Down on the Farm

One of my favorite things about Fall is going to the farm and picking out a pumpkin. Usually I nab two of three baking pumpkins for pumpkin pies, but this trip we just wanted three to carve for Halloween.

However, before we picked a pumpkin (or 2 or 3) we had to walk through the farm. First up were the cute little chicks :-)

 Next up was the "Rubber Duck" race. Annie had fun watching it get pushed down stream by the water that she pumped out.

 Logan took it very seriously....

 Of course they had to go on a farm train ride. Mental note: Logan is too old for this now. He was a good sport about it, but I think he was a little embarrassed.

Time for the goats. How did they get up there? I don't even know if I could climb up there.....

 "Mom can we PLEEEEEEEEZZZZZE do the corn maze?" Have I mentioned that I am not a fan of corn mazes? It was like 100 degrees outside and they wanted to walk in circles for up to three hours in corn.....in which we most likely would have to call the farm hands to come and rescue us because we can not find our way out of a bag.

 Guess what is in corn mazes? Corn!

 Look up and what do we see? Corn and sky....

 30 minutes later we still see sky and corn.

 Then heaven departed and an angel heard my children sobs of boredom and my aching feet and lead us to the entrance (no.....we did not even get to the exit. We had to come out with our heads hung low in an humiliated state coming back through the exit. Did I mention that it took us 45 minutes just to get back to the entrance? Yeah, for "normal" people it is suppose to take an hour to get through. For the "Weird stupid" people it can take up to three. It would have taken us 5 hours...at least....)Parker said he would rather play in the hay....

 Then we had to see a pony...

 and a cute little pig :-)

Then we saw a turkey. As I took this picture I tried to not picture it on my Thanksgiving table. Is it wrong that it made me hungry?

Next up cute little baby goats.

 Finally, a cool old school tunnel slide.

 Of course after all the kids went down the slide (Parker being the first) I discovered that Parker had goat poop on his butt.....ewe....

 Time for some go karts. I see Quads in our future.

 Then more animals....

 Finally some good old fashion rope swinging.

 Last, but certainly not least (I mean it was the main reason we went to the farm), pumpkin picking!

Overall it was a fun time. I am so happy that we have a local farm to be able to go to and play. Do you know what else is neat? Between the months of Decmeber and September I can go out there and pick my own prooduce. Hee-haw!

Pumpkin Pie

Are you ready to make some pie?

First things first....please take off your rings. You will thank me later! Ever worked with a bunch of flour with your diamond ring on your finger and did not get it off until a few hours later? If not, just take my word for it, you don't want to make that mistake because it is a pain to get clean. I like to take a cup of water and put some dishwahing detergent in the water and drop my ring in it. That way as I cook my ring gets clean. If you happen to leave your ring on and get it caked with gunk just soak it for a few hours in warm soapy water.

The first thing we need to make is the crust. If you are not going to make the crust then just skip on down to the recipe. Personally speaking, I make my crust all the time. I do not care for the premade stuff...it taste like...well.....canned crust. The trick to the perfect crust is ice cold water. So, take some ice and pour some water over it and let it sit out on the counter as you start the process. FYI this is the longest process of the entire pie making process -- the crust.

For a single pie crust you are going to combine 1.5 C of flour, 1/2 C of Crisco (I keep mine in the refrigerator which I think helps make the crust flaky and yummy) and a pinch of salt.

Use two knives to cut shortening into the flour.

Add a little water...not much...just a splash. You want the crust to barely hold together. It is going to look like lots of little pieces of dough.

Cut some more....

Almost, but not quite right yet. Add a little teny tiny bit more water.

Now it is ready. It is just able to hold together.

Shape it into a ball.

Flour your surface that you are going to roll the dough out on.

Flatten the dough out with your hands. Kind of pull it as much as you can making sure you shape it in a circle. We don't want to overwork it to much because then it gets tough.

Now roll it out.

Now we need to transfer the dough to the pie pan. The easiest way to do this is fold it into fourths. First fold it like so.

Fold it again in half.

Transfer to pie plate (mine is a deep dish) and start to unfold making sure it is centered.

Unfold and cut away excess dough along the edges. Take a knife or fork and poke it a few times as well. We do not want bubbles as we cook.

I like to take the excess dough and roll into a big snake and place that over the edge of the crust.

Now, make a shell.

Flute the edges or take a fork to it and press in. You can also simply take two fingers and press dough down to make an edge as well. I like to kind of pinch my pointer finger between my thumb and pointer finger on my opposite hand to make this kind of edge. I also set some dough aside and used a cute little cutter to make pumpkins.

Now it is time for the easy part -- making the pie guts! You are going to need the following for two regular size pies or 1 deep dish pie. 2 cans Pumpkin, 2 Cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 4 large eggs, 1.5 packed brown sugar, 2 Tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend, and 1/2 Tsp. salt.

Add the pumpkin and cream...

Milk....

Eggs....

Brown sugar...I would like to just say that I used Organic brown sugar from Trader Joe's and it is by far the most beautiful sugar I have ever seen. I did not know brown sugar could be beautiful, but this stuff was!

Pumpkin Pie Spice and salt

Now give it a good mixing.

Move your prepared pie crust close to the oven because the guts are gonna be runny and you do not want it spilling out of your pie. Pour the pie filling into the pie shell and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about an hour. start to check it about every 5 minutes or so after 45 minutes. You want the pie to be set, but a little wiggly. It sets as it cools ;-)

Tada! Yummy pie! I did not add the cute little pumpkins until the last 20 minutes or so because they would have just sunk to the bottom of the pie. I did forget to put my crust shield on the pie and am not happy with the edges :-( Oh well...my family will still eat it and won't even know the difference.

