Dad and I finished the puzzle. Took up the whole dining room table to assemble – finished product is half the size of the table. I still haven’t found a board to mount it on, so it is still taking up half the dining room table!
This is 129 mini pumpkins from our garden. Plus we already picked some for the house and I took 9 to work the other day. so we probably got close to 150. That’s a lot.
We also got quite a few butternut squash. I didn’t count them yet, plus there are several more still in the garden because they are a tad bit green and I’m hoping they will ripen if I leave them attached to the vines for a few more days. Some are going to Grandma Mick and some I’ll take to work, but I have plenty if any of you want me to save you some. That is way more than Dad and I could ever eat!
Holy cow–that’s a lot of pumpkins and squash! I would love to have you save me a couple, but I must admit I don’t think I’ve ever cooked one… I would like to learn though! No time like the present, right?
Oh, and the puzzle turned out just beautifully–and big!
It really was a lot bigger than I expected. I thought that 1000 piece puzzles had pieces that were just smaller. But they aren’t — the puzzle is just twice as big! You always pick such good puzzles – ones with a lot of detail. I don’t have the patience for ones that have whole sections of almost the same color. But 1000 is a bit much – takes up too much room, so maybe stick to no more than 500 if you ever get me another. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was hard to be without a table! Although it did motivate me to work on it every day to get it done.
I’ll save you some squash. Easy to say, since I have an abundance of them! There are several ways to cook them, all pretty easy. The hardest involves peeling it first, then cutting it up like a potato and boiling it. The second hardest involves cutting it in half, which is harder than it sounds, and scooping out the seeds and putting it, cut side down, in a shallow pan, adding a little water, and baking it. The easiest way is to just stab it a few times, like a baked potato, and bake it whole. Once it is soft, you take it out to cool until you can handle it. Then you cut it open, scoop out the seeds, and finally scoop out the part you are going to eat. For any of the methods you can use either the stove/oven or the microwave. The microwave is, obviously, faster and doesn’t seem to affect the flavor. But I still usually use the oven, partly because I cook several of them at once and freeze the rest.