The Great Pumpkin Hunt

I heard there was a pumpkin shortage last year. Do any of you recall this from last autumn? Was it only in NC? The Southeast? Well, anyway, I wanted to bake pumpkin this and pumpkin that, and had to wait until nearer Thanksgiving. It wasn't in the stores! That seemed strange to me, but I just shrugged my shoulders and waited for the pumpkin to appear.

Come to find out, there really was a pumpkin shortage! The Washington Post even had an article about it! So, it WASN'T my imagination!

Anyway, after all the pumpkin bread flying around here last week, I decided it was officially time to get baking, and I looked for pumpkin at WalMart. I, and a couple of other ladies, staring at the shelf where it should be. Hmmm. One of them told me that there was flooding in the pumpkin canning facility, and they lost lots of their inventory. I felt the panic rise in my pumpkin-loving heart.

We saw the pie pumpkins in the veggie section, but I just wasn't quite up for that yet. I also looked at another store in town. Nuthin'!! And by that time, I was ready to cry "Uncle!" and go for pie pumpkins. Adam even offered to prepare them.

So, I dropped in at Food Lion today. No pie pumpkins there either! Eeeek! But I'm a dogged soul. Ask my husband if I'm a wee bit dogged, and he'll roll his eyes and shake his head.

I decided to stroll down the aisles, on the off-chance that they had some lonely, misplaced can of pumpkin sitting around.

And guess what?
I bought EIGHT CANS. I felt selfish, and said to that selfish self, "Self, that's JUST FINE. When it comes to pumpkin, I will get what I can!" That should last us for a while!

Thank you, Sears!

My garden-clipping adventures of late have been rather tragic. About half the time, the clippers are misplaced and I have to find them. A few weeks ago, however, I realized I'd lost my "best" pair, for good. Probably out in the overgrown shrubbery that they were intended to subdue.

They were an old pair of Fiskars. I'd had them for, oh, about 4-5 years, I guess. They were good clippers, except that for the past year or two, almost every time I gripped down on them to sever a twig, they would do their job, and then stay closed, and I'd have to gently, manually, open them. This gets old when trimming, slowly, the 20 or so azaleas I have on my front walk.

So, good-bye Fiskars, but they were an aggravation anyway. This left me with my 2nd string quarterback:
These are even older -- maybe 8 years? Every time I cut with these, they actually locked closed, and I had to flip the little locking mechanism open again. Sigh. You can see where Adam removed the lock, but that makes them remain open ALL the time.

Clearly, I needed new clippers. So we checked at WalMart. Yeah, I know. End of season. Sale. Their best deal? A pair of Fiskars much like the ones I lost, for $17.00. The others were all $20.

Now, I appreciate a good pair of clippers, but that's a bit pricey for this tight-wad. Especially when I'm a little hard on my yard tools. $17 for something that, in a few year, will seize up on my again?

Then Adam reminded me: What about Sears? Craftsman Lifetime Warranty?
But I asked him: Isn't WalMart the cheapest though?
In the end, the husband and the appealing vision of having ONE PAIR OF CLIPPERS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, won me over. I went to Sears.

And, Oh My Word.
Aren't they lovely? Can you say $12.99? But, y'know, the $4 difference isn't the thing. The fact that I can return these clippers to ANY store that sells Craftsman, for the rest of my life, if they malfunction, and get a new pair. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
(Not to mention that the sales lady was wonderful. Just wonderful. Helpful but not pushy.)

I was turning to go when I saw these:
Now, I must admit that clippers are always needed, but those shears -- those are EXACTLY what I've been needing -- something that will take care of unruly shrubbery in a hurry. And how much were these giants? $12.00 also. I would have hesitated, except -- that lifetime warranty. How can you beat that? I mean, I'll probably be clipping hedged and cutting branches for 30 more years.

All I need now is for the weather to cool down again. (It's about 91 today, ugh and double ugh.) Then I will attack these:

Peach Pandowdy?

