Pumpkin Pie, all from Scratch

My mom gave me a pumpkin that she had grown in her garden... and I decided to turn it into a sweet pumpkin pie....

This is how it started out... a sweet little pumpkin.


I cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out all of the seeds.

Then I placed the pumpkin upside down on a cookie sheet, baked it in a 350 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes. When I pulled the pumpkin out, I was easily able to peel the skin right off the meat of the pumpkin. I put the pumpkin in my blender and pureed it until smooth. Then I stored it in my refrigerator over night.

The next day I added all of the ingredients required for a pumpkin pie (recipe at the bottom) and baked it.

And this was the finished product! It was yummy! I made a second pie with canned pumpkin and conducted a blind taste test with my husband to see which one he liked better. He used his culinary taste buds and chose this pie as the better tasting pie. Mmmm Mmmmm Good!

Famous Pumpkin Pie

3/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
1 garnish of whipped cream, (optional)

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake in preheated 425° F. oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving, if desired.

Note: Do not freeze, as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling. 1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin spice may be substituted for the cinnamon, ginger and cloves; however, the taste will be slightly different.

Thanksgiving Gifts...

Here is a gift that I made for my Visiting Teaching ladies...

I used a 12x12 sheet of paper and wrapped it up like a cone, stapled it and glued the edge. Filled it with a yummy treat and sealed it. Then put on a cute turkey embellishment. The turkey was made from a variety of different punches that I had so they didn't really take very long. The eyes were probably the hardest part since they were the small 1/8" punch and I could have just drawn them on. If I were making any more than 9 I probably would have drawn them on.

They were easy so I made a few extra and I turned them into magnets. I used some of those advertising magnets that come in the mail, ripped off the advertising part, then cut a large piece and glued it to the back. Now they lay flat against the refrigerator. I plan to give them to family on Thanksgiving with a something yummy to eat...

Gift Tag

Here is a tag that I made today for a gift for Samantha's school teacher. I had a bunch of pre-cut tags on hand and so I put them all together and made this one cute tag. Added a copper brad and some copper cording...



This is the finished gift.... a cute little turkey that I found at a craft store, some chocolate wrapped in an organza bag and it was done!

Jar...

Here is a glass jar that I got from Ikea. I used rub ons from Stampin Up. There is a large flower, with the saying "Life is Beautiful" and then around the top of the jar I used a strip of small flowers. Then of course I used some modge podge over the top of the rub-ons to keep them more securely in place. Tied some burgundy grosgrain ribbon around the top and the jar was done. Quick and easy, especially since I had everything on hand.

Chalkboard Clipboard

Here is a clipboard that I made to display the daily specials that will be served for dinner.

First I sprayed the clipboard with a primer, then I painted the clipboard with chalkboard paint. Finally I used the Stazon White Stamp Pad to stamp the Voila chef on the bottom of the board and the Bon Appetit at the top. Then I tied several different kinds of ribbon at the top. A large white organza, white grosgraina and the black and white ribbon.

And Voila! C'est Magnifique!


Now everyone knows what's for dinner.

Pom Pom Pens

I found the cutest tutorial for pom pom pens here. It was a really fun activity and great for getting rid of all your scrap fabric. Then I put them in an old (washed out) mandarin orange can (and clipped my ipod shuffle to it- as you can see) and Im good to go! Plus, now my husband wont steal my pens! In fact, he wont even use them.

Apron {{as modeled by my 2 year old!}}

This is an apron. I promise. Though it looks more like dress on a 2 year old. But I just couldnt get a decent 'self portrait'. So you get this. :)

I've seen aprons like this all over the web, so I decided to make my own. I didnt use exact measurements and just guessed on size. I cut out one square piece of fabric as my base. (the piece of fabric I would sew my ruffled layers on to) Then I cut 3 peices of fabric- (about a 1/4 yd wide) I hemmed them, and then ruffled the top with my machine. I then layered them on my square base fabric. I then used ribbon as the tie. You can embellish each layer with ric rac or any other fun embellishment. This was for a gift, and I knew the person wanted simple. This is a very easy project that takes about 30-45 minutes as well.

Pin Cushion

I found a free pattern to this pin cushion at Heather Bailey's website. It was really easy to make- I think it only took me about 15 mintues from start to finish. And the fabric combinations are endless!

White Watch

Okay so I made another one and swapped out the watch face from the first and put it on this one. I think I like this one better.




I think they look pretty cool even with out the watch face... time to make one that is just a bracelet.

Breakfast Puff Pancake

We made this for breakfast...

Apple Oven Pancake

2 T. butter
2 large eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. milk
1/4 t. salt
2 T. packed brown sugar
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 c. thinly sliced peeled apples
Powdered Sugar to sprinkle on top

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in 9-inch pie plate, brush butter up sides of pie plate. Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with wire whisk. Beat in flour, milk, and salt just until mixed. Do Not Overbeat. Sprinkle brown sugar and ground cinnamon evenly over the melted butter in the pie plate. Arrange apples over sugar. Pour batter over apples. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Immediately loosen edge of pancake and put onto a heat-proof serving plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with cut up fruit.

Homemade Apple Pie

We like to watch this show called "Pushing Daisies". It is a good show on ABC. We like this show because it is one that we can watch with the kids, and they love it now too. It is a simple, feel-good show. There is so little that we can watch with the kids and it is fun to sit down and watch something once in a while.

