Fun With Pumpkins

It's always fun to have kids around for pumpkin carving. I grew some small sugar pie pumpkins which I plan to bake with, and I bought some larger ones and the rest of the crew brought more pumpkins! This year our lovely daughter invited some friends to join us and one couple brought their adorable little girl.

She wasn't that interested in the pumpkins until they had been carve a bit, but she did enjoy walking barefoot in the tiny bit of green grass we have.

She also made friends with Pi doggie and he was really good with her, even just lying peacefully while she sat on him. He also ran around with a small pumpkin in his mouth which delighted her...and me.

The carved pumpkins were beautiful. I'm always amazed at the transformation of a plain orange pumpkin into a small work of art using fairly simple tools and a lot of patience and careful cutting.

Sweetie even lent them an Xacto knife with a tiny serrated edge that was great for the smaller sections that they removed.

No recipe this time, just some photos of our fall pumpkin fun. I did serve up my standard guacamole and chips and AM brought some farm fresh jalapeno salsa. Wine and cheese and bread were provided by the darling daughter and friend while the little ones parents served up some warm cider spiked with bourbon. And, no, I'm not back to bourbon or wine or even bread and cheese. Still had a good time and so did Sweetie.

It's Still Pumpkin Season

All Hallow's Eve, better known in the USA as Halloween, has always been one of my favorite holidays. Perhaps it's because it is one of the biggies of fall and because we get to dress up if we want to and be silly...plus, there is candy!

This past weekend my talented daughter came over and we invited a neighbor and her niece, too and had a pumpkin carving party. I'd never tried using those carving designs, but K showed us how to use them and punch dots to show where to carve,

and even the trick of cutting out the bottom of the pumpkin instead of a top hat, both to remove the seeds and stringy bits, but also so you can just pop the carved pumpkin over a candle or tea light. It was more challenging than I thought it would be, but the results were amazing! The pumpkin above has a leaf design that goes around the stem carved into the pumpkin, but not all the way through. I used some wood carving tools for that...very cool.
Here are some more:

Katia's Elmo...isn't he fun?

AM's howling wolf, carved on a green winter squash, which added depth and was harder to do.

K's scary jack o'lantern. Don't you love those curlicues at the top of the eyes?

And a wolf for J.

Plus a witch on a tall pumpkin.

This one K carved at home on Halloween, but it is a beauty, so I had to include it.

In keeping with the pumpkin theme, I made pumpkin muffins. They had a cream cheese/ricotta cheese filling and were delicious! We also had chili, mini carrots and crackers. Good times.

On Halloween I went to K's house and we decorated the front walk with the pumpkins,

 had more chili, and watched Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wher-Rabbit. Followed by a Warriors game. I was pretty tired on Friday, so it's taken until today to post all this. Hope YOU had a great Halloween. She was costumed as an awesome cat woman.

Spicy Pumpkin Muffins with Creamy Filling

started with basic muffins in Joy of Cooking, then went wild

Batter:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs ( or ½ cup egg substitute)
1 cup canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling:
4 oz. softened cream cheese
4 oz. ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Sparkling sugar (sanding sugar) for garnish


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour (or use baking spray) one 12- cup muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl or on a large sheet of waxed paper, measure out all of the dry ingredients and spices: flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, nutmeg. Mix together with a fork. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, pumpkin, oil, applesauce, brown sugar, molasses, yogurt and vanilla.

Put the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture bowl. With as few strokes as possible, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Do not over mix

In a small bowl, stir the cream cheese, ricotta cheese and sugar together until thoroughly mixed.

Fill the muffin cups about one third full with the batter, then, dollop on about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of the filling, then top the filling with more batter, dividing evenly among the cups. Sprinkle the tops with sparkling sugar.

Bake in the preheated oven 20 – 25 minutes, or until muffins spring back when the center is gently pressed. Filling may peek through. That's O.K.

Makes 12.

Gourds and Pumpkins of Fall and Meeting Sparkle Plenty

Howard's Station in Occidental California is a great little place to have breakfast. There are all sorts of breakfast foods to choose from, great photos of turn of the 20th century Occidental when it was still a lumber town with a railroad going through it, the waitresses and waiters are fast and funny, the coffee is strong...and this time of year they have a wonderful assortment of gourds, pumpkins and other winter squash as decor. This grouping is at the front door.

We had breakfast there this morning with friends. Sweetie even kept one of his heart shaped biscuits (yes, freshly made, yummy, biscuits) for the Bread Baker's Dog. No photo of the biscuit...Xam ate it too quickly to photograph.

While we are on the subject of pumpkins, Sparkle Plenty, a friend of a friend whom I met a week ago and baked bread with...surely a great way to become friends...passed along two beautiful little sugar pumpkins this week. One has already been baked, seeded and scooped, almost ready to be turned into pumpkin pie (maybe tomorrow). The other is decorating my deck. Since nights have been in the 30s, this 'outdoor refrigerator' is perfect for hard shelled squash keeping.

A quick check of past posts shows that I never posted about the baking day. Arcadian invited me to her lovely home in Oakmont for lunch. I brought along some of the 2 Squash Soup to share. Sparkle Plenty made a perfectly wonderful veggie quiche in an oatmeal crust. I loved the combination of mushrooms and peppers and the rich filling, but the crust was amazing...crisp and crunchy but not crumbly...the perfect textural contrast to the smooth filling. She sent me the link to the Food Network recipe. Sparkle used Swiss cheese so we are going to call it Carmelized Onion, Mushroom and Swiss Quiche with Oat Crust and the link is here: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/caramelized-onion-mushroom-and-gruyere-quiche-with-oat-crust-recipe/index.html

The bread we baked together is quite interesting...it used shredded wheat biscuits as part of the dough.

The dough is delightful...fun to play with and perfect for creating the shaped rolls we made.

It can also be used to create the wheat sheaf bread for autumn (you knew I'd sneak autumn in again, didn't you?) since it is the dough that was used to make the wheat sheaf in the book, not the milk bread I used.

A big 'thank you' goes to Arcadia for putting it all together and to Sparkle for the yummy quiche and those lovely pumpkins and the greens. We all hope to do another baking afternoon after the holidays at Sparkle's.

See what pretty rolls we made?

Wheat Bread Dough for Harvest Sheaf or Rolls

Makes 1 loaf or about a dozen rolls
From The Festive Bread Book by Kathy Cutler

1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon light molasses
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large shredded wheat biscuit
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons warm water (105 - 115 degrees F)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 eggs
2-2 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 egg, beater with 1 tablespoon water for Glaze

Heat milk, butter, honey, molasses, salt, and crumbled shredded wheat biscuit to warm (105 - 115 degrees F). Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes.

Combine yeast mixture, milk mixture, and whole wheat flour. Mix thoroughly.

Add wheat germ, eggs, and enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth - about 10 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning to coat top. Cover; let rise in warm place until double - about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough. Shape into loaf, braided loaf, wheat sheaf (see Bread Baker's Dog for directions) or rolls.

Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled - about 30 minutes. Gently glaze with egg wash.
Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven about 25 - 30 minutes or until done. Cool on wire rack.

This is my attempt at a four strand braid on a small loaf...looks pretty crazy, but was yummy anyway. That is the fun thing about this dough...you can play with it.