Rowena, at Romesticity had declared war on clutter. I’m joining her.
I made these up to use up a can of pumpkin pie filling and a bag of chocolate chips. Pumpkin pie filling often goes on clearance after Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was going for a gooier texture than typical pumpkin bars – more like brownies. I think they came out well and they were a hit with everyone except Mr. Picky there on the left in the picture.
1 30-oz can pumpkin pie filling
4 lg eggs
3/4 C brown sugar
2C whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger
2 t baking powder
12 oz chocolate chips
Whisk together pumpkin pie filling, eggs, and brown sugar. Stir in flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and baking powder. Stir just until wet. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake in a greased 9×13 baking pan. I baked mine at 350F for 35 minutes and they came out a bit doughy. Next time I will try turning up the heat to 375F and/or baking 5 minutes longer. My oven tends to bake slow so you may need neither a higher temp nor more time.
I have lots and lots I want to post about but haven’t had time to do it. Quickly, Taste Of Home Magazine is offering a free Casserole Cookbook in PDF if you sign up for their e-newsletter.
This is our weather map right now. It’s supposed to snow until tomorrow at 6PM.
Worse, predictions are that somewhere in the middle of this storm, the wind will pick up and the wind chill will reach -30F. I’m staying inside.
I’m not planning to do major resolutions for the entire year. Instead, I intend to start a new habit each month.
In January, I’ll go to bed on time every night. For me that means lights out by 10PM.
In February, I’ll add something to my bedtime routine. Probably getting either clothes or food ready for the next day.
I expect I could add something to the bedtime routine each month for six months and probably spend the second half of the year getting a morning routine established. It may or may not work out that way. This is supposed to be no-stress, so I’ll just take one thing at a time.
Are you making resolutions? What are they?
I bet I’m not the only one who can’t believe another year is over. This year has been quite eventful for us.
I really hope 2010 is not so exciting.
I want to continue this blog, hopefully more faithfully. I want to talk more about frugality and simplicity, eating well vs. eating cheaply, living well and making do. I’m also rethinking schooling choices. Should I be homeschooling? I once thought yes, then I thought no. Now I just need major discernment.
I’m working toward teaching my children how to help keep the house. I need to find a good balance between clean, organic food, and a tight budget, and between eating well and having treats. We’re still remodeling and decluttering. As I say each year, I really want our next Christmas to be more deliberate, more thoughtful, with less consumption and more creativity.
And I want to talk about these things here.
I hope you’ll join me.
Italian sweet peppers, pepperoncini, tomato.
Two dresses to share today.
Same pattern as the little pink dress. Stash fabric was bought at an estate sale for $1. Contrast was from scrap. Ribbon from stash.
This is the third incarnation of this pattern. This time from brown floral stripe that almost makes this look like a nightgown. Again the fabric was $1 at an estate sale, and the contrast was from stash. Hannah is posing like a model. Silly girl.
Meet Prince:
Charlie told Hannah last fall that if she saved enough money she could get a dog. She reached her goal early in the summer, so we bagan searching for a dog. Charlie wanted to get a puppy from a pet store. I refused to get anything (dog or otherwise) that wasn’t already house trained. So we looked at a local animal shelter.
Hannah had a small terrier mix picked out, but at the last minute she (the terrier, not Hannah) showed her true colors. She escaped the try-your-dog-out-before-adoption yard and ran straight for the other dogs in their pens. She reached through a chain link fence and bit a golden retriever on the lip, and wouldn’t let go. It took the shelter employee about 5 minutes to detach her. We did not bring the terrier home.
We were sort of burnt out looking for dogs, and did not search for a couple of weeks. Then this dog showed up at the neighbors’ house.
She told us he was a stray she had taken in. She had been looking for his owners, but had been unsuccessful. She couldn’t keep him permanantly; did we want him?
So we brought him home to try out for a week or so. He is very sweet, house trained, and already knows how to sit, lay down, and stay, though he needs work on the tricks. He rarely barks. He’s bigger than what we were looking for, but he’s working out very well. We will be getting him neutered ASAP. We think he’s part lab (he loves water) and probably pug.
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