After we purchased two pumpkins on Wednesday, Thursday was a pumpkin roasting day. I roasted the green pumpkin first to make a puree for pumpkin pie. The shape and size of the green pumpkin was similar to the pie pumpkins in the U.S. At the house where we bought the pumpkins, the guy told me to use the green pumpkin before it turned color. That is different from our pie pumpkins, which are orange when ready to be used. I split the pumpkin in half, scrapped the goo and seeds out, rubbed it with some corn oil, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and baked it until it was tender.
While pumpkin number 1 was roasting, I split the harder grayish pumpkin into pieces and scrapped the seeds out (there was less goo in this one). The first pumpkin had seeds like our pumpkins back in the States, while the second pumpkin had seeds like winter squash. This one was a savory pumpkin not unlike the kabocha squash in the U.S. I rubbed it with olive oil, curry powder, and set it aside until the oven was free. We have a small oven, but at least we have an oven. I also saved and cleaned the pumpkin seeds that I scraped from the pumpkins to roast with oil, salt, and a little seasoning.
After the first pumpkin was done, I roasted the savory squash and then the pumpkin/squash seeds. The apartment smelled so fall-like. After the first pumpkin cooled, I pureed it and it equaled to two cans of pumpkin puree. I froze some puree for later. One of my best purchases was the immersion blender with the food processing container. I use it a lot and will use it more for winter soups and it was perfect for pumpkin puree.
The seeds were really yummy. I seasoned the pumpkin seeds with chili mix and the squash seeds with curry. I liked the pumpkin best and Thom liked the curry seeds best. Perfect!
We had roasted squash for dinner with a peanut satay sauce. I also made pumpkin pie bars. The next day, I made pumpkin soup with the savory pumpkin and it was a rainy soup day.
Sautéing onions, peppers, and carrots
Sauteed onions, peppers, and carrots with roasted pumpkin
The finished pumpkin soup (glad to have an immersion blender)
Even though I was off school, we decided against going to Peja. That was our original plan. The forecast said off and on rain, and the forecast was right. So instead, we went to Ferizaj on Friday for language lessons and it was raining almost the whole time. Saturday, we went to Ferizaj again to meet with the other volunteers who live near Ferizaj. We went early to the Ferizaj market. This is a combination farmers' market and a flea market. Thom got some new hiking boots. Then we had a nice time catching up with Noah, Hannah, Cory, Matthew, and Michael. Matthew is in Kos 7 and will be leaving soon. We also saw Shpresim while we were eating lunch and met his baby son, Nar, and his wife. The weather turned out to be nice although we could see rain clouds all day long.
I forgot to mention in the last post, that on Wednesday, I went to the post office to mail a birthday card and while I was there I saw the police commander. Thom and I met him on one of our hikes. He invited us for coffee (which doesn't really mean coffee). I called Thom because our apartment is close by and he met us in front of the post office. Then we walked across the street to the police station. There we had juice from his refrigerator and talked for a bit. We are always glad when we have time for impromptu activities.
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment