Pumpkin Pie

I'm a Fall kind of girl.

Beautiful colors, pumpkin pie, crisp air, pumpkin pie, cool nights. Did I mention pumpkin pie?

Yep, I'm definitely a pumpkin pie Fall kind of girl.

Actually just pumpkin in general. I'm not picky. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins pumpkin bars. Baked pumpkin, stuffed pumpkin, fried pumpkin. Is anyone else reminded of Forrest Gump?

 I got the bright idea of showing my boyos where pumpkin in a can comes from. So, I bought a pumpkin pie pumpkin.

We cut it in half and took out all of the seeds.

Then cut it up into pieces, took the skin off of it and put it in a roasting pan with butter, brown sugar and some pumpkin pie spice along with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. I covered it and put it in the oven until tender.

What I got was yummy pumpkiny goodness. But it was lacking something...so, I mashed it added a few things and put it into mini gram cracker crumb pie crusts...

stuck it back in the oven for a little longer...YUM!

I don't know if you can tell, but that pumpkin was a small pumpkin, but it yielded four cups of mashed pumpkin. Just so you know, most pie recipes call for two cups of pumpkin.

So, how do you like your pumpkin?

The Weather

It's finally starting to cool off here. The cooler weather has been great!

One of the things I miss about living in the Ozarks is the way the leaves change color there in the Fall. The town I grew up in has tons of Maples that turn the most beautiful reds, oranges and yellows every year.

I miss that.

I miss the crispness in the air that comes with the changing colors of the leaves.

We don't get that here. The leaves stay green until one day they just fall off and the trees look like skeletons reaching for the sky.

Of course, we don't get the mountains of snow and ice either. And snow is something I definitely don't miss! I don't miss the ice on the roads either. ;)

Most Annoying Phrases

I was watching our local morning news a few mornings ago when the newscaster read off the top five most annoying phrases (according to CBS).

1. "whatever"
2. "you know"
3. "it is what it is"
4. "anyway"
5. "at the end of the day"

My first thought was, "Shoot! I use three of those phrases quite frequently." Followed closely by, "Oh man, I hope I don't use them too much in the stories I'm working on!" Followed closely by, "You know, it is what it is. And anyway, at the end of the day...whatever." ;)