The pumpkin book. October 3, 2008
Posted by ourfriendben in gardening, homesteading, recipes, wit and wisdom.Tags: curried pumpkin soup, pumpkin books, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkins
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Silence Dogood here. Maybe it’s the temperatures dropping down to the 40s here at night, the crackly cornfields, the geese migrating overhead. Maybe it’s all you Hallowe’en fanatics posting about your scary seasonal treasures (are you reading this, Joy?!). Maybe it’s my quest for the elusive ‘One Too Many’ pumpkin. (See my earlier post “One too many?” for more on this.) Or maybe it was just that the blinding headache that crashed down on me last night was giving me hallucinations.
Whatever the case, or cause, the headache inspired me to decide that a 9:30 bedtime was a really good idea. And the last thing I do before lights-out is wind up my bedside clock. Yes, you read that right. Our friend Ben and I feel strongly that our awareness of time should not be dependent on electricity or batteries. As a result, we’re always on the lookout for the increasingly hard-to-find wind-up watches and clocks. (Two favorite catalogs, The Vermont Country Store—see our earlier post, “A catalog takes a stand,” for more on them—and Lehman’s Non-Electric Catalog both carry wind-up watches and clocks, in case you’re looking for them.)
Unlike the silent battery-operated models, wind-up clocks and watches tick. And some of them are louder than others. I’d say our current model, a Baby Ben (I can never resist these for some reason), has a comparatively quiet tick. Usually, I find its ticking soothing. But last night, I’d no sooner turned off the light and composed myself for sleep than I heard, not “tick… tick…” or even “tick-tock,” but “the pumpkin book… the pumpkin book… the pumpkin book…” and on, and on, and on.
The pumpkin book?!! Good grief. Try though I might to ignore it, to convince myself that the clock was really just ticking, I kept hearing it proclaim “the pumpkin book” as though it expected me to do something about it. I began reviewing the pumpkin books I was aware of: Tasha Tudor’s very first book, Pumpkin Moonshine; a few pumpkin- and gourd-crafting books; a cookbook I’d been unable to resist, the Pumpkin Lovers Cook Book.
By this morning, the headache was better but the memory of the pumpkin book remained. I went on over to Amazon to see what they had in the way of pumpkin books. There were, of course, children’s books of all types and stripes, ranging from Tasha’s classic Pumpkin Moonshine to Charles Schulz’s It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown to a beautifully photographed picture book called Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden. There were a wide range of imaginative pumpkin-carving books, from Jost Eiffers’s benign Play with Your Pumpkins (if you haven’t seen his Play with Your Food, you must find it immediately) and Great Pumpkins: Crafty Carvings for Hallowe’en to a whole series of Extreme Pumpkins books, the first of which gives the flavor of its creations in the subtitle: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors. For those who don’t want to get out your knives, there was also Pumpkin Painting.
There were books devoted to pumpkin decor: For the Love of Pumpkins: A Visual Guide to Fall Decorating with Pumpkins and Ornamentals, and our favorite pretentious pumpkin book, Country Living Pumpkin Chic: Decorating with Pumpkins & Gourds. (”Pumpkin chic”?!! Oh, please.) There were books on growing pumpkins, including The Perfect Pumpkin: Growing/Cooking/Carving, by the ever-competent Gail Damerow, and a paean to extreme gardening, Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever. (Passionate? Okay. Heartbreaking and glorious?! Get over it. You could grow a whole garden of healthful, life-sustaining food with the amount of fertilizer and water you lavish on that one inedible pumpkin.) And of course there were books on the world and music of the group the Smashing Pumpkins.
Finally, there were cookbooks. The Great Little Pumpkin Cookbook. The beautiful and enticing Harvest of Pumpkins and Squash. The #1 book on the pumpkin book list, Pumpkin, a Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year. Ugh. What kind of title is that?! Yuck, I don’t want to eat pumpkin during the warm months. Keep your pumpkin smoothies and lattes, your pumpkin-watermelon salads, your pumpkin picnic sandwiches to yourself, thank you.
Clicking the link to investigate, I was still not convinced. Pumpkin Pizza with Gorgonzola Cheese, Pork Tenderloin with Red Wine Pumpkin Sauce, and Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins all sound like a stretch to me. I think I’ll stick to my beloved Curried Pumpkin Soup (search the site for my post “Of presidents and pumpkins” for this luscious, easy, warming recipe if you’ve missed it), pumpkin bread, pumpkin roll, and pumpkin cheesecake. (Note: Do not make an all-pumpkin cheesecake! For the most luscious cheesecake ever, use your favorite vanilla—not lemon—cheesecake recipe and swirl canned pumpkin pie filling or home-baked and pureed pumpkin, sweetened and spiced with ground cinnamon and cloves, into the cheesecake before baking for a marbleized effect and a truly amazing cheesecake.)
The pumpkin book. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll have to write one of my own, perhaps a children’s book about my search for the ‘One Too Many’ pumpkin and all my misadventures along the way, with, of course, my favorite pumpkin-bread recipe included as a bonus. Meanwhile, do you have a favorite pumpkin book or recipe? If so, I’d love to hear about it! And, come to think of it, I think I’ll move that wretched alarm clock over to our friend Ben’s side of the bed…
‘Til next time,
Silence
I know what you mean!! My grandmother had one that was constantly telling me “Go take a walk.” LOL I remember putting that thing in a drawer more often than not while sleeping over at her house.
