{fall} fun

its november and fall is in full swing. i'm trying to fully enjoy my favorite season before its completely eclipsed by the madness of the holidays next week. weather wise, it has been quite mild so far, but we've gotten a few cool days and even had our first frost of the season and the leaves have finally changed colors. i picked up a few of my favorite vegetables the other day and tried out a few new recipes, butternut squash with sage & shallots and pumpkin cupcakes... both successes {pumpkin oatmeal cookies... not so much}.

fall foliage in the back yard

pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing {loves}

i'm kicking off the holiday show season this weekend at {The Durham Artwalk} i'll be in the Arts Council building from 10-5 on saturday and 1-5 on sunday.

pumpkin!

i found this recipe for Saskatchewan Mashed Pumpkin on Pumpkin Nook and thought it sounded delicious. the recipe, contributed by Christina Mader from Saskatchewan, Canada, is as follows:

ingredients:
3-4 cups pumpkin, cooked, mashed
1 onion
2 tbs olive oil
1 bell pepper
salt
pepper

directions:
1. To cook pumpkin, clean one pumpkin and peel it. Cook until soft. Then, mash it with a mixer.
2. Re-heat mashed pumpkin in a large saucepan.
3. Thinly slice an onion.
4. Fry the onion in olive oil till brown.
5. Add browned onions to pumpkins. Mix in.
6. Add coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

we decided to give it a try. never having attempted to crack open a pie pumpkin before it turned out to be quite an adventure. who would have thought something so small would be so hard to open. after several unsuccessful attempts using 4 different knifes i decided to bring out the heavy artillery.
making progress
the guts
cooking
mashing
ready to eat!
although it was a lot of work the results were delicious, and it was a fun way to spend the afternoon. not to mention, i got roasted pumpkin seeds with old bay as a bonus.