When life hands you canned pumpkin...

Tried it. Love it. Will do it again.

Made pumpkin butter, that is.

I saw a recipe for pumpkin granola on a blog (like I said in my last post) and it called for pumpkin butter, so I decided to take on the task of making something that I didn't even know existed. ha! Which actually worked out quite nicely, since I have no clue how its supposed taste, the consistency, etc. I recommend making something you've never had before, yourself, so that your only experience with it is your own! In this case, that worked to my advantage! here's the link!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/pumpkin-butter/detail.aspx

The recipe I followed was pretty self explanatory. There were however just a couple bumps in the road...

I read through a million of the comments that, to be honest, had me a little scared at first! Some people were saying how you aren't supposed to can your own pumpkin butter but then others were saying it was fine... ??? I have NO canning experience what so ever, so I did some research. Basically I just made sure that my jar was sterile (I boiled that sucker!!) and I have been keeping it in the fridge. No clue if I'm still doing something wrong, but so far, I haven't died yet, or gotten sick, so I'd say that was pretty successful!

Once I got past that, I realized that the recipe called for frequent stirring for about half an hour on the stove... hmm. I have two children. Under the age of 2. I'm not really able to commit half an hour of almost constant attention to something other than them unless they are both taking a nap at the same time... which almost never happens. But I went ahead and tried it anyway... it said frequent stirring... not constant...

Yeah. If you have a child/children, wait for nap time. Really. Just wait.

My littlest daughter was screaming because she wasn't being held (gotta love teething) and then of course my oldest daughter was crying because sissy was getting all the love. Not to mention that I was terrified that this stuff would splatter on my kids, since its simmering for half an hour.

Too bad I didn't get any of this on camera. It probably was comical to see me trying to balance one daughter on my hip, away from the stove, while stirring this bubbling goop, and trying to keep my other daughter from reaching up to "help" mommy. Sheesh. I'm tired just remembering this. Although I must admit, it really didn't splatter at all cause I kept it moving.

Seriously, I'm not just saying that so that you won't think I'm a horrible mom. Its the truth. Scout's honor!

Anyway, after my juggling act, it actually turned out pretty tasty! I'm quite pleased with it!

I believe mason jars make anything look awesome. I'm a little obsessed with them right now. And with pumpkin. 

So this was my lunch today. Toasted wheat bagel with cream cheese and pumpkin butter. Yuuuuum. 

Make this. It's delicious. 

Next stop... pumpkin granola!