We hosted a pumpkin carving extravaganza on Saturday night. This year we have a lot of variable size pumpkins instead of one monolithic one. I miss the big one but it still looks cute. They did a great job.

I got tired of waiting for someone to pick them up as they piled up in the back hall and decided to free them into the world of outdoor bottle collection. Some happy poor person is going to have a full shopping cart. Can we write this off as giving to charity?

Last weekend at the Clinton Bailey Market I got some concord grapes and made fruit Rollups out of them.

I manually removed the seeds, then blended the remains into a puree. Then I added a black plum, and some chopped apple to thicken it up. Purréed it some more and then cooked it down till it thickened. I added a bit of sugar, a cinnamon stick and almond extract.

Then I poured the hot paste onto a sheet of parchment paper and put it in the oven on dehydrate mode.

After it was dry I threw it in the freezer with the paper which made it real easy to get off the paper.

It's definately worth trying.

We spent the entire day cleaning the house for the party on Friday. While cleaning the vents I saw the furnace grates are patented for 1875. I wonder when they were made.

This market is definately the best in the city. I can't believe the prices. Today they had any kind of squash for $1. Not $1 per pound. $1 per squash.

If you haven't gone, you need to go before the season is over.