Happy Halloween!

The Savvy Housekeeper would never let food as awesome as a pumpkin go to waste. Here’s how I save them: When I carve a pumpkin, I save the innards in a plastic bag. I separate out the seeds and roast them (season with olive oil and salt, cook on 425 degrees for 5-7 minutes). After I’m done with the jack-o-lantern, I cut the pumpkin into cubes and freeze them in plastic bags.

The great thing about pumpkins is that they can be used in savory or sweet dishes, making them extremely versatile. I’m assuming you know about pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin bread, so here are a few other pumpkin recipes that I will be trying out:

Pumpkin Pancakes. Even better with chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Curry. There are a lot of pumpkin curry recipes out there. This one looks pretty good to me.

Pumpkin Bourbon Pudding. Pretty intriguing, although I would omit the raisins.

Pumpkin, Sage, Chestnut and Bacon Risotto. Yes!

Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza. I see no reason why pumpkin can’t go on it instead.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiches. Or forget the sandwich part. I’m just going to make pumpkin ice cream.

My husband had to cut a hole in our wall when he was hanging the flat screen TV to pull some wires through. Last night, we patched the hole.

As far as I know, there are two ways to patch a hole in your drywall: cut another piece of drywall out and put it in the hole, or use a wall repair patch–a wire grid that sticks over the hole. In this case, we used a wall repair patch.

Patches aren’t always a good option. They can look like humps in smooth walls and they don’t work well for big holes. However, in our case, it worked great. Here’s how we did it:

You will need:

One wall repair patch
Putty knife
Joint compound

Directions:

1. Match the size of the patch to your hole, making sure the patch is bigger. Peel off the back of the patch. You’ll discover it is sticky on the back. Stick the patch over the hole.

2. Open your joint compound and stir it with the putty knife. You want to do this thoroughly to reduce your chances of getting air bubbles in your putty.

3. Load the putty knife and begin applying the joint compound to the hole.

You want to keep doing this until you can no longer see the metal grid of the patch. You want to keep doing this until the putty is smooth and flush with the wall.

4. In our case, the wall is textured, so my husband also had to do a bit of texturing to match the patch to the rest of the wall. Turn the putty knife perpendicular to the patch and lightly skip it across to create the texture. This is a learned skill that can take a little practice to get right.

5. Let the joint compound dry. When it’s dry, there should be no lumps, and no sign of the grid underneath. In other words, it should blend perfectly into the wall.

(The Savvy Housekeeper’s camera did not like taking a picture of a white wall.)

Problems:

If there are cracks: You’ve put too much joint compound on. Gently sand it down and reapply as needed.

If there are air bubbles: You didn’t stir the joint compound enough. Add some more.

If you can see the metal grid of the patch: You didn’t apply enough joint compound. Add a little more.

6. Voila! You have a nice pretty wall again. Now all you have to do is paint the patch to match your wall color.

Sunset Magazine has this a clever way to hang up those boring-to-others family photos. It makes them interesting to the eye and gives the photos instant historical context.

Which reminds me of an exhibit of Mary Temple’s tree shadows that I saw at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I couldn’t believe the exquisite details of her paintings–they really did look just like a tree shadow in afternoon light.

Here’s her “Forest for the Sea” installation at Smack Mellon in New York.

I saw a ghettoized version of a tree-shadow mural on TV a couple of months ago. The designer cut a tree branch off a tree outside and put a light behind it so that the shadow shown on the living room wall. Then she outlined and painted the shadow in black paint.

It looked great when the designer did it, but that kind of project seems hard to get right to me. Maybe a simpler solution is to buy a tree wall decal. Part of me would love my dining room to look like this:

Pine Tree Decal from Ferm Living, $153.50

Or you can just go with the wallpaper:

Family Tree Wallpaper from Ferm Living, $115/roll.

For some reason I’m really digging this Pico Bello crumb sweeper for $8.99 from Perpetual Kid.

All right, one last Halloween cocktail, then I’ll stop, I swear. This one from Lisa Is Cooking is called the Midnight Martini.

Midnight Martini

Ingredients:

1 c brewed espresso, chilled
3/4 c vodka
1/2 c Paula’s Texas Orange (or another orange liqueur)
1/2 c Kahlua
1 cup ice
Sliced blood oranges

Directions:
-place ice in a cocktail pitcher and pour espresso, vodka, orange liqueur, and Kahlua over it; stir to combine and continue stirring for several seconds to chill the mixture; pour into four martini glasses while straining out the ice, and garnish each with a slice of blood orange

Even better if you have some black vodka around. (Via TasteSpotting)

Every year around this time, I go through my pantry and write a list of the food I need to use up. I find this does three things:

1. It keeps food from going to waste, which in turn saves me money
2. It clears up space, making food storage more organized
3. It makes me learn new dishes

This year, the list is long. I’m almost embarrassed by how long. I was surprised how much food people have given me for one reason or another. I also have a lot of leftovers from the garden, which is the downside of having such a great yield. The other explanation for the unused food is that I tend to buy an ingredient for a dish I’m making and let the rest sit in my cupboard.

