Did you know its September?

This month has really flown by for me which is why I haven't updated anything until now. The first week or so I was pretty much at work. Then came Byron and Gatsby's big day, they got neutered! They had a skirmish in August which surprised and terrified me, leading to their immediate separation. Gatsby became territorial and developed a bad habit of marking near Byron's cage much to my dismay. I was upset with myself for putting off the neuter for so long that it had escalated to the point of having to keep them separated. Watching them look at each other through cage bars longingly was hard, but I knew that I couldn't let them play together due to their raging and unpredictable bunny hormones.

I went into nurse mode for about a week making sure my boys were comfortable and happy. Yesterday was their two week post surgical exam. The vet said they were fully healed and looking quite nice, though we are concerned with the weight that they put on during the two weeks since the operation (Byron put on 6 ozs !). All in all life is now back to normal, possibly a little better. Since the neuter Gatsby has not sprayed one bit- that alone is well worth the money spent, liter box habits have improved on the whole, and I think they're starting to like each other again. In another couple of weeks the boyfriend and I plan on reintroducing them and seeing if they can forgive and forget.

On the craft front I've been fairly productive as well. I have finally managed to tame the beast known as yeast and produced some fantastic cinnamon rolls. Truth be told I went a little overboard on the filling, but that's okay in my opinion. I want to make these again when my mom and sister come to visit later in October. This time around I want to incorporate pumpkin into the recipe somehow to add some seasonal flavor to these babies. Mmmm. So keep an eye out for that next month, I'll provide a link to the original recipe as well.

I managed to start and almost finish knitting another hat using the knitty foliage pattern that I adore. When I say almost finish, I mean I need to redo the cast off due to it being super tight, which means I have to find my handy dandy crochet hook which I packed up last year at this time and have not seen since moving.

In true pro-craft-ination style I also have started and almost finished making a new purse. All that is left to do is stitch around the opening of the bag... give me another two weeks and that should be done hehe.

On a final note I have also been working on my side project which I've been promising to reveal for over a month. Though I doubt people have been clamoring to find out what it is I've been working on, I think the time is drawing near to reveal it. Not today, but soonish.

That is all for now, enjoy the rest of September!

Pumpkin Time

For the past two Halloween seasons or so I've had this desire to make pumpkin-y goods using my own homemade pumpkin puree. Weird? maybe, but I've come to accept it.

The first year I chopped up my jack o' lantern, just to find out later that field pumpkins, such as the one I had, are not the right type of pumpkin to cook with. The second year I spent all of my pumpkin allowance on a whopping 20 pound pumpkin...again, not a tasty pumpkin.

This year however I was fortunate enough to have a sugar pumpkin given to me by the BF's mom. I know its not difficult to go out and get a sugar pumpkin, but when you're shopping on a tight budget its not really a necessity. Now onto the pumpkin puree!

First- wash pumpkin throughly then remove stem.

Cut pumpkin in half from top to bottom

Remove all seeds (set seeds aside for roasting) and stringy pumpkin guts

Place pumpkin cut side down on a baking sheet and cover top with aluminum foil (not shown). Place in oven that has been preheated to 375 F and cook for about an hour and a half or until soft. Remove from oven and let cool.

Scoop out pumpkin flesh and place in blender

Blend pumpkin until it looks like this....Mmmm

Now what to do with all this pumpkin puree? After looking through a bunch of recipes online and seeing that I did not have a lot of the ingredients they were calling for I decided I'd wing it. So I present to you my own simple but very tasty basic pumpkin muffin recipe. I'd imagine it would be pretty easy to make some modifications to the recipe, I can't wait to try adding cranberries and chopped walnuts the next time around.

Basic Pumpkin Muffins- Makes 12 muffins
2 cups generic store brand bisquick
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
spices used to taste:
cinnamon
nutmeg
ground ginger

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl- no particular order- and stir. Pour batter into greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 400 F for 13 to 18 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.


I don't have many pictures of the muffins afterwards since I kind of got distracted by eating them.