64/365: Gingerbread 101

I'll probably catch grief for telling this story, but here it goes.

A couple of weeks ago, Boo brought home a sheet requesting parent volunteers to help build gingerbread houses. (Again, Christmas and public schools, but I'm not going there this year.) I would normally be all over this, but the two days they needed help I was booked at work so I mentioned it to Klucker. He checked his schedule and emailed Mrs. S via the school website to volunteer to help. He got no response and several days later sent an email directly from his email account. After receiving no response, he wrote a note and put it in Boo's folder. He finally got an email response, but alas, Mrs. S had all her volunteer spots filled. Klucker called me at work to tell me he didn't get to help. I was shocked at the disappointment in his voice. It was very sweet and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Klucker being Klucker did not let that stop though. Since I was going to be out of town, he decided he and the wee ones would build their own gingerbread house, to heck with the school one. And buying a gingerbread house kit from Target or Costco just wouldn't do for Klucker. No, they were baking their own house from scratch. So throughout the day on Saturday, I was able to keep up with the progress through his Facebook posts and pictures. Here they are if you missed him or aren't friends:

• In an attempt to keep the kids happy while mom is in Dallas this weekend we will begin construction of a gingerbread house today, dough mixing has begun!
• Phase 1 complete ginger slabs in the oven with no loss time accidents!
• Architectural approval has just come back, first issue is a revise and resubmit with use of candy canes! Due to high demand in China no candy canes were figured into the original design due to supply issues!! Am checking the local past Christmas supply scrap yards for an left overs . . . .
• Just finished the first jobsite precon meeting. Had to bribe the architects with apple juice to go along with the idea of making ginger canes, since all the local supply of candy canes are out.
• All the panels in the lay down area prior to assembly.
• First set of panels has just arrived from the precast yard . . . and the leftovers are yummy!
• Ginger canes just arrived from precast.
• Waiting for the roof.
• Roofers just finished.
• Who would have thought, icing porn . . . the harder and faster you beat it the stiffer it gets.
• Build complete
• Does candy that fell on the the floor prior to install count as pre consumer recycled content for my LEED application?

I'm secretly glad I wasn't home to witness the chaos and ensuing mess. Clean up was complete by the time I saw the finished project above. I also think it's probably a good thing the volunteer spots were full. With status updates like that, I can only imagine what phrases Boo's classmates would have carried home.

55/365: Pumpkin Pie

I know, Thanksgiving was two weeks ago and it's still three weeks till Christmas, but tonight I made a pumpkin pie--from a pumpkin. Novel concept, eh? Two weeks ago at the cx race, I was talking with Lo about cooking and she said she had grown pumpkins this year. I told her I would love to have one and she brought it to me last Sunday. Now, I can only remember having pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkin once. I remember my mom peeling and cooking the pumpkin and saying she couldn't taste the difference and it wasn't worth the work. It's cold though, and whenever it's cold I move into a cooking and baking mode. Besides, how else would one spend a Saturday night. (yes, I know I'm lame.)

So the process began with cutting the pumpkin in half and cleaning the seeds. As you can see, I got my jack-o-latern scraper out for the event. Then you peel and and cut it into small pieces. Now, you can roast it in the oven whole and scoop it out of the peel, but I've burned myself more than once doing that with butternut squash. I then steamed the pieces. I had to break it into five batches because the pumpkin was that large. After it came out of the steamer it was into the food processor. I ended up with 14 cups of pumpkin puree. I froze all but three cups because I really don't need that many pies around my house at the same time.

The hardest part of this whole process was finding a recipe that called for fresh pumpkin. Anymore the recipes just call for a 16 ounce can. I know that stuff is uber pressurized, so I wanted to find a true measure. I found a great website that gave a great recipe, with modifications if you wanted. I ended up having enough filling for a pie, plus two small dishes without a crust. The flavor was slightly different than pies I've made from canned pumpkin. It wasn't as sweet and seemed more mild. The filling itself seemed lighter to me as well.

The whole process wasn't as much work as I expected. It was messier than using canned pumpkin, and dirtied many more dishes. But it's something I'll do again.