Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Posted on 8 February 2012 in Recipes | View Comments

Last year I saved some pumpkin seeds from an organic culinary pumpkin I bought. I carefully dried some and when spring came, I just couldn’t wait to germinate them. I probably did so far too soon because by mid-July, the garden was already looking like this:

garden mid july 446x600 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

The Garden, mid July

I had created a monster. Those leaves proceeded to climb up the wall, across the patio and, for a while, were a major point of contempt between Chris and I. He hacked them almost back to nothing twice, but this was no ordinary pumpkin plant. This was a man-eating pumpkin plant.

pumpkin plant mid takeover 600x398 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Pumpkin plant mid-takeover

Somehow, though, only two pumpkins came to fruition. And they were MASSIVE ‘culinary’ pumpkins. I mean huuuge!

huge pumpkin 448x600 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Huge pumpkin

I think one of my mistakes here was that I planted / harvested the pumpkins too soon. The stems had gone woody but the insides were slightly green and sort of spongy.

pumpkin spongy inside 600x398 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Gutting the pumpkins

Nevertheless, the pumpkins were seeded and gutted – my favourite part of the process, actually; gutting pumpkins is very therapeutic.

Next I chopped them up and steamed them in the biggest pot I had. It still took me a good couple of hours, though, just because of the size and quantity of pumpkin! I would recommend using smaller pumpkins because they’re sweeter and you don’t have to add as much sugar to them.

boiling pumpkin 600x399 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Boiling pumpkins to make purée

I also saved the seeds to rinse and roast – yuuummmm!

leftover pumpkin seeds 600x400 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Pumpkin seeds

Finally, when the pumpkin was cooked through enough and mushy, I let it cool for a few minutes and then filleted it from the skin (if that makes sense).

cooked pumkin 600x393 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

The cooked pumpkin

A quick zap in the food processor and I had my very own pumpkin glop purée! All but three cups of it went straight into the freezer and the rest was spiced according to this recipe (which I’ve made several times now and is delicious).

pureed pumpkin with spices 600x399 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Puréed pumkin with spices

By this point I had run out of patience so I rolled out a store-bought pastry (gasp!) and chucked it in the oven.

pumpkin pie in the oven 600x469 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

Pumpkin pie in the oven

I had enough for two pies. And boy were they ever good!

finished pie 600x397 Pumpkin pie, the old fashioned way

The finished pumpkin pie - yummm!

Seriously, it’s so rewarding making pumpkin pie from a *real* pumpkin instead of that crap you buy in cans.

A little late for Thanksgiving but better than never, right?

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Dusting off the ol’ blog…

Posted on 8 February 2012 in Personal | View Comments

carpe diem 600x463 Dusting off the ol blog...

*blows dust off keyboard*

Does anyone still subscribe or have I abandoned all of you for too long? I might just have to shout into the abyss for a while…

Today I realized that I’ve actually got a proper backlog of things to blog about, dating back to Thanksgiving(!!). I subscribe to a fair few blogs and I’m always shocked at how good others are at keeping them up to date. Is it ok if I just blame my mother for passing along the procrastination gene? No? Crap.

Okay, here’s the backlog. Do tell me which (if any) you’d like me to post and I’ll prioritize those ones.

  • I made pumpkin pie from scratch; I grew pumpkins from seeds!
  • Scary clown Halloween costume
  • Guy Fawkes Day Celebration
  • Various things I cooked / baked /  preserved
  • Cats doing cute cat things
  • I learned to crochet
  • Chris became an uncle!
  • Long weekend in Madrid
  • Florida trip – mainly pictures of a big alligator!
  • Christmas decorating / baking
  • I got 4 year old film developed with interesting results
  • Car boot sales and country walks
  • Thinking about opening an online shop (Pssst, sign up for launch notification!)
  • Teacup candles
  • A house update / spring spruce-up list
  • Chris’s car accident makes We Love Bath! Newsletter
  • 8-course anniversary meal at The Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath (leave it to me to take sneaky pictures of every course in a restaurant where they put your napkin on your lap for you)

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Blubolt’s new office

Posted on 13 September 2011 in Design | View Comments

25 Queen Square Bath 600x395 Blubolts new office

Blubolt has moved to 25 Queen Square! It’s just around the corner from our previous office, but it is quite a bit larger so we have lots of room to expand, as we have been doing at an alarming rate!

