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Holidays, Recipes

Contest (And Recipe): Roasted Pumpkin

Thanksgiving’s coming up, and this year, I wanted to try something a bit ambitious. I wanted to roast a pumpkin. From scratch. Like a big kid.

You see, bringing a side dish to Thanksgiving is one thing, but bringing roasted pumpkin (instead of say, sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes) allows you to have a smug “Autumn Goddess” smile about you all evening. It’s not quick, but it’s worth it. The result is a comfort food-like treat that most folks don’t get.

Follow the recipe below, and see if you can use all parts of the pumpkin. The seeds are excellent roasted (use a low heat for a long period of time, essentially drying them out) and the stem could make a jaunty Thanksgiving-Day hat. Also make sure you enter the contest at the bottom of this post–you could win some sweet gear to get you in a pumpkin-roasting mood!

Start with a pumpkin that is meant for baking. I purchased mine from Top Foods, and it was a “Delicata” pumpkin. This list will tell you a bit about the various types out there, and can help you check if yours is right.

Pro Tip: If your husband sticks a mustache on your pumpkin, you will feel bad cutting it open.

Roasted Pumpkin

Ingredients:

  • One small pumpkin for baking
  • 1/3 cup Country Crock (plus additional for topping)
  • Sea Salt
  • Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves, or Pumpkin Pie Spice (to taste)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare a baking sheet by covering it with aluminum foil.

Rinse the pumpkin.

Core the pumpkin (as you would if you were going to carve it) and de-seed and de-“gut” it. Keep the seeds if you want to roast them later!

Slice the pumpkin into quarters, finish scraping out the “guts”. A spoon works wonders here.

Cut the pumpkin into smaller slices–I cut it into three for every quarter.

Cut the slices into cubes and slice off the rind. Think of it like a cantaloupe.

Place the cubes in a large mixing bowl, and pour 1/3 cup of melted Country Crock over the top.

Season with the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and/or pumpkin pie mix to your tastes. I did a quick shake of everything.

Using your hands, mix together until the pumpkin pieces are thoroughly coated.

Pour the pumpkin pieces out on the baking sheet, and make sure they’re all laying flat in one layer.

Pour the remaining Country Crock from the bowl onto the tops of the pumpkin, and salt once more.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the pumpkin is golden and a bit crispy on the edges, and tender on the inside.

Serve with a bit of Country Crock and salt or nutmeg to taste.

Plan on making roasted pumpkin for Thanksgiving? Hosting Thanksgiving dinner yourself? Enter this contest to win a Thanksgiving Kit that includes the following:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out more great recipes at CrockCountry.com and let me know what you’ll be making for Thanksgiving!

Thank you to Country Crock for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Geeky Fashion

Be Patriotic and Fashionable

Like me, you’re probably a bit sleep-deprived today from staying up and watching speeches by Romney and Obama. Whether or not the candidates and measures you voted for won, we all gathered together to exercise our right to vote and make a change in our country. Pretty awesome. What better way to celebrate it than by putting a flag in your hair! It tells the world “I’m patriotic and thrilled to be here, but just a bit too tired to hold a flag with my hands.”

Want to try the look on your own? I’d recommend putting your hair in a ponytail, braid, or half-ponytail, and sticking one of these flags in it. Voila! Now go stand behind someone important and bounce around all excited-like.

How do you think the elections turned out? Let me know in the comments!

Geeky Fashion

Contest: Espionage Cosmetics’ New Collection

I’ve told you all about Espionage Cosmetics before, and I’m thrilled to premiere another new collection of theirs. They’ve taken one of my fave shows (that’s full of sexy and powerful women) and used it as inspiration for their newest collection: “A Collection of Ice and Fire.”

Whether you prefer dragons or political espionage, this palette will get you looking gorgeous and ready for the throne. The colors and their descriptions are as follows:

Sun & Stars (gold/Yellow color)

Sometimes in the battles of war, we lose the ones we love, but the beauty of that love shines on forever. Sun & Stars radiates a golden glow of fading love with a hint of red shimmer like the heartbeat of devotion that never ends.

Not Today (matte red)

May the gods of death be damned because beauty this true doesn’t die. One true red- no shimmer, no shine, just pure color. For the lips, for the cheeks, for the heart of beauty. Forever.

Knight’s Watch (blue shimmer)

It’s that moment between sunset and nightfall that takes your breath away in a combination of shimmering gold and cerulean blue. Whether you’re a badass warlord or a defender of good against evil, Knight’s Watch is more than just a war paint. It’s a vow to be awesome… til death.

