Pumpkins!

I know it's only the beginning of October but where we are we've already begun harvesting the pumpkins from the garden. We planted Sugar Baby variety to keep us well stocked for pumpkin pie. This year has been a great harvest and we had about 30 pumpkins. Now we have the great problem of finding what to do with all that pumpkin. Pies are a must but what else would be on your list?

Here are some on my list: Whole wheat pumpkin muffins
                                       Pumpkin spice Rice Krispie squares
                                       Leftover pumpkin pie ice cream
                                       Pumpkin scones

Take a peek at my husband's blog "Brewing beer the hard way" to watch a video of the harvest (fast forward to the 3 min. mark). If you're in Canada and you can send him a good pumpkin ale recipe, he'll send you a dozen pumpkin seeds. Mmmmm....pie.

Brewing Beer the Hard Way

As someone who creates with her hands you can well assume that I'm a big fan of DIY projects. I love looking at tutorials and how-tos to create things most people would automatically buy. Fortunately for me, I married someone else who is just as DIY as myself. Except for the lack of space all our projects create, it's great to live with someone who is just as excited to create something new with hands. Over the years we've created our own soap and shampoo, grown our own fruit and veggies, canned jam and pickled veggies, baked our own bread and pies, made candy and even did a bit of our home renovations.

One D.I.Y. project that seems to be expanding in scope at our house is the brewing of beer. At one time my husband, Francois, would buy whatever kit and create your standard home-brew. Over the years he's gotten himself quite a stash of adapted equipment and he now not only brews various types of beer at home but he has also started growing the hops and barley to put in the brews. For a couple weeks now he's been working on malting the barely to perfection. I  can also add that he's grown and processed sugar beets this year meant for a future batch. Is he hard-core or what?

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To keep track of all his brews and experiments Francois has started a blog Although he's brand new to the blogging scene, he's got an impressive amount of info and video footage. Take a peek at the blog or his YouTube channel and you might just see some footage of my "helper" daughters. Feel free to comment too, I know he'd love it.