September 13, 2016

A Week in Our Life at Heart's Ease Cottage, Part Two

This post is a continuation of my "Week in the Life" series. Monday and Tuesday revolved around apples... Wednesday was not spent at home, we were at the hospital, but part of Thurday was pumpkin related. Wednesday was a difficult day for us, Da had to have a risky and invasive exploration done on his brain, part of a seven year saga of medical intervention to keep him alive, due to a rare brain disorder that he lives with. The outcome was unexpectedly good! Rather than telling us how bad things were and scheduling the next intervention, the Dr. told us that things looked so good that he was releasing Da from the program. No more need for exploratories and interventions! We are experiencing a true miracle from God and we are so very grateful! Someday soon I will tell the story of the journey God has had us on. It was full of miracles and opportunities to decide what was important in life... At first blush that may seem a bit off topic, but in truth, much of our prepping since 2008 has been to prepare for the possibility that Da wouldn't be here to be the head of our family. We had to simplify things so that I could manage our homestead and all that must be done around Heart's Ease Cottage on my own, should the sad day came that I needed to. It is worth a post for that reason, but mostly, God has done great things for us and the story needs to be told to give Him glory!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
 Since Da has to be very quiet for the next few days, I worked on tasks that only require one set of hands. One of my Thursday prepping tasks was to process 2 pumpkins that have not cured properly and won't store well for the winter.  For storing as whole pumpkins, I allow the pumpkins to ripen completely on the vine. Once the vine dies back and the stems are brown, I pull them out of the garden. I set them in a sheltered place out of the sun, up off the ground to deter sow bugs and moisture from damaging the skins. I then let them cure for a week or two. Once the skins have hardened up, I can put them in the 3 month storage pantry where they will last the winter. I actually still have a pumpkin from last year's harvest that is still in very good shape. But I had two pumpkins whose stems got soft so I had to do something to save them from going bad.

I split the pumpkins in half, scooped out the seeds, (setting them aside to process for seed next year), and set both halves cut side down on a baking sheet, in an 1/2" of water and baked at 350 for 45 minutes.


When the pumpkin was tender all the way through, I pulled them out and set them in a bowls to cool.

Once the cooked pumpkin was cooled, I scraped the pumpkin pulp from the skins completely, then put the pulp in a bowl and covered it with plastic. I let the bowl sit in the fridge for a few hours to chill, so that the unwanted liquid would drain to the bottom of the bowl.


 Once chilled I poured off the excess liquid I blended the pulp in batches and spread the blended pulp onto the silicon sheets I have for my Excaliber dehydrator. It is important to spread the pulp out evenly so that the pulp dries uniformly.


The pumpkin leather is dry when it is translucent, with no opaque spots and can be peeled away from the silicon sheet with not resistance.


After the leathers are removed from the silicone sheets, I stack them with parchment paper between them, pull them up together so that they are in an even stack, (these are spred out so you can see all of them).


 I begin to roll them up starting with one corner and rolling diagonally across the leaather to the other side. Then I tucked the excess parchment under and wrap the roll tightly with plastic wrap, tape the ends and label with contents and date.

The leathers can be mixed with seasonings, such as pumpkin pie spiced leathers for a low calorie, but delicious dessert treat on a camp out, or chipotle and garlic spiced leathers used as a wrap instead of a tortilla, to wrap up your favorite burrito ingredients. One note of caution, the leather is dehydrated, so make sure if you are using them to replace a tortilla wrapper, that you assemble and eat immediately, or the filling will begin to rehydrate the wrapper and you will be eating it with a fork! Preserved in this fashion and stored in a cool dark place, the leathers will last at least a year. I have had some leathers last for much longer.  I will try to add a recipe for a pumpkin pie leather to this post in a day or two, but if you want the recipe for Pumpkin Chipotle leather wrapped Fajitas, you will just have to wait until my cookbook comes out! <<Grin>>

Well, until next time, remember that preping isn't just something you "do" and then you are done... Prepping is a way of life. See you soon! Elle



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