pumpkins, swim meets, and garlic

OK, so what do pumpkins, swim meets, and garlic have in common?  Not much really, it was just what I was thinking of.

Pumpkins:  I did roast my 2 pie pumpkins last week in the oven.  It was very easy to do and I ended up with quite a nice amount of pumpkin puree.  It does take some time though, but it's a nice feeling to know that these were 'real' pumpkins, instead of canned pumpkins.  I also roasted one of the white pumpkins that I had.  Those had just cropped up all by themselves back near my compost area, producing 16 little white pumpkins on one plant.  They were adorable, but I'm not sure they are the best to eat.  The one that I roasted was EXTREMELY hard to cut through and there was very little meat on the inside.  It tasted OK, but I think they are probably better for decorating than eating.
I also took my big pumpkin that I never got around to carving for Halloween and cut it up and roasted the seeds.  That was fun and easy - just a little olive oil and salt, plus putting them in a low oven for awhile - a tasty little snack.

Swim Meets:  Jordan had her 3rd swim meet this past weekend and swam wonderfully.  She won 2 of her heats, which is a great feeling.  She swam a 100 IM, her first one ever, and did a great job with it.  Plus, she was chosen for the breast leg of the 200 Medley Relay.  Her relay team came in 3rd overall and dropped their previous time by 1 second.  Very cool!  And, it's very cool to see Jordan talking with the other girls on the team, smiling, proud of her accomplishments, and growing in confidence.

Garlic:  I have a few hard-neck garlics that I am going to plant soon.  This is my first time trying the garlic, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing.  I think that I just pull the big garlic ball apart and separate into smaller individual cloves.  Then, I put the cloves in the ground and cover with straw.  That's a pretty basic run-down, so maybe I need to google 'planting garlic' to make sure I do it right.  :)

A normal busy week ahead.  Oh, and it's about 70 degrees here today in Ohio, makes it a little hard to realize that Thanksgiving is coming soon.
Have a great week!  peace.