I've done Apple Pandowdy. But how 'bout peaches?
I had lovely peaches from the local farmers' market. I blanched them to remove the skins, chopped them and mixed them with a cup of sugar, about 1/3 cup of tapioca, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
As you see, I poured the peach mixture into a large cast iron pan, which had been heated with about 3 tablespoons of sizzling butter. I let it cook for about 15 minutes, so the peaches would be soft, and the tapioca would begin to work its thickening magic.
Then into a hot oven it went -- 425 degrees -- for 25 minutes.
Just as good as apples -- and besides, I love peaches WAY more than I do apples! I think I'm now of the opinion that a pandowdy beats a regular pie, any day.

Early Evening Walk

A perfect evening for a walk with my hubby. I wanted to catch some pictures of the last light of day.
We took Sandy along. These two dogs always bark (and the one also growls) when we go by. This photo shows something I'd never seen them do before! The nicer, larger dog, is trying to pull the smaller, meaner dog backward, by its tail! Whether he's trying to prevent the mean dog from being aggressive, or just wants to keep him from running into their electrical fence, I don't know. They never come out of their yard.
A line of crepe myrtles. The crepe myrtles have been especially lovely and long-blooming this year.
A pretty garden bed:

Now we're back home, and I think we'll watch a movie this evening. Adam has picked out a Russian movie called "The Island" -- one of those dark movies with little talking.

That Parenting Debate - a Ramble

Over on Facebook (you know, that alternate reality...), I've read two articles recently on parenting angst. If you have time, and are interested in this topic, then I'd encourage you to read them. The first is very long. (Click at the bottom of each page on the site, to get to the next page.) The second is, kindly, only one page. Here they are:

The "parenting-is-truly-horrible-and-we-can-only-enjoy-it-after-the-fact" article. This one is from New York Magazine by Jennifer Senior.

And the "for-goodness-sakes-it's-not-as-bad-as-all-that" article in Salon, by Gwynne Watkins. She doesn't offer an alternate guide, so much as holler at the other writer, "Loosen up!!"

I should have known right off the bat that the first article would be over-serious; the photographer put pictures of herself, her husband and their twins in as her contribution, all with sad-sack faces, but lovely lighting.

People are so stressed out over parenting these days. They're terrified of getting it wrong. Each new generation (and I mean about every 10 years) has a new, brilliant method for turning out the perfect child. It's hard to age 10 years and find out from all the know-it-all 25 year old moms out there, with 18 month olds on their hips, that you're so totally WRONG, and have permanently damaged your teenagers. But I digress.

Of course, I agree more with the second article, which says that all those uppity, ulcer-prone New Yorkers are over-thinking it (as usual) and looking for happiness in all the wrong ways. True 'nuff. If would-be parents think the happiness that's escaped them will be found in a 2 year old with a poopy diaper and a temper tantrum, they deserve the foolishness they get.

But in defense of the first article, I'll say that quite a lot of the joy of parenting IS found in later years. Much of what we put up with in younger children, we tolerate better because we believe we're training them for improved attitudes when they're older. Parenting is an arduous process of training OUT the bad, and training IN the good, with many mistakes along the way requiring forgiveness on all sides. (If you don't believe there's any bad in your child to train out, you're really sunk.) The end result, hopefully, is a young adult who is ready to meet the world and will thank you for your help. Is that so hard?

You see, the harder we try to keep them children forever, the more taxing we make our jobs. ( I can HEAR you out there, saying, "Wait! We don't want them to grow up too fast! They must relish their childhoods!)

We should desire maturity at all ages of our children's lives. I want a mature 2 year old who will quieten down when I tell her to. I want a 6 year old who will stay in his bed because it's required of him. I want a 10 year old who will do the math even though she hates it. I want a 15 year old who will comply with parental orders, even though he knows IT ALL, because he has learned that obedience is good. Those behaviors demonstrate maturity.

What I notice in the "bad" kids around me is that they are not mature; they are worldly. Not only are these terms not synonymous -- they are opposite. Worldliness produces the worst kind of irresponsible immaturity in young people. Maturity is characterized by some degree of humility, i.e., a child who realizes his place in his world, accepts it, and doesn't think the world exists for his happiness.

