#i mean my main way to add “pumpkin spice” is to add a ton of cinnamon

[ameliapodcast]

It's the first day of September, you all know what that means:

We ignore the frankly awfully hot weather and share some pumpkin spiced cocoa recipes!!!

[arplis]

Arplis - News: My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 49 of 52

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 Spend More Time Doing What I Love

Red alert people, RED ALERT. It was 6 degrees this morning when I woke up. SIX!!! That.Is.Chilly. The Girl and I were going to walk Lucy on the beach this morning but those plans have been scraped. Gaaaa. I think if its 6 degrees outside, all bets are off and you can most certainly declare it a pajama day. Whos with me on this?

Goal #2 Garden, Garden, Garden

Garden are done for the year. Yipee!

Goal #3 Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one.}

Lemon baby #3 is on the way and we are patiently awaiting her arrival.

Goal #4 Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done!

I gussied up the potting shed at our old house, but I would like to add some sort of potting station to the backyard here somewhere, but Im not sure where I would put it yet.

I did come across this photo on Author Susan Branchs Instagram page though of a picture she tooth at Colonial Williamsburg. Isnt it cute? I think I need one of those.

Goal #5 Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand.

It was totally my intention to grow a ton of fruits and vegetables to sell at the farm-stand when I made my list of goals for 2019 last winter, but then we moved. So, that whole goal was sort of a bust. I do miss it though.

Goal #6 Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books Ive Been Meaning to Make.

While I didnt add any new finished hooked rug pieces in my Etsy shop this past week, I did hook 4 totally new rugs {1 of which will become a kit and 2 will be offered as patterns} as well as hand dyed a bunch of wool {that I was able to get listed in my Etsy shop}.

I have decided to go back to my old schedule of only listing new hooked rugs items on the first Friday of every month for next year as it seems less stressful to me. It allows me more time to hook, rather than stopping every few days to take photo, write up description and then post a single piece online. Doing it all in one big swoop seems less chaotic to me.

73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 16} < SO CLOSE!

183 hooked flowers {finished 150, now down to 33}

10 things from back issues of magazines {finished 0}

Goal #7 Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones} DONE!

So far this year Ive added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 14 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop. I just added Santa and Rudy 1892 yesterday and am hoping to squeeze one more kit in before the end of the year.

New rug hooking patterns Ive created and added to My Etsy Shop this year:

Santa and Rudy 1892

Tullia and Thomas Turkey

Double Nantucket Whale Runner

Miss Henny and Penny

Miss Penny

Simple Kitty

Primitive Flowers

2 Fat Cats

Annabells Big Day

Old Fashioned Double Tulip

Fat Brown Hen

Busy Little Bee

Queen Bee

Rug Hooking Kits

Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors}

Folk Art Heart

Small Nantucket Whale

Primitive Crow

Miss Robin {in 2 different colors}

Simple Kitty

Primitive Flowers

Sunflowers

A Basket of Spring Posies

Fat Brown Hen

Chickys Garden

Goal #8 Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter

All that firewood! We sold it.

Goal #9 Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone

Currently at 2415 Back up to 2565.

Goal #10 -Lose the Muffin Top Done!

Sweet digity!

Goal #11 Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon

As long as its not pouring rain tomorrow. The Girl and I are on for the Half Marathon. Wish us luck!

Goal #12 Read or Listen to 26 New Books {21 down, 5 to go}

No new books this week but we are planning a trip to the library later this week.

Books Ive Read or Listened to So Far This Year:

Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite

The Great Alone #2

The Aviators Wife #3

Before We Were Yours #4

Secrets of a Charmed Life #5

Whered You Go, Bernadette #6

Carnegies Maid #7

The Gown #8

Unbroken #9

Drama#10

The Alice Network #11

The Shape of Mercy #12

Wills Red Coat #13

Big Little Lies #14

Mr. Churchills Secretary

Born to Run

I Feel Bad About My Neck

Bunny Mellon {Doesnt count because it was my second time}

On Writing {Doesnt count because it was my third time}

Walden

Finders Keepers

Delicious!

50 Things to Do in Maine Before You Die

Following Atticus

Goal #13 Try 52 New Recipes.

39 down, 13 recipes to go. We tried 2 new recipes this week. 1 was a dud and the other I will share on Tuesday. And its a good one!

Goal #14 Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog

9 down, 44 to go. Why did I make this goal? Note to self: Make fewer goals for next year.

Goal #15 Fill 100 Canning Jars 72 down, 28 to go.

I made a batch of Christmas Jam for gift giving PLUS I tried a new recipe {that was inspired by Mrs. HB} this past week and the HH and I loved it so much, that Ill be making another batch {or maybe 2} of it today {Ill share the recipe on Tuesday}.

