Pumpkin season

I heard somewhere that this was a good year for pumpkin farmers, and based on how cheap pumkins have been at the grocery store, I believe it. I made pumpkin cupcakes (which were a disappointment to me, but other people seemed to like them), and pumpkin pasta (next time we'll use cooked spinach, and no parsley) and the best pumpkin recipe so far, a creamy risotto.

Served with spinach and a spicy honey and sage chicken, the risotto was the best (and biggest) part of the meal.

The recipe:

1/3 C olive oil
1 C onion, chopped
1 T garlic, minced
2 C orzo
1 C cooking wine
5 - 5 1/2 C chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 sugar pumpkin (about 4 C)
1/2 C grated parmesan
4 T butter

Heat oven to 425. Bake 1/4 pumpkin until soft, about 30 minutes. When done, remove the skin and puree.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute the onion and garlic and stir continuously until softened (3-4 mins). Add the orzo and stir to coat.

Add the wine and continue cooking, stirring often, until it has been absorbed by the rice. Add two cups of stock and cook until absorbed. Add the rest of the stock one cup at a time until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente.

Peel the remaining 1/4 pumpkin, chop into small pieces, and saute in a little butter until tender.

Stir the pumpkin puree and the diced pumkin into the orzo and reduce heat to very low. Stir in the parmesan. Serve.



*This recipe makes A LOT- main dish for four or five, side dish for eight- but is great as leftovers. I won't half it in the future, because I liked being able to have it for a couple days afterward.

**Traditionally, risotto's made with arborio rice. I like orzo because it has a similar chewy texture, but costs way less.

Suddenly aware of how dumpy my hands are.

Knitting is one of those crafts/hobbies that I've been meaning to get into for years, but never did (like linoleum block stamp making). Until this week! After a slight hiccup (realizing that I'd somehow doubled the number of stitches on my hooks, making what looked like teacup cozy), and having to restart, last night I finished my first knitting project- these simple fingerless gloves:

Look! Two! One for each hand!

So now I'm ready for this indian summer to be over, so I can sport these babies (though it's technically not an indian summer yet, right? Since there hasn't been a hard frost? I don't know. I'm just ready for sweater weather).

fall quilt

It's fall! The weather switched a couple days ago, but yesterday was the first morning when I didn't want to get out of bed because it was so cozy. Last night I woke up at 4 am to put a new blanket on the bed. I went with this one, a quilt made by my great-grandmother:


She made the leaves out of her old clothes (and it looks like she was a snazzy dresser!), and it's kind of hard to tell that they are even supposed to be leaves, because the drawn-on stems have faded, and on some patches, the fabric itself is so torn and tattered that really all that's left is the applique edges.

As I made the bed this morning, I decided I want to make a quilt like this. I'll have to buy the fabric, though, because I don't wear patterns or very many colors, so it'd end up being a pretty boring quilt. Is it silly to plan my next quilt when I'm not even half done with my first?