Philipe Fridays

I think it's necessary to post a picture of our other roommate Phil, short for Philipe (French not Spanish), more often than I do.  Therefore, every Friday I will do just that.  It seems to me that one either finds cats hysterical or not.  So, if you don't...I suggest skipping Fridays here on Golden Flea. 

Here is Phil taking a nap on the stool.

How to Make Your Own Pumpkin Puree!

This is a pie pumpkin.  You know all those cans of pureed pumpkin on your local grocer's shelves?  Well, you can make your own with just a little extra time!

Using a sharp knife, cut your pumpkin in half.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Scoop out all the inner gloop and seeds and set those aside.  

Put your cut sides down on a rimmed baking sheet.  I left my pumpkin with the cut sides up and it made the pumpkin dry out a bit.  Next, throw that orange guy into the oven and let bake until the flesh of the pumpkin is soft (use a fork to check).  If you insert your fork and it feels like the flesh is still hard, keep it baking for another 5-10 minutes.  This should take around 40- 60 minutes to bake.

Next, take your trusty spoon and scoop out the soft flesh of the first half pumpkin and put it directly into your food processor.  Puree until smooth and no more clumps are present.  Repeat with other half of pumpkin. 

If you're using your puree in a recipe, you can refrigerate it for a few days.  You can also put it in your freezer for a couple of months.  When I took my puree out of the fridge, there was some water on top.  Some websites recommend pouring that off before using the puree, however, I just stirred it back in and my recipes turned out great.  

Now, if you have chickens, give them the rind.  My ladies went wild!  They had their beaks covered in pumpkin.  Here is Red Legs checking me out, Skinny Lynnie is eating some of the seeds I gave her, and poor George missed the action because she was laying an egg.  

Speaking of pumpkin seeds!  With your leftover seeds, you can roast them for a tasty treat.  I used this recipe.  They were gone by the end of the day:)  

Happy Friday!

Week 1 Meal Plan...a little iffy.

Well, this whole Radical Homemaker job is really keeping me busy!  I've been a baking machine and did a lot of studying today.  I'm reading a lot on farming right now and I'm constantly hitting the limit of books allowed to be checked out at the library.  Luckily, I have a few librarians on my side who override such things as "too many books."  

So here is my Week 1 of meal planning:  

It looks slightly chaotic, right?  I figure I must start somewhere though.  And obviously I'm not great so far because half of my days are empty.  It's really only dinners that hang me up.  My breakfasts are consistently the same.  I've already made changes to my Week 2 and will post that outline soon.  But here's what I've been baking...

An apple galette adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  The top picture is when it was heading into the oven and below is the final product. 

Next came this cracked wheat bread that truly took me all day to bake.  The initial rise of the starter was a minimum of four hours to a maximum of 24!  I let it sit for about six hours, but there was more resting time later.  However, it was worth the wait because I think this was the best loaf of bread I've ever made.  Chewy texture with a crisper crust.  I'm already excited about breakfast to throw some apple butter on!  

Tomorrow is a day of pies.  I will be roasting a pie pumpkin and making all the pie crusts.  People say making pie dough is easy...but I don't know if I trust them.  I'll let you know!

Cheers to Friday!

Well, my camera is currently broken.  I believe I have to send it in...so I haven't been able to document goodies that I've been making.  I also want to show you my first week's plan of meals.  It's a pretty mangy outline, but I understand it.  Plus, I want to document the progress I make in meal planning.  Should be interesting!

As for goodies, I made some pretty addicting pitas from the also addicting Smitten Kitchen blog.  To go with it, I made some tasty baba ghanoush from here (what's the correct spelling?  Yeah, I don't know either).  Both were very easy, so give it a try this weekend!

Go grab yourself a glass of wine...I already did.  I will leave you with some recent pictures from my roomies and the city in which I live!    Happy Weekend!  

Phil in a box.  Never gets old.

This picture makes me chuckle to myself...do you see Red's head sticking out the side?

 My new nephew who I get to babysit tomorrow!

Ahh, Minneapolis...I love you.

Ohio Bound

 

Just a quick note to apologize for the lack of posts this week.  I am out in Ohio for a fundraiser event in Ohio and visiting Ross's family!!  I will be back in the life lessons next week.  I have a lot on my list to get canned and to start learning and I am ready to get going!  

Image found here!  Pretty cool site.

Creating Opportunities!

 

This week is the beginning of a whole new chapter of my life book.  You see, last week was my finale at the restaurant where I had been serving.  I've been serving for a while now and I'm just feeling a bit burnt out.  I love the aspect of being amongst people constantly, but I am ready to turn in another direction.  So, I gave my two weeks and voila!  Here I am.  

What am I doing next?  It's going to be a mash-up of baking, writing, meal planning, gardening, and money management.  Let's just call it a Radical Homemaker education.  I've put things like reading classics and learning to sketch on the back burner to things like...learning how to not spend all of our money.  Solid first step I think. 

To be honest, I haven't had much reaction to my next leg.  I don't think people are that shocked that I've got to venture into a territory that is more Devon-like.  With that, I will be putting things up on the blog that may be applied to your life too, if you so like.  I will share the good and bad about cooking, how to meal plan, and again...how to not spend all of your money.  When I'm not doing that, I will be pouring over inspiring Mark Twain quotes to keep my mental stability up and avoid wondering, "what in the hell am I doing?"

Now, when people ask me what I do for work, I'd love to tell them my new slogan:  

"I'm making my own goddamn opportunities!"  

It sure does say it all, huh?  However, it may be a bit too harsh to say that to my favorite librarians.  Instead, I'll smile and say, "I'm self-employed right now."  And if they really want to know what that entails...I'll start talking about Radical Homemaking:) 

Photo from here!