Thursday, January 10, 2013

I’ve slowly begun to be sort of active and getting things done lately, not much, mind you .. but some.  And as things just build on themselves, without really trying – I’m sure that I’ll be back to my busy whirling dervish kind of person again.

Although I’m not a super big Christmas and New Year celebration kind of person … I did find myself getting swept up into the spirit of things.   And grew to really love shopping .. just to be out in the friendly shopping malls in town and perhaps a visit or two downtown.

Energizing to speak with fellow shoppers.  See the joy in other’s faces.  And sometimes the sadness.  There is always lots of both out in the world.

Years ago I’d decided to feel the joy of Christmas every day of the year so that it wouldn’t feel as if the happy holiday energy wouldn’t suddenly disappear after a few days .. but would stay with me.   And it has.  Although I must admit to loving the atmosphere of Christmas.  The delicious foods (shortbread, Christmas pudding, a little fruit cake) rum and nog, perhaps a fancy drink or two.  Visiting with friends.  Snuggling with my DH .. that’s my very favourite.

Thus far in the New Year .. I decide to get back into exercising .. and I’ve done that with my lovely daily walks.   Walking everywhere and mostly ending up at Swan Lake …quite often.  There are other beautiful places to be in town .. but this is the closest and besides I love seeing the birds of all types.

And back to decluttering.  Spent a bit of time yesterday sorting out books to donate to the blue box (reading program) and have about 100 (yes, that many!!) neatly placed in bags and boxes to take over tomorrow.

Those are fictions books, including some videos and music cd’s.  And I need to cull my gardening book collection .. but not today.

So yesterday, after doing all that .. I decided that it was high time to cut up my wonderful crop of (one) Luminara pumpkin.  But first, I have to ensure that this is non-GM .. so spent some time searching and found that it is not.  Although I still have the plant tab that came with the plant “somewhere” in my gardening stash .. so will double-check on the ‘net once I have that little item.

I’m not knowledgeable about pumpkins and only found out this year (blush) that there are more varieties than the normal orange Jack-o-Lantern!  Months ago, I’d chosen a curry vegetable stew at a local restaurant which contained rich orange pumpkin .. and thus I entered the world of pumpkin land!

So you can see that I was quite happy when I cut up my treasured pumpkin and discovered that the fruit was a rich orange colour!

Then I spent awhile looking up recipes for curry pumpkin stew .. and there are quite a few.  I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I ended up making up my own recipe!

I steamed 2 of the large sections in a covered roasting pan …. later scooped all the lovely pulp into a bowl.    Added some butter on top and a light sprinkle of pepper!

Now .. this looked so delicious that I had to put some in a little bowl for tasting.  oh .. my .. this was just ambrosia and tasted like sweet potato!  I managed to freeze most of this to add to a future soup.

The rest of the pumpkin .. well .. I cut it into cubes.  Along with cubed sweet potatoes.  They really looked pretty and I wish I’d taken more photos so I could share in my culinary boasting .. but ended up being so busy, measuring, and all that .. so it completely slipped my mind.

Chopped up onion & garlic (of which I have quite a bit of!) and swirled them in a soup pot with some olive oil.  Added the pumpkin, sweet potato, curry powder, sea salt, freshly ground pepper.    Organic chicken broth & a tin of crushed tomatoes.

Cooked for a while ….. tasted .. and another wonderful dish was born! Yum.  Some for the freezer and some in the fridge for lunches.

And I’d rinsed and rinsed and rinsed the seeds:

Removed the pumpkin fruit from them …. patted them dry .. and now they are drying in a dish.  Many many seeds!    Lots for me to grow this summer, share with friends and perhaps donate at Seedy Saturday.

Finally, clean-up time.  Lots of materials for composting.

Tired .. but happy .. a great way to end another wonderful day!

🙂