BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins

Subject: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:56 AM

...er, well, we have a thread for everything else;
and with Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up,
why not a thread for pumpkins, below the line?

There are some prize-winning pumpkins on display at the fairs now.
Some are so huge as to take up the entire back of a pickup truck.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 11:04 AM

A few weeks ago I found a bunch of packages of Pumpkin Spice black tea from Bigelow at a discount gourmet grocery I frequent. I kept one box and passed the rest onto a friend who loves everything pumpkin spice. I tried a cup; it's really strong, and I think I could brew it up and let it simmer in a small crock pot to scent the house.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 11:50 AM

Hmmm...there's this, and
this, and this.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 01:14 PM

and Halloween TP by Charmin

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 02:48 PM

Every UK supermarket currently has stacks of huge pumpkins in vast cardboard dumps at the entrance. I've neither carved one nor eaten one in my life, let alone grown one. I can't see that changing. It seems to me that Americans love to eat pumpkins in various guises. If you gave me pumpkin to eat, I'd eat it. But I can't see that happening. God, I love to be prejudiced. Tell me what I'm missing, bearing in mind that I'm a flavour tart.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 03:02 PM

Do you want a simple recipe for pumpkin soup? Yum!

A few decades ago when I started using the internet and joined the international harp email list, a harper from the U.S. contacted me and we had a few email chats. She wanted me to share some recipes with her but when I sent her the recipe for pumpkin soup her reaction was not what I expected and in fact she stopped emailing me soon after that.

After becoming friends with another American harper who lived in town here for a while, I finally realised what the problem was.

My friend invited me to share their family Thanksgiving meal one year and she made the comment that she had never used a real pumpkin, not out of a can before. In Oz, that is a remarkable comment, like a being beamed down from a UFO saying, "what is this thing called 'pumpkin' and how do I use it?" but also, my friend used it to make pumpkin pie which is sweet and not savoury.

I'm guessing that the American emailer couldn't get her head around using sweetened pumpkin in a savoury soup. Needless to say, there is no sugar in the soup. Is there added sugar in canned pumpkin? I confess I have never ever seen a can of pumpkin.

And, my other pumpkin story is that my favourite variety is Queensland Blue. (It is called Blue because of the blueish colour of the skin.) It's great for making soup and especially good for baking chunks of it with a roast dinner.

In the last year or so our supermarkets have not stocked Qld Blue variety but only the Kent variety. It has a nice flavour but it is very mushy when baked. Just trying to pick it up from the baking tray after cooking is a tricky manoeuvre because it falls apart.

I suspect that the bushfires, droughts, floods, even COVID (difficulty finding farm workers) might have created a problem in growing Qld Blues and that maybe Kent pumpkins are easier to grow and harvest. I might be wrong. But life won't really feel normal again until there are Qld Blues in the shops. IMHO.

As for Halloween. I'm sorry, I'm really not into that. Bah humbug, and all that! :-D And we don't do Thanksgiving here either.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 03:36 PM

I can't understand how a thing that grows so big so fast can have time to be anything other than watery and insipid. Same with those giant marrows that seem fit only for wheelbarrows at harvest festivals. Of course, I have never eaten any so how would I know. I love butternut squash and those funny little onion squashes and things. As I say, my prejudice knows no bounds. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 03:48 PM

More recipes than you can poke a stick at:

Easy pumpkin recipes

I recently went out to lunch with some old school friends and had a super-yummy chicken and pumpkin pizza. Apparently the chef used to work for a well-known local gourmet pizza café. Memorable!

Pumpkin scones are yummy too, and easy.

Nigella Lawson's pumpkin recipes

A life without pumpkin is not real life.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 04:24 PM

Well Italians would not put chicken on a pizza. As for pumpkin on a pizza, I couldn't swear to it but it sounds akin to putting pineapple on a pizza or cream in a carbonara or putting cheese on fish pasta dishes or using spaghetti with bolognese rágù (even worse, putting garlic and dried herbs in said rágù). Still, whatever stirs your loins, as they say...

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 04:44 PM

If you have never tried it, you are not an expert.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:13 PM

I remember the ould Guinness ad of old: "I haven't tried it and I don't like it."