Our favorite pumpkin recipes… Jason makes a wonderful pumpkin spice cake. He uses a traditional spice cake recipe then swirls in his pumpkin puree. YUMM!!
We also make an in-the-shell pumpkin soup that is as much fun to make as it is delicious. It’s a simple pumpkin soup recipe with the traditional cream and spices, but you bake the pumpkin with the cream and spice mixture inside the seeded shell. As the pumpkin poaches in the hot oven, scrape down the sides and use a hand blender to smooth everything out. You have to be careful not to scrape too close to the sides or you’ll have a blow out in the side of your pumpkin and a mess all over the oven. For this very reason, we bake our soup in a deep dish.
Good luck on your search!! We’re picking up our pumpkins and squash this weekend from a farmer we know just north of the city. Can’t wait for dried seeds to munch on!!
Geez, guyz, you’d better post these recipes on your own site so everyone can see them! Yum!!!!
Hi Silence, two pumpkin themed ideas come to mind, first the delicious pumpkin ice cream made in Asheville during the fall season at The Hop, our jointly owned ice cream shop. The second idea is the original name of the town I live in now was Pumpkintown because, yes, there were lots of pumpkin fields around here. And I am not even growing pumpkins in my garden, for shame. They have a pumpkin festival, fourth year now, in the historic downtown district with various kid friendly pumpkin contests and games, food stands and general fall themed stands. Your clock is possessed, and you did not even buy a new pumpkin book?
Frances
You know, Frances, I was just wondering while composing this morning’s post if The Hop would be offering pumpkin ice cream! Getting to spend Thanksgiving last year in Asheville (staying at our beloved Log Cabin Motor Court and drinking wine in front of a roaring fire in our cabin, while I knitted and read and made, yes, Curried Pumpkin Soup!) was such a delight. How I wish we’d make that an annual tradition! I love the idea of Pumpkintown. And yes, I somehow managed to resist the prospect of a new pumpkin book, though that harvest cookbook did look beautiful. Perhaps I haven’t fully recovered from the headache after all!
Ooh, a children’s book. That sounds wonderful. Isn’t it funny how our subconscious tries to get through to us sometimes?
I can’t say that I’ve ever made anything with pumpkins before. I’m just heading into the healthier/organic type of eating. Cheesehead has made a couple of pumpkin pies before but other than that I’ve never heard of pumpkin being used for anything else. Well, except of course the dried roasted pumpkin seeds.
You must know pumpkin bread, Cinj, the luscious, sort-of-zucchini-breadlike treat that even my cats can’t resist?! I’ve developed a recipe for it that doesn’t involve quarts of oil like zucchini bread, but still tastes delicious. I’ll have to dig it out and post it for you!
Silence, I’m making pumpkin butter right now! I’m finally cutting up the ginormous pumpkins before the bugs eat them up. I think it’s a little too watery–more like thick pumpkin sauce–but it will be delightful on biscuits and toast and pancakes…
I’ll be posting the “recipe” tomorrow.
If we had that solar oven, I could make pumpkin bread. As it is, I was going through my Mennonite More with Less cookbook and found recipes for pumpkin custard and pumpkin ice cream. We may try those this weekend!
Ooh, I have that cookbook, too, Becca! I’ll have to go check it out. And I’m looking forward to your pumpkin butter recipe! I completely forgot about that when I was thinking about pumpkin-related foods. (Shame on me!) Yes… pumpkin butter and biscuits… yum!!!!!!
Roasting pumpkin seeds is one of my all time favorite things!
Funny how one forgets these things until your post reminded me. I cannot wait to do that this weekend.
That along with the soup and we are set!
Philip
Yum, Philip, that sounds fabulous! (Toss some of those seeds on a wonderful mixed green salad, and serve it up with the soup and some hot bread… mmmmmm… )
I’ve had some pretty good pumpkin beer, but haven’t been very successful making my own. For us pumpkins tend to be more of the carved, celebration of All Hallows Eve, warding off the spirits and welcoming the dark season. We don’t often cook with them, but they are very significant in our fall celebrations.
I think a pumpkin quest children’s book would be great. We have been following up on you comment about Ginger the tunnel goat and exploring story ideas. (thanks for that).
Luck with the pumpkin quest.
Good for you re: Ginger the Tunnel Goat! What a delightful book that would make! Now, you just have to make her go BACK in the tunnel so you can get some pictures…
Not a chance of that!!!!! One doesn’t Make Ginger do anything. She does what she likes, and if you are lucky it coincides with what you want. Rather like spouses… Guess I’ll just have to find a good graphic artist who can create the image from his/her imagination. Can’t wait for your book, how ever it turns out, and for some really good pumpkin beer!
Well, there is that. As for pumpkin beer, I think a few microbreweries make it around here. I’ll have to keep an eye peeled…
I absolutely LOVE pumpkins but I have yet to grow any of a ‘decent’ size! Having pumpkin pie for breakfast coincidentally!!!! Hugs, G
Yum, we love dessert for breakfast! We’ll probably be making warmed banana bread, fried eggs, and apples soon for our own Sunday brunch!