One can not have pumpkin pie without whipped cream, right? Let's make some! Take 16 ounces of heavy whipping cream and pour into a bowl.

Add about 1/2 Cup of sugar (you will add more later if you want...I always add another 1/4 Cup)

Now whip it....whip it good!

All done!

Wait for pie to cool and serve with a nice dollop of whipped cream.

I hope you were able to gain some insight into pie making from this post. If nothing else the crust is the best crust recipe I have ever used. I got it from my sister in my early 20's and have used it ever since then. My mom has a good one to that is as follows: 2 C flour, 1 C Shortening, 1/2 C water and 1/8 C salt. I must state that my mom makes it well, but my sister and I can not quite get it down. It ends up to salty and tough for me :-(

I do have another recipe for pumpkin pie that is made with real pumpkin, but that one is my cookbook that is coming out in a few weeks. However, I use organic canned pumpkin when I use this recipe because it taste more authentic....if that makes sense. Anyways, if you are interested in my cookbook, drop me a line at: betsiemorris@yahoo.com
Thanks for visiting and stay tuned for some upcoming changes here on "The Home Front"

Simple Things that Make Me Happy

Ah, beautiful bulk! Is this not the most awesome thing ever?!?!?!?!?! I have a small confession to make....and that is that I thoroughly enjoy grocery shopping now. I love looking through the ads and clipping coupons. Then shopping two to three times a week at my favorite stores around town. Walmart Market place is naturally the most practical and money saving store in my neck of the woods (well Costco, but I don't do that more than once a month), therefore I frequent it often. Then there is Sprouts. By far Sprouts is my favorite store around. I mean it has this totally awesome super duper yummy bulk section that takes up 4 isles. Something about using a scooper to to fill up my bags brings a smile to my face. I will get to my third favorite store in a minute, but first look at the yummy stuff I got from bulk section.

 First up I found a candy mix for my dish on my coffee table. True, you can find bags of this like Walgreens, but what fun is that? Plus this was cheaper!

I just about peed on myself when I found Australian black licorice. I am making treat bowls for each of my kids' classes and I needed something black to filll the jars that I am making the owls out of. This could not be any more perfect. Of course, I will post pictures of the treat baskets once I get them done.

 Peanut Butter Cup trail mix for the kids.

 Wild West Trail Mix...could this look any yummier?

Carmel Turtle Trail Mix. I never knew carmel and trail mix could co-exist, but I am so glad they do.

In honor of Friday, I put together a snack bar for the kids after school

Last, but not least Trader Joe's is a great place to shop. If for nothing else the yummy pumpkin stuff. I will be making pumpkin pie and posting the recipe as soon as I get it made. This recipe is a little different then the one in my cookbook (it will be available in a few weeks) because I use canned pumpkin in the one I am making this weekend. In my cookbook the recipe calls for real pumpkin.

Come back soon to get the pie recipe and some upcoming developments and changes online in regards to this blog :-)

Hey.......go check out....

my other blog in which I have my scrap crap on!

http://scrappycafe.blogspot.com/

The Facebook Challenge

Over the past few years I have noticed that my time on Facebook has gotten out of control It seems like I pop over there at least a dozen times a day. Before I had my Droid it was not so bad, but now that it is on my phone I find myself on that site while I wait in line at the store, wait for the light to change, wait for my kids to get out of school, and whenever there is any down time in my day. I like that I can keep up with people I care about who are local and not local through the cyber coffee house of the world. However, occasionally I feel like it is junior high all over again -- drama. I wish I could say that I don't participate in the drama, but that would be a lie. Sometimes I get my gut full of it and let the person know which leads to break down in relationships.

It dawned on me about 6 months ago that most of my relationship break downs started because of FB status updates. I wish I could say that it was the other person, but that would be false. Although I do tend to keep my status updates general, funny, or just random occasionally I do post things that are emotionally charged. This is wrong and I have been working really hard to not do this anymore. I used to read through the status, see something that seriously irritate me and reacted on my status. So mature right? NOT!

I have come to the conclusion that if it is not directed at me then I am just not going to react to it. Even if the person is posting something that offends me and the majority of people I know, it is not my job nor responsibility to call them out on it. I simply just pass over it. After all I have far to many flaws of my own to get caught up on the postings of another. However, if something is posted that is about me and they say (Betsie....this or that) then I do address it, but not in my status -- with the person.

The last two or three months I have been spending far to much of my precious time on being non offensive and not getting my panties in a knot over FB. It is not like I don't have anything better to do -- because I do. I then decided about a week ago that I would just step away from my beloved cyber coffee house -- FB for a month or so. Don't get me wrong, I do not think that FB is bad. In fact, I love FB because it does keep me close and active in the lives of those I care about. It makes the world so much more smaller and offers up a way to communicate with those we care about and see pictures of them. I love that  I have friends all over the world that I can interact with on a daily basis. It is great! However FB was starting to take more of a main act in my life instead of the supporting role that it should have. I have to put it in it's place again and that means stepping away for awhile and focusing on the main acts of my life.

I can't wait to go back and catch up with my friends. I miss them a lot! However, I am totally enjoying getting back to the simple things in life-- like scrap booking and  walks without my phone stuffed in my bra (yeah...that is where I keep my phone when I exercise so that I can check it with ease). The break from FB is nice to say the least. I can't believe how much more time I have in my day and how I am not irritate with those that I care about most. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss. When I go back I will be modifying my behaviour. I will continue to keep my status updates light, fun, and thought provoking from time to time. However, I will be limiting my time on FB and putting it back in the proper role and that is of support.