Perhaps you Aussies can't read the subtle sentiments of us Brits... Too bad!

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:21 PM

Mind you, I don't put Birds' custard on my bacon either. It could be good for all I know, but I'm not an expert... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 07:10 PM

Pumpkin seeds, i.e. the green seed found inside the white husk, aka pepitas, are also yummy.

A few weeks ago I had a pumpkin scone which also had pepitas added. Very clever. I'll have to try that next time I make my scones. I like multi-grain bread with pepitas in it, too.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 07:39 PM

In my part of the US
we are especially fond of sweetened pumpkin. With cinnamon.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 07:54 PM

keberoxu, I get the cinnamon bit, but to me pumpkin is already sweet.

I have to say that I liked the pumpkin pie but I tend to put in less sugar than a recipe recommends due to a family history or Type 2 diabetes.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:01 PM

Helen, I recall my late Beloved saying that he'd never eaten Pumpkin until he emmigrated to Oz, bcoz he'd grown up in Liverpool being told it was only pig food!! He learned to love it and esp roasted.
Whereas I hated it as a kid in West Aussie as the main(only) variety was "Jarrahdale" and it was often "woody/stringy" - which was not nice!!

I s'pose this is not the thread then, to mention that Thom Moore's Pumpkinhead and esp their "Wedding Dress" track was a folk favourite for us here, for years???!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS5O41FOVk0

Okay.    My recipe for a spicy hot Pumpkin Soup (aka "Chend's Mountain Red") was in the Mudcat 2003 bestseller cookbook "Whiskey Before Breakfast" :)
Maybe it's time to revisit the idea of Mudcat Cookbooks?!       Or Not.

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:02 PM

Steve, it's unfortunate, but most of those large decorative carving pumpkins are all a tasteless pulp. They're not eating pumpkins. It used to be that the pumpkins you bought you could later cut up, steam, and eat. Now they have found faster growing varieties for the decorative market and they keep the size of the pie pumpkins down to only 2 or 3 pounds, though they could grow them as large as the others.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:02 PM

Well I forgot about pumpkin seeds. I always have them in and I use them in my Ottolenghi baked cauliflower recipe. They do add a nice textural touch, along with the chunks of chorizo, garlic, onion, chopped green olives and olive oil. I tend to go a bit mad with the smoked sweet paprika too. Come along now, somebody. It's a short season. Tempt me with a pumpkin recipe. I won't be wanting soup, chaps, or pumpkin pizza...

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:13 PM

At the moment the supermarkets round here have those diddy little onion squashes, as well as butternut squashes. I've used them and they're very good, but they are at least human scale. I think I need someone to force-feed me something containing pumpkins. I just might get to like it (I like all food of any description as long as it doesn't contain sloppy apple sauce). So I'm open to this but I can't look at a pumpkin without thinking that I'm looking at a water bomb...

Mind you, I love watermelon, so what does that say...

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:13 PM

rich-joy, I might have bought and cooked a Jarrahdale once many decades ago, but never again.

I remember I was at a family lunch, eating roast meat and vegetables and my young nephew asked whether I hated pumpkin because I had eaten everything else on the plate but not the pumpkin. I started to answer but my sister jumped in and said, "No, she loves it" and I explained that I was saving my favourite flavour for last.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 08:33 PM

We once had a tortie cat (called Toots) that would eat anything that she saw us eating. So we'd be having a cheese and piccalilli sandwich out in the garden, she'd be doing that polite cat begging thing, and she'd get a goodly hunk of the sandwich. I mean, a cat eating bread, cheese and piccalilli. I found out a lot later that feeding a cat piccalilli is very unwise, but she did live to nineteen and I don't think she ever thought that she was an actual cat. I'm a bit like that meself. If I see you eating something that I've never eaten before, I'm up for having a go. Unfortunately, I've rarely seen anyone scoffing pumpkin. There could always be a first time.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 03:47 AM

There's a smallholding quite near this village called 'Algy's Farm Shop'. They sell all their produce in the shop, and grow tons of pumpkins in their field at this time. Families are welcome to wander round the field and choose 'their' pumpkins for Halloween decorations.
When Halloween is over, many of the pumpkin decorations are given to my two lovely neighbours, the shepherdesses who run a sheep sanctuary. Apparently the sheep adore chopped-up pumpkins!

