Last week was pretty rough. I didn’t account for the S factor. Stress that is. Last week’s menu plans, grocery shopping, and cooking were majorly thrown off by this pesky characteristic. The hubby started a new job (yay!) and I had multiple special events going on at work. Many that required me to stay on campus until after 7pm. Read: way too starving and tired to cook a meal.
But, we survived and made it to the weekend. We celebrated by indulging in some major Fringe Season 2 watching Friday night. The hubby had drill on Saturday and Sunday. I spent six hours on Saturday in the Workspace, helping my sister sew some fabric squares for her wedding reception. I love the Workspace and it’s a perfect place to spend a rainy Saturday. That night, I headed down to Des Moines to go to DTC with my sister and her fiance.
After DTC, my sister and I were planning on doing some baking. And let me tell you, we LOVE us some fall baking. Which means we love us some canned pumpkin. In case you didn’t know, last year, there was a shortage. Can you imagine? A shortage of pumpkin. Well, Saturday night, we stopped by a local grocery store in search of this beloved commodity. No luck.
At first we weren’t concerned. We decided we’d check on Sunday before lunch. After trying two more stores, our anxiety level definitely increased. We even went so far to buy a few pie pumpkins so we could roast on our own. Then, finally, at the fourth store, we found it! My sister dutifully stood guard over the shelf while I ran (literally) for a cart. We loaded up. I mean it. We bought 24 cans. On the way to the check-out lanes, we got stopped by a grocery store employee who informed us they technically weren’t supposed to put it out on the shelf yet. And that, in fact, there’s a shortage this year too! Well too bad for them, they didn’t see us coming. And anyway, we left three cans behind 
We’re excited that we have a store of pumpkin for awhile. But I’m guessing it won’t even last until Thanksgiving.
In other news, by special request of the hubby, I made this AWESOME Puerto Rican pulled pork this weekend as well. It was delicioso!
um, so is there any liquid in the recipe? Do you just throw it in there dryish?
If you look at the recipe, it calls for a little bit of vinegar and olive oil. Once you let it marinade overnight, it’s pretty good on the outside. I got up at 5 a.m. to put this in the crockpot. By 9 a.m., the crockpot was full of liquid (moisture and fat rendered from the pork). It never dried out (even after 12 hours!).
My mom and I grew our own pumpkins this year because of the shortage. My mom doesn’t even really like pumpkin and gave it to me. Unfortunately at the rate I use it, even what we grew won’t last long. I am bummed to hear there is to be a shortage again this year. I noticed our Aldi just got a supply, so maybe I’ll have to stock up. It’s more expensive there than it used to be — it used to always be 49 cents a can and this year it is 89 cents a can!
I’m going to have to check Aldi’s! Let me know how your roasting goes (and I’ll let you know how mine goes–probably this weekend!).
make me pumpkin bread.