So far this year Ive I canned:

9 Jars of..

6 jars Christmas Jam

7 jars Spiced Pomegranate Jelly

7 jars Peach Jam

7 jars of Strawberry Jam

15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam

15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam

4 jars of Almond Pears.

Goal #16 Finish Furnishing Our House

We finished the roman shades for the kitchen nook and kitchen window. I plan on taking a break from making roman shades for the next month so I can finish making kits for my Etsy shop and paint out the entire kitchen area as well as finish a couple of art projects for the walls.

Goal #17 52 Dates with the HH {44 down, 8 to go}

The HH and I went on 2 date days this past week and one of them was to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village for their Shaker Christmas Fair and it was so overwhelming, we left after 5 minutes.

Overwhelming in the sense that although we could tell there was going to be a lot of people at the event by the distance we had to walk to the village, what we werent expecting was that once we walked in the doors of the trustees office {where the craft fair was being held}, it was SHOULDER to SHOULDER.

Like, being at a rock concert crowded. The HH didnt even make it 2 feet in before walking out and it took me nearly 5 minutes to get from the entrance and through 3 rooms and back out the door again without even being able to look or pick up anything it was so crowded. It was nuts. And totally not in the calm, welcoming Shaker spirit and all we wanted to do was leave. And so we did.

I do want to go back though at some point to visit the museum, but it will have to be an ordinary weekday with nothing on the event calendar, thats for sure.

Goal #18 Take One Adult Education Class Done {Ive taken 3!}

Block Printing Class with my neighbor.

Spoon Carving Classwith Heather.

Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class}

Goal #19 Secret Holiday Project{s}

Block print towels

Seed packet wreaths

Tea Bag Trees

Goal #20 Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

8 down, 4 to go. We are planning on making #9 tonight!

Goal #21 Visit 12 General Stores

10 down 2 to go. We visited a new country store yesterday!! The kind that offers human made {and local} baskets to customers to do their shopping with. Ill tell you all about it next week.

H.B. Provisions in Kennebunk, Maine

Chases Daily {I think it should count}

Squam Lake Marketplace

Harrisville General Store

Dodges Store in New Boston, New Hampshire

Zebs General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire

Dan and Whits in Norwich, Vermont

Husseys General Store in Windsor, Maine

Goal #22 Compete with Carole.. Get on My Front Door Game On

Would you believe not a single person walking by {or even a neighbor} has made a comment about the leg lamp in the window? I think theyre showing restraint, while my husband keeps telling me that they are in such awe of it, they just dont know what to say.

Ummmm Okay.

Front Door Bling Ive Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole:

Late January : Valentine Heart

Late February : Shamrock

Late March : Giant Carrot

May: White wave petunia hanging basket

June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting

August : Sunflower

September: Indian corn and pumpkins

October: Pumpkins and spinner do hickeys

November: Indian corn and big pumpkins

December: Leg lamp and nutcrackers in the window and giant Christmas balls on the porch

**************

How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, its so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you!

Have a great day everyone,

Mavis

P.S. If you are looking for a last minute gift for neighbor or a friend, I still have a few ornaments left in my Etsy shop and you can find them all HERE. UPDATE: The barred rock chicken is sold out but there are a few more chicken ornaments HERE.

You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE.

Have a Great Day!

The post My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 49 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent.

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My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 48 of 52

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5 Reasons You Should Consider Participating in NaNoWriMo

Leaves are changing colors, the air is crisp, and pumpkin spice lattes are available to the masses. Do you know what that means?

NaNoWriMo season is almost upon us!

That’s right – the nonprofit writer’s program National Novel Writing Month, commonly known as NaNoWriMo – is getting closer!

“Wait,” you might be saying, “What exactly does this mean?”

WELL! Allow me to tell you!

National Novel Writing Month is a writing challenge in November with a simple goal: write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days.

NaNo is also far more than that – it’s a community, it’s a way of life, it’s – okay, I’m probably getting ahead of myself. I’m just really passionate about the program – in fact, I even wrote my college admissions essay on the life-changing power of NaNoWriMo!

1. Having a Deadline is Incredibly Motivating!

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but if you are, then you struggle with procrastination. A lot. If procrastination were a major, I’d have a Ph.D. in the study. Yet every year when NaNoWriMo season rolls around, I find myself eager to write and hit my daily word count goal. I’ll wake up early, go to bed late, and even get my regular work done faster to have more time to write. The NaNoWriMo website also provides you with badges as you hit specific landmarks – your first 25k, writing for 10 days in a row, etc. – which I love to try and collect throughout the month.