Iron Price (charcoal grey)

Smokey eyes don’t ask for attention, they command it. With Iron Price as a driving force, your eyes are sure to storm any castle like rolling clouds that spark diamond flashes of lightning. Beauty is the new world power.

It’s available for $27.99 for the full collection or $7.50 per color at EspionageCosmetics.com (and they’re offering FREE shipping for this collection!). Want to win a set? Enter using the Rafflecopter below! The contest is open to readers from US and Canada.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can now get the rest of Espionage Cosmetics’ collections from Think Geek! I recommend checking out the “Eye Spy” collection, which includes my favorite color: “Josephine Baker.”

Geeky Fashion

One Up Makeup: Honey Boo Boo

As I’ve mentioned before, my friends and I have started a new geeky makeup channel, One Up Makeup. The lovely Meagan did my makeup for me recently and made me all “glitz”, Honey Boo Boo-style. I made the mistake of drinking a whole lot of Go Go Juice before we started. Take a peek:

Want to make your own Go Go Juice so you can have obnoxious giggle fits while your friends are trying to concentrate? It’s super simple, just a combination of Mountain Dew and Red Bull. I did 2 parts Mountain Dew and 1 part Red Bull so as not to go overboard. It pairs well with Pixy Stix.

We’ll be getting together this Sunday to film a few more videos. What makeup looks would you like to see us do in the future?

Uncategorized

NaNoWriMo

You’ve survived October! Time to put away the costume and candy and bring out the laptop and a cozy cup of tea. Today is the start of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, now is the time to do it. They encourage you to write a bit every day, and before you know it, you may have a novel! Sign up at nanowrimo.org and you can support each other (and see how many words you’ve written) throughout the month.

Need some encouragement to get you through it? Check out this sweet music video Kristina Horner did last year (with a cameo by me!):

I unfortunately won’t be participating this year–I’m in the middle of a few awesome Geeky Hostess-related projects. But I know many of you will be! Leave a comment if you’re participating, you may just find someone awesome to help support you.

Geeky Fashion, Lifestyle

Sexy Shark Pics

 

You asked, you shall receive. Out of all of the ridiculous Halloween costumes out there, you voted to see me as a sexy shark. I took a trip down to the Seattle Aquarium and my hot tub with my lovely and talented friend Liz Leo and we took some epic pics. Fun side note: the waterfront’s annual “Trick or Treat” day was going on while I was down there, so we were doing everything in our power to shield my costume from children and not draw too much attention to ourselves. I’m pretty sure we succeeded in not scarring anyone for life. Sex Toys huge range is filled with items that will intensify your sex life and bring your pleasure levels to a heightened state that will blow your mind. Sex toys lets you use your creativity to spice things up on bed. Anyone can become anything they want using tail plugs and other sex accessories, become a raccoon or a rabbit in a second.

Enjoy! And remember, you can get this and tons of other ridiculously sexy costumes at BuyCostumes.com. These sexy costumes can also be paired with animal style ass plugs. Having a bunny costume and a fluffy bunny tail plug can really spice up the activities on the bedroom. As Fiona, a sex toy expert, would say, “tail butt plugs are an excellent option for role plays. ”

 

Geek Etiquette

Geek Etiquette: Set Goals

I like to take a couple different times in the year to go over goals for myself. New Year’s Eve is an obvious one. When I was in school, the start of summer and the first day of school were popular. And of course, today. My birthday. As I turn another year older, I look back on the past year and look forward to the goals of the next. What do I expect to have done at that age? What makes the most sense for me now? What do I want to look back on having accomplished as I blow out the candles next year?

A new site has been created to help you keep track of your life goals and help others help you achieve them. Check out GoMighty.com and start cataloging your own goals in a pretty, Pinterest-style. You can keep them private, share them with the world, and even apply for grants from sponsors to make them come true. I just requested an invite, and will let you all know if/when I’m accepted so we can follow and support each other.

What are some goals you have for yourself? A lot of mine include awesome new things for Geeky Hostess, like a potential book or cooking show!

Recipes, Video Games

24 Hours of Cooking: Health Potion

 

It was late. We had been playing games and cooking for 18 hours, and we were exhausted. Enter: Health Potion!

Health Potion is NOT healthy. At all. But it is full of sugar and caffeine and is quite tasty. Enjoy cautiously.

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet of Tropical Punch Kool-Aid
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 can Rockstar Punched
  • water

Directions:

Fill a 2 Liter pitcher with the Kool-Aid, sugar, and can of Rockstar. Add enough water and ice to reach 2 liters. Mix. Add more sugar to taste, if you’re feeling wild. Serve. Stay awake for another 6 hours.

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