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Ever wanted to clear out some of your old stuff but felt bad about throwing it away? Or, how about stuff that’s “too good” to give to Good Will for free, but not quite “good enough” to sell on eBay?
Elfster is the answer. They have a new gift exchange called Green Gifting where you sign up for one or more gift exchanges and they pair you with someone else who might want to exchange gifts. It’s like a secret santa, but with a perfect stranger.
What happened to the days when I came up with blog posts in my sleep? There was a time when I usually had 2 or 3 posts in draft form waiting for the right day to post them. I can’t seem to pull a coherent thought out of my arse lately though. It couldn’t have anything to do with the sleep deprivation…of course not.
Today I will scrub my kitchen in order to prepare it for all of the baking and cooking over the next 2 days. Sure, I wipe things down daily and keep it half way decent, but I figured I’m going to be making 6 mini pies, a turkey, potatoes, rolls, and all of the other fixin’s and since I can’t make anything without a huge mess, I had better get things sorted out ahead of time. You might be wondering why a household with only 3 people and a baby needs that many pies. I’d be happy to bake the traditional pumpkin and call it a day, but if I did that I would be eating pumpkin pie for the next week or so because I’m the only person who likes it around here. Thus, I will be making 2 mini chocolate cream pies, 2 mini lemon meringue pies, and 2 butternut squash pies. I decided to go with the butternut because it sounded good and I have a butternut squash to get rid of before it goes moldy and gross.
Here’s the recipe that I plan on using (from Suite101.com)…
Butternut Squash Pie
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups crushed gingersnaps
20 oz butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (about 3 cups)
1-1/4 cups nonfat greek yogurt
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Preparation
Toss gingersnaps with melted butter in a bowl. Spread into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Take out of the refrigerator and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool.
Turn oven temperature up to 400 degrees.
Put butternut squash in a roasting pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until fork tender and lightly browned. Alternately, place in microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 5-6 minutes, until fork-tender. Puree squash and remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Pour into crust. Bake in 400-degree oven for 15 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 and bake another 40-50 minutes until set.
The best part is (besides the crust made of crushed gingersnaps…yum), it’s low(-ish) fat! I’m thinking this will probably make more than 2 mini pies, but I’m going to freeze whatever is left and use it later.
Originally uploaded by Ja-nelle
I managed to do this in just over a day. It was so easy and quick! Great practice as well. I will be giving it as a gift I think. It fit’s me, but I really don’t have a use for it because I think it’s meant for people with long hair.
I must say, it’s very satisfying to make something useful with your hands.
Today is the first day since I got my teeth out that I haven’t needed to take ibuprofen. I had been taking the 800mg horse pill ibuprofen for a while and even after it ran out I found that I still needed 4 regular ibuprofens to take away the pain. I weaned myself off gradually though and today there was none. I still have the annoying holes in my mouth though where the teeth were…bring on the prescription mouth wash, which tastes like rinsing with rubbing alcohol. Yuck!
Today Travis had yogurt for the first time and he loved it. It was just plain with no flavor. Tomorrow I’m going to add some of his pureed apples to it and mix it with cereal. I wish I ate as well as this kid does. I have more motivation to cook veggies and things for him than for the rest of us. Not that anyone but me would eat them, but cooking them for myself would be a start.
This weekend we will be remodeling the bathroom. I’ll be sure to put up the before and afters. I’m excited to get it DONE because Elyse’s bathroom is hideous.
Off to finish dinner…