2. A Sense of Community!

This is one of my absolute favorite parts on NaNoWriMo – the community! Currently, the site boasts over 370,000 participants between the Young Writer’s Program and the main NaNoWriMo program! Every November, Twitter, Bookstagram, and BookTube is flooded with posts and #WIP updates for WriMos to encourage, inspire, and support one another! The NaNoWriMo website also hosts forums for writers to flock together and form a community. I found some of my best friends through their website and am still heavily involved in local events too!

That’s right – not only is there an online community, but there are also offline ones as well! Most cities host NaNoWriMo events put together by your local Municipal Liaisons – MLs for short. Depending on your location, libraries, coffee shops, and bookstores have been known to hold NaNoWriMo meetings for writers to gather and participate in word wars and chat about your book. It’s a blast!

3. No Time for Doubt!

The basis of NaNoWriMo is writing 50k in 30 days – this means you’re writing 1,667 words every day. If you’re a fast writer, this might be easier for you, but it’s definitely not for me! This will be my fifth year participating in the annual event, yet the word count still catches me every time! When you’re writing so many words per day, you don’t have time to stop and edit what you’ve written! There’s no time for writer’s block! If you want to make it to the finish line and claim sweet, sweet victory, you have to trudge through it one foot – or word – in front of the other. Eventually, the writer’s block or problem-scene will end, and it’ll become smoother sailing once more.

For those of us who struggle with self-doubt or perfectionism, this is also super helpful. I tend to go back and fret over my writing style, “is this too trope-y?”, and all the lovely fears caused by our inner editors. During NaNoWriMo, I have an excuse to say, “Nope! I’ll deal with that in December! For now, just write!”

4. Author Pep Talks!

Look, if you haven’t read the NaNoWriMo author pep talks, you’re sorely missing out. My personal favorite is Lemony Snicket’s, written entirely in satire. I crack up and get inspired every time I read it! If irony isn’t really your cup of tea, they have tons of other pep talks cataloged in their archives, and new ones are sent out during NaNo season!

Here are several of my favorite pep talks given in the past few years:

Brandon Sanderson, Erin Morgenstern, Gail Carson Levine, Holly Black, James Patterson, Jenny Han, John Green, Kate DiCamillo, Maggie Stiefvater, Marie Lu, Marissa Meyer, Meg Cabot, Neil Gaiman, Rainbow Rowell, Scott Westerfeld, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, and Lindsey Grant.

5. YOU WRITE A FREAKING NOVEL!!

There is absolutely no better feeling in the world than this:

You’ve been writing nonstop for the last 29 days. The end of your novel is in sight – you’ve been through ups and downs with your characters, you’ve cried with them (or because they refuse to stick to your outline), you’ve plowed through writer’s blocks, and you stuck with it for an entire month.

And here it is.

Stare at those words for a moment.

The End.

You’ve written a novel. A NOVEL! It might be terrible – goodness knows some of my NaNoWriMo drafts are so awful that I have to laugh at myself – but you’ve done it. You wrote a novel. You’re a novelist. A writer. An author – published or not, it doesn’t matter. You’re an author to a first draft.

“But Ally…”

“But Ally…I just don’t have the time to write a novel.”

This is by far the most common reason I hear from people for not participating in NaNoWriMo – and who can blame them? Life gets in the way!

I totally understand – but it’s only for thirty days! After the month you can go back to the sanity of having free time – but for NaNo, we buckle down, we prioritize, and we drink our caffeine by the gallon.

The best advice I ever heard for this problem comes from Chris Baty, the founder and former executive director of the program. He’s written three books about NaNoWriMo and started off the whole event in 1999.

Write in the small moments.

Can you wake up twenty minutes earlier? Go to bed ten minutes later? Write during your lunch break? Jot down snippets on the ride home from work? It’s incredible how many small moments you can find when you prioritize your writing and how much they add up!

“But Ally…doesn’t quality matter more than quantity?”

This is definitely the second most common reason I’ve heard for being nervous about participating in NaNo. The naysayers insist that writing so many words in a month creates a chaotic mess of words with no real quality in writing (no, honestly, I’ve heard someone say this).

Yes, I’ll admit – my drafts are a chaotic mess of words. They’re messy, wonderful, sometimes rambly first drafts that absolutely suck – isn’t that beautiful? First drafts are allowed to be terrible. Usually, they aren’t all too bad – there’s enough to go off of for a second draft. Then maybe a third. Then a fourth, and soon enough, you’re well on your way to getting ready to query for an agent.

Don’t believe me? Check out some of these novels that started off as NaNoWriMo projects:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Wool by Hugh Howey (soon to be a movie!)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (already a movie starring Robert Patterson and Reese Witherspoon!)

