Category Archives: Food

Three Delicious Pumpkin Treats

So you want to bake some pumpkin treats?

We’re going to make:

  • 2 Pumpkin Pies
  • Pumpkin Muffins
  • Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

The 1975 Betty Crocker way!

You will need:

  • 2 9-inch deep-dish pie crusts (you can also make your own pie crusts, but I didn’t)
  • 1 pie pumpkin
  • 2 cans (15 oz) sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Necessary ingredients

Necessary ingredients

It all starts with a pumpkin

Make sure you buy a “pie” pumpkin from your grocery store – these tend to be smaller and rounder than their Jack-o-lantern counterparts.

Real Pumpkin for Real Pumpkin Pie

You’re gonna want to have a knife.

A big, sharp one. Also, a friend who can hold the pumpkin steady for you. If your knife is sharp enough, you shouldn’t have a problem cutting your pumpkin in half. If it’s not sharp enough (mine wasn’t) you might try a serrated knife (I used a big bread knife. I wouldn’t recommend it).

Pumpkin halves

Pumpkin halves

Eventually, after struggling to get the knife halfway into the pumpkin, I got frustrated and used the knife as a handle to bang the pumpkin onto the cutting board. It broke in half! Unfortunately, so did the wooden cutting board.

Pumpkin halves with insides removed

Pumpkin halves with insides removed

Use an ice-cream scoop

or big spoon to remove the guts of the pumpkin. Set them aside to sift out the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds later.

Place the pumpkin halves face down in a baking dish with about 1″ of water. Cover the dish and microwave on high for about 40 minutes or until the insides are soft enough to remove with a fork.

Cooked pumpkin halves

Cooked pumpkin halves

Cleanly scooped pumpkin halves

Cleanly scooped pumpkin halves

Strain your pumpkin insides

in a mesh strainer. Keep in mind that your pumpkin insides will be much more watery than canned pumpkin, and will yield more batter.

Straining the guts of the pumpkin

Straining the insides of the pumpkin

Once the pumpkin is strained to your satisfaction, scoop 4 cups of it into a mixing bowl (this is a double recipe, if you want to make only one pie, half all ingredients).

Mix, mix, mix!

Mix, mix, mix!

Add the condensed milk, eggs, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Mix until all ingredients are blended. Batter will be very liquidy. This is normal. Pour equal amounts of batter into your two pie crusts. Mine almost overflowed because I forgot to buy deep-dish. Buy deep-dish.

You can also wrap the edges in tinfoil to prevent browning or crisping of the crust.

Bake

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until filling is set and pastry is brown. A good rule of thumb is to insert a fork into the center of the pie. If it comes out relatively clean, the pie is done. If the fork has a lot of pie on it, the pie could probably use some more cooking.

Sorry I forgot to photograph this step!

Now for the seeds!

Pumpkin seeds to be cleaned

Cleaned pumpkin seeds

Do your best to remove the guts from the seeds.

Removing the pumpkin seeds

Ingredients for roasted pumpkin seeds

Select Your Spices

You’ll need to select your spices to spread on your pumpkin seeds. You’ll need some kind of oil to help the spices stick and to prevent the seeds from burning. Place your seeds in a plastic bag with the oil and spices and shake ‘em up!
I used:

  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Canola Oil

Grease a cookie sheet and spread salted pumpkin seeds over it.

Clean pumpkin seeds ready to be roasted!

Clean pumpkin seeds ready to be roasted!

You can just toss these seeds in the oven under your pies if there’s room. Keep an eye on them, they burn quickly! When you notice them starting to brown, pull them out and flip them over to the best of your ability. Toss ‘em back in the oven for browning on the other side.

Enjoy your delicious pumpkin seeds!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Muffins

If there is a bit of leftover pumpkin, you can make some pumpkin muffins!
You will need:

  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 C milk
  • 1/2 C pumpkin (from your leftover pumpkin)
  • 1/4 C butter or margarine, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 C raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups (2 3/4 inches in diameter…you don’t really have to be that precise. Just guestimate).

Pumpkin batter

Leftover pumpkin

Mix all ingredients

Mix just until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy.

In the mixer

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon sugar over batter in each cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.

Should yield 12 muffins, although mine was one short!

Making Pumpkin Muffins

There you have it!

Three delicious pumpkin treats all from one pumpkin!

