Friday, November 20, 2009
Pumpkin Pie in a Jar
Here's a great recipe that I came across in my trusty 4H cook book. Now you can easily make pumpkin pie at any time of the year with fresh pumpkin. I always use up the carved pumpkins after Halloween because I feel bad just throwing away perfectly good pumpkins.
Pumpkin Pie in a Jar
Peel, remove seeds and cut pumpkin into small pieces. Bake, steam or boil in small amount of water until tender. Then put through a sieve. Measure the pumpkin pulp and any juice remaining. Then to each 3 cups of pumpkin add the following:
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp molasses (optional)
Mix well together and bring to a boil, simmering until quite thick. Stir often to prevent sticking. Seal in hot sterile jars. May be put in hot water for 10 minutes to be sure that they seal.
TO MAKE PIE
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cups prepared pumpkin
Beat eggs well. Add milk and pumpkin, mix well together. Put into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 375F until golden brown.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sometimes it takes something extreme to get ones butt in gear
...you know, like when your baby girl is just learning to crawl and you haven't put up a baby gate yet because you don't have one yet, and really she isn't moving that fast yet. Then one day while your back is turned she pulls herself over to the wooden, non-carpeted stairs, and takes a little tumble to the cement basement floor below. Thankfully she comes out of the ordeal with out a scratch or even a bruise. but the very next day you go and buy that baby gate.
Or more recently...like yesterday. We went down to Coutts for the community Remembrance Day Ceremony. After which, since Daniel had the day off work and the girls didn't have school, we decided to go for a little adventure. Daniel had grabbed our passports and the girls birth certificates, which we were keeping in a brown Government of Alberta envelope. I have been meaning to make a nice fabric passport and birth certificate holder for quite some time(since July to be exact when we got our passports). Daniel had also tossed in the envelope his wallet, which really isn't a wallet it is just big enough to hold his drivers license, credit and debit card and a very few other important cards. The plan was to take a little drive through Montana, have lunch, and maybe do a little shopping.
We first drove down to Shelby, where we stopped at the Town Pump(12:30pm) for some munchies and a potty break. While we were stopped I decided to get rid of some loose papers that were just on the floor of the van. One of the papers was brown paper wrapping from a package I had received recently and just had to open in the van before I got home. I collected up all the paper and what ever other garbage I could find and tossed it into the garbage can in front of the Town Pump Convenience store. Then we were on our way again, towards Cutbank where we would stop for lunch. The drive was beautiful. The sky was a beautiful blue and the rolling prairies were a gorgeous golden colour from the recent harvest.
After spending some time in Cutbank(leaving at about 2:30pm) we headed on our way to Browning and then headed up Highway 89 through the Hills where it was snowing steadily. The road was completely snow covered and the going was slow. Daniel kept his cool and you couldn't even tell that he was concerned. He later admitted it was a "hair raising" drive through the hills. It was pretty impressive how the snow just stopped when we descended down to St. Mary's lake. We then took the road from Babb to drive up close to Chief mountain to admire that impressive mountain.
Daniel had wanted to climb it again this year but just didn't ever find the right time or the people to go with him. We admired, then made our way to the Carway border crossing to start our journey home. Just as we were coming up to the border crossing, Daniel reached down in between our seats to get the brown envelope with the passports and birth certificates, and it wasn't there. We frantically searched the van, but no envelope. As I sat and thought about what and where we had done and been that day. I realized with horror that the envelope must have got mixed up with the brown paper wrapping that I had thrown away way back at Shelby. When Daniel suggested we go for an adventure, I don't think this is what he had in mind. The girls and I stayed in the van and Daniel went into Customs to see if he could use the phone to call the Town Pump in Shelby to see if they would look in the garbage for our envelope. Kathryn started to panic that we would never get home and that we would have to live in a hotel, and that would cost a lot of money. I told her that it wasn't going to do any good to panic, the only thing that she could do right now was to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help us find our passports and birth certificates, and Daniels wallet. You may wonder why we didn't notice the wallet missing sooner, but you see, Daniel had taken his credit card out of his wallet and just had it in his back pocket. and that is what we had used to fill with gas and buy lunch. So we all prayed in the van while Daniel was on the phone inside customs. When I saw him hang up the phone, I could tell that he had not got good news. He came back to the van and we began our trek back to Shelby(5:00pm) to go look through the garbage ourselves. It wasn't an option. We had to have them. To avoid the hair raising drive through the hills on snow covered roads in the dark, we took the Duck Lake Road, which was clear, no snow to be seen anywhere.
