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.