December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

I am not the most crafty person. I never liked sewing, crocheting, or knitting in middle school. The fact that it seems to be so popular with other 20 something bloggers does make me wonder whether I should give it a second chance. Maybe I would like it now that I’m older.

For the longest time, I have been wanting to print out my photos and put them in albums. Not even scrapbooks, but just photo albums. I have yet to do that. I have over six years worth of digital pictures now and haven’t printed any of them. I want to get around to it eventually but right now, printing all of them would exceed my budget and when I have the money, I may not have as much free time on putting together photo albums.

The one thing I do like to make, though, is baked goods. I love to bake. I don’t bake a lot but when I do, I really enjoy it. Just the other week, I went to a friend’s house and we made pumpkin puree together.

In Germany, you cannot buy canned pumpkin. It simply does not exist. Every now and then you may come across an imported can of Libby’s pumpkin but it will usually be wildly overpriced at $5 a piece. I do love my pumpkin, though. I absolutely love pumpkin pie, and I’ve made it a few times before when I was lucky and scored a few cans of pumpkin at a decent price. But I haven’t been able to find any this year, and my friend told me it would be so easy to make my own pumpkin, and that she’d show me how to make it.

It turned out to be really easy so I think I will just stick to making my own pumpkin. We used a few small Hokkaido pumpkins and not even a couple of hours later I had plenty of pumpkin puree to make several pies. (Don’t worry, the pumpkin spends most of that time baking in the oven.)

Here’s how to make your own pumpkin puree:

Cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the pumpkin seeds and either save them to make roasted pumpkin seeds or throw them out. Cut the pumpkin into smaller slices and peel the pumpkin using a potato peeler. Dice the peeled pumpkin. Fill pumpkin into a baking dish, cover it with aluminum foil, and bake at 180C (350F) for approximately an hour or until softened. When the pumpkin is softened, put it in a blender and puree it.

I then let the pumpkin cool a little and filled it into freezer bags, measuring out 200g for each bag. That way I can easily defrost exactly the amount needed for a recipe. I also made sure to fill one bag with 425g, the amount needed for a pumpkin pie. If you end up getting some on your hands while filling it into the bags, no need to worry. Just lick it off. Yumm! You may thank me later.

You can either use the pumpkin right away, or freeze it for later use. The three small pumpkins I used yielded me 1.6kg (3.5 lbs) of pumpkin puree, and I put all of it in the freezer. I will be making a pumpkin pie on Christmas Day and probably do two or three more recipes, maybe cupcakes and cookies.

Without my friend nudging me, I would have probably never given making my own pumpkin puree a try, but it’s really quite easy. I haven’t yet used any of the pumpkin so I can’t comment on the taste but I imagine that it’ll be at least as good as the canned stuff, if not better.

This is definitely a great option for any of you living in a country like Germany where you can’t buy canned pumpkin or if you simply want to try baking completely from scratch.

Have you made your own pumpkin puree before instead of buying the canned one? If not, what’s keeping you from giving it a try?

P.S. My friend who showed me how to make my own pumpkin puree blogs about gluten-free baking. Do make sure to check out her blog. I’ve had a few of her cupcakes and they’re amazing. I don’t have celiac disease and I swear they are just as good as regular cupcakes: Gluten Free by Babs.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. On Monday I took my third (and penultimate) exam, and it went well. In true Karen fashion, I started studying too late, so I am pretty happy with how the exam went. I did find out about my written exam from two months ago as well, and while the grade is not quite as good as I had hoped, it is still good (if you are familiar with German grading, I got a 2.0 on both exams).

I also found out about my thesis, and I got a 1.7 on it which I am really happy about.

I am still hoping to be able to make a 1.x average in the end. I would be really proud if I reached that goal. And considering what effort I put into these exams compared to others (who manage to study all day consistently for more than 1-2 weeks), I can be very happy if I do make a 1.x average. So while I had hoped for a little better grade in English to give me a little more leeway in the upcoming exam, it is what it is and I will have to live with it.

Next week, the English department is doing a sort of graduation reception. German universities generally don’t do graduation ceremonies, and it is up to each department to organize an event if they want to. I am very happy that the English department is doing some kind of event, because as far as I know, the Spanish department is not. It will be a reception with drinks & food in the old university building. My best friend here in Heidelberg will be coming with me. S. and I have been friends since our second semester of university in the summer of 2003, so I thought it would be great to have her there with me.

Other than that, I will have to start studying for my next exam (July 15) very soon, as I have the hugest amount of texts to prepare for that one, and if I want to make that 1.x average, I had better be damn well prepared for this one. I also have some fun stuff planned for the next few days. Today I am going to see SATC2, Sunday I am doing brunch with a friend and her husband, and I am planning to get a new haircut sometime next week.

