Punkin' Chunkin'

We Dreamers knew that a Punkin Chunkin' competition was held nearby. However, one year it was really hot. Another year it snowed and then last year they did not have the competition. So, when we saw that the competition was on this year, and the weather was nice, we went on over for an afternoon to watch pumpkins being heaved as far as 4000 feet by amazing contraptions.

The contraptions used to toss the pumpkins came in many different shapes and sizes. The smallest were some trebuchets. One built by students and one built by a dad with the help of his two young girls. They reminded me of our son's trebuchet. 

There were several machines that were not traditional trebuchets or catapults. One of my favorite machines was powered by multiple garage door springs. It was called, "Not in my Driveway". Apparently the builder's wife was not as enamored with the project as the builder was!

We learned that the pumpkins used are grown by the competitors. They grow a few unusual varieties of pumpkins. They are known for their round shapes and their thick skins. The pumpkins have a weight range, around 8 pounds, and will begin to lose weight immediately after picking. The pumpkins must exit the chucker in one piece. 

The air cannons shot pumpkins the furthest. Each cannon has some sort of tank that is pressurized. The more pressure... the greater the distance (assuming the pumpkin comes out of the end of the cannon in one piece.) For the final shot one of the cannons pressurized to 200 lbs/sq inch. Their pumpkin shot well over 4000 feet!

The National competition was halted and was not aired recently when a woman was hit by a piece of metal from an air cannon. From more recent reports it appears that the woman, a journalist, will be OK and she is sad that the competition was stopped.

Marriage Made in Heaven

And then there was....

I guess they liked it!

This year I decided to shift away from the traditional pumpkin pie. Many years ago I had enjoyed a pumpkin cheesecake with a carrot cake crust, so I decided to try to replicate that. It seemed to work quite well. 

• I prepared the ingredients for a carrot cake recipe and for a pumpkin swirl cheesecake recipe. 
• I prepared a 10" springform pan and preheated the oven. I put foil around the pan as I planned to bake the cake in water. The last time I tried this the water leaked into the crust and made it very gooey. (However I decided not to use the water bath as I decided that if the cake was browned, or cracked, it wouldn't bother anyone in my household!)
• I mixed the dry ingredients for the carrot cake in one bowl, and the liquids in another.
• The stand mixer was used to beat the cream cheese and sugar. I removed some to leave plain, and added the pumpkin and extra sugar to the remainder.

• The wet and dry ingredients of the carrot cake were mixed together and the batter was poured into the pan and smoothed.
• Half of the pumpkin cheesecake mix was carefully put on top and smoothed.
• I added dollops of the basic cheesecake, then the rest of the pumpkin and carefully used a knife to 'cut' the pumpkin/basic cheese mixture to swirl it. 
• I baked the cake at 325 for an hour and an additional 15 minutes, until the cheese mixture was setting. I turned the oven off and let the cake sit in the oven another 20 minutes just to be sure.

The end result was quite yummy, as you can see from the first picture! 

A few things I will do differently next year:

I reduced the recipes to two thirds of the original ingredients. This was fine for the carrot cake, but I would have preferred more cheesecake on top. (What was I thinking?!! Oh, wait... I was thinking that I didn't have enough cream cheese.... Ha - next year I will buy enough!) Having more cheesecake batter to work with might have let the swirl work. It looks swirled in the pan, but on the plate, it looked like layers. I figured since I had two recipes of cake, reducing the amount would still fill a 10" pan. Not so! Next year I'll use the 9" pan, 2/3 of the carrot cake recipe and the entire cheesecake recipe. The finished cake did not crack and was not overly dark, so I will choose not to mess with the aluminum foil or the water bath. 

It Is All About the Pies

When the boys were little we invited our best friends over to our house for a communal Thanksgiving dinner. They brought half of the food, we supplied the other half. Following dinner we went "Thanksgiving Caroling"! Hah! I bet you've never heard of that before! 

We walked through our neighborhood, stopping at about a half dozen homes and sang the following, to the tune of "Frère Jacques". Go ahead, try it... it's fun! 

Turkey and muffins.

Cornbread stuffing.

Pumpkin Pie,

One foot wide.

We were all much thinner

Before we came to dinner.

Me, oh, my!

Me, oh, my!

And, once you've mastered the song... you can sing it in a round with your best friend! Isn't it amazing how a person will do something really silly, or daring, or something totally stupid with a friend standing beside them? 

Anyway, today is "get ready to make pies" day. I am in charge of a pumpkin and an apple pie for our "sort of" family dinner. I always use the pumpkin pie recipe on the back of the can. That's how my mom made it, and I always loved it, so why make any changes?! (One year I did make a pumpkin cheesecake with a carrot cake crust... and that was delicious- but oh, so much more work!)

