From the Archives: Pumpkin

As I get ready to 'slaughter' our two never-carved Halloween pumpkins and make them into pumpkin butter, I'll jump back two years to the post when we first discovered pumpkin-thyme mac n' cheese. And then I'll start thinking ahead to Thanksgiving...

I called S. at work yesterday, and said to him, "Just when you thought I couldn't get any more frugal..."  He said he never thought any such thing!

But my news was that I successfully cut my own hair.  It's been driving me crazy for a month or two, seriously long and scraggly, and I finally just looked up a really, really simple ehow and went for it.  It's not professional of course, but it's 100 percent better than it was, and my curls cover a multitude of sins anyway. (Note from 2014: I haven't actually been back to a professional since, I didn't realize it had been quite that long!)

It's the season for all things pumpkin, we had a "pumpkin pie" smoothie yesterday morning, pumpkin-thyme macaroni and cheese last night, and pumpkin-layered brownies for FHE earlier this week.  The best of all, though, has been the pumpkin seeds.  I have figured out the secret to amazing roasted pumpkin seeds!  It's simply soaking them overnight in really salty water (like 1/4-1/3 c. of salt, depending on how big your batch is).  My whole family asked what I had done differently, they were just fantastic.  Soak 'em, pat them dry a little, and roast them at 300º until they're barely starting to brown, stirring occasionally.