Catching up over Pumpkin

Oh for shame.  I’m publishing two recipes that use ingredients that are post-season.  If I hadn’t frozen so many cranberries and roasted, pureed and frozen so much pumpkin, I might have thought better of publishing these recipes.  However, I keep pulling out my laptop and opening up the recipes in Word, so why the hell not just put them on readyprepgo.com?

Yes, I fully intended to publish these at the peak of cranberry and pumpkin seasons.  They were supposed to follow closely on the heels of my Deconstructed Thanksgiving Turkey post.  But that didn’t happen.  We broke ground on our home remodel on November 30.  Christmas ensued.  Bill got snarled in a major project at work and was leaving for work before I awoke and coming home just as I was turning out the lights.

Making matters more complicated, I started another blog.  I didn’t really mean to.  Honestly.  But it just kind of happened.  I was originally just using the blog format to communicate with a group of my friends about my 40^th birthday trip.  Soon I found myself compulsively writing about my thoughts about turning 40.  I didn’t really realize I had so much to say.

And while we’re on that subject, my 40^th birthday trip IS kind of over the top.  But that’s me.  Right?  I may be dead tomorrow, so I sure as hell am going to be certain that take full advantage of the life, health and joy God has offered today.

I invited 14 friends.  They’re a mish-mash of amazing women I’ve known throughout my life.  I almost didn’t do it because of the guest list anxiety.  There are many amazing women whom I adore but couldn’t include on the guest list.  That makes me feel kinda pukey.  This isn’t an inner-circle kind of thing.  It was really more complicated than that.

Back to food.

I’m completely enraptured with fresh pumpkin.  I can’t get over it.  There are already several recipes on readyprepgo.com that feature pumpkin:  Kaddo Bourani, Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins, Pumpkin Pancakes with Cranberry Maple Syrup. I simply can’t get enough of the combination.  Flavor, nutrition and gorgeous colors are a food trifecta.  I could probably dedicate a whole site just to my cranberry pumpkin passions.

Regular readers will remember that I ended the summer committed to reviving my breakfast life with new, interesting recipes.  Pumpkin Cranberry Baked French Toast and Pumpkin Cranberry Baked Oatmeal have become part of our weekly rotation.

While I bothered to cook and puree my own pumpkin, you can very simply use canned pumpkin for both.  The home-prepared pumpkin has quite a bit more flavor and color, and since its more labor-intensive, I tend to use a bit less of the homemade stuff in the recipes.  It isn’t a big deal either way.

I hope I’m back on track to keep posting regularly here.  However, life is still really nutty.  I’ve got some more versions of baked French toast to be published:  I love the make-ahead simplicity of this dish.

Thanks to my dear friend, Kate, who encouraged me the other night to keep publishing…