Texas Girl

, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

We went to Maker Faire last weekend and Lili and I ended up getting separated from the rest of the family. We spent the whole day together checking out the exhibits. She painted a pumpkin. She painted on an old VW van. She decorated an egg using the Ukrainian wax resist method. She rode a giant six-passenger snake bike. She made a kite and flew it. She played on a pinball machine made of cake.

If you ever get a chance to go to a Maker Faire, do it!

playing it cool

Jenny L loves Johann, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

From a recent photo shoot. That's Carl's brother being held against his will.

Carl knows he's beautiful.

Carl knows he's beautiful., originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

And he's right. He's very beautiful. When I walked in to my friend's house for a photo shoot, there was Carl in all his glory. I got the feeling that he wanted me to take his picture. He posed so naturally.

Eat Your Squash

Eat Your Squash, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

For some reason, my two oldest kids love pumpkin pie. They generally do well with all the winter squashes. And when October comes around, and we start seeing pumpkins in the grocery store, one of them always asks if we can make pumpkin pie.

My husband, on the other hand, will eat pumpkin pie only with a half-disguised look of disgust on his face. He prefers pecan. My youngest doesn't like pie at all. She might be convinced to eat a chocolate pie, but that's an experiment for another day.

So I don't make pumpkin pie very often. But it's one of those things that gets me and the kids in the kitchen together and I hope we're making wonderful memories in addition to the pie.

The first thing you do when making a pumpkin pie is to walk right past the cans of pureed pumpkin. Go instead to the produce section, or your local farmers market which will have plenty of pie pumpkins right now, and get yourself a nice small pumpkin or two. I got two because I was afraid I wouldn't get enough pulp from just one. That happened last year and I ended up having to run to the store for a can of organic pumpkin. If you end up just using one, you've got an extra to use as decoration for the month. The thing I've learned from making pumpkin pie like this is to be flexible.

Next, get out your vegetable peeler and peel off the rind. It's a lot easier than you might think. Once you've peeled off the rind, take a very sharp knife and cut the pumpkin in half. Remove the guts and seeds. My youngest, even though she doesn't like pie, helped me out with this part. I saved the seeds and made pepitas later that night. One thing to note is that pie pumpkins are much easier to clean out than those huge things you get to carve. This is really a very easy process and you should try it at least once.

Now that the pumpkin is peeled and the seeds and guts scraped out, cut the pumpkin into bite sized pieces and steam it until soft, probably 15 or 20 minutes. You want to let the pumpkin cool down before you start adding the rest of the ingredients, but go ahead and puree it. You want to have about 1.5 or 2 cups. My pumpkin yielded about 3 cups so now I have an extra pumpkin for the kids to paint.

Once the pumpkin is cooled, add the rest of the ingredients:
1.5 cups sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tb molasses
dash of cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
dash of nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
2 eggs

Whip it up with your hand blender and then pour it into a pie crust. If I had more time I would make my own crust, but since I don't I'm perfectly happy using a pre-made, ready-to-bake crust. I originally had about 3 cups of pumpkin, so I only used about half for the pie and I froze the rest to make another pie later. If you don't want leftover pie filling, use a deep dish pie crust.

Bake it at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. If you notice the edges of the crust getting too brown, cover the edges with foil. I've seen those round metal contraptions that are supposed to keep the edges from burning but I've never tried one so I don't know how well it works.

Pumpkin pie is better, in my opinion, if it's chilled for a few hours before eating. That way it has time to set and won't be runny.

What I like about this recipe is there is no sugar in it. Honey and molasses are the sweeteners. I figured out the nutritional information, using half of the recipe and given one pie serves 8. These numbers will be lower if you eat less than 1/8 of a pie. They will be two times higher if you use all of the filling in one pie.

181 calories
10 g fat
21 g carbs
1 g fiber
11 g sugars
2.5 g protein

flame

flame, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

Another from the Texas All British Car Day. And unless I magically find some extra time this week, I won't be posting for a few days. It doesn't take long to take the pictures. But it does take time for me to sit down and look through them all to see which ones jump out at me as having the potential to be fabulous. It also depends on my mood. The first time I look through the pictures I may not get anything from a particular photo, but the second time I look through them, I might. It's a wonder I ever post anything.

dream

dream, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

It was one of those moments. One of those moments where you see a wide open expanse, paths and rolling hills. It didn't look all that exciting through my eyes, but through the child's eyes, it must have seemed magical. She took off to see what might lay beyond the crest of the hill. I saw the fleeting opportunity, raised my camera and took a quick shot.

Swoop

Swoop, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

Here you go. This photo is much nicer to look at.

Last weekend was All British Car Day (ABCD). We went one morning with our friend Dave (who has a couple of old British cars) and I took both my digital camera and my film camera. I felt like quite the geek with two big cameras hanging from my neck. I haven't developed the film yet, but if those photos are anything like the digital photos, I'll probably just throw them away. I don't know how to photograph cars. I suppose if I had more of a passion for them I could do better. I got a couple of salvagable shots, though. This is one of them.

Funkalicous

Funkalicous, originally uploaded by MonicaSmoot.

I want to tell you that I have many new photos sitting on my computer waiting for me to look at. But with 3 kids who have homework every night, and a few days of not feeling well, I have nothing ready to post. And it's been a while since I posted. So you will have to look at this photo of some crazy woman wearing a wig until I can sit down and prepare some awesome photos of old British cars.