Thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life...a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year-and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.

-Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson)

I've been making Thanksgiving and fall wreaths, here are a few, the above picture isn't the best, and you can't see the wreath so great, but heck, I love it and had to post it anyway. I tried and tried to get a good picture but with the light behind it, oh well, you get the idea.

The wreath in the kitchen

I wanted to share some links to my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. Only the tried and true.


Let's talk yams, I think they're my favorite part. I like a riff of the old marshmallow kind, sweet.

I like them so much I make 2 kinds. Last year I made 2 types to try a differernt recipe while being able to enjoy a kind I know I really like. I didn't want to be dissapointed if the new recipe didn't deliver. I'm so glad I did! The "new" recipe is one that's pureed with coconut milk. I think my guests liked that one better actually. I really liked it myself, but I can't choose a favorite, so 2 yam dishes it is again this year!

Sweet Potato Coconut Puree-I'm going to add a coconut/pecan topping to this.

Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar-Pecan Topping, (there are also cornflakes in the topping which really makes this yummy) This is my favorite recipe I've made the last few years.

Stuffing, also a favorite. O.K. it's all my favorite, not really. Not the turkey. Don't love it but when covered in gravy and cranberry sauce, it's good enough.

I like my stuffing old fashioned and full of fresh sage. This one delivers. Although I do double the amount of fresh sage to this recipe.

Sage Stuffing-like I mention, I double the sage.

The front door with my pumpkins, which I still have a good bunch left. Yay for me!

Cranberry sauce, also something I love. I like the tangy tartness along with the mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey. It's so easy to make your own, and so worth it. This one features port wine and tangerines, I made this last year and loved it.

Cranberry Sauce with Port Wine and Tangerines

And for the grand finale? This cinnamon ice cream goes with whatever I make each year.

Last year it was Pumpkin Pecan Pie with Whiskey Butter Sauce. This was really delicious. The whiskey butter sauce is amazing. That's why this year I will make Pumpkin Bread Pudding with that whiskey butter sauce. And an apple pie with a caramel sauce, served with the cinnamon ice cream of course!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Blackberry Liqueur

"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something brussel sprouts never do". -P.J. O'Rourke

This post is 2nd in a series, Handmade Holiday Gifts.
We live on 10 acres. Most of it is wild. Luckily for us, (or unluckily) however you see it, a portion is wild blackberries. Luckily, is obvious. I get to make fun stuff like this liqueur. Unluckily because they are considered among these parts as a pretty invasive weed. We have other weeds growing that don't contribute to my kitchen projects, (did I mention a good portion of our land is wild?) so I'll call it a blessing for now.



What this all means is I have a great deal of wild blackberries in the late Summer every year. If I want to use any of them I have to pick them, arduous, tiresome work. Yes it takes hours, one tiny berry by one tiny berry at a time, and yes, I get scratched something fierce. A few years ago my picking arm swelled up so bad I thought I needed medical attention. Since then I wear long sleeves. But no gloves, although I did try. For some reason I need the feeling in my hand to know if that's a berry I want to pick, I need that sensation gloves won't allow.





I'm not complaining, well, perhaps I am. But on a nice day, it is a good way to spend time. Nature is a beautiful thing. I do see birds often while picking, perhaps they are "picking" too. Don't know the names or species of them, and it's so far away from our house, it's a good walk where the berries are in relation to our house, my husband isn't around to ask. He seems to always know the type of bird we're spying when we're together.



They aren't like the berries at the store. They aren't as sweet, and they have more seeds. There are applications for them, but this liqueur is an absolutely excellent use for them. Somehow all of the great blackberry flavor is extracted, leaving heavenly, sweet, berry alcoholic bliss behind.



Did I mention it's easy? Yeah, throw the fruit, vodka, sugar and some water in a jar and call it a day. Come back every once in a while to shake things up, and in a month it will be ready to strain and bottle. Ready to give to a friend, a really good friend.


Blackberry Liqueur



This isn't a recipe exactly, just a guide. Depending on how much fruit you have and how strong and sweet you like it. This can be used with a variety of different fruits. Blackberry of course, raspberry, or strawberry would be awesome. I think plum sounds good too.


Fruit-here I used blackberries, enough to fill a jar 3/4 of the way full

sugar

vodka

water



These will be the measurements for one quart sized jar.