And then there is my birthday, which is coming up in three weeks. I am planning to celebrate it with my friends here. I have not quite worked out the details yet, all I know is I want to bake. In fact, that is one of my main motivations for wanting to celebrate my birthday. I don’t get to bake very often as I would probably usually eat most of it myself, which would not be such a good idea if I want this weight loss thing to work. Oh and of course I also love seeing my friends, haha! I want to bake muffins, maybe a key lime pie, and either make oreo truffles or a cheese cake. I am so thrilled to try making oreo truffles (never tried them) and I would love to bake another key lime pie, muffins, or a cheese cake. Depending on how many friends I will be inviting and how many will be coming, I may have to cut out the key lime pie, though, because who is going to eat all that?

What are your favorite cakes or pies? Any recipes you’d like to share?

If there is one thing I love, it is delicious desserts. Even just looking at delicious-looking desserts gives my heart so much joy. The only thing that makes me sad is that I don’t ever seem to get the opportunity to make them myself. They are usually too many servings to make for just myself. Not that, you know, I wouldn’t probably manage to eat them all, but that is just yet another reason not to make them. They would all make amazing desserts to take to a potluck dinner. Here are just a few of the recipes I have found lately that I want to try sometime.

The Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls (Recipe)

Photo by fiveforfun.

These sound amazing. I love cinnamon rolls, well actually anything cinnamon-flavored (hi favorite toothpaste!), and these sound so good and not too difficult to make (even though the amount of cinnamon rolls one recipe makes is a little intimidating). They do however sound like they could cause a heart attack if consumed in large quantity. Needless to say, I will save this one for a potluck dinner or a party.

Rolo Turtles (Recipe)

Photo by hologon21.

These sound like such yummy snacks. Pretzels, rolo and pecans? Yes, please! These are extremely easy to make (and it would be easy to make small servings) so I am considering making these sometime very soon. Like this week. I am very curious about pairing salted pretzels and sweet rolos, but I do like kettlecorn so I think chances are good I will like these. Not to mention, I love rolos, and they are actually widely available here (unlike Oreos – see last recipe).

Key Lime Pie (Recipe – in German)

Photo by CWMc.

I have never had key lime pie, but lemon meringue pie is one of my favorites so I am pretty sure I will like this one. I just love love love a meringue topping on a pie. I’m planning to make this one on Sunday for my mom’s birthday. And I must admit, I am not just making it for her but I figure it is an excellent opportunity to make a pie without having to worry about who is going to eat it. I found this Germany-friendly recipe via Tammy’s blog. A lot of times baking and cooking using American recipes can be tricky, because some ingredients are not available here or very expensive so whenever I find a recipe that I can buy all the ingredients for here, I am really excited.

Oreo Trufles (Recipe)

Photo by haleyhughes.

Oreos, cream cheese, chocolate coating – what’s not to love? I love Oreos, and these just sound so amazing (and again, super-easy to make). Will have to save this one for when I have a food processor to blend the Oreos. I hope by the time I have a food processor, they will also sell Oreos in larger packages here. Right now, they are only available in snack packs of 4×4 cookies each, which would make this recipe quite expensive. But I think even if they don’t, that’s not going to stop me. Recipe found here and here.

Last but not least, one dessert I am definitely making within the next couple of months is a pumpkin pie (which I have made three times before). I know, it’s February, but I still have one can of pumpkin that is going to expire in April, and I have decided that my very last can is going to go to a pumpkin pie. (Canned pumpkin? Another one of those ingredients hard to find in Germany, usually it is imported from the US and pretty expensive.)

So tell me, what is your favorite dessert? I’d love for you to share (or link me to) the recipe! And if you try any of these recipes, let me know how they turned out!

Peanut butter jelly sandwiches.

Oh, how I adore them. In fact, there is not much that beats two slices of freshly-bought white bread with a layer of peanut butter on each and a layer of jelly between them. Comfort food at its finest.

And you know, whenever I mention to American friends who have spent some time living in Germany how much I like peanut butter (not just this lovely PBJ concoction, but also in my oatmeal or with a banana), they are surprised because apparently it is very un-German of me to like peanut butter. Supposedly, Germans usually do not like peanut butter if they’ve ever had it at all.

And you know, there might be some truth to that. Peanut butter is definitely not a staple food in German families like it is in American ones. But I actually did grow up eating peanut butter. With jelly. Okay, it was on German bread, but close enough, right? And I never realized that this was anything unusual, but it seems that it is.

In that case, I’d like to thank my parents for not keeping the deliciousness that is peanut butter a secret. My taste buds are forever grateful for having known the amazingness that are peanut butter jelly sandwiches early on.

P.S. I love my PBJ sandwiches best with mango jelly or the classic – strawberry jelly. How do you like your PBJ sandwiches?