"Australia"

I went to the movies today with my friend, Eileen. It was an excellent movie, a real tear-jerker, and a saga, which was nice for a change. You know how the movies these days kind of follow a theme or a format. This movie had good twists and lots of excitement. Love and loss. Fights and mystery. Just all around great. I cried off and on throughout the entire movie. So did everyone else.

Then we came back here and had turkey soup and pumpkin pie and chatted about finding true love. We both decided to sing for our mate to come to us. You'll see why when you watch the movie.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, have you every grown a yam vine or a sweet potato vine? When I was a kid we would poke toothpicks around the middle of a yam or sweet potato and then sit it in a jar of water. The jar would fill with roots and the potato would grow a lovely trail of vines. I adored those plants.

Hope you got out and shopped today. And if you didn't, hope you had a leisurely down day. For me, the movie completed the holiday.
Ciao, Flower

Happy Thanksgiving

Well Happy Turkey Day. Yesterday I had acupuncture and when I asked my Chineses Accupuncturist if she had a family meal on Thanksgiving, she said there is no Thanksgiving in Canada and there is no turkey in Chinese food. Ah, yes, I said, thinking about the noodles and the bean sprouts, eggs and vegetables. Very good food, with pork and chicken. But no turkey.

On Chinese New Years, she said, they eat dumplings. I said, Stuffed with pork? Yes, and boiled. I was getting hungry. And on birthdays, lots of noodles; noodles for a long life. Very interesting. And then she stuck a needle between my eyes and I went to sleep.

I don't eat dairy or wheat--so I make a rice stuffing--so to speak. I cook a rice that has mulitple grains in it--because it's pretty. Then I add sauteed celery and onion and a teaspoon of poultry seasoning. It's very good.

As for desert--I'll share my pumpkin pie invention with you. Make a cookie dough with rice flour--any sugar cookie recipe will work, but I use Fanny Farmer's Butterscotch Brownies--see Fanny Farmers Cookbook and substitute rice flour for wheat flour. And margerine for butter--if the milk in butter bothers you. Spread the dough into a pie dish (it doesn't roll). Now mix your organic canned pumpkin with coconut milk--and all the spices and sugar, etc. Pour in and bake the same way you would a pumpkin pie. It's better than the regular pie, trust me.

Okay then, love everyone and have a great day. Flower

Wind & Full Moon

Here it is, the turn in weather we've been expecting. Wind and leaves falling and cold. In Spokane, my home town, there hasn't been a frost yet. Here, yest we've already had one. We went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and brought home some nice gourds and pumpkins and apples and drank some hot apple cider and feed the goats. It was completely fun and sunny and happy. Now we're faced with low light and stormy weather--everything equally balanced.

The full moon is on Tuesday, Aries/Libra 22 degrees. It's a time to remember how we own our assertiveness, and how we then can give it to others in a way that is fair to both of us. This moon is also accompanied by a Mercury direct--which is good, things have been righting themselves during the retrograde. A good thing I guess, although scary when it comes to how many us have planned our financial futures.

Well, not much time this a.m. as the grandbaby is coming today. I bought a fall doughnut for us to share, what was I thinking all that sugary icing. But hey, what's life for but some fun. We are eating our vegetables like crazy right, a little dessert now and them is harmless.
Ciao, Flower

Pumpkin Picking

Pumpkin Picking
Originally uploaded by WisDoc

Just a little south of Bellingham, the Skagit flats stretch out between the mountains and the sound. This is fertile land where swans graze in the winter. And snow geese. The geese have been flying south, which of course tells us winter is coming. Today, a storm is coming: high winds, as high as 50 miles per hour on the coast. This is no problem where I am, snugged inside a condo. But where I lived in Kingston, power went out frequently.

What I wanted to say here is, on those flats are acres and acres of pumpkins. And now with the vines dying, orange globes shine in the sunlight. Very pretty. If you have grown pumpkins, you know how exciting it is to have them turn orange under those big squash leaves. And to pick pumpkins and have them on your counter, on the porch, on the dining table. Some are carved, some wait to be made into pumpkin pies. Sugar pumpkins are the best to grow for pie. They are small pumpkins and one easily makes a pie. I've also baked them with rice and sausage stuffed inside. And I've cubed them for curry dishes.

If you want to see what you can do with pumpkin, look up Cooking with Pumpkin. Also, if you are dairy intolerant, try making your pumpkin pie filling with soy creamer—it works perfectly and the taste is rich and smooth. For dairy free recipes see Cooking without Dairy

Gotta run off to Seattle today. I'll be passing those pumpkin patches , perhaps I'll stop for one.

Ciao! Flower