The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill

Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress by Marissa Meyer (all three NaNoWriMo projects went on to become best-selling books!)

That’s a pretty dang successful list right there. I think it speaks for itself – NaNoWriMo clearly doesn’t skimp on quality for quantity.

I hope this blog post has been enough to convince you to start thinking about joining NaNoWriMo! I’ll let you in on a closing secret:

Even if you don’t make it to 50k, you still have more words than you started with!

If you only manage to write 200 words during the month of November – guess what? THat’s still 200 more words than you had before NaNoWriMo! At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how fast you write or what your word count goals are – it’s that you’re writing. And having fun. And probably losing some of your sanity but that’s beside the point.

I really, really love NaNoWriMo and hope I’ll see you on the website! If you decide to join, feel free to add me as a writing buddy to get started! I’m kineticbugsy on NaNoWriMo’s website and @natureofpages on Twitter, where I screech about word wars and character aesthetics throughout the month.

Go forth and write!

Are you thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo? Are you a veteran NaNo back for another season or a newbie? Tell me about your upcoming project or feel free to drop any questions about the annual event in the comments!

TNOP out!

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CARBS! CARBS! CARBS!

Poor carbs.  They get such a bad rap!  At some point in recent years, folks found out about eating low carb to lose weight and have been depriving themselves of those beautiful and healthy carbs ever since.  You don’t have to live without carbs, friends!  In fact, you really shouldn’t!

Long-term restriction of carbohydrates can lower your metabolic rate and negatively affect your hormone levels.  And while restricting your carb intake will bring short-term weight loss results, over time it will cause your metabolic rate to plummet.  Once that happens you will see your weight loss plateau and you’ll have to further restrict your calories to continue losing weight, which lowers your metabolic rate EVEN MORE!  NOOOOO!!!  That’s the opposite of what we are trying for here!

Cutting out carbs altogether typically leads to a lower intake of calories overall, and it also deprives your body of vital nutrients.  Know what that means?  You are TIRED and HANGRY!  That is no way to live!

Carbohydrates are important, guys.  They are your body’s fuel source.  You need to eat carbs to fuel your body so you have the energy to get through your busy days!  Most people need to consume approximately 45-50% carbs.  

On the FASTer Way to Fat Loss, we focus on complex carbohydrates, such as fruits, beans, peas, sweet potatoes, oats, and rice. Complex carbs are digested more slowly than simple carbs, so they keep you feeling fuller longer.  Therefore, they should be our main focus of carbohydrate intake.  We try to limit simple carbohydrates such as honey and pure maple syrup, and we try to avoid refined sugar and refined carbohydrates (i.e., gluten). That is not always easy! I don’t deprive myself of any of these, rather, I try to save them for special occasions.

One of my favorite ways to get my carbs in is with overnight oats. There are tons of fun recipes online for overnight oats, and you can really just start with the base of oats and non-dairy milk and add in whatever you like. I recently came up with this recipe for pumpkin overnight oats, and it has become a staple for me! I make a few jars at a time and put them in the fridge. That way I can just grab and go!

PUMPKIN PIE OVERNIGHT OATS

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk) 1/2 cup rolled oats (gluten free preferred) 1/3 cup canned pumpkin 1-2 tsp maple syrup (can substitute liquid stevia) dash or two of pumpkin pie spice pinch of salt

Add ingredients to a mason jar and refrigerate overnight.  When ready to eat, add collagen peptides for extra protein and a banana for more carbs!

Enjoy!

XO,

Cori  

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All About Cheese

Everything you need to know about eating and cooking with curds

We all know what to expect each year at Thanksgiving. There are logistical headaches, including the annual game of fridge-space Jenga and the monumental task of trying to serve a lot of hot food to a lot of people, all at the same time. As for the food itself, there will be stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, the turkey, pie, and the inevitable appearance of that “signature side” some twice-removed cousin always brings, even though you diplomatically twice-reminded them that they really didn’t need to go to the trouble this year.

One thing that can’t be counted on for Thanksgiving dinner—a vegetarian centerpiece. Most vegetarians are experienced at cobbling together a holiday meal of side dishes, which isn’t awful, but it often means forgoing the best items on the menu (stuffing, a gravy moat for mashed potatoes, the iconic turkey). Dinner can end up feeling like an afterthought.

Attempts at inclusivity in the form of tofurkey are a lot like your uncle’s conversational use of “lit” and “AF”—well intentioned, but painfully out of touch. To be fair, pulling off a vegetarian alternative to a large roast of meat is no simple task.

