FALL IS HERE

The day dawned bright and clear, and autumn was in the air. Bean and I abandoned our mall-shopping plans when we were halfway there, and drove straight home to hop on the moped. Layered up and grinning from ear to ear, we pootled around and after a while arrived at Hayward's, my beautiful ice cream stand. They have pumpkin ice cream now. Pumpkin ice cream, waffle cone, and chocolate jimmies; good company and high spirits and smiling people all around? One could scarcely ask for a better day.

And to boot, there was a farm stand in the parking lot! We bought tomatoes, cucumber, and some tiny pumpkins. They are barely more than fist-sized, but I am determined to carve one anyway.

The remainder of the evening was spent, radio and lumpy sweater on, in the kitchen, singing and dancing and pumpkin-preparing. I cut out the bottom, put the seeds (oiled and salted) in the oven; forgot about them well past burning, and threw them out. The flesh that was scraped out in the process, I put in a blender with:

cinnamon

nutmeg

almond extract

to produce a very glorious-smelling paste. This I made into pumpkin wontons, using some wrappers that finally had a purpose. I have not tried them yet; hopefully tomorrow's lunch finds them willing to please:

(that blob on top is a mushroom.)