Fill the jar 3/4 of the way full of fruit. Add one cup of vodka. (I tried to use more and it was way too strong for me.) If you like it strong, go ahead and add more vodka. Add one cup sugar. It sounds like a lot, but we're making a liqueur, or a cordial, a sweet after dinner type drink. (Or that's what I was making I should say.) You will have some room left in the jar, add a few inches of water, then put on the lid. Give it a few good shakes. I store it in the fridge. Every few days (or when I think about it) I shake it up some more. After a few weeks I taste it. It may need more sugar for your taste, (who am I talking about? It usually always needs more sugar for my taste.) So at this point I pour it all in a bowl and adjust the flavors as needed. If too strong, add water, if not sweet enough add more sugar, you get the idea.


After a month it's probably good to go, although it will wait for you to drink it for, ever, I think.

Go ahead and strain it and bottle it up, and it's ready to go.

Satsuma Mandarin Marmalade

"Autumn... the year's last, loveliest smile."

-William Cullen Bryant

This post is first in a series entitled, Handmade Holiday Gifts.

It's that time of year. The time when they have those 5 pound boxes of little mandarin oranges. A good time indeed. A time right before Thanksgiving preparation, and certainly before Christmas, although you would think Christmas was a week away by the looks of stores.

A perfect time for making jams and jellies, when some fruits are still ripe and luscious and you have some leisure time. Jams and jellies are great for gift giving, for holiday gifts, and for hostess gifts. I love making homemade gifts from the kitchen. It's something I enjoy doing, so I've decided to focus on posting about some of these in the days leading up to Christmas.

This marmalade makes a lovely gift. Either in a basket with other jellies or jams, or with a loaf of homemade bread, or by itself with a ribbon and little spoon tied to the neck. Either way I'm sure it's recipient will be delighted. Or just make it for yourself and your family. It is quite delicious. It's tangy and sweet, just right. Marmalade requires no pectin, there is enough natural pectin in orange peels for it to gel on it's own. All you need is sugar, the fruit and some lemon juice. You can choose to can this using the water bath method to store on the shelf, or you can just freeze it. If it is not preserved you can let the recipient know to keep it in the fridge. It will last for months if kept refrigerated (if it has not been canned of course.) If it has been canned it will last for years.

If it is your first time canning and you choose to can this using the water bath method I suggest you research how to do it here at the Ball website. They have step by step instructions.
I made this 3 times. It took exactly the whole 5 lb box of Satsuma Mandarins to do so. One of the batches I made Cranberry Satsuma Mandarin Marmalade, for a change. I've included instructions below on how to make that as well.

Satsuma Mandarin Marmalade
adapted from this recipe

makes 3, 8 oz jars

Ingredients

9 Satsuma Mandarin oranges
water
1/4 cup lemon juice (I prefer fresh, but you can use bottled also)
4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter

Directions

Wash the oranges then peel them. Set the peel and fruit aside separately. Slice the peels into fine julienne strips, really get them as thin as you can, then cut them in half, about an inch long or so. Put the peels in a large heavy stockpot, add 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Boil the peels for 10 minutes. Drain the liquid off of the peels, then put the peels back in the pot with 1 cup of fresh water.

Meanwhile if you are canning these, get your jars ready in a pot with boiling water, allow them to simmer while you are making the marmalade.

In the bowl of a food processor add the oranges and lemon juice and puree them together. Add this mixture to the peels.

Bring the mixture to a full boil, then add the sugar and a half a teaspoon of butter. (The butter is to prevent it from foaming too much.) Boil the mixture hard for 15 minutes or until it has thickened slightly or it has reached a temperature on a candy thermometer of 220 degrees. Stir this often, almost constantly while you are boiling this. It can scorch very quickly.

You will need to do a gel test after it has been boiling hard for 15 minutes. For me my first batch I cooked it longer than this and it became too stiff. So for the next batch I took it off the heat and tested it after 12 minutes or so. You can always cook it longer if it hasn't reached the gelling point yet.
This page discusses the gel test, just scroll down to "how do I check to ensure my soft spread made without the use of commercial pectin will form a gel?"

When the jam has reached the gel state, ladle the jam into the clean hot jars, wipe the top of the jar clean with a paper towel and seal with new 2 part lids.

Return the filled jars to the hot water bath where they were sterilized. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is over, turn off the heat and move the pot off of the heat. Let the jars sit in the water for 15 minutes. Remove the jars and let them cool.

When they have cooled test the seal. If one of them didn't seal, store in the refrigerator.

