Pumpkin Wrap

I'm just about ready to put the pumpkin days behind me, but I thought I'd share a few tidbits before I do.

The most useful item that I didn't have room for in the column came from April McGreger, the former pastry chef at Lantern Restaurant. Now selling goodies under the Farmer's Daughter label, McGreger said she's often substitutes sweet potatoes for pumpkins when baking. Of course, she admits she is a bit biased--her dad is a sweet potato farmer.

McGreger sometimes turns to squash, instead of pumpkin, prefering hubbard, butternut or the Japanese kabocha varieties. When she does bake with pumpkin, she loves the heirloom Long Island cheese pumpkin or those really ugly, pimply kind. I had no idea there were so many pumpkin varieties!

One of the occupational hazards of being the Forkster is taking a nice sip of cider only to find a matchstick-size piece of pumpkin in your mouth. Hey, someone has to do it. I suppose, and in fairness, I was drinking from a pumpkin punchbowl.

Finally, you can't do anything with pumpkins without amassing a bunch of seeds. And you can't be serious if you don't roast them.

Instead of my usual toaster oven and oil combo, I slow-roasted them (90 minutes at 250 degrees) in the oven after sprinkling them with melted butter. The former worked better than the latter. There was no burning, but they didn't quite have the taste I'd hoped they would.

Stick a Fork in it...

...this column's done. You can read all about finding fun uses for pumpkins in today's Chapel Hill News or right here online.

While this column wasn't about baking, you can find a delicious pumpkin bread recipe in the last post. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try to get a trademark on "pumpcan holder."

Pumpkin Precursor

The next Fork & Spoon column comes out tomorrow. I just put the finishing touches on the fun-filled piece on pumpkins. As soon as it's online, I'll post a link.

I didn't bake anything for the column. Instead, I wrote about non-edible culinary uses for pumpkins. Had I made anything, though, the first thing on my list would be this yummy quick bread that I got from the talented April McGreger, the former pastry chef at Lantern Restaurant, who now sells jam, pickles and baked goods under the Farmer's Daughter name.

Pumpkin Bread

1 2/3 cups all purpose or pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin or winter squash puree
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons safflower oil (or other vegetable oil)
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for topping
3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (green, hulled), for topping

1. Preheat oven to 325°; lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a mixing bowl; set aside.
3. In another bowl beat together the pumpkin puree, oil, sugar, and salt with the whisk attachment of an electric mixer on medium speed, or by hand, until well mixed.
4. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition until incorporated before adding the next egg.
5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. On low speed, add in the flour mixture and beat just until combined and the batter is smooth.
7. Transfer batter into loaf pan and smooth the surface.
8. Sprinkle top evenly with turbinado sugar and pumpkin seeds.
9. Bake about 1 hour, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
10. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, and then invert onto the rack, turn right side up, and let cool completely before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Farmer’s Daughter.

You can also check out April's attention-getting muscadine meringue tart recipe here.

column in progress

As I mentioned before, I'm writing this upcoming column on pumpkins. But despite Melicious' delicious ideas, this column won't be about pumpkin treats.

I toyed with the idea of planning a day of pumpkin meals, kind of like "Ramania," an earlier column where I made a three-course meal from Ramen-based recipes. Then I realized that I don't like pumpkin nearly as much as Ramen noodles.

Knowing I wanted to write about pumpkins, I kept drifting back towards this other idea: non-edible culinary uses. The column will provide some food ideas, just not the kind you can eat. I know this sounds a bit odd, but I hope it'll all make sense on Wednesday, when the column comes out. I hope.

Anyway, just know that I spent the first few innings of Sunday night's glorious baseball game in front of the TV trying to fit a soda can into a pumpkin. Fun times!

Falling into place?

Cider's in the supermarkets, it's dark by 7 p.m. and the baseball playoffs are in full swing (unfortunately for the Red Sox). It must be fall.