This relates to an Apple Pie, because the main character on the show owns a diner called "The Pie Hole" where they serve many scrumptious pies... (at least I assume they are scrumptious). This all leads up to the project of the day... my yummy apple pie!

It only took me about 30 minutes to make it because I started with a Pillsbury Pre-made pie crust (next time I will make my own crust).

Here is the recipe that I used for the filling:

6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (approx 6 medium, I used a variety of apples, Golden Delicious, Gala, and Granny Smith)
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. all purpose flour
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. ground nutmeg
Dash of ground cloves
1 T. lemon juice

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix ingredients together and spoon into a crust-lined 9" glass pie pan. Top with the second crust. Wrap excess edges under bottom crust edge, pressing edges together and seal; flute. Cut slits or shapes in several places on the top crust. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Place a cookie sheet on the rack under the pie to catch any spill over from the pie. Cover edge of crust with 2 to 3 inch wide strips of foil after the first 15 to 20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours before serving.

Here is the pie with the apples and filling.

Here is the pie sealed, fluted and design cut on top. Just simple lines.

I think it could have used a few more apples since they cook down. But this is how it looked when I cut out a piece.... It was still warm and gooey.

And this is how it looked on our plates before we ate it....

Mmmmm.... Mmmmmmmm.... Good!

Watch...

I made this watch using safety pins, seed beads and then the watch face. Simple, easy and done in only a few hours. The hardest part is getting all of the beads on the safety pins without dropping the bowl holding all of those teeny tiny beads. (Let me tell you it is not fun to try to pick them all up in a parking lot... but that is another story.)


It is a very fat and chunky watch. You can't really tell that it is made of safety pins until you inspect it a bit closer.

I do need some opinions on the watch face... do you think it looks good, or would look better with a bigger watch face that is more comparable in size?

Tom Turkey

Here is my new Mr. Tom Turkey.

I have been trying to collect more Thanksgiving decorations since it is sometimes an under appreciated holiday. I love Thanksgiving. It is a great time to get together as friends and family, there is always FABULOUS food around, and so much fun. Sometimes it can be overlooked with the anticipation and excitement of Christmas approaching. (Kinda hard not to when they start putting up Christmas in September!!!)

When I saw this turkey as part of a RS Craft day, I decided to take advantage. However, the night of the event, I had family coming to visit so I wasn't able to go make it there. I received the pieces a few weeks after the event and I finally painted him the other day and then put him together. I changed some of the original color choices for several reasons.... One simply being I didn't have the exact same colors. Another disadvantage of not making him on the event night is that I didn't get some of the peripheral things that were there. Wire to attach the pumpkin (not shown), and straw to tie around him, plus I think there is a piece missing for his hat like a buckle... looks fine without it, but still. I will still be modifying him a bit, and will post a finsihed product when I am fully done.

Another small gift...

Here is a cute little bottle that I made to give out as a gift.

The little bottle came from Ikea. Then I used a Stampin' Up Rub on Flower to decorate the outside. I wanted to make sure that the flower wouldn't come off so I used a little bit of modge podge to keep it in place. Then I added some ribbon around the lid with Sticky Strip from Stampin' Up. The yellow grosgrain ribbon (non SU!) that I was using was a bit too bright for the other fall colors, so I ran the yellow ribbon on top of my brown stamp pad to give it a more subtle color. It is kinda hard to see the flower because of the yummy Reeses PB cups inside the jar (probably the best part of the entire gift!)

Then I cut out a flower from one of my Big Shot punches. I used some of my other Stampin Up Punches to layer it and then poked a jeweled brad through the whole thing to give it a little BLING! Used more of the Sticky Strip to attach it to the top of the jar. Then it was ready to go.

This was a card that I made to go with the gift. It is using a retired stamp set. The white flower is embossed on the black paper, then matted with white paper. The design on the brown paper was put on there with a roller. Tied the flower on the card with brown linen thread. Used the paper piercing tool to put the holes in the card and then used a needle with the linen thread to put it on. Tied a knot and cut the strings short. Used a pre-made tag from a box set, rolled it, stamped For You and tied it on with more linen thread.

Gift bag and Card

This project is a matching gift bag and card. So stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself! The best part is it only uses one 12x12 piece of double sided designer series Stampin' Up paper! I made some of these at a Stamp Camp back in June, but gave all of the ones that I had away, so when I had a gift to give, I needed a new one. They are pretty quick and easy.

To start off, a strip is cut to cover the top third of the bag and then the second peice is folded over to create the pocket. Sticky strip tape is the best for this project because it keeps everything together. I distressed the edges of the paper with a stamp pad, then added the 4 silver brads and brown grosgrain ribbon.

(I added these embellishments to the paper before attaching it to the bag so that the brads aren't going through the bag, but you could do that and it would probably be stronger. Just make sure to use the piercing tool to punch a hole through all of the layers so the brad will slide in easily!)

Then there was one small square of the designer paper left over so I cut it in half and put them in each corner of the card with distressed edges from the ink. I used the Rock 'N' Roll technique on the butterfly to create the double color on the butterfly. First stamp the butterfly in a light color and then roll the edges of the stamp on a darker color ink pad. (FYI, you don't want to do it the other way because you will ruin the lighter color ink pad and it won't really show up very well.)

See it creates a cute little pocket on the outside of the bag that can hold the matching card.

Let me know if there are any questions.

Cookies

Here are some cute sugar cookies we made for our neighbors for Halloween... Fun stuff!