For one, there aren’t many vegetables that have the scale to be presentation-piece-worthy on their own. And, while whole roasted heads of cauliflower are definitely having a moment, they aren’t exactly holiday comfort food. Forcing a like-for-like vegetable-as-meat parallel isn’t the answer.

Instead, we can embrace the sides-as-main-course angle and just put a bit more thought into it to come up with a cohesive and satisfying dish. By using ingredients that most people already have on hand for Thanksgiving dinner, I was able to come up with a well-considered vegetarian main course that’s not only a complete thought but also a dinner-table stunner. Behold: the stuffed roast pumpkin.

Stuffed pumpkins are one of the few made-for-Pinterest foods that are as tasty as they are adorable. They’re classic cold-weather comfort food, a genre that the French have on lock (cassoulet, anyone?).

In France, this dish is commonly made using a squash varietal called potimarron, which gets its name from a combination of the French terms for “pumpkin” (potiron) and “chestnut” (marron). This squash is known as red kuri here in the States, borrowing the Japanese word for “chestnut” (kuri).

As these names suggest, kuri squash takes on a rich, nutty flavor when roasted. Potimarron farci (stuffed kuri squash) can be filled with any number of ingredients, beginning with a hearty base ingredient like lentils, rice, or grains. My favorite version uses pieces of dried bread as a foundation, saturating them in cream, cheese, and herbs to make a savory bread pudding, in a pumpkin. Traditional recipes load up the hollow gourd with salty pork parts, but to make this vegetarian, I obviously left those out.

My mission was to create a vegetarian stuffed pumpkin that felt even more at home on the Thanksgiving table. I wanted to create a main course that delivered all those classic autumnal flavors, while also providing the visual wow factor of a holiday roast.

I started by using sugar pumpkins instead of red kuri squash, since they’re more widely available in the United States (plus, they deliver a true jack-o’-lantern look), but then added a kabocha squash purée to the filling, which introduces a nutty flavor similar to that of the red kuri squash.

I also replaced the salty pork with sautéed shiitake mushrooms and lacinato kale, sprinkling in toasted pepitas and pecans for a nutty crunch. A generous amount of warm-spiced heavy cream and Gruyère cheese should lay to rest any concerns that going vegetarian has to mean compromising richness.

All of these components get layered into the pumpkins, which I paint with a salty-sweet miso-honey glaze before roasting. Yup, you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. I’m not always one for foods acting as cooking or serving vessels (big fan of the We Want Plates subreddit right here), but this is no chowder in a sourdough-bread bowl; this is a Thanksgiving stuffed pumpkin to make the turkey-eaters jealous.

Bake What Your Menu Gave You

Before we embark on this roasted-pumpkin journey together, I want to make clear that this recipe is not meant to be rigidly prescriptive. Like cassoulet, this dish has humble roots, and, as Kenji pointed out in his treatise on French stewed beans and meats, it’s the kind of recipe that is designed to make do with what is available.

For our purposes, that means filling your pumpkins with whatever you’ve already got for the rest of your Thanksgiving menu. This is a stressful enough meal to execute as it is, so there’s no need to make your life harder just for the sake of a recipe.

Already have bread cubed up and dried out for stuffing? Use that. Don’t have shiitakes, but you did buy a ton of creminis for a stuffed-mushroom hors d’oeuvre? Awesome, those will work just fine. Have more mashed sweet potatoes than you need for that casserole? Sub them in for the kabocha purée in this recipe; nobody will know, or judge.

Oh, and one final thing—if you have only a couple vegetarians coming over to dinner, you should absolutely stuff the extra pumpkins in this recipe with bacon or sausage, or both. Just make sure to mark them in some way, or Thanksgiving dinner could get even more uncomfortable than usual (and that’s saying something).

Before You Begin: Pick Your Pumpkins

One ingredient you will need to get is pumpkins. No, you can’t repurpose the rotting jack-o’-lantern that’s been sitting on your front stoop since October. Sorry. What you’re looking for are small “sugar pumpkins” that roast up creamy-fleshed and sweet (truth in advertising!). As with all winter squash, pick pumpkins that are mostly blemish-free, with no visible bruising, soft spots, or mold.

A common refrain calls for choosing specimens that “feel heavy for their size” when you’re selecting squash. I’m not sure I lift enough squash in my life to know exactly what that means, and certainly don’t condone pumpkin body-shaming, but in this case, you’re looking for four sugar pumpkins, and one kabocha squash, that all weigh around two pounds each. (Of course, you can double or triple or even halve this recipe, if desired.)

How to Make Thanksgiving Vegetarian Stuffed Pumpkins

Step 1: Prepare and Par-Roast the Squashes

Once you have your pumpkins, it’s time to get to work, starting with all of the squash. First, halve the kabocha, and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and stringy pulp.

