1. I read Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan, for the first time in my life this past weekend. I picked it up off the shelf in the library and had to ask the librarian if it was an abridged version since it was so thin. She said that no, it was the real thing. I read it to the kids in three days (we could’ve easily done it in one sitting) and finished it up on Sunday night. I don’t normally cry when I read to the kids (I do get a little choked up sometimes), but somewhere in the last chapter I started crying and I didn’t stop till I finished the book. I don’t mean a little sniffle cry; I mean, a tears-streaming-down-my-cheeks-and-Miss-Becca-Boo-flying-into-my-lap-to-hug-me type of cry. It is an exquisite book.

2. My Aunt Valerie gave me a new tip when she last visited me. She told me to save all the fruit juices that you have left in the bottom of your jars and use them to replace some or all of the water in your granola recipes. So in my last batch of granola I included sweet cherry juice, the dregs of the jar of apple cider, and some peach juice. I don’t detect a change in the flavor, but it makes me feel kind of smug to do it.

3. I have always cut up my squashes and pumpkins and boiled them till tender and then scraped out the flesh to use in pies and other dishes, but this year I decided to learn how to roast them. All you do is wash the pumpkin, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, cut it into smaller chunks, and set the chunks skin-side-down on cookie sheets.

Cover the pumpkin with big sheets of tinfoil (I save them for the next time I do a pumpkin bake) and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple hours till the pumpkin is fork-tender.

After the pumpkin cools for a bit,

scoop out the meaty flesh.

Allow the scooped-out pumpkin to sit in the bowl for a little because some more liquid will ooze out which can then be poured off.

Pack the pumpkin into pint-sized boxes and pop them in the freezer.

(So I’m not very good at keeping mum. Ya wanna make something of it?)

I saw The Man yesterday, with my very own eyes, and you know what? He looks just like he does on TV. In fact, it was almost exactly like watching him on our fuzzy, static-y TV ‘cause with all the jostling and screaming it was kind of hard to get a good, focused look at him.

Here he is.

Oops, let’s try the zoom now.

See what I mean? He looks calm, collected, confident, and, believe it or not, energetic. How does he do it?!

The day’s events in a nutshell: Me and two friends took nine kids and some food to a field and sat there all afternoon in the freezing windy cold and then we didn’t get in because about five thousand people jumped in line in front of us (CURSES!) but then Obama came on to the back of the field (bless his heart) and we saw him for five minutes, after which Miss Becca Boo threw up, and then, after slinking (as if you can “slink” with nine children) through the woods on the other side of the building and seeing him exit the building and drive off, we went home. And thus ends the year’s history/social studies/political science lesson.

The extremes we mothers will go to in the spirit of home education! I think we should be sainted, or something.

Ps. Except that now he’s doing that special announcement thing tonight, so I guess we’ll be pulling out the TV (that we don’t have) and making some popcorn. At least we’ll be warm this time around.

The other day when I was still on a zippy high after my foray into apples and rosemary, I created a new pizza. Now, I don’t know if much can be invented in the way of pizza what with the already too-many-to-count crust recipes and topping combinations, but I daresay that I have quite possibly chipped a little hole in the glass ceiling of pizza possibilities. Among the tools used to make that little hole were curried pumpkin, sausage, and apples.

This may look like a complicated recipe, but please do not be dismayed. There is lots of room for working ahead. And actually, I just created this dish at the last minute, off the top of my head, as I pulled the leftovers out of the refrigerator and freezer. I had the soup in the fridge and the browned sausage in the freezer and only had to caramelize the onion, grate the cheese, and saute the apples. So, make the soup for supper tonight, and then a couple days later (or months, if you freeze the leftovers), you can whip up this spanking new pizza.

I ate the leftover pizza for breakfast and lunch the following day, and, the day after that, for breakfast. I just kept the leftovers on a plate on the counter, no refrigeration necessary, and heated up each piece in the microwave for about 15 seconds. The leftovers were excellent on day two, but by day three the crust was getting a little soggy.

Pizza with Curried Pumpkin Sauce, Sausage, Apples, Caramelized Onions, and Sharp Cheddar

1/2-1 cup leftover curried pumpkin soup (see below)
2 cups sharp cheddar, grated
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1-2 cups bulk sausage, browned
4 apples, cored, peeled, sliced
1 large onion, cut into thin rings
1 recipe pizza dough

For the curried pumpkin soup:
Saute a chopped onion and some diced celery in some olive oil. Add 1-2 tablespoons curry powder. In a separate kettle, boil (in water) a large handful of unpeeled fingerling potatoes and 1 or 2 diced carrots. Add the drained, cooked veggies to the curry mixture. Add a couple cups of cooked pumpkin, and two or three cups of chicken broth (I used turkey gravy). Puree the whole mixture with your handy-dandy immersion blender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and a cup of cream or milk. Heat on medium-low heat. The soup should be fairly thick.

To serve, garnish with any of the following: yogurt, sour cream, grated cheese, chives, parsley. Make sure you reserve one cup of the soup, or divide the soup into one-cup containers and freeze, for the pizza recipe.

To assemble the pizza:
Saute the apples in a little butter till tender but still firm, about ten minutes. Set aside.

Saute the onion in some olive oil until dark, golden brown, about 20-30 minutes. (See here for more detailed instructions.) Set aside.

Roll/press out one large pizza crust (I divided the recipe of pizza dough into two balls and rolled the crusts out thin—one was for the kids’ cheese pizza and the other was for this recipe). Spread the curried pumpkin soup over the crust. Sprinkle on some of the grated cheese. Distribute the browned sausage, then the sauteed apples, and finally the caramelized onion. Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over all, and bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes.