Making Your Own Pumpkin - Overachiever's Pumpkin Pie

Or "How to Risk Stabbing Yourself".

WOW, cutting pie pumpkins is way harder than I thought. Seriously. The whole time I was envisioning how it would feel to stab myself with the big ass knife I was using.

Anyway! Pumpkins are cut up, scooped out and in the oven.

Recipe for making your own pumpkin:

1. Cut up the top off the pumpkins, halve them.
2. Do not stab yourself. This is harder than you think.
   
3. Scoop out the guts and seeds.
4. Keep the seeds for further roasting.
5. Cut the pumpkins into fourths or eighths.
6. Do not stab yourself.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
   
8. Cool.
9. Scoop out the pumpkin. Throw away the skin.
   
10. Blend, food process, mash.. whatever works best for you.
11. If it's too watery, strain it.
12. If it's too dry, put water in it.
13. Tada!

Well, since I do not currently own a fancy Cuisinart, I used the blender. It did need some water, but it did not come out overly watery. It was in fact, perfect. I loved the richer flavor of the pumpkin. Would totally do it again.

Note to self: Get a bigger, safer knife. Possibly some body armor.

Brownie Cookies

While looking for something to bake today with minor effort, I came across these Brownie Cookies by SmittenKitchen. They were easy, fast, and because I own tiny little cookie cutters they were tiny.

I'm always bummed out when I'm surprised halfway through a recipe that says "refrigerate for one hour." SIGH. I'm not a patient baker. I let them sit for 40 minutes and they rolled out great. Not too sweet cookies either.

Also, today I put together a sourdough starter! We'll see how it goes. I'm letting it brew on top of the cable box since the kitchen tends to be so cold at night. I'm pretty excited! I don't think I've ever really made bread before.

Also - I'm looking for recipes for excellent but sturdy treats to send to people for xmas. Cookies, homemade sauces, etc. Stuff that's fun to make and give away - way more personal than a Starbucks gift box or something.

First Post!

Well, I finally decided it made sense to get my own fancy-schmancy blogspot so I could post my cupcakes to the *world*. I've been officially baking since last December where I discovered that with a little cake flour, fine sugar, and complete lack of cake mix - I could actually not only bake but I was GOOD at it.

Congrats to me! I've also had a few cool features on Cupcakes Take the Cake where my Flickr Cupcake Photos have been highlighted. I'm also a huge fan of Tastespotting, where I realized if I had my own Blogspot.. I could be featured as well.

A natural progession into baking was my food photography skills. I've seen some bad, bad food photography, so I've worked at making sure mine was not only good food photography but was also art.

I live in Portland, Oregon with my boyfriend and our collection of five children, two cats, two guinea pigs, two rats, and a betta fish named "Flame."

Welcome!