All About the Pumpkin

How was your Halloween?

Mine was nice.  It was a gorgeous day here in C’ville, Tate and I went for a lovely 6 miler along this route, and we had a really nice evening with Kath, Matt, and Karen.

Kath was the only one of us to dress up!  She was a nerd.  (I’m really not making fun of her, that was her costume!)

photo courtesy of KERF

And some of us carved pumpkins

I didn’t participate but Matt, Kath, and Tate carved some fun ones (in ascending order).

I did, however, participate fully in the eating of the pumpkin seeds

These were SO GOOD.  They were baked up with coconut oil, cinnamon, sugar and who knows what else.

We also snacked on apples that I brought home from work at the orchard

We were all prepared for throngs of “trick or treaters”

but, sadly, we only got a dozen or so :(.

Still, the company was good and the food was delicious.  Matt whipped up some homemade pizza

photo courtesy of KERF

YUM, a whole wheat crust smeared with a pumpkin/parmesan combo then topped with sauteed mushrooms and eggplant, blue cheese, and walnuts.  A flava explosion!

I contributed dessert

Photo courtesy of KERF

This dense delicacy is my vegan brownie recipe seen here but since I am awful at following recipes, even my own, it was slightly altered.

• Instead of barley flour I used whole wheat.
• I doubled the recipe to produce a thicker cake and eliminated the olive oil.
• For this batch the fruit puree was pumpkin pear. I could pretend that’s because it was Halloween and for Kath but really it’s because that’s what I had.
• I added some unsweetened coconut flakes.  The coconut didn’t really contribute much besides a meh texture addition, next time I will go for walnuts instead.

The icing was a new recipe and a definite keeper.

• 4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 2 tbsp coconut powder
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1.5 tbsp coconut milk (the kind in the box, not the kind in the can)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar

Put all ingredients into a bowl and microwave until melted, stirring occasionally.  Let the gooey chocolate mess cool just slightly then ice the cake.  Icing while it is still nice and runny will produce a smooth finish, as it cools it will thicken to a ganache-like consistency.  Lick the bowl and don’t forget the spoon too!

‘Twas a long day at the orchard and I didn’t sleep a wink last night so I am calling it an early to bed.  Kath thinks I am getting up early for an 8 mile run…we♥♥♥shall see about that one.