A Little Spice in My Life

After making pumpkin muffins this morning with one of the small pumpkins we didn't use for Thanksgiving, I'm left with a cup or so of seeds that are aching for some seasoning. I toyed with the idea of making some very boring salted/roasted pumpkin seeds, but decided that the chile-lime flavored seeds Mom and I made a few years ago would be well worth the extra effort of walking the two blocks to the grocery store for a couple limes.

I also bought some cranberries at the farmers market last weekend and am looking forward to the finished cranberry sauce. Yes, I know Thanksgiving already happened -- it's just that I really like cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches. I might try my hand at New England Cranberry Duff (think: buttery upside down cake with toasted pecans and cranberries) and cranberry ginger jelly.

And now for the completely unrelated news portion of this post... I'm very relieved after having taken my car into the shop yesterday and learning that I don't actually need new brake pads. Long story short: I got new brakes in April and since then my car has made a funny noise when the brakes are applied. Finally, spooked enough by the possibility that my car might not actually be safe to drive, I took the car in yesterday. Turns out it's not a safety issue at all and that the noise comes from the type of brake pads they used in April. The auto repair guys explained that they were trying to compete with lower prices from other brake shops in the area and so they used a different kind of brake pad. They're switching the pads and rotars free of charge at my earliest convenience. That's $400 that I don't have to worry about... What a relief!