Check it out, I’ve got the best desk:

DSC03136 399x600 Blubolts new office

Check out my view of the park! I sometimes stare out here and imagine what life would have been like in the 1800s when 25 Queen Square was brand new and residential. I picture myself in one of those big dresses, going out for my three turns around the park with a handsome Mr. Darcy on my arm. I love daydreaming about the 1800s…

DSC03145 399x600 Blubolts new office

Anyways, back to reality. On the other side of the room sit Daniel, Max, Krzych and Trevor.

DSC03144 600x399 Blubolts new office

Here’s a panorama of the front-facing windows, including a very shy  or scared Trevor. You can also see that we’ve hung the auction painting (it’s a Dominic Hills) on the wall near my desk.

DSC03142 600x157 Blubolts new office

Spinning 180 degrees, we’ve got Saud and Deividas separated by a small partition. Off to the right is our tea station, currently stocked with seriously amazing teapigs tea [new website coming soon!].

DSC03137 600x399 Blubolts new office

Further back, we have Duncan and Craig.

DSC03138 600x399 Blubolts new office

Vito and Alan also work back here.

DSC03139 600x399 Blubolts new office

Behind them is the small meeting room, which I didn’t really photograph as we had some clients working with us the day I took these photos and I wasn’t sure how they’d feel about being paparazzi’d.

From the small meeting room, looking towards the front windows, you can see how long this space is. Craig sometimes even has to use a loud speaker to get Max’s attention!

DSC03140 600x399 Blubolts new office

Despite the continuous stream of ambulances and car horns, we’re loving this office. It’s so nice to have room to stretch our legs – literally! We’ve even got another large meeting room and smaller storage room on the 2nd floor which aren’t photographed yet as they’re in need of a paint job.

pink office 600x450 Blubolts new office

As much as I loved my pink office, it’s just so nice to be part of the office banter again.

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From Sketchpad to Photoshop

Posted on 8 September 2011 in Design | View Comments

I’m really lazy. I don’t like getting up from my desk, waiting for the scanner / printer to warm up, making sure I have the right drivers, trying to get my bloody drawing to scan, etc. I have developed my own 21st century method of scanning and it works quite well! Here’s what I do:

1. Take a photo of my sketchbook

step 1 take photo of sketchbook 600x398 From Sketchpad to Photoshop

2. Email photo to myself

step 2 email self 1 200x300 From Sketchpad to Photoshop

step 2 email self 2 200x300 From Sketchpad to Photoshop

step 2 email self 3 200x300 From Sketchpad to Photoshop

3. Open in Photoshop

step 3 open image in photoshop 2 425x600 From Sketchpad to Photoshop

4. Crop & Fix

Screen Shot 2011 09 08 at 19.39.55 462x600 From Sketchpad to Photoshop Quickly, I crop out the other crap. Then I desaturate the image (CMD + SHIFT + U) and manually correct the levels (CMD + L). You’ll see that the levels look like something like this before: Screen Shot 2011 09 08 at 10.09.16 From Sketchpad to Photoshop Ideally, the whites need to be white and the blacks black. Afterwards, my levels looked like this: Screen Shot 2011 09 08 at 10.09.34 From Sketchpad to Photoshop I’ve never really thought about how I do this step, but I guess I drag the dark slider to the right of its mountain and the light slider to the left of its mountain, then play around with the midlevels until it looks right to me. IMG 2192b From Sketchpad to Photoshop These four steps are quick as anything for me and beats mucking about with a scanner, in my opinion.

