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The Orange Army

The pumpkins go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

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Stocked up, yes?!

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I had a lovely photo shoot with my army

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Found them at Food Lion (at Ridge Rd + Harris) and wanted to buy even more. There will never be a shortage of pumpkin in this house! Maybe I will even loosen up enough to bake with a can (previously they have been too precious to bake with). They were $1.59 a piece, so I spent $26 on pumpkin. How appropriate for my Fall birthday month. This should last me until spring – when I’m usually sick of it! Mabye a few cans will even last me until next fall!?

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Here’s what the general thinks of pumpkin. Boo him!

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Upon arriving home (did I mention we BIKED with these pumpkin cans on Matt’s bike rack!?), I broke in

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SMOOTHIE!

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I don’t remember the exact measurements, but I believe it was something like this:

  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 6ish rounds of frozen banana thick slices
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Pinch all spice

BLEND = pumpkin pudding!

Topped with coconut, chia seeds and Hungry Bar

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Around 5:15, Matt and I got in a funk. I work all hours of the day. I blog at midnight. Answer comments and take conference calls morning to evening. Sometimes I write articles on Saturday mornings. So really, my workweek doesn’t really have weekends. [And I like it that way!]

However, my body still knows when it’s Friday. And when the rest of the world is celebrating.

We had plans for dinner at home tonight (to curb our restaurant + travel spending). But it just felt so DULL to stay home. And the weather was so nice.

So we went biking – with our destination carefully planned

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Yes, it’s already glove weather!! However, within 5 minutes of our bike ride I was already hot.

We arrived downtown

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And found ourselves at a BUSTLING free wine tasting! The Market Street Wine Shop has one every Friday, and we were more than excited to find it to be a true event.

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We tasted a flight of 3 whites, 4 reds and 2 beers. Loved ’em all! We discussed during our tastes how extremely excited we are about our trip to California in November. You see, I’m going to the Foodbuzz Festival (for a business trip of course!) but since we’re a bit idle in life right now until we get our business moving forward (which is happening as I type!), we figured now would be a good time to take a bit of a bakery babymoon trip. Matt is going to join me in San Francisco on Sunday and we’re spending 3 days in wine country! Can’t. Wait.

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They had cheese + bread at the tasting – excellent appetizer.

Love all the free events we have uncovered in this town. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living here!?

Once we biked back on home, we did make that planned dinner. Jenna’s Channa Masala! I’ve been meaning to make this recipe for years!

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We followed it exactly except I subbed red pepper for onion and we – gasp – were out of coriander! So we used the zest of a lemon and grapefruit instead. Worked quite well!

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Loved the recipe!! It was super spicy, as promised, and had great chew!

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Wish we had served it with something green – like sauteed collards. But all we had was Flax Oat Bran, which made excellent naan!

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Matt and I are now sharing this from the freezer:

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Another movie time!?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  8. Are you *sure* that’s enough pumpkin? 🙂

    I am amazed by how many events Charlottesville has (just by looking at your blog) — it sounds awesome!

    Reply

  11. I just bought 3 cans of pumpkin myself today – the supermarket shelves were stocked so I wasn’t too fearful of not being able to find it again. I think I paid $1.69.

    Looks like you found a great way to break the evening up – at a low cost!

    Enjoy movie night.

    Reply

  12. I looked all over when we were in NC to find pumpkin; finally found it in Huntersville at Food Lion. Now that the shortage is over, no prob finding in FL and I pick up a can at Wal Mart every grocery trip. Today was pumpkin soup and pumpkin scones for friends arriving back in FL for their three month stay. And, best of all, it’s so fall like and cool here so it’s fun to bake and make soup! Glad you’re loving Cville — our one and only visit there was our honeymoon 🙂

    Reply

  20. given all the hills here in cville, I can’t believe you biked back. not a fan of that food lion, though its the closest market to me too. I pick up a can of pumpkin pretty much every 2 weeks, but think I have only stockpiled about 6.

