Just Desserts

Although it seems like a few YEARS have passed, it has only been a week since Audrey and I went sugar and gluten-free. I decided we needed a little "sugar"-free treat today. I chose a tasty fall recipe from Sugar-Free Mom: Low-Carb Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse. Here is the original recipe:

8 oz. Neufchatel cream cheese
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. heavy cream
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
2-4 full droppers vanilla liquid Stevia

I followed the recipe. Sort of.

Here is what I did:

*1 c. of homemade cream cheese - It is so easy to make cream cheese! Place about 2 cups homemade yogurt in a bowl with cheesecloth or a tightly woven dishtowel suspended above it. (You can use clips or place the cloth inside a wire strainer that hangs over a bowl.) Let yogurt drain for 1 1/2-2 days. Voila! Cream cheese!

*1 c. homemade pumpkin puree. This is fairly simple as well. First, purchase sugar pumpkins at your local grocery store, farm, or pumpkin patch. The sugar pumpkins are the small ones - not the minis your kids like to paint and not the ones you carve, but the in between ones. A sugar pumpkin will have more meat than your typical jack-o-lantern. Preheat oven to 350. Cut stems off of pumpkins and cut in half so that you have two symmetrical halves. Clean out the guts, saving the seeds to roast. Place both halves cut side down in a baking pan. Roast in oven for 60-90 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle but don't forget about it and let it sit until it's completely cold. Scoop out all of the wonderful pumpkin "meat". Run quickly through a food processor to smooth it all. I usually make a bunch and freeze it. If I was really ambitious, I would can it. Since I'm more in survival mode at this point than ambition mode, freezer it is.

--Using a hand mixer, thoroughly blend cream cheese and pumpkin together.

*1 c. coconut cream "whipped" cream. This is the first time I tried this. Not sure I did it right, but it turned out OK. Take a can of organic, full fat coconut milk. Place in the fridge overnight. (I have read a couple of different methods; some say to open the lid first, others don't mention it. I left the lid on, and the milk did not solidify, so perhaps you should leave the lid off.) In the morning, the milk should be separated with the coconut water on the bottom of the can and a thick, waxy layer of solid milk on the top. It is a little less than a cup, but that's OK. Take out only the thickened part of the coconut milk. Save the coconut water on the bottom for a smoothie. Using a hand mixer, whip the cream. It doesn't whip into peaks like regular heavy cream (at least mine didn't), but it did thicken a bit.

*2 t. vanilla

*3-4 T. powdered sugar. I actually have vanilla Stevia drops, but I have not mastered the Great Art of Stevia Using yet, and the one thing I tried with Stevia tasted terrible, so I'm just going to let it sit lonely in my cupboard for awhile longer. Audrey is allowed to have erythritol/xylitol. I have some Swerve, which is the texture of finely granulated sugar. To make my own powdered sugar, I placed 3/4 c. Swerve in my Nutribullet along with 1/2 T. arrowroot powder (you can use cornstarch) and blended it. It is my understanding you can do this with any granulated type of sugar. Because my Nutribullet has a smaller container than a blender, I only used 3/4 cup of Swerve. If you use a blender, you would probably need to use 1 1/2 c. sugar and 1 T. arrowroot powder or cornstarch.

--Add vanilla and powdered sugar to coconut cream and blend with handmixer.

--Now add coconut cream to pumpkin mixture and lightly blend.

--Chill and serve!

Though I won't win any contests with this photo and certainly won't be hired as a food photographer, here it is:

And, yes, I realize that doesn't really look all that much like pumpkin. My pumpkin for some reason was very light colored. Still tastes like pumpkin, just not very orange.

And, yes, those are chocolate chips on top. MINI ones (that's a mini bowl next to a mini pumpkin...just to offer some perspective). 11 of them. Count them. I know. I may have upset the whole thing with the .001 grams of sugar. I don't know.

Anyway.

I asked Audrey if she gave it a thumbs-up.

She did not.

She gave it TWO thumbs-up!

Karabin Farms (or Fall Comes to the Arctic)

I love fall up here in the Artic. This year, though, fall has kinda been lost on me; I've been holed up in the kitchen so that I haven't noticed the beautiful changing colors of the New England leaves or the cool crispness of the evenings. Today's outing, however, opened my eyes.

It was a gorgeous day, a perfect day for going on a pumpkin hunt. I found this treasure of a farm by doing a simple online search for pumpkin patches in the area. It's not much of a secret, though, because we definitely didn't have the place to ourselves. Still a great time, though!

We spent a little time selecting just the right pumpkins.

Some pumpkins didn't quite make the cut:

We went on a hayride, and while we were waiting in line, we were entertained by a man on his fiddle and a woman on a triangle.

And I thought all the rednecks were down south. Just kidding; the entertainment added a lot to the ambience.

Yep, it was a great day. 

I'm happy it's fall again...even if that means winter isn't so far behind. 

The Farm Life

One thing I love about New England is all of the farms. Although I had traveled to these parts multiple times over the years, I still somehow had the perception that the northeast is overcrowded. I guess the sad fact is that preconceptions like these die hard because I was pleasantly surprised when we moved up here to discover that it really is less crowded here than down south. Most homes are on a decent size plot; I suppose the idea of a “cluster” home like you find in any Atlantan subdivision is a more recent idea, and since the homes here are older, they still remain on their 1 acre tracts of land. In addition, since neighborhoods are older, trees are all aged and well-established too and add even more privacy for each residence.

It is common here for homeowners who might have a little more than an acre to start a farm. I get the idea it is almost a hobby. There are at least 3 such farms within a 2 miles radius of our home. Some farmers offer just “Fresh Eggs” while others have a good selection of vegetables. A couple of weeks ago, I was unable to find good, fresh corn at the grocery store, so on the way home, we stopped at one of the farms near our home. I had seen the sign day after day and was dying to stop in to pay a visit.

At the farm, I was able to browse the shelves of the little shack store all alone because the owner was not tending to it. I then selected the corn I wanted and put my money into the little box by the door. An easy and fun transaction, plus it afforded an opportunity to discuss honesty with the kids. “Can’t someone just come and take whatever they want?” they all asked.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit another farm. The visit to the Bunnell Farm was a field trip with one of homeschool groups I have joined.

I have to admit, it is strange walking up to a group of people I don't know; I am used to being the old-time homeschooler who knows everyone at every field trip. But this was a wonderful time for me to get to know some new moms, and the kids made some new friends too.

We started our field trip with a hayride, which included a stop at the pumpkin patch where the children were permitted to select a small pumpkin.

Then we received a tour of the farm, including a stop to see the calf,

a visit to the barn to visit the horses (and a loud rooster who was trying his best to steal the show),

and information about turkeys. This farm has about 100 turkeys. Customers can stand at the edge of the coop, select the turkey they want to appear on their Thanksgiving table, and the farmer will take care of the rest.

Following the barnyard tour, the kids got to do the corn maze. It was a rather elaborate one that took the kids about 45 minutes. I made the wise decision to sit the maze out along with the Princess because I did not want to be carrying her through the last half hour of the maze. Surprisingly, my three kids along with a new friend Alex met were the first kids to successfully exit the maze. And they had found the answers in the maze to all of the trivia questions, a feat that even some of the teenagers did not accomplish.

So it was a successful day at the farm. Seeing as how I can't even handle a puppy, farm life obviously is not for me, but I sure do enjoy getting to benefit from all of these New Englanders who find joy in it!