Ziti with Pumpkin: Zit alla Zucca

This pasta dish is from Mario Batali and the Food Network. I was a little confused about his 1 pound pumpkin, cut into julienne. Does that mean a 1-pound pumpkin, which would give you about 12 ounces of pumpkin flesh julienned, or does it mean 1 pound of pumpkin from a larger pumpkin, julienned? I cut it in the middle and ended up using 14 ounces. Next time I would use twice that much. At one point, julienning a pumpkin would have taken me a while, but I'm getting to be an expert at all things pumpkin including cutting one up. It's a great recipe and the only complaint I heard was that it could have used more pumpkin.

Pumpkin Dutch Baby

According to Sunset magazine, Dutch babies were introduced in the first half of the 1900s at Manca's Cafe, a family-run restaurant in Seattle owned by Victor Manca. While these pancakes are derived from the German pancake dish, it is said that the name Dutch baby was coined by one of Victor Manca's daughters. In 1942, Manca's Cafe owned the trademark for Dutch babies, although the cafe later closed in the 1950s.

This pumpkin Dutch baby recipe comes from the website Baking Bites. I've been making traditional Dutch babies for weekend breakfasts for years and always put the ingredients in the blender and did for the recipe too. The eggs need to be whipped until frothy and then add the rest of the ingredients. This one did not puff up as much as traditional ones do, probably because of the weight of the pumpkin puree. Andrew, Karen, the Hub and I acted as taste testers, and everyone like the recipe.

Hokie Tailgating, Pumpkin Style

Andrew and his girlfriend Karen were meeting up with some long-time friends to watch the Virginia Tech - Miami football game, and wanted to take some traditional tailgating food that would also incorporate pumpkin. Hokie colors are Chicago maroon and burnt orange, so pumpkin food is really showing their colors. We decided on a menu of pumpkin nachos, pumpkin hummus and pumpkin pie shooters. It was kind of a spur of the moment idea and came together amazingly quickly and easily.

We looked at several pumpkin nachos recipes, but decided to make up one with what we had in the house. I tossed diced pumpkin with cumin, salt, pepper, oil and a pinch of cayenne and then roasted it. They layered it on chips with cooked crumbled chorizo, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, green onions and avocado and baked it in the oven.

For the drinks, we used a professional recipe rather than the Baileys, Kahlua and cinnamon schnapps recipe that was everywhere on the web. It calls for a cooked pumpkin syrup for the base, and then add liquor and cream.

The pumpkin hummus recipe was given in the blog in November. After we packed it up, they left for Brian and Sara's house and the game and the rest of this blog belongs to them.

A - The nachos above were the finished project. While the pumpkin was a great addition, the stars of the show were the chorizo and the cheese. Both added spice in addition to depth and texture. As well as being delicious, the nachos turned out visually impressive and presented well from the baking tray. Find a more pretentious description of nachos on the internet and I will be impressed. 

K - It's nice that we begin our recounting of the night with a bit of class as things will quickly digress from here...

K - The hummus turned out great as well. Smooth and flavorful with just the right amount of pumpkin.

A - I prefer a savory hummus and the pumpkin still remained a pleasant addition. Now on to the good stuff...

A - Shown here are the four main culprits. The syrup was easy to prepare and really added a lot to the drink. We chose vanilla vodka and it mixed together perfectly.

K - Using light whipped cream and half and half instead of full cream did nothing to negatively affect the taste of the shot. They tasted great, perhaps in the case of a few individuals, a little too great...

A - Look innocent, don't they? We thought so too after the first 5 or 6. Brian's head cleaning up spills in the background should provide some clues otherwise (sorry Sara, it was Karen, not me). Here's a tip when preparing the shots: don't try to layer - the syrup and the cream are too thin. Instead mix the syrup, cream and vodka together, pour and add the whipped cream on top.

K - It was Andy.

