Pumpkin Seed Drying and Roasting
I think if I hadn’t already tried to save a rotten pumpkin and been totally grossed out by pumpkin insides I would have rummaged through my good-pumpkin’s innards and roasted them. I however only had the stomach to save enough to dry and plant next year in my garden. It is fairly easy process that I hope you do!
1. Pick out seeds from pumpkin innards.
2. Put in colindar and rinse off innards.
3. Dry with paper towel.
4. Leave on paper plate to dry. Be sure to shake these every day or two to ensure they do not get stuck to the plate.
5. Throw any cracked or moldy seeds away, put the rest of the dried seeds in envelope to plant next year.
If you would like to roast pumpkin seeds:
To roast: take dried pumpkin seeds and toss with oil and or salt and roast in a preheated oven at 250 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.
Or a more in-depth recipe that I found is:
Preheat oven to 250°F.
After removing as much pulp as possible from the pumpkin seeds, place the seeds in a colander in the sink and run cold water over them as you work to remove any remaining pulp. When the seeds are clean, drain them and place between two paper towels to dry.
In a large skillet, sauté 2 cups pumpkin seeds, 2 tablespoons butter or 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut or safflower oil and 1 teaspoon salt. (For an interesting flavor variation, try Morton’s Hot Salt or use Seasoned Salt.)
Stir 3 minutes until seeds are well coated with butter.
Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.
Take a few out to try at this point (watch out-they will be hot so let them cool a bit first!)
Some seeds are larger than others and will take longer to bake.
If necessary, continue to bake 15 minutes longer or until lightly browned.
Place on a paper towel to cool.
Variation: After washing the pumpkin seeds, soak seeds for 1-2 hours in a mixture of 1 quart of water and 1/2 cup kosher salt. Be sure salt has dissolved. Remove seeds from water mixture after soaking and dry. Proceed as above.
From Cooks.com
Freezing Zucchini
Alright, so pretty much anyone who grows zucchini knows that they will probably end up with more than they can use. I waited and waited and waited to pick that zucchini of mine and it ended up being super huge. So what’s a girl to do? Zucchini goes mushy in the fridge rather fast, and I wasn’t sure how long it would stay good off the vine and slowly being eaten. So I used part of it for my Very Vegetable Shepard’s Pie last night and then today I set to getting it ready to freeze. I did a little research online and decided I would grate some and dice some.
Grated Zucchini Process
-Wash zucchini and dry with towel.
-Shred zucchini with a manual shredder or food processor.
-Measure into correct amounts. You can do it by the amount needed for your zucchini recipe. I put them in 1 cup amounts.
-Label and bag, then freeze.
Diced Zucchini
Now this one was a little more complicated because you need to blanch the zucchini in order to store it. Now don’t be scared of blanching. It just means you boil then put in an ice water bath. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll break it down for you.
-Fill medium sized mixing bowl half way with cold water. Place in freezer.
-Start medium sized pot on to boil.
-Wash and dry zucchini
-Cut into quarters. (I ended up doing my in eighths because my zucchini was really big around.)
-Cut out the seeds.
-Dice
-Once water is boiling dump diced zucchini in water. Leave in for 1-2 minutes. Not to exceed 2 minutes.
-Get bowl out of the freezer and add ice cubes.
-Strain boiled zucchini and dump directly into ice water bath. Leave in until zucchini is cold. (About 2 or 3 minutes.)
-Take out ice cubes and strain out cold water. Place zucchini on a clean dish towel and air dry. (I put a fan on them and it took about 45 minutes.)
-Get a cookie sheet, cover with wax paper, then spread zucchini over it. Put in the freezer until frozen.
-Remove from freezer and put in quart sized bag, that is labeled and dated. Return to freezer.
For all my zucchini I was sure to spread them out in the bags so they would be able to thaw faster and not stick together so when I went to use them I can get the appropriate amount out of the bags.
Resource: Taste Book
Cloth Diapers Anyone?
How about designer cloth diapers? A friend of mine has a brother and he and his wife have started a designer cloth diaper business. If you are a “green” mom or family and buy or are thinking about buying cloth diapers you should check them out here at Designer Cloth Diapers. Today they are having a giveaway so be sure to stop by and sign up for it!
Oh How the Garden Grows!
For those of you who were expecting a huge garden full of corn, watermelon, zucchini, carrots, peas, etc let me just remind you this is my first gardening experience and I wanted to keep it small. (And my carrots and peas never came up.) So I tore out an overgrown flowerbed (as you can see) and planted my zucchini, watermelon and pumpkin starts. They are coming along quite nicely and thankfully I live in an area with a long growing season because they were planted in July! I was kind of losing hope that I would get any sort of fruit from my labor because well… it’s the middle-ish-end of August but LOOK!
That’s right, I have a good-sized zucchini growing! I think I should actually pick it. It’s the size of most zucchinis in the stores now. But I hate to pick it and not have anything in my garden! That’s silly I know, but that’s how I feel. There aren’t any more zucchinis growing on that plant, and as you can tell from my garden picture the watermelon and pumpkin and other zucchini plants are flowering, but no fruit as of yet. I do have to say that I feel awesome that I grew these plants and even better that I’ll have a zucchini to eat by the end of the week. I love to add zucchini in my shepard’s pie, so it looks like that’s what we’ll be having for dinner Sunday!
Complicated children’s toy packaging and a new solution.
Go Diego Go! Dinosaurs, wired in to plastic.
Why is EVERYTHING taped up now?
What the strangeness?
In the middle of taking my son’s new mower out of the packaging. You can’t see the actual mower for all the cardboard and wires!
I think Packaging Engineers (there is such a thing) should have to pay us for designing products in this packaging! What a fail! You have a toddler wanting to play with their new present but they have to wait half an hour while you undo all the wires, cut all the tape and bandage your cardboard cuts.
Not only is packaging a total fail when it comes to getting the product out, but it’s wasteful! How many wires, plastic things, and cardboard are wasted by this awful packaging? I am happy to announce that someone is listening to us! Amazon has come out with “frustration free” packaging. It is a bare-bones version of the traditional packaging. They have launched an awesome campagin and you can see some of their traditional vs. frustration free packaging here! I think that it’s a step in the right direction and overdue. Thanks Amazon!
Going Green
Going “green” I often think is more like going back to basics, not doing something totally different. Although I’m not one that goes all out with “green living” my husband and I have decided that we want to reduce waste and become more self-reliant. We will be starting a garden this summer and I’m looking into composting. There are really thousands of ways to “go green” and in honor of Earth Day this week I thought it would be fun to link up to a green site. Green Mama’s Pad is a site that focuses on green tips, products, product reviews, etc. Check it out, they are having a blog party this week.