Cranberry Satsuma Mandarin Marmalade

Follow everything in the above recipe, except at the stage when you add the orange pulp to the peels, also add one and a half cups of fresh cranberries and an extra 1/4 cup lemon juice. Also add 1/2 cup more sugar.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

" A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch."-James Beard

Here's the Banana Whoopie Pie recipe I promised. I am on a Whoopie Pie kick. How can you not love them? These are absolutely delicious, reminiscent of banana bread, they are moist and tender. I sent these to my husband's work. He came back with a wonderful comment from one of the consumers, which was, "this is the best tasting thing I have ever eaten!" High praise for a humble little pie.

I survived the dentist. My jaw hurts, but I'll live.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

I like maple, and I think it really goes well with these, but if it's not your thing, you could use regular cream cheese icing by substituting vanilla for the maple extract. Or you can make the cinnamon cream cheese from the pumpkin whoopie pies. Or even make an almond cream cheese filling by using almond extract, or make a peanut butter filling by omitting the butter and replacing it with peanut butter, the options are limitless.

adapted from this recipe at King Arthur Flour

this recipe makes 15-16 small pies

Ingredients
For Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3-4 med. bananas)
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

For Maple Cream Cheese Filling

1 8oz package cream cheese softened
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter softened
1/2 tsp pure maple extract, I also used some maple caramel I had in the fridge, so this bumped up the maple flavor, you may need to add more than 1/2 tsp of the maple extract, I would add it and taste as you go and add more if needed.
2-3 cups sifted powdered sugar


Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugars and salt until fluffy, then add the bananas.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Whisk together the flour and baking soda. Add it to the wet mixture, mixing until evenly combined. Scrape the bowl then mix one minute more.

Scoop the dough onto the parchment lined baking sheets using a tablespoon sized cookie scoop, or use a tablespoon, leave plenty of space around them.

Bake for 9-11 minutes until the tops spring back when lightly touched with your finger, and the edges are a very light brown. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring the cookies to a rack to finish cooling completely.

Fill cookies when completely cool.

To make Filling

Beat together cream cheese, butter and extract. Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar and beat well. add more to reach the desired stiffness.

Thai Pumpkin Soup and other Smooth Foods

I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. Yikes. I'm scared. I don't like the dentist, but I don't like being in pain, more. (One of them is hurting me.) Hence the smooth food. Not to be confused with smooth move. Which would be entirely inappropriate for a food blog. Not that talking about bad teeth in a food blog is so much better, but hey, I don't think I've ever really been appropriate anyway.
So this is one of the things I've made for my time of not being able to chew. This Thai pumpkin soup is so delicious. I was skeptical seeing that I put it together in about 15 minutes, and it has 5 ingredients or so. How could something so easy and simple taste so yummy?

Thai Pumpkin Soup

2 cups pumpkin puree (or 1 15 oz can pure pumpkin)
1 can coconut milk
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
a tablespoon or so of oil
1-2 tablespoons Thai red curry rub (I bought it from Pampered Chef) but you can use Thai red curry paste which you can find at the local Asian market. Oh and when you are there pick up your coconut milk. It's cheaper than at the regular grocery store.
salt to taste
lime juice, a tablespoon or so, (optional)
fresh cilantro for garnish if you have it (optional)

Put your oil in a big soup pot. Saute the onion till soft, then add garlic, saute it for a minute or two. Add the pumpkin and coconut milk and the Thai red curry. Don't add it all at once. Add a teaspoon at a time if you are sensitive to heat. How much of this you will need will depend on how hot you want it, and the brand of red curry you have. Cook it for a few minutes to let the flavors marry, then blend it smooth in a blender, or food processor, or use an immersion blender. Add salt to taste and lime juice if using. Add enough water to bring it to the consistency you would like your soup to be. Garnish with fresh cilantro (if you have it.)


I want to say "hi" to those of you who subscribe to my blog because you listen to my show on BTO. As you can see, I am doing more posting here than just the posts I make for the show. I will continue to write my usual posts that coincide with my radio program. I hope that if you enjoy my radio program you will also find my other blog entries useful.

In other smooth food news, I made some really delicious banana sorbet(?) I guess you might call it. It's really just frozen bananas in the food processor with a little sweetener. I added a splash of milk also. Pureed bananas just have a great smooth and creamy consistency. But I've also done this with frozen strawberries with great success. When I do this with the frozen strawberries I add some water to get things going, and sweetener to taste. It's a great treat when you are watching your weight since strawberries are so low in calories. It comes out like soft serve. Of course you can freeze it it you'd like it to be harder, but if it's in there for more than a day, it will be too hard. Just set it on the counter for 10 minutes or so before you eat it.

