Ok, SO.  Let’s not pay attention to my hair/glasses/pjs/etc. and focus on the pumpkin pie, shall we?  No?  Well, what can I say?  I’m classy. I also seem to have a tradition of wearing my monkey pajama pants for WFMWs.  Not on purpose, mind you.  It’s been completely coincidental!  Now that I’m noticing this trend I’m thinking it would be terrible to break this tradition and I may have to continue it.  Stay tuned.

So first off you need to get a specific type of pumpkin.  It’s that eeeety-beeeeety pumpkin that is sitting next to the pie crust.  (Dangit, now I can’t pretend I made the pie crust too!  More about that later…)  They’re called pie pumpkins.  Original, eh?  I guess sometimes they’re called cheese pumpkins which just confuses me.  They sell them at grocery stores which is where we got ours.  They really are as teeny as they look so if you’re making a pie bigger than 9” or more than one pie, you should probably get more than one pie pumpkin.  I don’t know what constitutes as a good pie pumpkin but I do know they’re slightly sweeter than Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins.  Sorry I can’t wow you with my knowledge of pumpkins.

ANYWAY.

Cut the pumpkin in half, and start scooping the seeds out but be sure to save the seeds if you want to roast them or plant them later.  You can throw the pumpkin vomit, guts, innards away as it seems with this type of pumpkin there is a very minimal amount of…erm…glop.

I think I’m a rather excellent pumpkin cleaner-outer wouldn’t you say?

Let’s skip forward a bit.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and spread a thin layer of oil on the foil.  *Takes a second to giggle at the rhyme.*  Place the clean pumpkin halves face down on the sheet and toss them in the oven.  You know they’re ready when they look something like the above picture and when you stick a fork in them it slides right in.

Let the pumpkin pieces cool enough so that you can handle them with ease and scoop the pumpkin…um…substance(?) out of the skin.  It should come out without struggle whether you scoop with a spoon or peel the skin from the…not-pumpkin-guts-but-kinda-pumpkin-gutish-stuff.  Now you can either toss all this in the food processor or go old school and use a masher.  Got a lot of stress/anger you need to release?  Go old school.  It won’t disappoint.

Mix the not-pumpkin-guts-but-kinda-pumpkin-gutish-stuff with all your other ingredients and pour it into a pie crust.  You can either make your own or if you’re running low on time and are totally impatient and really really really just want to eat pumpkin pie super bad, buy it.  There are many different kinds you can make and that you can purchase.  In our case we went with a graham cracker crust.

Pop it in the oven, take it out, slice it up, and it looks like this!  Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Whip up some heavy whipping cream and scoop a little (or a lot) on a slice.  I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on top just to make it look even more delectable (as if that was even possible!  I mean look at it!)

So maybe it’s more difficult than, say, using pumpkin pie filling from a can…but hey!  It works for me and it was delicious!  I think I might make another one with a homemade crust or possibly even a different pre-made crust, we shall see!

Click here for the recipe I used.

What works for you?  Head on over to We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday!

“FIFTY DOLLARS FOR A PAIR OF DOROTHY SLIPPERS?”

Ouch.  That hurts.  That’s about as much as the dress alone!  So I start brainstorming and the crafty side of me started to creep out.  What was stopping me from making these shoes on my own?  I’ll tell you what, nothing.  Nothing was.  So here we go:

Here I have a nice little step-by-step diagram for you to follow along with!  Now you can see what truly works for me.

Step 1: Buy shoes from local thrift shop for $10.  Take them home and place them on your bed.
Step 2: While still on bed, start to cover shoes with glitter glue.  Get it all over your index finger.  (See lower right corner for example of how index finger should look.)
Step 3: Put some monkey pajama pants on and continue to make a gooey mess of the shoes.  (See lower left corner for monkeys.  Cute, comfy monkeys.)
Step 4: After finishing the first layer, decide that letting them dry on your bed overnight is not such a great idea and relocate them to the table.
Step 5: Add another coat of glitter glue while shoes are still on table.
Step 6: Add one last coat (or more if you desire) and TAH-DAH!!! You’ve got yourself a mighty fine lookin’ pair o’ Dorothy shoes!

This is the glitter glue I used.  It’s around $3 a bottle at WalMart.  And the best part?
It only took one bottle to give both shoes three layers!

So there you have it, folks.  In the end I spent $10 on shoes and $3 on glitter.  $13 for a pair of Dorothy slippers?  It DEFINITELY works for me and hopefully it works for you!  (Monkey pants optional…I guess.)

Head on over to We Are THAT Family for more WFMW ideas!

*I promise, promise, PROMISE a post about Lola is coming soon.  She’s an adorable Yorkie that’s about four months old and came with a bonus when we got her….pneumonia!  Tell-all coming soon to a computer screen near you.

After moving into my new apartment this month, it was time for some…change.  I wanted a new sofa.  Expensive?  Yes.  Unrealistic?  Not at all.  The current couch we have is a tad on the rugged side.  We got it a year ago from Goodwill.  Decent condition, just…used.  It was a little ripped up and worn in areas.  Not a big deal, but in our new place I wanted our things to look new too.  So, off I went to Target to buy a King size sheet set for $19.99.  We had some pins lying around and I used them to attach the King sheet to the couch.  The pillowcases I used to cover two of the cushions, and for the third I used the fitted sheet and just cut it.  Simple and VERY cheap!

Head over to We Are THAT Family for more WFMW tips!