Bummer

How many gourds have you gotten thus far? I can't seem to stop myself. They are all so beautiful and add instant charm to the season.

Maggie can't seem to get enough of pumpkins either. I couldn't get a single focused shot of her.

Maybe she just likes the attention... 

I would really love to try growing my own pumpkins and squash next year and this is where I would go to get some heirloom seeds. I just wish I could go in person!



I bought this beautiful box of tomatoes fully intending to make Early Girl Tomato Jam which I saw on Martha Stewart last week as part of the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook. The recipe uses a different (supposedly older) method of canning, where you bake the jars in the oven instead of boiling them in a canning pot. Also, the jam looked amazing. Imagine, if you will, in the dead of winter, smearing some peppery tomato jam on toast and topping it with goat cheese? Or thinned out to use as a glaze on beef or pork chops? yum! Unfortunately, the end of last week vanished and then I was away this weekend. When I got home this morning ready to start blanching tomatoes, the whole box had pretty much turned to mush. It was pretty gross. And tragic. Oh! and the recipe has vanished from Martha's website (!!) so it seems that this was really not going to happen for me anyway. I'm trying to figure out if I would have been more upset if the tomatoes were still fine but the recipe was gone. probably not. Oh well!

Instead of a recipe, I thought I would share an interesting podcast I listened to on the long bus ride back: This History of Chocolate. Now that's bound to lift anyone's spirits. I'm off to buy one of those 2 pounds bags of mini snicker's for my ceramic pumpkin dish. Halloween is near!