As I try to figure out the direction of my next column, I'm in an autumnal mood. And the first thing that comes to mind are pumpkins. While I'm drawn to the idea of cooking with pumpkins, the best things I've created from these orange globes are usually roasted seeds and funny faces (mine's on the left, the Spoonstress' on the right).

So help me out. If you have any ideas, success stories or recipes, send them this way. Conversely, if you have a cooking with pumpkin horror story, tell me all about it.

On a separate note, late fall and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. That's why it's never too early to start thinking about Turducken food safety.

Lettuce Pray...for more lettuce recipes

After reading my post about lettuce soup, reader "greenhorn" challenged me to "stretch" his or her thinking on lettuce past salads and sandwich toppings.

I love a good challenge, which is another way of saying I take requests. Channeling my inner rabbit, let's get to it:

The first thing that came to mind was using lettuce as a wrap or a bread substitute. I first experienced this usage at Chinese restaurants that use crisp leaves of iceberg as a vessel for minced chicken and pine nuts instead of wrapping and frying it like an egg or spring roll. You can find this appetizer homogenized, er, franchised at P.F. Chang's.

Over the years, I've adopted the lettuce wrap method as a substitute for pita bread (or when I'm still hungry, but don't want to eat another pita's worth). Usually, this means enveloping chicken or egg salad in greenery. And no, I'm not sure which one came first.

I haven't gone so far as to replace tortillas with a lettuce taco or burrito. While it can be done, I just can't support that move. I like tortillas too much. And you can keep your spinach tortillas

On the side dish front, pickled lettuce sounds fun. I can't say I've tried it, but at least it's kosher! On a similar vibe, how about lettuce hamburger relish, with the world's simplest recipe instructions: "Mix ingredients together thoroughly. Spread on top of hamburgers."

Back to Chinese food, this fried lettuce dish looks tasty. Again, I don't speak from experience, but it seems like it would change how you think of lettuce.

As for lettuce dessert--you're on your own. Well, you and the rabbits.

Raspberry Ruminations

The lastest rave in the Forkquarters is Raspberry Sherbet. This pinkish treat has been a real novelty.

Don't get me wrong, it's not the sherbet that's new--I've been enjoying sherbet since the days when I added a second 'r' to the name. But it was always orange "sherbert" I craved, often with Oreos.

I recently returned from the supermarket with a container of raspberry. Far surpassing my modest hopes, the sherbet has subdued my perpetual yen for black raspberry ice cream. In fact, you could probably get away with calling it black raspberry sherbet.

Alas, there's no joy in Forkville--we're almost out.

A Culinary Library

On a recent trip to California, I met an older woman named Jean Fortenbery, who introduced herself as a Culinary Librarian. She had me at 'culinary.'

When she gave me a business card with "It's All About Food"--the name of her library--prominently displayed, I had to check it out. Her culinary collection is housed in a stand-alone building on the site of her daughter's bed and breakfast in Watsonville, Calif.

After she gave me a very thorough tour of her books, her husband Kenneth showed me around the beautiful Victorian house he redid after the 1989 Earthquake (you can view virtual tours of both the library and the house).

Jean, 84, began amassing cookbooks while traveling around the country in her job transforming traditional recipes for microwave cooking. Today, she writes about food for the Register-Pajaronian and her collection has swelled to more than 20,000 books. The variety is impressive, ranging from wild foods to cooking for wild animals (she's holding one on feeding birds that she finds amusing).


Her library has sections with labels like "Nitty Gritty" and an abundance of Italian and French cookbooks. "I swear every person in Italy and France has written a cookbook," Fortenbery told me.

My favorite part was the closet of older cookbooks dating back to 1835 that I wish I'd had more time to peruse. But I also enjoyed seeing someone so proud of a life's work.

Not to say that she's done. There are stacks of books to be sorted and she's culling all her "doubles." She sent me home with an extra copy of The Thrifty Cook (1974).

If you're ever in Watsonville (between San Francisco and Monterey), stop on by. Just don't come hungry.