Homekeeping: November 2003 Archives

Well, actually kind of a bluish-greenish grey. A few weeks ago I mentioned taking Hambet to the pumpkin patch, and how Iris and I brought home some heirloom pumpkins.

Mine was a bluish-gray thing, and I recently discovered that it is a"Jarrahdale" pumpkin.

Last weekend I set about cooking and eating it. This was the first time I'd cooked a pumpkin (I usually use canned.) I took out the seeds, scraped out the pulp, and cut the pumpkin into wedges. The wedges went on a baking sheet and into the oven for about at hour at 300 degrees.

After the pumpkin was cooked, it was time to puree the flesh. That was such a hassle. I went for the food processor first and discovered it's broken. So then I tried the blender, which was miserable -- I had to puree the stuff in microbatches, and even then it didn't work well -- the thick pumpkin kept getting wedged under the blades. I had to add bits of water so that it would move around in the blender jar.

Eventually I got the knack of it, but it wasn't until the second to last batch that I remembered the food mill. That would have been the ideal tool.

One pumpkin yielded about two pounds of cooked, pureed pumpkin flesh. I made a pie with half of it, and I might make some muffins with the other half.

I did save the seeds, so maybe I'll be able to grow my own grey pumpkins next year.

I have been working on
Butterick Pattern # 3218, views B and D for Rosey Posey in a blue knit top and a matching striped skirt (made that today), Butterick Pattern # 3192, view B (center) for myself in a small whale beige corduroy, and Butterick Pattern #6286 (the jumper and little jacket) for Rosey Posey in a black large whale corduroy.

I hate taking forever to get projects done, I like to sit down and finish them so I am not thinking "oh dear, I have never finished that." Also, because there is a good chance it might not get done, and I hate the cluttered fabric pieces in my sewing things cubicles. Not too mention then I have to hear my husband complain "you spent all the money on that fabric a didn't even use it." I don't think he uses the word "fabric" though. Maybe it's more like "you spent all that money on that material and didn't even use it."

Posco is a little curious as to why I only sew for his sister and not for him. I told him boys clothes are too complicated. For the effort of sewing anything for a boy, it is pretty much worth it to go and purchase khaki pants, jeans and long sleeved rugby shirts.

What I really want to make myself is Butterick # 6057 but I need more practical attire at the moment. This is a problem I have had with clothes shopping for the last ten years since I became a Mom. I am not a comfortable casual kind of clothes person. But when Rosey Posey was a baby and the first time she spit up on me, I started wearing sweats. I hate sweats unless I am in a strange "not get dressed" mood, but not for every day. It has taken a concerted effort and even skill to figure how to dress practically enough and look nice and feminine even though I will spend a day homebound with perhaps a baby spitting up on me (not at the moment though). think it has taken literally like 9 out of 10 years of motherhood to figure it out.

This one goes out to Terry and the Summas: an alternate to wadding. Works well with hanging, too.