I live in the country. And I am surrounded by crunchy, earth mama's. Now I have nothing against these organic loving, baby wearing, barefoot (okay, okay) crunchy earth mama's. In fact, somewhere deep within my city-fied soul I aspire to be one myself. Kale chips and dried apples kids?
So I said to myself, "Self, start small. What can you do to put better food on the table?" I looked out the window and the answer was right in front of me. No really, it was literally right in front of me...corn.
I could freeze corn! It seemed simple enough. And simple it was. And long. And tedious. And my arms really hurt after. But I did it! I husked, cooked, cooled, cut and bagged 6 dozen ears of corn. And somewhere, right this moment, there's a mama who put up 42 quarts of peaches without batting a lash laughing at me.
Ah, but hold on a minute. It didn't end there.
You see while I was down the road buying my corn I realized I didn't have the correct change to put in the money box the farmer had so trustingly put out. I had six dollars too much when I suddenly saw...
Pie pumpkins, $2 each. And I was off on a pumpkin stuff making adventure.
Yeah. I'm a good time, man.If my arms were sore after husking corn, try sawing through these suckers. I'm no pansy, *cough*, but a hand saw would have been nice!
Let me tell you, once you compare the taste, texture and appearance of a can of pumpkin puree to real pumpkin puree the little amount of work becomes worth it!
Through all the complaining, the realization of why I was doing this was the voice of my seven year old saying, "Mom, the pumpkin we eat actually comes out of the pumpkin? Then why do people buy it in a can? That seems gross!"
And this crunchy earth mama wannabe sat down and said, "Let me tell you some really cool stuff I've learned buddy..."
The fruits of my labour - Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins.
Every bit as good as they sound.
Then I thought, what are these missing? Nothing really, but everything is better with cream cheese.
Oh yes, I went there. Tim Hortons pumpkin spice muffins have got nothing on these bad boys.
