Pumpkin and Spice

Um... it's really freaking cold outside. Today, it was 4 degrees. It has been a looong time since I experienced single digit temps. And it snowed. Not pretty, softly falling, just-shook-up-a-snowglobe snow, but cold, icy, sideways snow. It's good that it's finally snowing, and that it's staying cold enough that the snow doesn't melt, but I've been constantly cold all week. I've been going into the sauna at the gym after my workouts  just so I can soak up some warmth!

Today was kind of an easy day at work. I'm totally okay with that, because it's been a long week, and today is my "Friday". Yesterday, I made a pumpkin chocolate marble bundt cake that was the coffee cake of the day today. I couldn't wait until this morning to see what it looked like sliced- so when I got in, a grabbed a slice off the display to take a picture of... and of course, to taste! It was very good- moist and dense. The pumpkin swirls were spicy with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, and the chocolate swirls were rich and decadant. I really enjoy the combo of pumpkin and chocolate- I think it's vastly under-utilized.

I had also made the scone of the day- rosemary oatmeal. It was yummy. Generally speaking, I prefer savory scones to sweet scones (I developed a bit of a cheddar scone habit when I went to school in England...) These were sweet, but less sweet than most scones. They had a beautiful rosemary flavor, a heartiness from the oatmeal, and were studded with golden raisins. They reminded me of a scone version of Irish soda bread.

Today, I made a giant batch of chocolate chip cookies (sorry, I forgot to take a pic), and scooped out about 230 jumbo cookies, then I scooped about 300 mini gingersnaps. I also scooped batter for chili cornbread muffins- these things are so good! They're cornbread, mixed with gobs of goodies like cheddar, green chilies and red onions. Yum!

Then, I gave my scoopin' hand a break, and dipped 300 mini biscotti in chocolate for a banquet...

And made lemon curd, which is like a tart lemon custard used for fillings, generally. It required me to juice, like, an entire tree's worth of lemons, which meant I had to use the Electric Juicer of Doom! (Insert omninous music here.) I'm not sure how old this juicer is- It looks old. As you can see in the picture, it has a "safety" lid with a hole in front to stick your lemon/orange/grapefruit/unsuspecting fingers in. Inside is a juicing-thingy, much like the ridged dome on hand juicers. Below that, is what looks like a disc shaped cheese grater. It spins, for some reason. I don't know what it's for, except maybe to catch seeds? Then there's a little spout where your juice comes out.

When you turn the juicer on, the juicing-thingy spins at about Mach 3. You then take your lemon half and hold it with your bare hand on the juicing-thingy. Good news, your lemon is juiced in, literally, 5 seconds. Bad news, it's hard to get the lemon off the spinning juicer without it slipping off and you catching your fingers on the juicer. Luckily, it's plastic, and resonably harmless, but it still really smarts. So, plus side, you can get gobs of juice fast; downside, you get sore knuckles. All things considered, I'd put up with a little physical pain to not have to hand juice a bazillion lemons. (Though that doesn't stop the machine from being a little scary.)

I also got this wicked burn yesterday when taking my pumpkin cakes out of the oven- you can see the perfect corner of a sheet pan branded into my inside left forearm. And a little higher up my arm, a burn where I hit my arm on the oven door.

Honestly, it didn't really hurt that bad at the time- it might scar up, though. It's hard to say at this point. It's not the first, and certainly won't be the last. If you ever see me at a bar, I'll roll up my sleeves and give you a tour of my baking scars, a la Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws.

Tomorrow I'm off, which means sleeping in (yay!) and then braving the cold to go grocery and Christmas shopping. Chef and I also have plans to go to a Spinning class tomorrow night at the gym. Should be fun!