Friday Recipe - Pumpkin Butter

This recipe is for Pumpkin Butter, similar to Apple Butter for toast and such. This is a great fall/winter hostess gift or a gift for teachers, neighbors, etc. I usually make up a batch and we keep one small jar for ourselves. This is excellent on toast, muffins or biscuits. I usually attach a small tag tied with raffia or ribbon to my jars saying what it is and what to put it on.

It makes the house smell yummy too while it cooks!

Pumpkin Butter
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin (for those of you who cook your own pumpkin it is about 1 3/4 c pumpkin)
1 c applesauce
3/4 c apple juice
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to sterile containers and refrigerate until serving.

**NOTE: I reuse jars so I don't know what size my jars are, but I can tell you that this batch fills about 3 smaller sized jars. The recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled if you want to make more. The cooking time would need to be increased as well.**

Thursday

For this fine Thursday in the first week of November....well I got nuttin' to share really. It has been a quiet week in our house.....next week the chaos begins with birthday parties, parent/teacher conferences, holiday craft making and baking, holidays, school closures for said holidays, holiday parties, etc....

But, as for this week we are all relishing in the quiet and just waiting for the storm to begin!

Have a happy Thursday!

Making your lists

I am participating in another Works For Me Wednesday tip sharing hosted by We Are THAT Family. Click here for all the wonderful holiday tips being shared.

What works for me is to have a Holiday Notebook. It starts with Thanksgiving planning and runs through Christmas planning. I have used spiral notebooks before, but the last 3 years I have used a small 1" binder.

In January I print off these pages and then I put them in the notebook. As I come across ideas for handmade gifts, or recipes I might want to try out during the holidays then I print them off (or rip out of magazines), 3-hole punch them and stick them in my notebook. I start adding in names in July to our list of who we need to make or buy gifts for (adding in teachers, new co-workers, new babies in the family, etc) and then I can start, little by little, making things or buying things as we can afford to.





This is what works for me!

The blood curdling scream...

... and I'm not talking about Halloween.

Let me set the stage for you. It's 2:40 am (that's two o'clock in the MORNING!) and I am awoken to a horrific scream from the room across the hall. It was Lady Bug. "Moooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm" I leap out of bed as quickly as I can and go rushing in to her room. She says "Mom. You forgot to turn on my CD last night."

Me: blink, blink

Lady Bug: "So don't forgot again. Ok mom?"

Me: blink, blink

Lady Bug: "mom?"

Me: "Ok. I won't forget. Now go back to sleep"

Lady Bug: "Ok. Love you."

Me: blink, blink

I head back to bed wondering what in the world just happened. Did she REALLY need to scream like that only to point out I forgot to turn her music on some 6 hours earlier?

Getting a jump start

With all the falling snow we had last week (closed down the city for two days...) it really got my husband and I in the Christmas shopping spirit. Over the years my husband has learned not to wait until the last minute to do his shopping (thanks to all my nagging!) We (the whole family) were running errands and we found some stuff on clearance and he didn't even hesitate to throw 'em in the cart. When we got home he was commenting on how good it feels to have a jump start on the Christmas shopping and how it will be so nice to be done early! I told him if we plan to do just a little bit with each paycheck we should be in good shape.

Each kid had made a wish list a few weeks ago (yes I said a FEW WEEKS ago) and so we sort of had an idea of what we were going to get each kid already. The items we found on clearance were on our minds to get them anyway so it feels like an even bigger score for us!

THEN, Mr. Man announces to me that he doesn't know if he can wait two months... I guess that must be why he always was a "last-minute-shopper". I told him I am going to wrap the presents up and then he won't be able to give them to the kids early!

Then the other morning Spirit was laying in our bed and out of the blue Mr. Man says to him "Don't even try looking in our closet for Christmas presents!" - I looked at him and said "WHY in the world would you have even suggested that to him?" He just hung is head and said "I don't know." -- Apparently he should stick to being a last minute shopper! Sheesh! Needless to say, I am hiding the presents in a new spot and not telling Mr. Man where they are! :-)

Friday Recipe - Hot Apple Cider

This is perfect for a cold night! My neighbor made this for a party she had last year and it is SO good. I have been using her recipe ever since!

Hot Apple Cider
INGREDIENTS:
6 cups apple cider
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice berries
1 orange peel, cut into strips
1 lemon peel, cut into strips

Pour the apple cider and maple syrup into a large stainless steel saucepan.

Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel and lemon peel in the center of a washed square of cheesecloth; fold up the sides of the cheesecloth to enclose the bundle, then tie it up with a length of kitchen string. Drop the spice bundle into the cider mixture.

Place the saucepan over moderate heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cider is very hot but not boiling.

Remove the cider from the heat. Discard the spice bundle. Ladle the cider into big cups or mugs, adding a fresh cinnamon stick to each serving if desired.

**NOTE: If you don't have cheesecloth, you can also put spices directly in pan. After the cider is very warm you will need to strain off the spices before serving.**

We mix this up and then put it in a Crock-pot to keep it warm. It also makes the house smell so yummy!

Funny Pumpkin Story...

We were going through some old (old as in 7-8 years ago old) and found some Halloween pictures when the boys were about 2 and 3 years old. Spirit was probably 3, almost 4. He was dressed up like a big fluffy pumpkin. He was so stinkin' cute. I remember when we got the costume, I asked him and asked him if he was sure that was the one he wanted. He was certain. He was so sure he wanted it we couldn't get it off him for days. He slept in it and everything. So anyway, there we were looking at these pictures and here is the conversation that followed:

Spirit: "Mooooommmmmm! WHY did you dress me up like a dorky pumpkin."

Me: "You asked for that costume."

Spirit: "Why did I want that one?"

Me: "Because you were 3. You liked it. You liked it so much you even slept in it. We went to the pumpkin patch and you insisted on wearing it to the pumpkin patch too."

Spirit: "Oh mooooommmm. You did NOT let me wear it to the pumpkin patch."

Me: "Yesssss, I did. You were cute. Honey, you were only 3. It was cute."

Spirit: *Rolling his eyes and shaking his head*

Me: "it wouldn't be so cute if you did it NOW, but it was cute then."

Spirit: "I still can't believe you did that to me."

Did any of you catch that I did not DO this to him?? He chose that costume. Ugh. Typical male, doesn't listen to anything I say.