Just Monkeyin' around

Good morning! (My clock that is still set on Indiana time says it's morning- so there!)

After finally accepting defeat yesterday and realizing that there is no reasonable way to get pumpkin pie, I walked into Sainsbury's looking for powdered cocoa to make Red Velvet cake with. I didn't find any of that, but I did find something else. 4 pumpkins. As in, the orange things that pumpkin puree is made out of. So I bought them- I mean, how hard can it be to make pumpkin puree? Turns out, not hard at all.

First you take those pumpkins (it turns out 4 is a bit much, I may end up having several pumpkin pies this year) and split them in half with a big ol' knife, like so.

Then get out the pumpkin seeds and goo, leaving only the "meat" inside the skin. Then my camera was hijacked by Irene, the Spanish girl and the pictures she took are not appropriate for a knitting blog. Or anything really...moving on. The rest will be without Martha Stewart-style pictures, I appologize. Cover your pumpkin halves with tin foil and then stick them in the oven, tin foil side up. Stick them in at 250 degrees Farenheit, or 165 C and set your timer for an hour.20 minutes in, some stupid freshman will pull the fire alarm and you will have to evacuate the building. Turn the oven off, your pumpkins will be okay. Turn back on after 45 minutes of standing in freezing cold and let them cook for another 45 minutes or so. With a spoon, scrape out the meat and throw it in Joe's blender. Blend until it looks like you think pumpkin puree ought to look. Throw that in ziplock bags. Throw those in the freezer. We'll deal with those on Thursday.

So, I should probably mention that my knitting mojo is back- or at least it was. I started a Cherry Leaf Lace scarf with some Sirdar Baby Bamboo that I bought before I left the US and realized after I used the first of 2 skeins that 2 skeins isn't going to be nearly enough. Great...where the hell am I going to find more Sirdar Baby Bamboo before Tuesday? Turns out Franklins carries it- and even better, they had one skien left in the color I needed. And I had a coupon. Score. Score. Score. Will be able to finish this thing for Marylyn, block it and have it ready to give to her when she picks me up at the train station on Saturday! So glad that worked out that well.

I also started a Monkey sock with the sock yarn I got in the mail on Tuesday (Thanks Mom!) I asked for stuff to make a pumpkin pie with, but sock yarn is just as good. It also happens to be pumpkin colored, so that's a bonus. I doubt I'll still be working on them by Thanksgiving though...but then again, if the SSS persists, I might never finish them at all! These are my Homesick Socks on Ravelry, because Pumpkin Monkeys has nothing to do with traveling. Here is the first sock being modeled on two different backgrounds, "cake ingredients" and "black radiator that works sometimes". I'll try to take them to London on Wednesday for some fancy pictures.
So since I'm making minimal progress on my essays and deadlines are approaching (and about to fly by) I really need to get some work done on those.