Scenes from a busy kitchen

There are some days when I don't spend much time in the kitchen. I breeze in and out quickly, throw together meals, clean up, and get out. And there are days like yesterday where I'm in there pretty much all day, going from one project to another to another. And to another. I'm sure that spending the day in the kitchen is some people's idea of a terrible day, but I'm not one of those people.

Since it was Thursday, the kitchen marathon started with the weekly chopping of vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, and celery that I put into Tupperware and we eat on throughout the week.

Then, something I've never done before: roasting a pumpkin. I was nervous about this, but shouldn't have been. Roasting a pumpkin is no different than cooking an acorn or butternut squash -- they're all in the same family. The pumpkin needed to be cooked so that I could make Baked Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, and Coconut Milk Soup.

Since I was cooking a pumpkin, I thought I might as well save the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds. (Never done that before, either.)

Right after the pumpkin was done I put the acorn squash and sweet potatoes in the oven to cook.

When they came out of the oven and cooled a bit, I scooped out the flesh and mashed the pumpkin, acorn squash, and sweet potato together in one big bowl. Set aside.

A quick break to make my lunch -- avocado toast, a pile of freshly roasted pumpkin, some veggies with hummus, and some cottage cheese.

Then it was on to the cupcakes. My son's sixth birthday is today, so I made cupcakes to share with his fellow kindergartners.

Let the cupcakes cool.

When my daughter gets home from school, she "helps" decorate the cupcakes.

We add two cans of coconut milk and two cans of chicken broth to the squash/potato puree and put it on the stove to heat.

Then we make the cranberry sauce for the week.

Brief stop to make apple slices for snacks and move some of the many, many dishes out of the way. Oops. Need to unload dishwasher.

Then, another new recipe: homemade CLIF bars from one of my new favorite cooking sites, Enlightened Cooking.com.

Get those in the fridge to cool. Start the other part of dinner: homemade gyros with tzatziki sauce.

Get dinner on the table, shuffle husband out the door to attend a volleyball game.

Clean up kitchen (sort of), then oil and salt the pumpkin seeds that have been drying all day, and roast them in the oven.

Put kids in bed, then clean up the kitchen (for real -- with sweeping and everything).

Remember that the forecast said it might freeze tonight, and I really meant to make some pesto...nix the idea of making it immediately, but instead run out into the cold in bare feet to cut a few branches off my basil plant so I can make it the next day. 

 

Fall into bed, exhausted but satisfied by a very full day in the kitchen. Start making mental notes for the next day's projects: pancakes, grilled pizza, and carrot cake for the birthday boy. And oh yeah, pesto.

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Workout of the Day

P90X One on One Volume 2: Bun Shaper