Next, prepare the sugar pumpkins. It’s just like prepping a bunch of mini jack-o’-lanterns—use a paring knife to take their tops off, then go in with a spoon to perform the same seeds-and-pulp surgery. Make sure to clean the undersides of the tops as well (again, a paring knife gets the job done quickly), and try to avoid the temptation to carve a face.

Now, let’s talk squash seasoning. While we’ll be stuffing the pumpkins with plenty of savory goodies, it’s important to properly season the pumpkins themselves. In early rounds of recipe testing, I took a light approach with salt and pepper on the pumpkins, and it made for an uneven dish, as the muted flavor of the pumpkin clashed with the confident seasoning of the filling.

I hate eating at restaurants where dishes come with instructions telling you, “In order to enjoy this properly, make sure you get a bit of everything in each bite.” Food shouldn’t require a user manual; every component of a dish should be well calibrated for seasoning.

In this case, that means drizzling and rubbing the flesh of the pumpkins and kabocha with olive oil before seasoning them assertively with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The oil provides not only fat and flavor but also a more adhesive surface for the salt and pepper to cling to.

I arrange all the squashes on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and pop them in the oven to roast for about an hour, until the kabocha is tender and the pumpkins have just begun to soften. Once they come out of the oven, I set the baking sheet aside to cool, removing the tops of the pumpkins to allow steam to escape.

Par-roasting the pumpkins before stuffing them not only speeds up the final baking time on the back end of the recipe, but also ensures that the finished stuffed squashes are perfectly cooked inside and out. That’s especially important given that the pumpkins’ flesh requires a longer cooking time than the stuffing ingredients, many of which are already cooked prior to roasting. While the squashes are in the oven, there’s plenty of time to put together the other components for the filling.

Once the kabocha is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and roughly mash it in a bowl with a large spoon. Season it with salt and pepper, then set it aside.

Step 2: Cook the Mushrooms and Kale

While the pumpkins are par-roasting, I turn my attention to sautéing the mushrooms and kale. I start by heating a couple of tablespoons of oil in a 12-inch skillet until shimmering, then add a full pound of thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps. At first, this may look like a ton of mushrooms overcrowding the skillet, but don’t sweat it—let the shiitakes do all the sweating.

They’ll soon cook down, releasing water, and once that’s happened, they’ll begin browning. Make sure to actually let them get some good color. You don’t want to rush things and end up with a sad pile of steamed mushrooms. If your skillet gets too dry and begins to smoke, you can always add a touch more oil and reduce the heat a bit.

Once the shiitakes are golden brown, I push them to the outer edges of the skillet and add the kale. Again, what initially seems like an overcrowded skillet will soon be much more manageable as the kale wilts down. We aren’t looking to fully cook the lacinato here, just wilt it slightly, as we still want it to have a little texture and bite in the end. (Lacinato kale is much sturdier than the curly stuff, and therefore better suited for this recipe.)

I repeat the process of pushing everything to the outer edges of the skillet, then add a few tablespoons of butter to its now-empty center. Once the butter melts and begins to foam, I add minced shallots, garlic, and chopped fresh thyme, then stir constantly for a few seconds, just until I’m hit with the sweet smell of alliums and the woodsy aroma of crackling thyme. I finish the mushrooms with some sherry, plus a touch of sherry vinegar for acidity.

Step 3: Whisk Together the Spiced Cream

As I mentioned in the beginning, this filling is essentially a savory bread pudding, and that means we need some creamy liquid to moisten and bind everything together. While there aren’t any eggs in the recipe, I do use plenty of cream, cut with a little whole milk and seasoned with plenty of warm spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove.

Step 4: Layer the Stuffing

Gather together the rest of the stuffing mise en place: cubed and dried bread, shredded Gruyère, and the toasted pepitas and pecans. It’s time to load those pumpkins up.

First things first—we’ll be layering all of the components inside the pumpkins, twice. Keep that in mind as you begin dividing the ingredients between the pumpkins. I layer everything in the following order: a large spoonful of the mashed kabocha, a small handful of bread pieces, then some of the mushroom-kale mixture, followed by the pepitas and pecans, and then a showering of Gruyère.

To finish off the first layer, I pour half of the cream mixture into the four pumpkins, then use my hands to gently press everything down and evenly saturate the ingredients with the spiced cream.

Repeat this layering process once more, making sure there’s a good amount of Gruyère peeking up over the rims of the pumpkins, so it can get gooey and melty in the oven.