I'm so sorry to see young parents who seem to raise their children for their own gratification. What folly that is! They long for a deep, meaningful relationship with a 5 year old. Don't they remember what 5 year olds want? Fun, inquisitiveness, independence within reason, and a brief hug if it's absolutely necessary. People who are still carrying their 5 year olds around in large scarves concern me. The parents may want this; they may need this; they may have been convinced by some sociologist that it's good. That doesn't make it normal.

But who am I to say what's normal? One of the articles (I've forgotten which one. Both?) mentioned how parents raised kids 100 years ago. They went from the breast directly to farmwork, one would think. Rather brutal -- do we want to go back to that? Was it a golden age of parenting, the 1910's? The 1940's? Indian mothers with their babies strapped to their backs?

You see, both these articles seem to flounder around, searching for a standard. I will be considered abysmally old-fashioned for saying that the best standard is the Bible. Perhaps some aspects of daily life are absent in its litany of instructions, but parenting isn't one of them. When I look at how God "parented" David, the child after His own heart, the raw core of their tempestuous relationship is laid bare. What do I see? Great love, gigantic aspirations for his future, harsh punishments and harsher trials. Did David complain? Yes. Did he utterly trust God to do right? Yes.

Fellow-parents, we are not God, but we should strive to be like Him. I think in the end, I'd look to neither of these magazines for help in that regard. God keeps His eye on the long view, the end result. Enjoy your baby, enjoy your teen, enjoy the grandchildren when they come. But realize that one day you will be gone from the planet, and those lovely children and grandchildren you've produced will continue without you. You are not preparing them for independence; you're preparing them to be dependent on God when they're alone.

Old Wax

Perhaps you've gathered by now that I hate wasting things. And, I love candles. But I end up with jar candles with left-over wax, in spite of my best efforts to encourage the candle to use its wax efficiently. And this morning I had a brainiac idea of how to melt down old wax without getting ANY of my pans messy and impossible to clean.

TADA!!! :
I used my deep Revereware saucepan, with the steamer in it, and the double-boiler as a lid above it. This way, the wax will melt in the glass jar, but it wont shatter or make a mess.
And boy did it work! See it beginning to melt on the bottom?
Meanwhile I prepared my container for the new candle. I used some natural twine for the wick. I dipped it a few times in the liquid wax to help it hang straighter. Then I pressed it into the soft wax on the bottom of the old candle jar you see here:
When the melting wax was completely liquid, I poured it easily into its new home.
I put it in the frig to turn harder faster. And it went so well that I pulled out ANOTHER old jar of wax, and did it again! Here they are, burning brightly:
Happy September! It's cool outside, Handel's Messiah is playing, and Adam is burning in his bread oven today. I'm going outside!

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Gretchen-Joanna, here's the recipe I used today. I just tasted a little bit. I think I baked the mini-loaves too long, and for some reason it tastes just a tad bland -- like it needed more salt. Butter on it would instantly take care of that problem :)

Pumpkin/Cranberry Bread/Coffee Cake

2 1/4 cups flour
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp ginger)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil (I used 1/4 cup coconut oil & 1/4 cup soft butter)
1 cup pumpkin (I used a whole 16 oz can, which is significantly more than a cup, but I hate having leftover cans in my frig.)
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries (fold these in last)

I did heat the pumpkin and the spices in a saucepan on the stove, hoping that it would remove any metallic taste from the can. This meant I had to wait for it to cool also. Then I added the coconut oil and butter, and then the eggs, and mixed it well. I then put it in the refrigerator to let those fats solidify again, so they would help the bread to rise more as it baked. I think this is a good thing to do, and it seemed to work.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, soda & salt. Add the pumpkin mixture to this and blend gently, just until all dry ingredients are absorbed. If you have cranberries, fold them in last. This zippy flavor is wonderful in this bread, but sometimes it's hard to find them out of season.

Butter the pans you will use. This will make a bundt cake, probably 2 regular loaves, or about 5 mini-loaves. Gauge your cooking time according to the size of pan, from 50 minutes for the largest to about 40 minutes for the minis.

And thanks to Carolyn for the recipe. I'm eager to try it again with the cranberries.

Enjoy, ladies!