I used. (hooray for the internet)


This very cute pumpkin met it's end by this very sharp knife.

You pull off the stem and cut it in half.

If you think pumpkins are gross (I'm totally on that wagon) then you get your husband to do the gross part. I love pumpkin pie, but hate actual pumpkins. They stink and they're slimy...I wonder how anyone figured out you can make pie from it.

When he's done, you take the credit and you have 2 empty pumpkin halves.

Since we didn't have a ton of time in case this whole pie making thing backfired we used the cheater method. You oil the cut side with vegetable oil, cut it up enough so it will fit into a bowl, add 1 cup of water, cover it....

And microwave the crap out of it. It only took about 15 minutes. If we were to bake it in the oven we're talking about 60-90 minutes..and I just don't have that kind of time. The weird thing is, that your kitchen will start to smell like fried chicken..I don't know why.


And again, since those pumpkin pieces are smoking hot, still slimy and stinky, you call in the reinforcements.

After you get back from the chiropractor appointment (right in the middle of the day, that is totally interfering with pie making) then the pumpkin will be cool enough to handle. I used a spoon and a blender. It was oily and stinky, and I was thinking the whole time that there is no way this is ever going to taste good.

You puree it, and if I had a better blender it would have happened a lot faster. But oh well. At this point you use your favorite pie recipe. And take a little help from the dough boy for the crust (unless you're that much of an over achiever)

Here is is. I forgot to use my crust cover..so the backside is a little brown, but that's ok. Some people like it that way.

It was tasty! I can't decide if it's better than from a can or not. It's way more work that's for sure. When I make a pie I use canned pumpkin, not canned pumpkin already ready to go. So it's pretty close, but now I can say I've done it..and it was worth it. I'm not sure if it will be a repeat performance or not.

I'm working all weekend long, so I hope everyone has a good one.

Jessica

Two Sauce Lasagna Bowls

I hardly ever make Rachael Ray's food, but I did this weekend...and it was really good.
The reason I never make her food is because there are no pictures. So unless I see it on her show I'm not doing it. So I took a picture of what I made, because I recommend you make this..tasty.

Here's the recipe from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 1 pound Campanelle pasta (I used rotini pasta)
  
• Salt
  
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 pound pancetta, a couple of thick slices, chopped
• 3/4 pound ground beef pork and veal mix or ground beef (I used all ground beef..a whole pound)
  
• 1/2 large carrot, peeled and grated or finely chopped
• 1 small to medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, 2 chopped or grated, 1 peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice, a couple of pinches (I don't have this, so I made it up..garlic salt, dry basil and oregano.)
  
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf (didn't use this)
  
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry red wine (there seems to be a theme...I used more beef stock instead of wine..I don't like wine)
  
• 2 cups beef stock
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
  
• Nutmeg, to taste
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, plus some to pass at table (I'm pretty sure I used way more that 1/2 cup..oh man it was good.)
  
• A handful fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Directions

Heat large pot of water to a boil, salt water and cook pasta to al dente.

While pasta water comes to a boil, heat olive oil in a medium sauce pot over medium-high heat, add pancetta and render 2 to 3 minutes then add meat and break up as it browns. When the meat has begun to caramelize and develops a nice brown color, 4 to 5 minutes, add carrot, onion, 2 cloves of garlic, allspice, salt and pepper and a bay leaf. Cook 3 to 4 minutes more to soften onions and carrots bits then stir in tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in wine and cook out 1 minute then stir in stock and reduce heat to simmer.

While red sauce cooks, cut remaining whole clove of garlic and rub the inside of a medium sauce pot with it. Melt butter in pot over medium heat. Add in flour and whisk together a minute or so then whisk in milk and bring to a bubble, reduce heat then season sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg, thicken 8 to 10 minutes. (I let mine cook too long..and I would have liked it better if it cooked less time...the meat sauce takes a long time to reduce, so definitely wait until it's been simmering a few before starting the white sauce...since I'm not like Rachael Ray and don't have a team to wash my dishes I used the pot I cooked the pasta in to make the white sauce. And this way I can dump the pasta back into the sauce)

Toss pasta with white sauce and 1/2 cup grated cheese. Serve pasta in individual bowls and top with a ladle of meat sauce in the middle of the bowl for mixing in. Garnish with parsley. (I used cheese instead of parsley..I think cheese is better ;-) )

Anyway, we didn't really do much this weekend since Jonathan has been sick...just cooking.

I'll have some more cards sometime this week. And next week I'm going to try to participate in the TGF CHA Relay..oh yes. I'm excited about it.

Jessica

Halloween Dinner

We had a blast last night. Dinner was delicious and we had a great game night with our friends Brandon and Lori.

No Halloween would be complete without spiderwebs.

Are you scared yet?

We eat by only candle light.

I go to great lengths to collect cool candles.

Bloody glasses...you don't mind do you?
It just looks gross...but it was delicious.

Spiderbread. Yum!

Blood and worms to go on the Feet of Meat.

Feet of Meat..so good!


Spiderweb cheesecake..it was my first cheesecake attempt..it was a beautiful thing!

The pumpkins we carved at Jonathan's parents house.


You know you want to make your own feet of meat. I'm making some for my coworkers on Thursday..I hope they like it as much as I do.

Jessica