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My 10 mile walk

Posted on 27 August 2011 in Fitness | View Comments

A few weekends ago, I started walking along the canal. At first it was just an excuse to do something other than watch telly on a weekend afternoon. I just walked and thought about things; it was quite nice.

Screen Shot 2011 08 26 at 23.08.47 600x446 My 10 mile walk

After I walked 10km from Bradford-on-Avon to Avoncliff and back on a whim (okay, okay, I got lost trying to get to Freshford), I realized walking was quite fun and discovered that I didn’t want to stop there.

Screen Shot 2011 08 26 at 23.06.55 444x600 My 10 mile walk

Unfortunately, a thunderstorm was brewing, so I cut that walk short and vowed to try it again the next weekend.

Screen Shot 2011 08 26 at 23.07.09 600x445 My 10 mile walk

August 14th: the next weekend had arrived, and this time I had RunKeeper on my side. Let me just say that I’m obsessed with this app, k. The lady announces my stats every 5 minutes and, as Chris pointed out, she kind of sounds like Amy Farrah Fowler.

Screen Shot 2011 08 26 at 22.58.08 600x405 My 10 mile walk

Here’s the map of my Aug 14 walk from Bradford-on-Avon to Bath along the canal. You wouldn’t believe that such a scenic walk is literally the walk from my house to my work, but it is, and it is even more gorgeous than my photos depict.

This is the view from Bradford-on-Avon (why would anyone leave?!):

bradford on avon 398x600 My 10 mile walk

It’s gorgeous, right?! Just past Avoncliff, I found myself on the same path as the week previous. The bit between Avoncliff and Limpley Stoke is absolutely my favourite. It’s so calm and secluded that I always manage to get some good thinking in.

near freshford 600x395 My 10 mile walk

I soon arrived at Limpley Stoke, specifically on top of the Dundas Aqueduct. I’ve seen the Avoncliff Aqueduct many times, but this one takes the cake.

dundas aquaeduct limpley stoke 600x253 My 10 mile walk

Carrying on towards Bath, I started to feel so privileged to live in such a beautiful area. I actually had to resist the urge to take photos of every barge I saw.

Here’s the view en route to Claverton.

looking towards claverton 398x600 My 10 mile walk

It was around this point that I realized it was going to take me another 1.5 hours to get to Bath. When that settled in, my hunger became more and more irritating. My water bottle was almost done and my stomach began to growl. What would I do?!?

Oh right, wild blackberries! I seriously filled up on fresh, ripe blackberries and simultaneously wished I had brought a container to collect some in!

blackberries 397x600 My 10 mile walk

I swear, I actually got a few funny looks for stopping to eat these blackberries. What the heck!

I marched on and finally hit the 2 hour mark where I allowed myself a short sit-down and facebook status update. I had entered a quiet part of the canal that was just on the edge of Bath. There were a lot of farms nearby and I witnessed a bull sharing the river with ducks:

bull and ducks 600x399 My 10 mile walk

It was so nice here; the sun was getting lower in the sky and making pretty shapes with the landscaping.

sitting spot 397x600 My 10 mile walk

It was almost hard to force myself to continue! I pressed on and, before I knew it, I was in Batheaston! It was just as gorgeous as one would expect.

batheaston 600x437 My 10 mile walk

batheaston2 600x271 My 10 mile walk

As nice as Batheaston was, I was getting impatient. I had been walking for what seemed like FOREVER and I just wanted to be done with it all. Half an hour more and this view made it all worth my while, though.

bath 600x295 My 10 mile walk

As I was so close to my destination at that point, I realized that I had a very short while to up my average speed. I basically speed-walked the rest of the way and couldn’t be bothered to take photos – sorry!

Anyways, I made it: all 196 minutes of it and I enjoyed every second. It’s a lovely walk; I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a nice, long afternoon walk!

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