Handmade Gift Exchange and Cooking with Leftover Pumpkin

Happy Sunday everyone.  December is here and now time will literally fly until Christmas.  My mother always used to say that the older she got time just flew by, and as a youngster thinking Christmas would never get here, I didn't really believe her.  Now I do!   

I participated in Craftaholics Anonymous's Handmade Gift Exchange for the third year and had alot of fun making my partners gifts.  I asked what the colors of her dining room were and I made her a really cool 4 fat quarter apron.   I enjoyed making this and will probably make myself one when things die down after the holidays.  You know what a collector of fat quarters I am!

 I also made her a loyalty card wallet because I loved mine so much.  I really loved the fabric I used for this.  Mostly it came from a charm pack I won in a giveaway from my Friday Night Sew In and I also threw in scraps from fat quarters.  I finished it by using my machine to embroider her name on a ribbon so it is uniquely hers. 

I enjoy doing this gift swap.  It is alot of fun trying to really make something personalized toward your partner. 










Now onto my leftover pumpkin dilemma.  I bought a ginormous can of pure pumpkin this year.  I am not sure why except to say that in years past all of my local stores sold out before Thanksgiving and I had to use the preseasoned pumpkin pie filling.  Anyway, I decided to make the Impossible Pumpkin pie this year from Bisquick.  That left me with some serious pumpkin left.  I hate to waste food and, besides that my husband loves pumpkin so I set out to find other recipes to use it up.  Here we go...

We have the pumpkin cream cheese braid.  It was delicious and amazing.  I like to have breakfast for dinner once a week so I really fancy it up and make sure I have either a coffee cake or danish to go with the savory foods.  This was perfect.  It was gobbled up very fast! 

I also made pumpkin muffins.  They were super easy and I ate them for breakfast for a couple of days as well as the fact they served as our bread course for Thanksgiving dinner.  Blend 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg with a fork in a bowl.  Stir in 2 cups Bisquick, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ginger until just moistened.  Fill 12 muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.  By the way, please don't judge the amount of spread on them in the picture.  That is I Can't Believe it's not Butter- not the real thing!

Last, but definitely not least, is my pumpkin pudding.  You won't believe how easy this is.  Combine in a large bowl: 1 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 small package instant vanilla pudding and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.  Whisk all the ingredients until thickened.  Stir in 1 cup pumpkin.  Chill and eat.  It is amazing.  It seems like it would be much more complicated but it is easy. 

We put up our Christmas decorations yesterday and I discovered some areas lacking so I am going to start working on making what I need to fill the gaps.  I could use some real Christmas tree skirts on a couple of my small trees that have fabric puddled at the base.  Also, I need to make two place mats for my kitchen table.  I have a couple of contenders so I better decide and get going!  I hope everyone has a great week.  Take care.               Nancy