    Reply

  25. Bakery babymoon trip? I am not quite sure what this means! I loved the pumpkin shots. That’s fun! I got some at my local Vons a few weeks ago. I made some orange vegetable soup out of it, with red pepper and sweet potatoes. It was so good! It’s on my site if you want to check it out!

    Reply

    • You know how people take a babymoon trip before they give birth? Cause their lives are about to be tied down with the newborn? That’s how we are with the bakery. Once it opens we’ll be pretty tied down. Make sense!?

      Reply

  28. You are so beautiful in orange. Great colour on you! Wow, so much pumpkin! Can only imagine the fun you’re going to have 😀

    xoxo

    Reply

  30. I’m not sure if you are ever looking for a movie rec. but My Name is Khan, is one iof the best movies I have seen in a while! I loved the message, very powerful. TGIF 🙂

    Reply

  35. Whoooooo hooo!
    Love that pumpkin. I have my 2 year old screaming for pumpkin bread. I am enthralled with all things pumpkin and squash this year (mainly b/c of your recipes and those from the front burner blog). You also said my two favorite words. Baby Moon 🙂

    Reply

  37. Wow – You’ve got a whole lot of pumpkin going on over there. 🙂 But if it gets put to good use, why not. I know that I’ll be whipping up that smoothie you took a pic of with my breakfast in the am. Can’t wait.

    Reply

  38. You are all stocked up until Libby’s goes out of business (j/k, hopefully not) $1.59 for a can? Were they on sale? They are being sold here in California for $2.59 and that’s on sale? What a difference. huh?

    I can’t wait to see your creations with your army of pumpkins Kat.

    Reply

  42. Wow that is a lot of pumpkin!!!
    Did you know that in New Zealand you can’t even buy pumpkin in a can! Gosh that would save soooo much time!
    Lucky you have so many cool events in your area!

    Reply

  52. omg, tell me you didn’t bike home with all of those cans? it’s all i can do to carry my 8 cans of pumpkin up the steps to my kitchen in my townhouse!!!!

    Reply

  55. Your housecooling inspired me to have a Fall party of my own. It’s tonight!! It’s a pumpkin carving party and I’m even making your butternut squash soup and those cookies!

    Reply

  56. OMG that smoothie looks so good! I just recently came over to the dark side and found the love of pumpkin…experimenting with pumpkin pancakes this morning actually…. but then I think I’ll have to try your smoothie!! YUM!

    Reply

  57. This is probably one of my favorites of your posts.

    My stock of pumpkin looks pretty similair…isn’t it the best thing ever?

    And I’m making that channa marsala next week. I’m always looking for quick ‘n’ easy (and delicious!) vegetarian recipes for the fam. Thanks! 😀

    Reply

  58. Let me know if you need winery/dinner suggestions while your in wine country – my husband and I just went to Napa in the spring and loved every minute of it! It’s beyond beautiful and the wineries are amazing!

    PS – I think you should be the spokeswoman for Pumpkin!

    Reply

  61. My husband doesn’t care for pumpkin either. He will eat pumpkin baked goods only if generously slathered in some kind of ridiculous frosting.

    Reply

  62. I love the pic of matt making the face. Too funny!

    I think you and matt love wine and beer as much as me and my husband!

    Have a good day! 🙂

    Reply

  63. I bought my FIRST EVER can of Libby’s pumpkin yesterday. It was $1.37 at SuperTarget, I had no idea there was a shortage at one time?? Now I just have to scour all the food blogs and pick a pumpkin recipe to try. =)

    Reply

  64. Pumpkin is one of my favorite baking foods…it’s so comforting to find someone else who understands my relief and joy that canned pumpkin is once again available in the stores after a long, sad absence!! When I first saw it in the stores a few weeks ago, I bought half a dozen cans, and have been adding to that stock a can at a time, here and there. Trying not to become a hoarder, and crossing my fingers that last year’s outage will NOT be repeated!

    Happy pumpkin eating! =)

    Reply

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