I like the banana idea since I've pretty much always got bananas in the freezer. And one can only make so much banana bread. As soon as they start to get brown spots my wonderful husband won't eat them, so in the freezer they go, peel and all. Of course you can't peel them when they are that frozen solid. A few seconds in the microwave and they are ready to be peeled. (Or 10 minutes on the counter.)
Banana peels ready for the garden

My banana peels go in my rose garden, they are good for discouraging aphids.

Wish me luck with my teeth removal!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I'm in love with pumpkin right now. All things pumpkin all the time is what I've been thinking about. Even though I've been roasting up my own sugar pie pumpkins that I grew in the garden almost every day (I have 8 left, I started with 13.) I went to the Olympia Farmers Market today to buy more. Sounds pretty crazy, but I want to eat and experience different varieties that I have an interest in to see if they are worthy of garden space next year. I went home with an orange Kabocha squash that looks like a pumpkin, and I took home a beautiful white pumpkin called "Lumina".
More pumpkin stuff to come, sweet and savory.

These pumpkin whoopie pies are my new favorite thing. I sent some to my husband's work and I also took a batch to a party, and they were loved by all. They are all of the things a whoopie pie should be, moist, soft, spicy pumpkin cake with a yummy cinnamon cream cheese filling.

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

adapted from this recipe. This recipe makes about 20 small whoopie pies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1 15 oz can pumpkin (make sure it's pure pumpkin, not pie filling)
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light olive oil (or other neutral oil)
2 TBS molasses
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups all purpose flour

For Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 and cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil and molasses.

In another bowl add flour, salt, spices, and baking soda.

Add flour mixture to wet mixture and beat together, make sure all is incorporated.

Scoop batter onto cookie sheets lined with parchment. I used a medium sized cookie scoop, about 1-1 1/2 Tablespoons in size. If you don't have a cookie scoop I'd use a tablespoon for this task to make sure they are all the same size.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes.

Cool completely then make sandwiches with frosting.

Frosting Instructions

While cookies are baking, add the cream cheese and butter to a bowl of stand mixer. Beat together until whipped, 3 minutes or so, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Or alternately, use a large bowl and hand mixer, beat well.
Add the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, 3 cups first, then beat well. Add more if you wish your frosting to be more stiff. Add cinnamon to taste, I'd start with 1 teaspoon, and go from there. I ended up using 2 to 2 1/2. This amount will also depend how fresh or what variety of cinnamon you are using, and your taste of course.

You will probably have frosting left over. It freezes well. Or add a little milk to it and use it as a frosting for cinnamon rolls. Or use it as a filling for my next whoopie pie recipe coming soon! Banana whoopie pies, stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

As a side note: Look at all of these pumpkin recipes at NY Times.com! 

Fall foods: Pumpkins and Apples

Dried Apple Rings

This post is to accompany my talk on BTO for Tuesday, October 19th, 2010.

Oh how I love the fall. Living in the Pacific Northwest where apples are dripping from the trees makes life even sweeter here. When I was a newbie here about 4 years ago, I couldn't believe my eyes. It seemed everywhere I looked there were apple trees with literally hundreds of apples dripping off them! It was like a happy mirage. Apples are indeed abundant here. I'm lucky enough to acquire apples every year from people who can't keep up with them all and are more than happy to share. Which means this time of year I'm busy making things like pies, tarts,

applesauce, apple butter, dried apple chips, etc. So below I will be sharing some of my favorite ways to use apples.

Pumpkins are one of my favorite things! I love to use them to decorate my porch as a sign that fall is here, and Halloween near. I love the taste of them and I love how versatile they are. I grow them, and am now harvesting them so they are on my mind. So here are some awesome pumpkin recipes too!

