āThere are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.ā
āLinus van Pelt, āThe Great Pumpkinā
Letās face it. Itās almost Halloween and pumpkins š are everywhereāalong with displays of every pumpkin-spice flavored product imaginable. Thereās no escape. I admit Iām a bit jaded, though I do have fond memories of carving pumpkins with our son Sam and taking him trick-or-treating many years ago. We dressed in crazy costumes, covered the house with spiders and webs, put the biggest pumpkins we could find on the doorstep and spooky faces in the windowsāand bought LOTS of candy to give away, of course.
This year my husband Jeff, channeling his inner kid, visited Half Moon Bay in Northern California, the self-described āPumpkin Capital of the World.ā He was on hand to film an episode of his #PhotowalksTV travel show, which included the weigh-in of the yearās heaviest pumpkin. Traveling all the way from Minnesota, the giant fruit (yes, pumpkins are technically fruit!) tipped the scale at 2,560 pounds!
Described in one story as a āGourdzilla,ā it wasnāt even orangeāit was kind of beige with hints of pink and green. To me it looked a little flabby and tired, as though it had been force-fed. Of course Travis Gienger, the guy who has been growing the monster squash for the past six-plus months, was plenty happy; he earned $23,040 in prize money, $9 for each pound!
Lately, with our son all grown up and just we two codgers to answer the door on Halloween night, the season triggers a grumpy pumpkin grinch I never knew lived inside me.
āDoes EVERYTHING have to have pumpkin in it?ā I grumbled. At Trader Joeās, there must be more than a 100 products on the shelves right now with pumpkin in the name, from pumpkin pancake mix to pumpkin spice coffee to pumpkin pretzels to pumpkin-flavored dog treats! God help you if you donāt like the taste of pumpkin or of pumpkin spice, which, as CBSās Sunday Morningās commentator Jim Gaffigan pointed out recently, is mostly cinnamon anyway.
October, āthe pumpkin season,ā showcases āpeak American weirdness,ā Gaffigan said. Pumpkins, he groused, are only good for one thingācarvingānot eating.
With this I actually disagree. I am quite a fan of pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup and, yes, pumpkin ice cream (TJās has a delicious variety!).
One thing of which Iāve never been particularly fond is pumpkin pieāI prefer the heft and flavor of sweet potato pie, which I made two years ago for Thanksgiving after reading about it on my friend Patricia Roseās blog Fresh Food in a Flash. But I may give pumpkin pie another try in time for the upcoming Turkey Day. Seems almost un-American not to like it!
What are your favorite pumpkin recipesāsweet or savory? Are you a fan of pumpkin pie? Or do you prefer other fall flavors, like apple, pear, caramel, maple, walnut, or, like my son Sam in Japan, chestnuts? Please let me know in comments.
Meanwhile, tired of fighting the tide, I decided to make something with the can of pumpkin Iād bought at TJās: King Arthur Flourās Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Pumpkin and chocolate seem like a perfect pairing to me. Add some toasted walnuts, a little orange zest, and gild the lily (or the pumpkin cookie) with a drizzle of icing and how can you go wrong? For trick-or-treaters leave out the zest and add extra chips or M&Mās for eyes.
Notes:
The recipe says it makes 5 dozen; I made 53, gave away a bunch and froze the rest. Warmed up a few seconds in the microwave, the cookie softened to a cake-like texture and the chips melted. Iād recommend sprinkling leftovers atop some vanilla or pumpkin ice cream for a special treat!
Icing and orange zest are strictly optional. If you like the combo of chocolate and orange, add it. The icing is decorative, but the cookies are plenty sweet without it. I may even try reducing the sugar and/or the chips a bit when I make the cookies again.
If youāre in the market for a slightly healthier pumpkin dessert, check out my recipe for Pumpkin Bread with Toasted Pecans, written some years ago for another blog.
If youāre looking for something savory, check out my post about Yellow Split Pea and Pumpkin Soup (below) or the myriad online recipes for pumpkin dishes, including these from The Pioneer Woman.
Pumpkins and Halloween: A little history
Iād always taken for granted that pumpkins and Halloween went together like, well, the bunny and Easter. It turns out that the tradition of carving pumpkins goes back to an Irish character called Stingy Jack. According to Britannica.com, after Jack played a trick on the Devil,
āGod didnāt allow him into heaven, and the Devil didnāt let him into hell, so Jack was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity. In Ireland, people started to carve demonic faces out of turnips to frighten away Jackās wandering soul.ā
Irish immigrants brought the custom to the U.S., replacing turnips with pumpkins, plentiful in the U.S. and easier to carve (and, letās face it, a more cheerful hue!).
Halloween was based on Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrated in ancient Britain and Ireland marking the end of summer and the beginning of the new year on Nov. 1. On Samhain, the Britannica article explained, āit was believed thatā¦the souls of those who had died that year traveled to the other world and that other souls would return to visit their homes.ā
Many Samhain traditions, including carving pumpkinsāor turnipsāand wearing disguises, were incorporated into Halloween as we know it. English Heritage, another website, offers a primer on how to carve a turnip should you so desire. Itās the same principle as carving a pumpkin, just slicing into a smaller, denser object minus the seeds and slime! Hereās the video:
About that French Toastā¦
As promised in my last post on Yom Kippur, below is a picture of the Baked Challah French Toast I made for the break-the-fast meal earlier this month, which we celebrated with friends. The dish was quite popular, with most of it disappearing, the best compliment of all!
I think a pumpkin-flavored version would be amazing, either mixing in a few chunks of leftover pumpkin bread (or cookies!) with the challah or adding several spoonfuls of pumpkin purĆ©e to the liquid and a sprinkling on some pumpkin spice! I plan to try one of those variations very soon, perhaps with a pumpkin challah! Maybe Trader Joeās would like to put a boxed version on its shelves in 2023āright next to its šPumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix!š„
Thanks for reading, subscribing, liking and commenting. Happy baking, cooking, pumpkin- (or turnip-) carving. And may the Great Pumpkin be with you!
Ruth
Yum! Definitely want something pumpkin ish now!! I think you should market your challah bread for TJās to sell! It sounds delicious!
Iām Going to make a pumpkin spice cake today for a dinner party tomorrow ! Goes good with Chicken and dumplings right?
Thanks for the inspiration! ā¤ļø
I do love pumpkin just not in sweet preparations š¤« to me it's a savory affair, risottos, pies, soups... but I wouldn't mind trying those cookies! For me, with the zest please š