Snake in action!

Not even the “sports” setting on my camera can contain such a wild beast.

turkey on rye

As a grad student, I don’t have a ton of money for eating out all the time.  (And, honestly, I can’t even figure out how I managed that as an undergrad.  How I miss my more-than-weekly Chipotle trips!)  Most of the time, I come home to eat.  Living close enough so that I can do that is really nice..definitely one of the advantages of living in such a small city.

Eating lunch at home, I have to find things that are quick and easy to make, yet substantial enough to carry me through the rest of the day.  I’m a big fan of sandwiches.  I was thinking it might be fun to introduce a new weekly feature, kind of like last year’s Squash of the Week, where I share some of my personal favorites!  So here goes.  I’ll keep it up as long as I can keep the sandwich creativity going.  Turkey on rye!

YOU’LL NEED:

• your favorite rye bread
• smoked turkey breast
• colby jack cheese
• green leaf lettuce
• mayonnaise
• deli mustard

Step 1: Get your spread on.

Step 2: Meat, cheese, lettuce.  Order unnecessary.

Step 3: Enjoy with your favorite chips and beverage!  :o)

 

 

such a sunday

Today was absolutely gorgeous, with just the right balance of productivity and relaxation.  ..which is exactly how a Sunday should be, in my opinion.  The weather was just perfect for leaving the windows open all day and giving Snake a bath outside.  Now my house smells doubly fresh!

I was able to make some serious progress on my thrummed mittens over coffee and pie this morning.  With any luck, I’ll be able to finish the first tonight.

make a pumpkin pie from scratch

Today I got really ballsy and decided to make a real pumpkin pie out of real pumpkin that I picked a couple weeks ago.  Now you can too!

Start out with a pie pumpkin or two.  Pie pumpkins are smaller than your average carving pumpkins.  Here’s some scale:

Now, cut the top off of that pumpkin and cut it in half.

Scoop all of the seeds and innards out of your pumpkin.  Don’t feel bad about feeding your funny buddy a little of the pumpkin guts as you go.  Pumpkin is good for doggies!  It’s full of fiber and deliciousness.  (Do, however, take into account your pal’s catching skills, as it will stain the carpet.  Not that I’d know..)

Either toss the seeds out or set them aside for roasting later.  Pro tip: when you go to separate the seeds from the attached guts, put them in a big bowl filled with water.  Shake it around for a bit.  The seeds will float on the top, and the guts will either sink to the bottom or get incorporated into the water.  Then you can just fish the seeds out!

Place the two halves of pumpkin in a pan flesh-side down, and fill the pan with about a half inch of water.

Cook the pumpkin in the oven at 350 for about an hour or until the pumpkin halves are easily pierced with a fork.

When you take the pumpkin out of the oven, let it sit until it’s cool enough to handle.  I just put foil over the pan and let it sit on the counter for about an hour.

Scrape the flesh out of the cooled pumpkin, and put it through the food processor to make a chunky puree.

Now, I believe I read somewhere that the juice in this puree makes it a little more bitter..especially important if you are making a pie.  The simplest way to get some of this juice out is to put the puree in a colander to drain for a bit.  I was a little worried that all of the puree would fall out of the holes, but it was fine.

You can use this pumpkin puree just like you would use the stuff from a can!  In order to make the pies, I used the recipe straight from the Libby’s pumpkin label.  (That link is for one pie, but I made two.)

I have heard that one large (29 oz) can of Libby’s pumpkin is about 3 1/2 cups worth of puree.  Well..my pumpkin yielded about 3 cups.  I just went for it anyways.  If you wanted, you always could choose a big pumpkin or prepare more than one.  I’m inclined to think it would turn out a little better that way, but mine is pretty good!

my favorite scarf

I have a confession to make.  It’s my favorite scarf.

You’ll notice that it’s not knitted.  It’s not even made lovingly by hand, unless you count whomever pushed the button to get the factory machine running.  But I wait all year to wear this scarf.  It rarely leaves my neck, even indoors, and I’ve been known to take ID photos with it.  Like I said.  It’s my favorite scarf.

I got it at Target a few years back on sale for like $8.  I’m not ashamed.  I love this damn scarf.

mug shot thursday

I would like to cordially invite anyone who’s interested to the Mugshot Thursdays group on Flickr!  It’s an open group, and all you have to do is take a picture of yourself and your mug on Thursday and post it.  Well, really, “mug” has devolved to “any beverage,” at least for me.  Please join us; it’s fun!  Here’s to the impending weekend!

i <3 netflix

There is so much bad customer service in this world that I tend to get really excited over a great experience. Take today, for example. I’ve been really enjoying my Netflix subscription for about four months now with no problems. But here’s what arrived today:

Well, obviously the remote is just there to block out my address. But besides that..it’s just the part of the envelope that has the address on it. The part that you tear off to get to the movie. My movie* was lost in the mail!! Gasp!

I called Netflix, and the guy on the phone was nice! Really nice! Of my non-movie, he laughed and said “well, that wouldn’t be very fun to watch!” And then he said they’d ship me out the movie and the next movie in my queue ASAP. Which is really awesome because I usually only get one at a time. I’m thrilled!

My gift subscription is set to end the 8th. I was on the fence, but you know what? After this, I think I’m totally going to keep it.

*I was expecting There’s Something About Mary because I am probably the only person in the world who hasn’t seen it.

fall workout plan

Do you know why they call it fall?  It’s because the leaves FALL all over your damn yard, and then you have to rake them into the street until you feel like your arms are going to FALL off.  Maybe you even FALL down from exhaustion because you eat later now that daylight savings time ended.

My front yard is pristine.  Alright..it’s close.  At least Proud Paul Poplar (of course I name my trees..don’t you?) is bare naked now, so tonight’s front raking was probably it for the season.  The back, however, can speak for itself.

Those aren’t even from my tree!!  Look at Snake sitting there thinking “uh..lady, are you going to pick those up?”

I have never in my entire life had to rake leaves until now.  And you know what?  IT’S HARD!!  So you healthy athletic folk can (first laugh at me for being sore) stop judging me for not going to the gym.  ..because by the end of the fall, I am going to have killer guns and rockin abs.  Majestic Mabel the Maple hasn’t even started to drop leaves yet.

making plans

So I’ve had all of these great ideas for what to blog about all month! Knitting content, food content (been a while, eh?), other stuff.. For someone who wasn’t planning on committing to post, I sure am excited. But I guess if you build it, they will come. Or something.

I know it’s post-holiday, but I just can’t help but share some of our Halloween fun!

I know she looks really pathetic here, but that’s just her modeling face. The “Blue Steel” or “Magnum” of Snake’s repertoire, if you will. She lounged around happily in that thing all night, no joke!

I have to say..I have been carving the same pumpkin for probably the last ten years of my life. Triangle eyes, big toothy (or not) grin..every single Halloween. It’s just so classic, right? I’ll probably be carving that same damn pumpkin forever. For some reason, I feel like this 2009’s pumpkin looks a bit like me. Do you see it? Um, yeah.

NaBloPoMo, take two

Alright, I wasn’t going to hop on this year, but Mia convinced me. Time, content, and motivation are yet to be decided. Here’s to November!