A Different Kind of Pumpkin

It's pumpkin season, right? Now tell me honestly. How many of you have ever made a pumpkin pie, loaf of bread, pumpkin bars, etc... using REAL pumpkin? I DON'T mean real pumpkin from a can. My friend Katie chastised me last fall because, to be honest, the thought had never crossed my mind. But this season, I am much more savvy (and all out of canned pumpkin.) So I made some pumpkin bread last week, and I saved the seeds. I was having sweet memories growing up eating salted, roasted pumpkin seeds after the yearly pumpkin carving. So I tried my own. That's when I discovered that Chinese pumpkins are a little different. As I was roasting the seeds in the oven, they started popping like popcorn! And aside from the salty, buttery coating, they tasted like... tough cardboard. At least the pumpkin bread tastes OK!

On another note of harvest season, the tomato plants on the balcony are now as tall as I am! We planted them in early June and keeping them alive has been a community effort -- Friends diligently helped us during two summer trips. With the 50 degree temps last week, I was losing hope they would actually grow tomatoes. But yesterday we spied budding flowers! And according to my memory of elementary science, the flowers come before the fruit! :) I won't send pictures until there's actually tomatoes though.

To close today, I had to include this pic I came across recently... who is that child, you ask? It's KATHRYN... October 2004. She's certainly what I'd call 'A different kind of pumpkin'!