Snow?? On October 19th!! And NOT just a Little!!

Yesterday's weather was about 60 and sunny. A pretty wonderful day all around and today's forecast was a 15 degree drop with snow. Truthfully, I wasn't too surprised. Kansas weather tends to fluctuate up and down often. And really, how much snow could there be today?? I figured we'd get a bit of snow that would just melt when it hit the ground. 

That's not exactly how the day has been going. The snow is sticking...and it's not stopping! It's 1:30 right now and it's still snowing. But you know what's crazy?? Our weather forecast is calling for a high of 65 tomorrow!! 

Here's the playground at Yahoo's preschool, entirely covered!! 

Though the snowy weather isn't going to stick around too long, it sure isn't going to make the farmers around here happy. 

Corn harvest is pretty much done out here and DR's elevators have the corn ground piles covered which is good but the quite a bit of milo is still out in the fields waiting to get harvested because it's still too wet. 

Well, today sure isn't going to help the moisture levels. The milo still needs a good hard freeze to draw the moisture out of the milo heads. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a freeze tonight. 

I'm sure any farmers out there would be angry at this photo but I think it's kind of pretty. 

The one good thing about the snow is the grain elevators are closing early tonight which means I might get to see my husband for more than an hour this evening! 

I don't mind the snow in October. Today's snow reminds me quite a bit of Indiana snow. The flakes are big, wet and heavy and the sky looks more like January than October. As long as the snow can hold off until after Halloween I'll be happy. I'm not looking forward to wearing snow boots while trick or treating!! 

Our Pumpkin Painting for October

The Painting Party, where we all painted a Sunflower, that I taught at my town library a couple of weeks ago was a such a success that we are doing it again in October. The ladies I first taught requested a fall theme for our next painting and requested this painting that my librarian found on Pinterest. 

I tried finding the original source of this image but didn't have any luck. 

This is my version of the chevron pumpkin. 

When I teach the class I'll probably do it a bit differently; more orange and less red. I think I'll get rid of the spirals in the background and maybe do polka dots instead. 

I'm loving these 2 hour painting classes. They are just too much fun! I've been on the Internet looking for ideas and I've found that these painting parties are quite popular, especially in the big cities. They have painting parties with thirty some students. I'm not in a big city but maybe I could make this a business! Maybe I could travel around and lead these painting parties. I could see a bunch of women wanting to do this instead of Tupperware! 

Foody Friday -Sesame Pumpkin Bread

I was craving some pumpkin bread this week and though Google found thousands of recipes none of them sounded quite right. I didn't want anything too cake like or too sweet. Finally I dusted off some cookbooks in the upper cabinets of my kitchen. 

Is it just me or does everyone else find that with the internet using actual cookbooks has gone by the wayside. Maybe it's just me but since my computer is in my kitchen I tend to search Google rather than Betty Crocker. 

I pulled this cookbook out;

Homemade - How To Make Hundreds Of Everyday Products You Would Otherwise Buy

and found a recipe for Sesame Pumpkin Bread. It was totally different than I expected a pumpkin bread recipe to be. It wasn't sweet or cake like. It wasn't a yeast bread but not a quick bread either. And there were no spices!

Sesame Pumpkin Bread 

4 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. sugar

4 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 c. plus 2 T milk

1 egg

1 c. pumpkin puree

1/3 c. butter, melted

1 T sesame seed (I omitted this) 

Preheat the oven to 425. Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet. IN a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 

In a medium bowl, combine 1 c. milk and the egg; beat until well blended. Stir in teh pumpkin puree and butter. Make a well in the centr of the dry ingredients; pour the pumpkin mixture and, using a fork, stir until all the ingredients are well blended. 

Lightly flour a work surface. Turn out the dough onto the work surface and knead lightly until the dough is smooth, 4-5 minutes. Shape the dough into a round loaf and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross over the top of the loaf. Brush lightly with the remaining 2 T. milk. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds. 

Bake the loaf 25 minutes; reduce the heat to 375 and bake until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, about 15 minutes longer. Remove the loaf to a wire rack to cool. 

Makes 1 loaf. 

Yum! I just love that golden yellow color! The loaf turned out huge with a hard crust on the outside but soft on the inside. I liked the flavor, just subtle pumpkin. Though I was craving just a touch of cinnamon. 

So I whipped up some honey butter with a dash of pumpkin pie spice and slathered that on. Ah...heaven!! 

This weekend, if I have any of this bread left I plan on making french toast from it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! 

Do you have a favorite pumpkin recipe?? I'd love to try something new with pumpkin. 

How the Squashes Arrived!

Just the other day we walked down the street and bought some pumpkins and squash. As we walked back Yip started telling an elaborate squash/pumpkin story. Once we got home I took pictures while he posed the pumpkins, then we printed them off into a little book and he wrote his story down. I've NEVER seen him sit so long to write before! So I thought I'd share his story with you today; How the Squashes Arrived! 

Once upon a time there was a pumpkin. But he was not always a pumpkin!

Then there was a big pumpkin. He came along. He was walking and then he tripped and fell on the little pumpkin! 

The little pumpkin was squash! The gig guy was asleep. The little pumpkin could not move! He was sad, very sad. 

The little pumpkin grew warts. He still could not move! And the big pumpkin was still asleep. He was small now. 

Then the big pumpkin woke up and walked away. The little pumpkin was now a squash. That how squashes arrived!