Finished product - three pumpkin goodies

Finished product – three pumpkin eatables. (And no, I didn’t have one of those muffins before taking this photo)

Hot Damn, Hotlanta!

First night in Atlanta, GA

First night in Atlanta, GA

A week or two ago, I headed to Atlanta to work on a webseries called “Getting Out“. I had just finished working as a Stylist on a music video by musical artist Sean Cooney down in Savannah, and to keep myself awake driving from Savannah to Atlanta at 4 am for my 9am call time in ATL, I decided to write a rap. A few days later, I posted it on Youtube. Check it out below.

I was kinda going for a “cute and sweet” face before busting some rhymes, but according to my brother, it “just makes [him] uncomfortable”. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all. I’m planning to post another rap soon-ish. Maybe this week. You’ll know when it happens.

Getting Out…in Atlanta

I arrived in ATL barely ten minutes before call time and feeling slightly like death (but just slightly). Luckily, there was a little bit of down time during the shoot, and I napped on whatever was available to me (mostly chairs, the floor, face down on a table…). I did try napping standing up once. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The webseries is a college-y comedy about 3 roommates + a girlfriend (my character) who are just trying to get out of college. In the first episode, the guys get a new (female) roommate, and shit happens.

We made a promo where Connor, one of the roommates, tries to show us how to “Dougie”. The results are pretty hysterical. Plus I’m super awkward in it, my favorite thing. For your viewing pleasure:

On Set of “Getting Out”

It’s not a film project without a few bumps in the road, and “Getting Out” was no exception. But somehow we made it through a week of filming (plus a pickup day the following week), and I even got to do a little bit of makeup. I created a black eye for roommate Ian after a raucous party episode, and did Riley(new roomie)’s basic makeup on one of our shoot days. And I have to say, I do enjoy acting, but I think I get more out of the artistic/creative side of things. I love creating a character through their clothes and makeup.

Heath's black eye on Getting Out

Heath’s black eye on Getting Out – still need to practice making black eyes, but this is what I came up with on short notice.

Coincidentally, our boom operator/sound mixer/entire sound department, Bryarly Bishop, has a vlog and made a behind-the-scenes video for Getting Out. It’s mucho entertaining. Have a look:


Days off…Enjoying Atlanta

We’d planned to get all five episodes done in a 5 day week (a little ambitious, I know), and we ended up a little bit behind. So we made the following Tuesday our pick-up day, and I had a few days off to check out the town.

Midsummer Music Festival

I crashed on my friend Pam’s couch, and she, her roommate Broek and I headed to the Midsummer Music Festival in Candler Park, about a 5 minute walk from Little Five Points. On our way there we grabbed a beer at a pub, and Pam and Broek tried “Poptails”, alcoholic popsicles. When we got to Candler Park, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band was celebrating their 35th anniversary, and we had a great time dancing along to their New Orleans brass.

MidSummer Music Fest in Atlanta, GA

Midsummer Music Fest

Indian Lunch Buffet at Chopaati

On Sunday, I met the cast and crew of Getting Out for lunch at Chopaati. According to Broek, Decatur is the best place to go for Indian food around Atlanta. Many of the crew had never had Indian food before, so I sort of became the “expert” even though I had no idea what any of it was. My whole reasoning behind going to a buffet instead of a sit-down Indian restaurant is so I can see the food before I put it on my plate! But everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I must have done something right.

Delicious Indian Food Meal at Chopaati in ATL

We attacked this meal. And it was delicious.

A Different Way of Riding

Later that afternoon, Pam and I went horseback riding, and I learned a few things about endurance riding, a very different style from what I do (hunter/jumper). In endurance riding, you ride for long periods of time – as long as 24 hours. Everything from the tack to the horse’s gaits are different, but it didn’t take me too long to figure it out, and we spent a lovely afternoon on the trails.

Touring Historic Oakland Cemetery

Pam & Broek suggested I check out the Historic Oakland Cemetery, so on Monday, after somehow failing to locate the High Museum of Art, I had lunch at a deli in midtown, then drove over to the cemetery and managed to find free parking.

Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA

Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA

I wandered around for a bit, then got a phone call from a good friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while and spent the next few hours chatting with him. And let me tell you, if you ever want to have a private conversation in a city where you don’t have any privacy, go to a cemetery. There’s usually only a handful of other wanderers, and they’re generally respectful enough to leave you alone. Plus you probably look like a crazy person talking to your dead relatives…or something.

