Who are you calling Pumpkin?

I had pumpkin on the brain. Being February and not Fall anymore, I am a little behind the other bloggers who posted amazing pumpkin related posts not too long ago. It didn't matter though. I kept walking around thinking of the canned pumpkin in the pantry. It wasn't like it was going bad any time soon. (Seriously this stuff lasts over a year.) Now the three carrots in the fridge were about to be on their last leg.

Pumpkin.

Carrot.

Ooooh I have GINGER!


SOUP!




I searched online to see what recipes I could find with the ingredients I had on hand. I found a great one on Cafe Liz - Carrot pumpkin soup with ginger and cilantro - which was also an excuse to use the coconut milk that had about a month and a half of shelf life left. (This was part of a past "OOOH this and THIS and THIIIIIISSSSS is what I HAVE to get." Safe to say at that moment, I didn't need it.) Due to my allergy, I omitted the peanuts. I omitted the cilantro partially because I didn't have any as well as that I find it takes over at times. I added more garlic and ginger. The additional ginger was about a 1/4 of a teaspoon that was left in the container. I didn't have enough garlic in the bulb I was using up and rather than breaking open a new one I added powdered garlic to balance it out plus about a 1/2 teaspoon more. I thought it needed something else and added about two shakes of nutmeg. PERFECT! Then it sat and cooked a bit more and ZING hello ginger and savory goodness. I like ginger so that was fine for me. If someone wasn't a huge ginger person it may be a bit too much for them.

A pumpkin related side note:
I had a friend in junior high who hated being called "Pumpkin." A teacher, I believe a substitute one, called her "Pumpkin" as a way to be cute not realizing this was something she hated. I remember her muttering something along the lines "Pumpkin? Am I turning ORANGE? Do I have green SPROUTS coming out of the top of my head????" A good amount of anything pumpkin related makes me think of this. I can't help it even though it has been ages since it happened. Some things are just too funny to forget.


The Great Thaw has begun since today is was over 40 degrees outside. WOOHOO! I have a feeling though that everything will be especially soggy for quite some time. We had and still have so much snow that is needing to melt.



Just one of the crazy drifts around our house. The top of it was above my waist.