Here’s the list, for the heck of it:

Pantry:

1 c Barley
.25 c soy flour—I got it for a dish I was making and then didn’t use it.
Instant oatmeal–Someone gave this to me. I am not a fan of instant oatmeal, but it seems like it should be used.
.75 c dried cranberries
.24 c golden raisins
2 cans olives
Blackberry tea—“Blackberry tea!” I thought. “That sounds good.” It wasn’t.
1.5 c coconut
1 c walnuts
1 sample of microwavable hamburger helper I got in the mail.
Half a box falafel
1 can chicken noodle soup—I have no idea where this came from. I make my own chicken broth, so….

Refrigerator:

Container of orange juice—I don’t drink juice, so I’ll have to find another use for it.
A container half-n-half–Going to go bad soon…
Sprigs of mint
Tomatoes left over from the garden
Leeks left over from the garden
Zucchini left over from the garden
Grapes someone brought me
Plums I bought for a dish and never used
Chocolate syrup
Bag of carrots
Flat tonic water—A challenge to use up, indeed.

Freezer:

Ribs we barbecued and didn’t finish
Salmon patties
Stale bread
.75 c Coconut milk
Most of a can of chickpeas
Minestrone soup a friend made
Two Boca patties
Frozen tofu—I discovered tofu doesn’t freeze well, so I’ll have to use it as a substitute
Lemon curd I made last winter

I’m starting tonight by using the soy flour, barley, and carrots in Alton Brown’s Barley and Lamb Stew. Beyond that, if you have any suggestions on how I can use any of the above up, I’d love to hear it.

When I was a teenager, I had this pen-pal who would send me letters in envelopes that she made from magazine pages or card stock or other unpredictable pieces of paper. I liked getting her letters because they were interesting from the outside in.

I bring this up because I have to mail a package today and I don’t have a box that fits the presents I have to mail. I try to never buy packing material because it’s just something that will be thrown out in the end and because I have other things to spend my money on. At times like these, I think of my pen-pal and how she made the packing material herself from other things lying around the house. Since the Holidays are careening around the corner, I thought we could all use a list of how to make your own packing material:

For most of these projects, you need tape, scissors, and a gluestick. I got my gluestick for $.20 at Target last year when they were selling school supplies. They are handy to have around the house.

Apartment Therapy has a house tour of an 89-year-old woman living in Gloucester, MA. I love the combinations of styles and colors in this woman’s house. She is obviously someone with a natural sense of flare and originality. This is the kind of house I would like to have–not in style, but in spirit. A place that is a reflection of your life, your memories, and your creativity.

Says Apartment Therapy:

We present this cottage not for reader critiques on amount of stuff, style, etc. but to offer you a rare glimpse into a seaside home inhabited by an inspiring woman and her lifetime of objects, photographs, and mementos. Not to mention her original Design Research sofa, Marimekko pillows, Rolling Stone Magazine bin, and refreshingly unpredictable arrangement of objects…This is perhaps one of the most accidentally hip homes we’ve ever been in, made all the more delightful by the fact that the owner has been relishing life for 89 years.

I love how the simple placement of the jar in the middle reflects all the colors in the porch furniture.

Amazing pillows on the couch.

Want. Lamp.

Clever–a tinkertoy sculpture in the kitchen

Now I want a dresser with spool knobs.

Lots more here.

Last night, we hung our flat screen TV on the wall of our living room. We plan to buy a credenza to put underneath it, which got me thinking—what kind of credenza do I want? Something pretty and sleek and probably expensive (knowing me). Something like …

Credenza from 4Korners in New York.

Aura Credenza by Council in San Francisco.

Antique art deco credenza.

Yellow credenza from this site.

Awesome Walnut Credenza sold on Ebay for $780 that I found through The Mid-Century Modernist. It reminds me of a library card catalog.

It seems like no matter how often I re-use plastic bags, there are always extra ones around my house. The recursive thinker in me loves the idea of making a plastic bag shopping bag–a shopping bag knit out of 14 other plastic bags.

I’m not sure I like this look all that much, but I could see a plastic-bag bag being useful for the pool or beach, or if you bring your own bags to the store. I have also seen people crochet plastic doormats and place mats. Some other uses for plastic bags:

* Trash can liner
* Packing material–very useful around Christmas time
* Christmas wreath (speaking of Christmas)
* Make it into a rope
* Cover paint to keep it fresh when you take a break
* Wrapping paper
* Any time you need to carry something. (Duh).

Others?