I felt calm the entire drive back to Shelby. I knew that we would find them and things would be OK. On the drive I often heard Kathryn offering a prayer in a whispered voice. The return drive was relatively quick and uneventful. When we arrived(6:30pm) the cashier thought we were crazy to want to go through the garbage. But it wasn't an option. While I was getting some popcorn and juice for the girls to munch on, Daniel disappeared with the maintenance man to the trash compactor. After about 15 or 20 minutes later Daniel reappears with passports and Birth Certificates in hand. Thank you Lord for making that happen. Tansley happily announced that "Daddy save the day!" as we headed on our way to home sweet home. We were back home before 8:00pm. I got the kids something healthy to eat, on Kathryn's request, put them to bed and then I began planning the passport holder that I had been meaning to make. This morning I sewed it all together. I think that this will be less likely to get accidentally tossed in the trash...what do you think?
Or more recently...like yesterday. We went down to Coutts for the community Remembrance Day Ceremony. After which, since Daniel had the day off work and the girls didn't have school, we decided to go for a little adventure. Daniel had grabbed our passports and the girls birth certificates, which we were keeping in a brown Government of Alberta envelope. I have been meaning to make a nice fabric passport and birth certificate holder for quite some time(since July to be exact when we got our passports). Daniel had also tossed in the envelope his wallet, which really isn't a wallet it is just big enough to hold his drivers license, credit and debit card and a very few other important cards. The plan was to take a little drive through Montana, have lunch, and maybe do a little shopping.
We first drove down to Shelby, where we stopped at the Town Pump(12:30pm) for some munchies and a potty break. While we were stopped I decided to get rid of some loose papers that were just on the floor of the van. One of the papers was brown paper wrapping from a package I had received recently and just had to open in the van before I got home. I collected up all the paper and what ever other garbage I could find and tossed it into the garbage can in front of the Town Pump Convenience store. Then we were on our way again, towards Cutbank where we would stop for lunch. The drive was beautiful. The sky was a beautiful blue and the rolling prairies were a gorgeous golden colour from the recent harvest.
After spending some time in Cutbank(leaving at about 2:30pm) we headed on our way to Browning and then headed up Highway 89 through the Hills where it was snowing steadily. The road was completely snow covered and the going was slow. Daniel kept his cool and you couldn't even tell that he was concerned. He later admitted it was a "hair raising" drive through the hills. It was pretty impressive how the snow just stopped when we descended down to St. Mary's lake. We then took the road from Babb to drive up close to Chief mountain to admire that impressive mountain.
Daniel had wanted to climb it again this year but just didn't ever find the right time or the people to go with him. We admired, then made our way to the Carway border crossing to start our journey home. Just as we were coming up to the border crossing, Daniel reached down in between our seats to get the brown envelope with the passports and birth certificates, and it wasn't there. We frantically searched the van, but no envelope. As I sat and thought about what and where we had done and been that day. I realized with horror that the envelope must have got mixed up with the brown paper wrapping that I had thrown away way back at Shelby. When Daniel suggested we go for an adventure, I don't think this is what he had in mind. The girls and I stayed in the van and Daniel went into Customs to see if he could use the phone to call the Town Pump in Shelby to see if they would look in the garbage for our envelope. Kathryn started to panic that we would never get home and that we would have to live in a hotel, and that would cost a lot of money. I told her that it wasn't going to do any good to panic, the only thing that she could do right now was to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help us find our passports and birth certificates, and Daniels wallet. You may wonder why we didn't notice the wallet missing sooner, but you see, Daniel had taken his credit card out of his wallet and just had it in his back pocket. and that is what we had used to fill with gas and buy lunch. So we all prayed in the van while Daniel was on the phone inside customs. When I saw him hang up the phone, I could tell that he had not got good news. He came back to the van and we began our trek back to Shelby(5:00pm) to go look through the garbage ourselves. It wasn't an option. We had to have them. To avoid the hair raising drive through the hills on snow covered roads in the dark, we took the Duck Lake Road, which was clear, no snow to be seen anywhere.
I felt calm the entire drive back to Shelby. I knew that we would find them and things would be OK. On the drive I often heard Kathryn offering a prayer in a whispered voice. The return drive was relatively quick and uneventful. When we arrived(6:30pm) the cashier thought we were crazy to want to go through the garbage. But it wasn't an option. While I was getting some popcorn and juice for the girls to munch on, Daniel disappeared with the maintenance man to the trash compactor. After about 15 or 20 minutes later Daniel reappears with passports and Birth Certificates in hand. Thank you Lord for making that happen. Tansley happily announced that "Daddy save the day!" as we headed on our way to home sweet home. We were back home before 8:00pm. I got the kids something healthy to eat, on Kathryn's request, put them to bed and then I began planning the passport holder that I had been meaning to make. This morning I sewed it all together. I think that this will be less likely to get accidentally tossed in the trash...what do you think?
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