Homemade frozen pumpkin ice cream recipe

Looking for more ways to use up some of my pumpkin puree and decided to make some pumpkin ice cream, though technically this should be called pumpkin frozen custard, either way it tastes great.

Homemade pumpkin bread recipe

After having an abundance of cooked pumpkin after over purchasing on a couple of organic pie pumpkins I decided to make some pumpkin bread, here is the recipe I have had great success with.

Homemade pumpkin pie from scratch (no cans)

While out picking out pumpkins for my daughters I saw some nice organic heirloom pumpkins (Winter Luxury Pie) and decided to try my hand in using a couple of these to make a pumpkin pie instead of using canned pumpkin.  One note make sure you are using a pumpkin labeled as a sugar or pie pumpkin, using your standard jack-o-lantern variety will lead to very watery and less velvety pie.  So in the end, not only does this give you a better tasting pie, but given a organic pumpkin cost $6 a can you also save quite a bit of money with just a little additional work.

First pork shoulder on the BBQ

I picked up a Brinkmann Smoke’N Grill Charcoal Smoker (El Cheapo Brinkmann aka ECB) to make some chipotle peppers but after seeing a Labor Day sale on pork shoulders (aka pork butt) I decided it was time to get this baby worked in.

Whether it is gardening or cooking I am never one to jump right into something new without thorough research so after some data gathering this is what I found:

• Have to cook low and slow.  Unlike better quality of meats shoulder/briskets are loaded with connective tissue given these are the main working muscles of the beast.  As a result cooking these fast will result in some very tough meat.  Alternatively cooking at a lower temperature over a longer period of time will result in delicious tender meat.
• 200-225 is the ideal range to cook your meat for optimum tenderness.
• After an internal temperature 145F your meat can no longer build a thicker smoke ring.
• Meat is done when the internal temperature is at least 185F