K - The boys look great. Full of nachos and ready to cheer on the Hokies and dive into their first (and certainly not last) pumpkin pie shot of the night. I remained dilligent in my duties as head chef, photographer and ultimately...designated driver.

A - Wide eyed and full of wonderment. Would the Hokies crush Miami? Yes, yes they would. Were there any nachos left? No, no there weren't. Two trays were demolished within minutes save for a pittance of crumbs Brian was able to wrestle from the mongrels for poor Sara, still at work. Would I later lose my voice playing Rock Band 3. Maybe some questions are better left unanswered.

A - My two favorite things about fall are pumpkins and football. Throw in friends, nachos, booze and hokie beatdowns and you have a winning combination for a great night. Thanks to Jo for all her help in preparation and thanks to my friends for being such willing guinea pigs.

K - A great night with great friends. Can't wait to do it again soon!

Pumpkin Stuffing

This pumpkin stuffing recipe is courtesy of Dean Fearing, Mansion at Turtle Creek, which according to their website is long hailed as Dallas's best restaurant for fine dining. I like the idea of fresh herbs instead of dry. I  diced the pumpkin and then roasted it because I think it holds its shape better and doesn't get mushy. The Hub went off with this to his office Thanksgiving luncheon, so I didn't really get to taste it. It was almost gone before he got through the line, but he said everyone like it.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

This recipe comes the cookbook Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I made mine in this blue jarrahdale pumpkin. It is amazingly good.

You clean it out like you would start a jack-o-lantern.

Add the filling. The only change I made was that I used a combination of Gruyere and Emmental cheeses. Then bake it.

As you can see the flesh of this pumpkin was a good two inches thick and took over two hours to cook. I checked it by sticking a wooden skewer in the side, and left the pumpkin in until there was no resistance on the skewer.

You take the lid off for the last 20 minutes to let it brown. To serve we just scooped the filling out with part of the pumpkin. You can also slice it into wedges.Yum. I ate it for lunch all week.

Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake with Orange-Cream Cheese Frosting

I wanted to make this cake in order to provide an impressive Thanksgiving alternative to pie for those who like cake better. But when I was studying the recipe before making it, I found a really disturbing fact: This cake contains 750 calories (52% from fat), 44 g of fat (26.5 saturated) 175 mg cholesterol, 83 g of carbohydrates, 59 g sugar and on the good side 2 g of fiber and 7.7 g of protein per slice. Who in good conscience could eat this or serve it? I was trying to get an idea of what this compares to. Was I being naive, do all great desserts have that much junk in them? A small Reese's Peanut Butter Cup blizzard (and who eats a small?) is 600. And a piece of red velvet Cheesecake Factory cheesecake is 817. So apparently it's not the worst thing you could eat, but still I couldn't do it - I made half a cake. Instead of four layers, my cake has two layers and half the frosting.

Here's the Hub putting the batter together while I got the pans ready.

This cake uses one teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder (my half cake only had 1/2 teaspoon) for seasoning. Chinese five-spice contains cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cloves, ginger, licorice, szechuan peppercorn and white pepper. Hmm is it me or was anyone else thinking this really should be called Chinese eight-spice? It's an interesting combination in a cake, but for those who don't like star anise, not to mention licorice, even 1/2 teaspoon is too much. The frosting is excellent with its hint of orange. I used fresh orange zest and toasted pecans instead of walnuts.

Pumpkin Tart Tatin

This recipe from the LA Times looks way better in their picture than in mine. I'm getting better with the pictures, but still have a long way to go. It didn't help that my tatin was just plain ugly to begin with. I made this on a weeknight (not something I would recommend) and we ate it as a side dish with pork tenderloin. It's hard for me to justify to myself the calories involved. I tell myself that it's for all of you that I eat this stuff.

The only change I made to the recipe was to use prepared pie crust instead of the recipe given for the crust.

It was really good warm that night and cold the next day. If I made it again in would be for a buffet or as a heavy hors d'oueve and serve it at room temperature. That way people would be cutting small pieces and mixing it with other less calorie heavy foods.