Depending on the size of your pumpkins, you may have some leftover filling ingredients. I’m of the mindset that for a project like this it’s always better to have a little extra than not enough. If you have enough stuff left over, you can always put everything in some small ramekins and bake them, sans pumpkin.

Step 5: Glaze the Pumpkins

Since the goal is for every bite to be well seasoned, that means we have to give the pumpkin skins some attention. If we’re willing to spend the time tending to the delicious, burnished, crispy skin of a Thanksgiving turkey, then pumpkin skins should be afforded the same care and consideration, and here that means a glaze.

I wanted to make sure that glazing the pumpkins wouldn’t make them too sweet, as I’m not a fan of dishes that are billed as “savory” but then pile more sugar onto the natural sweetness of squash. We’re trying to make a main course, not dessert. I decided on a simple mixture of red miso, honey, and a little bit of water—the salty funk of miso pairs really well with root vegetables, while the honey balances out that salinity and provides subtle, floral sweetness that isn’t overbearing.

After whisking this mixture together, I use a pastry brush to paint the glaze on the pumpkins. This step, I want to stress, is totally optional. If you don’t have miso kicking around in your fridge, don’t worry about it. The pumpkins will be delicious, glazed or not.

Step 6: The Final Roast

We’re now in the home stretch. Place your pumpkins back on that parchment-lined baking sheet, and roast them, without their tops, until that top layer of Gruyère is melted and lightly browned and the pumpkins are fully tender. (Use a paring knife to check them; the blade should be able to pierce the pumpkins with little resistance.)

Open the oven, replace the tops on your gourds, and bake them a few more minutes to make sure every bit of pumpkin is heated through. If you’re at all worried, you can always use an instant-read thermometer to double-check that everything is hot (at least 150°F/66°C in the center).

Take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, until the cream settles down a bit. All you have to do now is carefully transfer them to a serving platter and portion them out as you see fit. You can either carve them up with a knife and pop a serving spoon in each one for cheese-pull scooping, or, if you have some famished vegetarians on your hands, just serve them individually. One pumpkin should be more than enough for two people, but it’s Thanksgiving. Unbuckle that belt, and do you.

