Shelby

So, I did another pumpkin today with the full intent of making some more soup to give to my m-i-l. Then, while in the shower, I had an idea. Pumpkin butter! Easy peasy. Cook the pumpkin. I added some brown sugar and some honey along with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and a glug of vanilla. Blended with my stick blender, cooked on warm for a bit and all done.

Pumpkin butter! Made in the Instant Pot.

Venison sloppy joes last night

Oh, Kim, my crusts come straight from the nice people at Pillsbury.

Oh yeah, we like this stuff. It's great in a Bloody Mary.

Sheesh, you guys have been making some good stuff. Steve, what a lovely meal and a lovely family! Elaina, that bowl of pasta has my name on it. Baselerd, WOW. Especially that mushroom dish. Suzi, glad you're on the mend. Every single thing you cooked sounds good. May have to steal your potato idea! Yesterday I made Liamsaunt's recipe for butternut squash soup, except I used one of my pumpkins. You can read more about it here and here To go with we had beans, salsa and tacos

You aren't kidding about how good this soup is. I made it last night, only I decided to use one of my pumpkins instead of the b-nut squash. I used my Instant Pot pressure cooker to do the pumpkin and then the soup (you can read more about that here if you like) I made salsa, tacos and beans to go with, but I literally would have been happy with this soup and a bag of tortilla chips. It tastes like a wonderful cheese dip. AND, it's healthy Thank you for the recipe, it's a keeper! Oh, and I roasted the seeds, too. YUM. Smoked olive oil and salt. I soaked the seeds in salt water over night.

I took the plunge, Hummingbird! My pumpkins aren't the sugar kind, they are just regular 'ole pumpkins so I had to search through my pile to find one small enough to fit in the IP. I cut the top off and dug the seeds out because I wanted to roast them. Then I put a cup of water in and the pumpkin, pushed the "soup" button and went about my day. Mr. pumpkin was PERFECT. Nice and soft, no reason to peel it at all. I was busy so I threw Mr. pumpkin in the fridge until yesterday when I decided to make Liamsaunt's recipe for butternut squash soup, only using pumpkin. I dumped some chicken broth in that I made earlier this week along with the carrots, onions, garlic, celery, butter, spices etc. Then I thought "What the hell, I'll just cube up the pumpkin in there, too" which, essentially pressure cooked it a second time, but I'm making soup, so who cares if it gets super mushy lol. Then I pushed the soup button. Perfect. After it cooled a bit I used my little hand-held immersion blender and it worked like a charm. I didn't even have to use my big food processor! I added all the other ingredients needed, threw the lid on and pushed the keep warm button (which is awesome...it counts how long the warm button has been on rather than you having to put in a specific time to keep it warm.) Kept it warm until I got the rest of dinner finished. I put a bit of homemade salsa on top. This soup is soooo good. And, pretty healthy. Thank you HBK for the pumpkin tip! On another note, my husband told me that there is a shortage of canned pumpkin this year. I haven't researched it myself, but maybe we could all get rich by IP'ing our pumpkins and canning them lol.

Welcome to my world.

Oh those look so good. One of my favorite recipes.

Beautiful distilleries. Everything is so shiny. Charcuterie plate up there looks gooooood. I'm sure the pastry chefs were super impressed with the EZ!

I am not one to tout something unless I'm a believer. The IP totally could replace your crock pot. It is a slow cooker/pressure cooker/saute-er (lol not a word). When I did our ribs, I took them out and turned the IP on to sauté. Right away the BBQ sauce/juices that were in the bottom begin to simmer (I was aiming to thicken it up and pour it back over the ribs). Now that I've read about what Hummingbirdkiss did with her pumpkin, I'm thinking about doing that with this butternut squash that is staring at me. Or, maybe trying it with one of my pumpkins.

I did them for 30 mins using the stew/meat button and then used the quick release method. Very tender. The only reason for the smoker would be to get the "smokey" taste more in them. I'll try some liquid smoke, too, next time.

I finally got the store and bought some baby back ribs. Ohhhhhhhh the IP impressed us. My husband was VERY impressed, in fact. Next time I think we're going to throw them in the electric smoker for like 45 mins just to get some of that smokey flavor. I could have broiled them a bit longer, but they smelled too good. And, the fries were done lol. I did make a salad to go along with.....but I don't think either of us touched it. Too entranced with the pork.

As I sit here eating a bowl of plain 'ole ramen noodles, I am green with envy. What is up there on the plate with the grapes? Pie?

LiamsAunt, that soup looks so good. Dumb question for all of you. Do you peel your butternut squash before cooking? Can you slice it in half, roast and then scoop it out?

YAY!

My husband and I rarely eat winter squash. I guess because it's a bit sweet? I dunno. However, how can I pass this topic up when I have pumpkins from the garden sitting around everywhere? I also bought a butternut squash. It's currently on the kitchen counter, staring at me.

You just can't beat good hash browns My husband worked at a truck stop when he was a teen. He made tons and tons of hash browns. The truck stop always used the leftover baked potatoes from dinner the night before. Using those, you don't have to squeeze any water out. Just grate them up and fry them

Well, I think we finally had a tiny freeze last night, so this is the last of the okra. And, the last of the fish that was caught this summer. A lot going on right now. Sigh. I'm ready for a quiet weekend full of horse racing and good food. Anyway, I bought a rotiss. chicken from the store. I hardly ever do that, but it made for a fast , good meal and I didn't have to clean the rotisserie when it was done.

David, those look so good they are almost obscene.

Yes, I like a bit of sauerkraut in there. Gives it a kick This head of cabbage was really quite small. I gave 4 rolls to my m-i-l, we ate a few and I had planned on freezing the rest. But, there are only 4-5 left so I'll probably eat on them this week.

That all looks AMAZING, sartoric.

Oh I think the thinner ones will work great. Just don't over-soak. I also forgot to add that the 1 TB to 1egg ratio is for one crepe.

Whisk one egg with 1 TB. of heavy cream in a wide bowl. Lay the tortilla in and push it down so that just the bottom part gets covered. Heat 1TB. of butter in large skillet until bubbling. Put tortilla in, wet side down. Pour the remaining egg mixture over and spread it around the top. (The book says Kenny uses his fingers and I found that method the easiest, too. Make sure you don't get the egg mixture in the pan where there is no tortilla or it ends up too eggy. I didn't pour every bit onto the tortilla because mine got too eggy when I flipped it over.) As soon as the bottom of the crepe is brown and "mottled", flip it over and cook until the same way on the other side. About a minute. Kenny says he adds a bit of vanilla to the egg mix if he's making dessert crepes. That all being said, the next time I make these I'm going to try just soaking the whole tortilla at once and see if that works, too.