Apple Tart

Apples

Apple Tart
This is absolutely one of my favorite things to do with apples. It is an amazing dessert that is loved by all. This is the thing I make if I need a dessert quick. I usually have all of the ingredients and I can whip it up in 20 minutes, throw it in the oven, and in an hour have something great. The crust is buttery and tender.
This recipe comes from my mother. It is something my sister makes, and is loved by her family as well. I use Granny Smith apples, but any cooking apple will work well.
Ingredients
3 large apples
1/2 cup (one stick) soft butter
1/4 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1 & 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 TBS melted butter
For pastry, cream butter with powdered sugar until fluffy.(I use a hand mixer for this.) Then mix in 1 cup of the flour (still using hand mixer) to make a soft dough. When the dough comes together mix dough with hands until you can shape it into a ball. Using fingertips, press dough into a tart pan, or flat on a foil or parchment paper lined cookie sheet, to make a free form tart.
(I usually make it free form.)
Core and slice peeled apples, (you can also use unpeeled apples) and arrange overlapping on top of dough. In a bowl stir together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and remaining 1/4 cup flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples. Drizzle melted butter over all. Bake in 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.
Dried Apple Rings
Did you know that you don't need a dehydrator to dry stuff? You can do it on the lowest heat in your oven. For me that's 170 degrees Fahrenheit. I've been drying apples for years with my abundance. The wonderful thing about these is that they last a very long time. I had some in my pantry for 2 years, I kid you not, and they were perfectly good. I do use sugar and dry them well. It's the moisture that would make them mold so if you plan to keep them for long unrefrigerated, I would also make sure they are quite dry.
Instructions
Core and slice some apples as thin as you can. I use a V slicer or a mandoline similar to this one for this task. It makes it super easy to get the slices as thin as I want them. If you are using a knife, just slice them as thin as you can get them.
I coat the slices with powdered sugar using a sifter and dusting it on. I use powdered sugar because it dissolves well onto the apples. I'm sure regular sugar would work also. You can also choose not to use sugar. I do because I like it, and I was using Granny Smith apples that were tart so the sweet contrast was nice. I also believe that the coating of sugar helps to prevent them from browning.
If you don't use sugar you may need to treat them with lemon juice to prevent browning. Other ways to accomplish this is using a vitamin c tablet dissolved in some water. Dunk the slices in that for a few minutes, dry them and they are ready to go. Or dunking them in a bowl of salt water also works well to prevent browning in fruits.
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.
Line some cookie sheets with foil, or you can only use foil with no cookie sheet. Lightly grease the foil and place your apple slices in rows next to each other without overlapping.
Put them in the oven and bake them for anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours or so. It depends how thin you are able to slice them. After an hour of so I turn them over to cook on the other side. This can usually be done with your fingers, since the oven temperature is so low.
When they are quite dry, remove them and store them in an airtight container, after they have cooled.
Apple Leather
Here is another great thing to do with apples. Perfect for snacks. And you can do this in the oven too!
Instructions
Make some applesauce. To do this just peel, core and chop up some apples. Throw them in a pot with a little water, just enough so the bottom of the pan won't scorch. On medium high heat, cook the apple, stirring often. They will get soft cook down and look like applesauce in 15-20 minutes or so. Add sugar and spices to taste if you'd like. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves all make good choices. Or you may use prepared applesauce, or really any fruit puree. Like plums, or peaches, just dice and cook the fruit in a pan, then puree in a food processor or blender.
Here is a good site with numerous fruit leather ideas.
Pour the applesauce into a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides) lined with foil and greased. It should be about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch deep. If it's deeper it will just take longer to cook. It will take 2-3 cups of applesauce to fill a typical jelly roll pan.
Cook it on the lowest setting of your oven for 8 hours or so. You can also cook it overnight. It should be dry not tacky but still pliable when done. Peel it off the foil and cut it into strips, or leave it in one piece and roll it up in plastic wrap like a fruit roll up. Store it in the refrigerator.
Make Your Own Pectin from apples
Apple Recipes from the Washington State Apple Commission

Pumpkin Seeds ready to give

Pumpkins
Pumpkin is a great vegetable. It is sweet and mild and has so many sweet and savory applications as well as being great for you. It is extremely high in beta carotene which is an antioxidant that converts to Vitamin A in the body Only one cup of the vegetable provides 171% of the daily requirement of Vitamin A. It is full of minerals and low in calories. The seeds are great for you as well, they are high in magnesium, manganese, iron and copper, and a good source of protein. That's my kind of healthy eating!

Scooping out the cooked pumpkin

Why not just use canned pumpkin? Canned pumpkin is fine, but I find comfort in knowing I don't have to rely on canned if it's not available. Like the great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009. When Libby, the biggest producer of canned pumpkin in the U.S. makes 85% of all of it, that's a big responsibility if something goes wrong, like it did last year. Since I grow my own, I know it's organic and where it came from. Not to mention that it's not from a can, so no BPA from the lining of the can. Of course you don't have to grow your own, you can easily find them in stores this time of year.
Sorting out the pumpkin seeds

Let's start with selecting pumpkins. Pumpkins are a type of Winter squash. Most of these squashes taste about the same. A popular eating variety and the kind I grow in my garden are Sugar Pie pumpkins. They are small and tasty. If you don't see small eating pumpkins in your local store, you can use Butternut squash or Acorn squash like you would pumpkin and no one would be the wiser. I recently used only butternut squash to make a pumpkin pie, it was delicious and I would never know it wasn't pumpkin if I didn't make it myself. These other squashes also have seeds, and can be treated the same as pumpkin seeds.

