We have a dozen pumpkins on the railing of the deck. These are the fruits, so to speak, of our gardening labor. I have baked up a few of them so far, to use in muffins and soup. I made two batches of muffins this past weekend. One was great, the other flopped.
The flopped batch came from missing one ingredient. It took me quite a while to realize what it was. Then I remembered that I forgot the baking powder. It is great to remember that I have forgotten something. It is far better than to forget that I have remembered something. The second batch was the progeny of the flop of the first batch. I was excited to make these pumpkin apple muffins and then I ended up with these somewhat tasty but way too dense things. The next batch was a winner.
I also made soup this weekend. It was part of a simple meal: fresh bread, fresh soup and apple pie. The pie was a group effort (my mother and niece worked on that) so the meal was truly a family dinner. The bread was pretty much dee-lish, if I may say that about my own honey oat perfectly risen perfectly baked warm buttery yeast creation. And the soup was dang good as well.
My wife and I went out to dinner a few nights ago and had some squash soup that was really amazing. It just folded into your tongue and wrapped around your taste buds in a teasing caress. It was hard to get enough of that. I though I might take some cues from that soup and, while I had no illusions that I would replicate it, try my own version.
My version was a pumpkin (duh!) soup, with cream and honey and cinnamon and sage. It was creamy and smooth and sweet. I made a lot but it was consumed, even by two young children and a teenager. That was accolade enough for me.
There are still many pumpkins left. I will bake and freeze a few and I will make more bread and more soup. And maybe another batch of muffins. We still have a bucketload of apples left as well. Our oven won’t be idle for a while.