Secluded path in the Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA

There is something about cemeteries that is so peaceful and calming that I absolutely love. Maybe it is how expansive they are compared to the number of wanderers there. Or maybe it is the absolute stillness that makes me feel connected to past generations. It is the only place that is simultaneously empty and crowded, and I love being alone without feeling alone.

Shadow-girl in the Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA

Dorn Brothers Photography Art Show

On Tuesday, we finished our pick up shots for Getting Out then headed to IHOP for some red velvet pancakes (not everyone in the cast is 21, so grabbing a beer was kind of out of the question). Afterward, everyone went their separate ways, and I had a little time to swing by the Dorn Brothers‘ “Ghost of Old Highways” Art Show wrap party at the Carroll St Cafe to say bye to Pam and check out some pretty incredible photography.

The Dorn Brothers were also the photographers on a music video I worked on called “Black Curtain” by the same musical artist, Lovett, and there seemed to be a handful of people at the art show who’d worked on both. So it was pretty cool to see some familiar faces.

On Wednesday I passed through Columbia to see my fam, then headed back to Wilmington for my next adventure.

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Diet and Exercise: Finding the healthiest me

Losing the Poutine Fifteen

Over the past 8 months, I have been struggling to regain my college physique. (Too much Boreale and poutine in Montreal, I suppose). Now that I have (almost) gotten back to my college weight, I’m discovering how difficult it can be to maintain the weight and physique I want.

In college, I used to eat whatever I wanted and not have to worry about weight gain. True, I was also fairly active – horseback riding, playing various sports and being generally rambunctious (not that much has changed) – but I never had to think about the food or drink that I consumed. When I started college, I didn’t even know the difference between a carbohydrate and a calorie. Oh, how things have changed!

Making the Change

Back in September when I started this journey, I was under the misconception that it would only take a little bit of diet and exercise to return to my previous weight, and then I could go back to eating whatever I wanted. (Yes, it took me nearly 8 months to lose 10 pounds). Now that I’ve spent the last 8 months altering my diet, counting calories, avoiding sugars and starches and exercising regularly, I can’t really imagine going back to the way I lived before. True, it’s still difficult not to serve up that second plate at Thanksgiving dinner, but I have experienced a few – I would consider miraculous – changes that curb my appetite.

Noticeable Changes from Eating Healthier

First, the less I eat of fatty, starchy foods, the less tolerance I have for them and the less I want to eat them (thinking I want to eat them is an entirely different story, however).

Second, the more vegetables I eat, the healthier I feel overall, the more I enjoy their taste (I barely put any dressing on my salads now) and the less bloated/acid reflux-y I feel. As a side note, vegetables have very few calories in them. One pickle spear is only about 5 calories, and a whole head of iceberg lettuce is 90 calories.

Third – and this one I find to be most incredible – the less I eat of foods overloaded in fats, starches, sugars, grease and other equally unhealthy additives, the more nuanced my sense of taste becomes. Maybe it’s because my taste buds are no longer overwhelmed by one taste, but I’ve noticed a definite increase in the flavors I can detect in my meal.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve also been dabbling in vegetarianism. And, surprisingly, the less meat I eat, the less I crave sugars, and the less I crave meat. Course, I’ve been careful to include plenty of other proteins in my diet – particularly beans and quinoa, and I’m not saying I’m going to be a vegetarian forever, it’s just nice not to have that heavy feeling in your stomach after a meal.

What Tastes Good?

What I’m getting at here is that the foods I used to love, I no longer enjoy, and I think it’s for the better. Whenever I tell this to friends, they respond with a frown and say, “Well isn’t that sad?” But my honest-to-goodness opinion is, no, it’s not sad at all. Think about it, how many times have you said, “If I could make myself not like [insert favorite fattening food here], I would.”

Do I miss those foods? No, not really. Instead, I experiment with spices and herbs to create meals with plenty of flavor to roll around on my taste buds.  I eat slowly and enjoy every bite. To me, cooking is another way to express my creativity, and I challenge myself to make healthy, delicious, beautiful meals even if I’m only cooking for one.

Painless Lifestyle Change

Bottom line is, getting healthy and staying healthy is a lifestyle change. But it doesn’t have to mean a lifetime sentence to rabbit food and treadmills. It just means letting go of the idea of “tasty foods” and instead learning to be creative with healthier options.


Interesting Link : Diet Tips from Ultrarunner and Vegan Scott Jurek