four thank you's

First to Leigh, who let me have full range of her cilantro and rhubarb gardens while she's out of town.  (Watering her chickens was a much too easy trade for gorgeous rhubarb.)

Second, to my fabulous family who sent me a Food Saver a few years ago.  It makes it SO easy to freeze produce without the burn.  Yesterday, I had to go into baking overdrive, and it was nice to dash to the freezer and grab a couple of pumpkin packs.  If I haven't given a glowing endorsement to using homemade pumpkin puree over what comes in a can, well, I will soon... cause it's true.  Nothing beats homemade.  And nothing beats that Food Saver.

And a thank you to the handyman who encouraged my going overboard with the pumpkins last year; there are plenty in my freezer now!  He helped keep an eye on my pumpkins when I was out on fires last summer and even let me raid his plot for more pumpkins during my processing frenzy.  I hope he feels the return on all my raiding now - I made pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream for a Grand Canyon photo-swap potluck last night.

(He's pictured with this year's tomatoes.  It's the next "overboard" thing.  Those are half of the health kick hybrid.  The other half are in another plot, and he and I both have hanging tomatoes, too.  Pasta sauce, here we come!)

Last, but not least, my sister, Leigh, has given me all kinds of fun gadgets for the kitchen - one of those is this super-handy Magic Cup measuring cup.  I was making berry-rhubarb pie yesterday, and have I mentioned I'm terrible at making crusts?  Well, the handyman said yesterday's was supposedly, "my best crust yet," so maybe I'll keep trying if progress is being made.  I quit buying shortening in sticks because there was just so much packaging.  Now I get it in the big tub, and it's pretty darn easy to measure with Leigh's Magic Cup which I had never heard about until she tossed it over and said I could keep it.  I have a totally awesome big sister.  



The Magic Cup is perfect for peanut butter, honey, shortening, butter, molasses, nutella - if it's gooey and you have to measure it, the magic cup works.