PUMPKIN....

"I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one..." - It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (Charles M. Shultz)

PUMPKIN 1988…

 On an October day, at CFB Petawawa, Ontario, 1988, snow arrived early that week. Kinda bored, and looking for something to do, my neighbour, and I got the bright idea to make pumpkin pies. From scratch. We’d make up our own recipe. Couldn’t be THAT difficult.  

First pumpkin I bought, I kept near the kitchen vent. It shriveled up like a shrunken head. We bought about six more pumpkins. Kept THEM outside in the back yard, in the snow. THEY did NOT shrivel up, like cannibal heads. We donned puffy coats, toques, mittens, scarves, mukluks, and grabbed the axe from basement. Home made pumpkin pie, here we go……

WHACK! The axe bounced. WHACK! My neighbour gave it a go.We took turns, till those six pumpkins were hacked into chunks. Broke the axe in the cold.

 Unfortunately, we left the pumpkin boiling FAR too long, while we went out to shovel snow. Came back to a burnt pot, sizzling pumpkin seeds snapping and spitting out of the pot……..

  Dumped the pumpkin, the pot, the axe and bought a pie…..

ORANGE PUMPKIN LOAF ( 2011)

(Double recipe makes 2 loaf pans, or 11 mini loaf pans. Adjust time accordingly.)

1/3 cup butter,1 1/3 cups sugar,2 eggs,1 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup orange juice,1 grated and pureed orange

1 cup white  flour,1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour,1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder,Pinch salt

½ tsp cinnamon,½ tsp cloves,½ cup chopped nuts ( I use pecans)

1 cup dried cranberries/raisins mixed ( I toss in a bit more for good measure)

Beat all wet ingredients, then add ground up orange. Add all dry and combine together..do not beat, or you will be sorry…gets tough that way.

Plop into pans. The mini loaf pans are great. 

. Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour with larger loaf pans. Bake for about 30 minutes with mini pans. Just be sure to check after 20 minutes, with a sharp knife plunged into the centre to test for doneness.

Cool and wrap to freeze. Serve with anything and everything…..

Serve with anything and everything…..

"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see." -Charles M. Schulz

PHOTOGRAPHS 2025

 

The LANGUAGE of FRIENDSHIP

"Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them..." -Anna Taylor

"True friendship coms when the silence between two people is comfortable..." -David Tyson

"A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart...." 

                                                                                                - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they're always there..." -Unkown

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings...." -Henry David Thoreau

"The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it...." 

                       -Hubert H. Humphrey

"True friendship is when two friends can walk in opposite directions, yet remain side by side..."-Josh Grayson

                                   "A friend loves at all times..." Proverbs 17:17

"It is not what we have in life, but who we have in our life that matters..." -Unknown

"A friend is what the heart needs all the time..." - Henry Van Dyke

"Our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that..." -Ally Condie

"Friends share laughs, memories, and inside jokes. They will always be honest and stand by your side no matter what....pick you up when you fall, and are forever a piece of your heart..." -Unknown

"To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world..." -Dr. Seuss

"A part of you has grown in me, together forever we shall be, never apart, maybe in distance, but not in heart..." -Unknown

"True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart..." 

                                                                                                                 -Helen Keller

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal..." -2 Corinthians 4:18

               "Do everything in love..." -1 Corinthians 16:14

Photographs 2025
 

NOT SOCK SOUP .....

 

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth. It is the time for home..."  -Edith Sitwell
Every winter my mother would make vats of soup. She made what she called Sock Soup. A bit of this and that, with leftover bacon grease, or sausages, and cabbage...

  

Sometimes it smelled like she'd  actually boiled socks  in the pot.  .......soup has come a long way since then.

THIS is  Hamburger Soup. It doesn't taste like socks. When we lived on military bases  THIS was THE soup of choice for all gatherings, in minus 35 Celsius weather in Ontario, and the Maritimes.  Big crock pots of this lovely, chili- like soup, without the chili seasoning, served by roaring fires, to hungry hoards, with homemade crusty buns, or scones.... 

Haul out your largest crock pot. Get it heated up with  a cup of hot water....this is kind of a add-whatever-you-want soup .....you can add meat, or just have it as vegetarian. This batch was made with no-salt ingredients......

I cooked up a large pack of gr beef in oven, while adding veggies to the crock pot. Let the oven do the cooking while you get everything else ready....

CHOP: a few stalks of celery, a small group of potatoes, some onion, if you wish. Not too much onion, as it can get VERY strong ,as the mix cooks in slow cooker. 

MICROWAVE: A bag of frozen carrots, peas, corn, green or yellow beans till warmed up. 

Varied Thrush

DUMP: 1 large container of no sodium veggie broth or beef broth into crock pot.  

ADD: warmed up veggies, potatoes, celery, CAN of tomatoes,  TWO cans of (no salt) kidney beans, another carton of broth, if you wish, or top with hot water. 

ADD: pepper, parsley, basil... THEN add the cooked hamburger meat. You can also use ground turkey, or chicken. Or just add more veggies, if you prefer. Sometimes, I add squash, turnips, parsnips.......

To keep the acid of the tomatoes at bay, sprinkle in a tsp of sugar......the flavours meld well. I've tried baking soda, and it's okay, but the sugar seems to work better. 

* you can even add a touch of chili powder , to your liking. but NOT cabbage or broccoli, or it will smell, dreadfully, like socks boiling....

Let it cook on high for about 4-5 hours till you can see the soup bubbling up through the glass lid. Serve over rice, or plain with buns or scones......

I remember one instance, years ago, on a freezing January night, in Petawawa, Ontario, there was a gathering for a group of military wives.  We were each supposed to bring a main dish. I decided not to make  hamburger soup, which was the going "thing" for these things. I figured someone else would bring it.  Instead, I made a chicken curry.  WHY? I have no idea.  Fifteen wives arrived that night. Each one with a curry of some sort. No soup. Nothing but curried dishes as far as the eye could see. Curried veggies, curried chicken, curried eggs, curried scones, curried potatoe salad, curried  everything. I never made curry again.......

"Soup is a lot like family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics, and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavour..." 

                                                                                                            - Marge Kennedy

Photographs 2025