More pumpkin…and roses

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  I told you that I was obsessed with pumpkin lately.  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I’ve had very little pumpkin the last four years.  I only discovered this year that: A) I can buy little pumpkins at my local vegetable market and B) that it’s quite easy to roast and puree them.  Consequently, I’m determined to make up for all four pumpkin-less years this fall.  So far, the other foreign teachers aren’t complaining.  There are two new pumpkin recipes up.  Warning: the pumpkin blondies might just be the best fall treat you’ve tasted in a long while.  Try them today!  For those of you who are tired of pumpkin (how is that possible?), there is also a lemon pasta recipe up.

In other news, the Buckeyes are smelling roses.  In spite of (most certainly not because of) Tressel’s ultra-conservative game plan, Ohio State eeked out a win against Iowa.  Seriously, even in my groggy-I-woke-up-at-4:30-am-to-watch-this-game-state I could have coordinated Iowa’s defense.  What was Ohio State’s offensive scheme (if you can call it that)?  First down: run up the middle.  Second down: run to the right.  Third down: oh shoot, we have to pass, throw a screen that just gets us pass the first down marker.  First down: you guessed it, run up the middle.  Second down: run to the right.  Third down: screen. And on and on ad nauseum.  Sometimes they got creative and ran to the left on first down.  Lucky for the Buckeyes, it appears that Iowa’s Ferentz is just as conservative as Tressel.  Instead of pushing for the win with one minute to go and a tied score, Iowa opted to whittle down the clock and send the game into overtime.  The defense definitely gets the credit for the overtime win, after an impressive onslaught that left Iowa without a score and Ohio State on their way to the Rose bowl.  Roses are about as good as it gets for a team that lost to Purdue.  Icing on the cake?  USC getting pummeled by Stanford.  Now that’s what I call a good day.  The only thing that could have made it better?  If South Carolina had been able to pull out a win against Florida.