Usually I make a plain Jane pie crust, or, oh horrors! buy a frozen crust. This year I am trying something a bit different... I am going to use some coconut oil in the pie crust. 

You see, I just received a sample of the Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions to use and review. That is a whole 'nuther' post, by itself, so tune back in later to read all about it! But, it seemed timely that the sample arrived just in time to make the crust. So... why not?! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! 

And the other pie.... last year I baked Grandma Ople's Apple Pie and received raves. So... why do anything different? Well, actually, I want to make a different crust for the pie. I want to use an all butter crust with almonds. I thought the subtle taste of almonds, from the almond flour, might be interesting. So... off to the kitchen I go...

The coconut oil is quite firm and has a slight odor of coconut. I scooped out the required amount, breaking it into smaller pieces, and added an equal amount of cut up unsalted butter. I placed the bowl in the fridge for a bit to get everything well-chilled. After whirring the flour and butter/coconut oil combination in the food processor I mixed in the ice cold water. Curiously, it took almost double the water than the recipe called for, and when I made the other pie crust dough, it also took more water to get the flour/fat mixture to clump together. I wonder if the very arid climate in Colorado contributes to that? 

I baked samples of the coconut oil crust, the almond crust and traditional butter crust, so that Mr. Dreamy and I could taste test them. 

Mr. Dreamy said he couldn't taste a difference between the three. I also did not tell him what the differences were until he had finished tasting. I could taste a hint of the coconut oil. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't taste any of the almond. Only 20% of the flour mixture is almond flour, however, so perhaps if I used a bit more it would make a difference. The traditional crust, one I had made earlier and frozen, was simply butter, flour, salt and water. I could really taste the buttery richness in it. 

The coconut oil pastry was the flakiest of the three samples. The traditional pastry shrank more than the others. The coconut oil pastry may have been a touch darker in color. 

Making and tasting the different pie dough was fun. Tomorrow I will bake the pies in the morning before we head over the river and through the woods.... well, maybe over the highway and through the traffic would be a more apt description!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

A Sticky Situation

As Halloween approaches I am reminded of an art project I conducted with my very first third grade class. It was the only first time that I had over half my class in tears. I taught in a small school and it was my responsibility to teach everything: reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic as well as art, music and PE!

I decided that we were going to make pumpkins for Halloween! Pumpkins of bright orange yarn with yellow eyes and green stems. Boys and girls, this will be a lot of fun! We will make these pumpkins and hang them up in the classroom for decorations. Then each of you will be able to take your pumpkin home for Halloween.

To make the pumpkins you use an inflated balloon and pieces of orange yarn. Dip the pieces of yarn in craft glue that dries clear. Pull a piece of yarn through your fingers to wipe off excess glue and then wrap it around the balloon. Continue doing this until you have a lacy orange ball. Add glued yarn features using other yarn colors, or use a pipe cleaner, as in this illustration, to create the stem. When the glue dries, pop the balloon and pull it out.

Source

Back to that day, long ago, in my third grade classroom: 

We had waxed paper on the desks. Each group of students had a bowl with some watered down school glue and there were piles of yarn cut in about two foot lengths. I demonstrated how to wet the yarn in the glue, squeeze it out and wrap it around the balloon. The students began working. At first they were having a lot of fun. Then, Jimmy's elbow touched his pumpkin-in-progress. The glued yarn stuck to his elbow and came off the balloon. Then, Susie reached across to get a piece of yarn and the whole darn pile stuck to her hand. Mary's balloon fell in her lap with a gooey-gluey plop. Mark's pumpkin got stuck to his hand. Jen started crying because she didn't like gooey things. Jeremy's pumpkin rolled into the pile of yarn and sported a mop-top of lovely orange hair. Jimmy started crying because the yarn that had been stuck to his elbow was now stuck to his shirt. Christy's balloon popped. She bawled. Cameron and Dana's balloons rolled into each other and were mated... like dogs.... they were stuck together. Mark decided to run around the classroom bopping children on the head with the balloon that was stuck to his hand. That meant that some kids had some sticky patches of glue in their hair. My art project had gone to Hell. It was chaos. I had no control. I had kids running around. I had kids crying. I had a few industrious kids still trying to make their pumpkins! Finally, I got the kids attention screamed and got them all back into their seats. I took the garbage can from desk to desk and scraped the gooey-gluey projects into the trash. We washed up, as best we could. I gave each child a piece of paper and everyone got to draw and color a pumpkin. This was not a proud moment in my teaching career!

This weekend I was thinking about doing something crafty and wondered what glue might be best to use.

Source

I found the perfect Internet site (what did I do without the world at my fingertips?!) to help me. It's called This to That and gives glue advice.

3-M also has a guide to their own products which may be helpful as well.

If you have some projects where you need to stick it to something.... you may want to try either one of these sites. (Or you can try making Halloween pumpkins out of yarn!)

Do you know of other helpful sites like this?