Jack O Lantern pumpkins are not the kind you want for eating. They are grown for size and structural strength, and can be bland, watery, and stringy. They are edible, but really should just be used for carving. But definitely eat the seeds from them! (I've included some seed recipes below.)

Preparing Pumpkin

First let's talk about how to prepare the pumpkin or squash in a pureed form similar to the form that's in a can.

1. Cut your pumpkin (or other winter squash) in half and dig out the seeds and put aside.

2. Place the squash cut side down on a cookie sheet. (Lined with foil for easier cleanup if you'd like.)

3. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes to an hour or so. Until very tender. Prick it with a fork to test.

4. Set on counter to cool.

5. When cool, with a spoon scoop out the flesh into a bowl. You will be left with just with the thin skin remaining, discard the skin.

6. Puree the flesh of the squash in a food processor or blender. This can be done with a food mill also. It's not absolutely necessary to puree it, it's smoother and silkier in a pie if it is, but I've also made a pie by just using the pulp after scooping it. It gave the pie a little more texture. I liked it, but it is not traditional.

This puree freezes very well. Now the puree is ready to make a pie, or a silky soup, or for making pumpkin leather! (recipe below.)

Pumpkin Leather

Making pumpkin leather is a great way to get children to eat their vegetables. It tastes like pumpkin pie!
It can also be cut into jack o lantern shapes for a fun Autumn party.

Ingredients

2 1/2 to 3 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
1/2 to 1 cup sweetener (honey or maple syrup works very well) sugar or brown sugar can also be used. If using brown, sift it first to eliminate lumps.
cinnamon to taste (about 1 tsp.)
pumpkin pie spice to taste (about 1/2 tsp)
other spices to taste, like ginger, allspice, nutmeg, or cloves (optional)


Mix all ingredients together and taste as you go. The taste will be a little more concentrated once it is transformed into leather, but not by much. So make sure it tastes good now!

Pour this mixture into a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides) that is lined with foil and greased pretty well. The thickness should be on the thicker side (about 1/4 inch), as when this leather dries, it has a tendency to shrink and break apart as it dries, more than a fruit leather. When it is thicker, it is less likely to do this.

Alternately, you may use part pumpkin and part applesauce. It will be less likely to break as it dries.

Cook in low oven, 170 degrees for about 8 hours or overnight. When it is done, it will be dry, not tacky, but still pliable. When cool, roll up with plastic wrap or cut into strips or shapes. Keep stored in airtight container.


Pumpkin Seeds

This is one of my favorite snacks this time of year, and this is my favorite way to prepare them!

Salty, Spicy, Sweet Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

2 cups Pumpkin seeds
olive oil
1/4 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon
cinnamon, about 1 tsp
pumpkin pie spice about 1/2 tsp
cayenne pepper just a little, about 1/8 of a tsp (optional)
salt


Take your seeds and wash them and pick off the bits of squash. Dry them on a clean towel.

Toss them with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and some salt.

Line a cookie sheet with some foil and dump the seeds on it. Lay the seeds out in a single layer.

Cook them in a 275 degree oven for an hour and a half or so. You can raise the heat if you are in a hurry to 300, it will take 40 minutes to one hour. Stir and check them every 20 minutes or so.
They will be done when they have some color, when they've browned a bit. Eat one, it should be nice and crunchy.

You can go ahead and eat them now if you like, roasted and salted.

If you'd like them spiced, then place the seeds in a bowl.

Put a skillet on medium high heat and add the 1/4 cup sugar and another tablespoon of olive oil.

Wait for the sugar to melt. This will take a few minutes. Meanwhile, mix the spices together with the extra tablespoon of sugar.

When the sugar is melted, add the seeds and the spice mixture. Toss it all together and lay it on a cookie sheet. When cooled, you may need to break them up a bit.

By cooking them a second time in a pan with the sugar, it makes the spices, sugar and salt stick to the seeds well.

Some clever pumpkin seed variations over on Chow.com

Some Pumpkin Links

How To Cure Pumpkins from The University Of Illinois

How To Prepare Pumpkin from AllRecipes

Lots of Pumpkin Recipes from Pumpkin Nook