Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day in the United States; I know it's not universal because I've been in Ireland in March, when they celebrate their mums. I am again this year feeling very blessed as a mother. I have a great mom myself, three wonderful children, two adorable grandchildren, one fun son-in-law and and one sweet soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Last year I also had a beautiful clematis to show you, but this year it's in the trash because of an aphid infestation and damage from the hot, cold, hot again, cold again winter we had in the Washington DC area. I'm hoping it will grow back.

I got this super cute pumpkin garden art from Karen and Andrew for Mother's Day. I'm calling him Jack.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie

This recipe also came from the blog The Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. The Hub was so excited that we were actually going to have a real pumpkin pie (sort of), he volunteered to make this recipe. Our desserts have been slim around here since we started the family biggest loser contest in January. I would have cut back on the sugar, but he followed the directions exactly, except for using 1/4 cup of egg beaters for the egg replacer. This pie is nice; it's also nice to be able to eat an 1/8th of a 9-in pie for 153 calories that also contains 1/4 cup of pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Orange Quinoa

This recipe comes from the website veggie num num by way of the Meatless Monday website. I'm all for meatless every day, but this recipe is awful. And I think it's all tied back to the oranges. Roasted oranges taste terrible. I'm looking at the original recipe picture and she didn't peel her oranges, nor does the recipe call for it. But the recipe on Meatless Monday clearly says to peel the oranges. So apparently something got lost in the translation here. But really, why would you want to roast oranges anyway. It would have tasted better with bites of fresh orange along with the roasted pumpkin, chick peas and shallots. I hate wasting ingredients, but this stuff was inedible. No num numing here.

Pumpkin Sage Pate

This recipe is courtesy of Chef Peter Berley, author of The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers and Everyone in Between. It was posted on the website The Daily Green and repeated on many many other websites. And there is a good reason for that. You can tell that this recipe was authored by a professional chef. It's really really good. I used fresh pumpkin, cut the walnuts to a half a cup and did not use the olive oil at all. After all, isn't that what nonstick pans are for? The result was a fabulous pate good enough for holidays and special occasions.

Quinoa Pumpkin Muffins

This unassuming little recipe from the Bob's Red Mill website is the best thing I've made in quite some time. Neither the Hub nor I could believe how good these muffins taste. I froze some and took them to Florida where we met Andrew and Karen for the weekend. They both liked them, too. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and the oil to 2 tablespoons. I also used 60% chocolate chips. I'm going to keep cutting on that sugar in the next batch. I think it's an important step to toss the quinoa with the flour and use your fingers to make sure there aren't any clumps of quinoa. My muffins came in at 150 calories each, which is great, too.

There's a picture of Andrew, Karen & the Hub at The Hurricane in St. Pete's Beach. While we ate a tropical storm blew through and we were really glad to be inside. By the way, the grouper there is fantastic.

Pumpkin Poblano Corn Pudding

This pumpkin poblano corn pudding recipe came from the Whole Foods website. Mine didn't come out very pudding like, more like corn bread. The only change I made was to replace the ricotta cheese with cottage cheese. Also since poblano peppers come in all degrees of heat, I reduced the chilies from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup, just in case they were hot. The Hub was sort of ho hum about this dish, but I liked it and found it made a great snack during the day. I always zapped it and ate it warm (for a very long time). This makes a big pan.

Birds and Flowers in my Backyard

Some things I like more than pumpkin are birds and flowers so I thought I'd show you some of the flowers in my backyard before our dog River eats them all. He's a feral kind of guy and nothing makes him happier than munching flowers and sometimes the whole plant right down to the ground. The last pictures are me trying to build a fort around the clematis and irises, but he's way too smart to let a couple of chairs stop him. He's been on "escort only" punishment in the backyard, but he still gets them either by waiting you out or pretending he's a kamakaze pilot making quick trips around the yard and then going in for the kill so fast you haven't got a chance of stopping him.

The birds are back, too. There are five goldfinches in the picture, but we've had as many as eleven at one time on the feeder. This year some silly wrens made a nest in the "decorative" Virginia Tech birdhouse next to the finch feeder, so I'm going to have to move the feeder. Wrens are notoriously crabby birds and these are house wrens, not the adorable Carolina wrens. We also have nesting robins, chickadees and sparrows.