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Arplis - News: My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love Just look at that forecast! Fall has finally arrived and before you know it I’ll be wearing my beloved puffy coat and snow will be on the way! I couldn’t be more excited. And those nighttime temps! I’ll need to bring Miss Lemon in. Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden The HH broke out Manny yesterday after he dug up a beautiful 18″ planting space for my baby gem boxwoods and muscari border. We added a few bags of compost to the spot to help the plants get established. We will probably need to expand the planting space in a few years once the boxwoods get a little bigger, for now, scale wise, everything looks as it should. I’ll do a proper post later in the week and show you the new boxwood border. If you haven’t ordered your spring bulbs yet, I ordered 400 tulip bulbs and 500 muscari bulbs from Van Engelen Wholesale Bulb Company and the bulbs were fantastic. The bulbs arrived in about a week and were packaged very well. I highly recommend them. Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one.} Lemon is about ready to have babies!!! Two of the Meyer lemons have gone from a dark green to a pale lime green color over the past few weeks and I don’t know for sure, but I think we have another week or two to go until it’s time to harvest our first two Meyer lemons of the year. HOW EXCITING! It will have to be a home birth though {as opposed to an outdoor one} because temps are dropping below 50 tonight {and for 6 of the 7 days in the upcoming forecast} and the lady at the nursery told me when outdoor overnight temps are consistently below 50 degrees at night, that’s when you know it’s time to bring your citrus trees in for the winter. Luckily we have the perfect sunny indoor spot plants, so all is well. Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done! Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand. It was totally my intention to grow a ton of fruits and vegetables to sell at the farm-stand when I made my list of goals for 2019 last winter, but then we moved. So, that whole goal was sort of a bust. The new peeps wanted the vegetable stand, and we were happy to leave it for them since it was made specifically to match the front of the house, so hopefully the tradition will continue. Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make.  I was able to hook 3 small pieces last week {2 from my pattern stash} and once I get the backing on the make dos and finish the back of the rug I’ll add them to my Etsy shop {hopefully in the next two days}. 73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 32} 183 hooked flowers {finished 133, now down to 51} 10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0} Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones} DONE! So far this year I’ve added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 13 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop. New rug hooking patterns I’ve created and added to My Etsy Shop this year: Tullia and Thomas Turkey Double Nantucket Whale Runner Miss Henny and Penny Miss Penny Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers 2 Fat Cats Annabell’s Big Day Old Fashioned Double Tulip Fat Brown Hen Busy Little Bee Queen Bee Rug Hooking Kits Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors} Folk Art Heart Small Nantucket Whale Primitive Crow Miss Robin {in 2 different colors} Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers Sunflowers A Basket of Spring Posies Fat Brown Hen Chicky’s Garden Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter  All that firewood! We sold it. 😉 Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone Current number of photos on phone is 11 million. Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top Actually doing well on this goal and fully expect to fit into my pants by the end of the year. Apparently living in the city and walking for pastries is an excellent workout regimen. Who knew? Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon I have signed up for both a half marathon and a 5k! 🙂 Looks like this baby will be checked off around Thanksgiving. Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {17 down, 8 to go} This past week I listened to I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. It was okay. The first half was basically a {funny} list of complaints, but the second half was much better in my opinion. The audio version was short {around 3 hours I think} and so it passed the time as I painted a closet. If it was in paper form would I sit down and read it all the way through? Probably not. I did enjoy her book, I Remember Nothing much, much more. Currently on Request: Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year: Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite The Great Alone #2 The Aviator’s Wife #3 Before We Were Yours #4 Secrets of a Charmed Life #5 Where’d You Go, Bernadette #6 Carnegie’s Maid #7 The Gown #8 Unbroken #9 The Alice Network #10 The Shape of Mercy #11 Will’s Red Coat #12 Big Little Lies #13 I Feel Bad About My Neck Bunny Mellon  {Doesn’t count because it was my second time} On Writing {Doesn’t count because it was my third time} Walden Finder’s Keepers Delicious! Following Atticus Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes. 24 down, 30 recipes to go. OCTOBER. October is going to be my month for cooking! Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog 9 down, 44 to go. I’ll get crackin’ once fall {and cooler temps} come around. Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 48 down, 52 to go. Anyone ever canned quince jam before? Using quince from an ornamental bush rather than a tree? Gaaaa. These suckers are ROCK hard and tiny {1″ – 2″} and I’m not even sure I’d have enough to make the effort worthwhile. {I’d need about 2 pounds of quince for a batch of jam}. I mean I like jam and all, but I’m not sure I want to go through all the trouble. Any advice would be AWESOME. So far this year I’ve I canned: 7 jars Peach Jam 7 jars of Strawberry Jam 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam  4 jars of Almond Pears. Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House A couch and two chairs have been ordered! Once we get those in place I’ll order a rug {I’m not 100% sure on the size we need yet} and then I’ll paint the walls and create some artwork to hang up and we’ll be good to go. I am SO looking forward to getting the family room all done up in a beachy, nautical theme. Classic New England, that’s what I’ll be going for. Weeeeee. Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {29 down, 23 to go} Bakery dates are the best! Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class Done {I’ve taken 3!} I’m keeping the first class I took with my neighbor top secret for now {Mel know’s what it is though} 😉 Spoon Carving Class with Heather. Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class} Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project The big reveal will be on Friday, November 1st. Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters 5 down, 7 to go. Cooler temps mean CHEESE. Right? 😉 I’m looking forward to making up another platter this week. Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores 8 down 4 to go. So far this year we’ve visited: Chase’s Daily {I think it should count} Squam Lake Marketplace Harrisville General Store Dodge’s Store in New Boston, New Hampshire Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, Vermont Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, Maine Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On While I currently have a bundle of Indian corn hanging on the front door, once we get closer to Halloween I’ll hang Mrs. HB’s beautiful wreath she made me up on the door. Have you ever seen the movie You’ve Got Mail? You know the part where Meg Ryan is walking through the downtown area in the fall with her pumpkin and just soaking up the city? Well that’s how I feel right now. I still cannot believe we bought a home in a walking downtown area. I’ve think we’ve met at lest 75% of our immediate neighbors already. The house is much smaller than we’re used to, the lot is small too, but I can walk to the bakery, to the farmer’s market to buy a pumpkin and get an entire garden section planted in a day. And you know what… I kind of like it. I don’t even mind all the people walking their dogs past my door {probably because there is no HOA}. Man oh man, what a difference that makes. Change is good. Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole: Late January : Valentine Heart Late February : Shamrock Late March : Giant Carrot May: White wave petunia hanging basket June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting August : Sunflower September: Indian corn and pumpkins ************** How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂 Have a great day everyone, Mavis You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE. Have a Great Day! The post – Week 39 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month. This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent.          Comments Mavis Congrats on the move! I've always thought that your's and ... by Judy You can get a pair of over-the-ear style wireless headphone, so ... by Crystal We had a beautiful quince bush in the front of a previous ... by E in Upstate NY I listen to audio books and podcasts while washing dishes. I ... by Mrs. M Thanks! That answers that…I may need to wait until some ... by Mama Cook Plus 5 more... Related Stories – Week 40 of 52 – Week 38 of 52 – Week 37 of 52 #12GoalsForTheNewYear

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