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 09:40 AM

I understand that any pumpkin is edible, but that the big orange Halloween ones are often tasteless and stringy. So that's 18000 tons per annum grown for landfill or the compost heap...

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 10:05 AM

Re Toots: We have photographic evidence of our first cat, Petronius the Arbiter, eating cauliflower cheese. I was later told that cats like cheese because of the rennet in it.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 03:07 PM

Toots and I appeared in the Guardian in 2002 in a weekend mag column called "that's my pet." There were three humans and three pets and you had to try to match the photos. You had to provide a snippet of information for both you and your pet in order to give the reader a clue. My info was that I play the harmonica and Toots' info was that she liked egg sandwiches. Also in the column that week was Catherine Zeta-Jones and her horse. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 03:14 PM

Dammit, I just remembered that I mentioned that in a thread on TheSession twelve years ago, but referred to Catherine Zeta-Jones' dog, not her horse. I'll have to try to dig up that cutting...

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: gillymor
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 04:02 PM

Good thing that pumpkin muffins filled with cream cheese icing are a seasonal delicacy because if they were available year-round I'd have to get a bigger truck.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 04:12 PM

The big ones here are given to zoo animals, livestock, and a lot of them are composted. Alas, many more probably end up in the landfill.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 05:19 PM

An acquaintance of mine is into pumpkin lanterns,
and prefers the kind without funny faces or halloween masks.

She uses a drill bit to quickly put holes around the shell
and then puts a candle inside;
the effect is artistic.

No Jack o'Lanterns for her.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 01:36 AM

Helen, having been in Canada in autumn and learned (very quickly, I might add) to enjoy foods such as pumpkin spice muffins, I am now a pumpkin baker. I use whatever pumpkin is on special, often the green striped variety, cut it into chunks, place unpeeled on baking tray and bake for however long it takes to soften. No oil, no seasonings, nothing whatsoever except pumpkin. When it has cooled down it is peeled, then pureed, and packed into freezer or ziplock bags 1 cup at a time as most recipes call for one cup. Flattened down it freezes quickly, and also thaws quickly when required to make pumpkin spice muffins, or a pumpkin cake, or something like pumpkin raisin bars with maple frosting.

Yummo.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 04:10 AM

They do sound yummo, JennieG.

My problem with the stripey pumpkin, which I assume is Kent variety, is that baking it to accompany a roast dinner makes it very squishy. The flavour is great, but trying to pick it up off the baking tray reminds me of the old saying about trying to "nail jelly to the wall".

Kent, also known as a Jap pumpkin

(I have no idea whether the name Jap has connotations about Japan.)

The Qld blue keeps it's shape even though it has a soft eating consistency.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 02:36 PM

I had never heard of pumpkin spice muffins until this thread, so which spice(s) do they have?

I was in a hurry to make something for arvo tea for our regular music session a few months ago, didn't want to put the oven on for a small batch, so I had a go at making microwave muffins. They were savoury with grated zucchini/corgette, chopped tomato and grated tasty cheese with a few dried green herbs, e.g. oregano and thyme etc. They were easy, well received, tasted good.

Maybe I could adjust the recipe and try pumpkin spice muffins which I assume are sweet and not savoury. Or maybe I could try the savoury ones again and put cooked pumpkin in instead of zucchini.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 02:37 PM

Oops! courgette

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 05:38 PM

Pumpkin (pie) spice is a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, sometimes allspice is used......it smells wonderful. I use it in my pumpkin baking. Recipes to make your own are available online; I brought some back from our last trip to Canada, but it's easy to make.

For my purpose it doesn't matter if the pumpkin falls apart when cooked, it just makes it easier to puree.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 08:25 PM

Yep, pretty much what I thought the spice mix would be, although I might not have thought of putting ginger in it.

I baked extra pumpkin and made soup with the extras left over from the roast dinner so mushiness wasn't a problem for that. I'm wondering whether to quit griping and change my tactics for roast dinners, and just chop the Kent pumpkin into cubes instead of big wedges and place it into little individual baking dishes. I'll ponder that for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 08:34 PM

https://www.purewow.com/home/hefty-pumpkin-spice-trash-bags

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Oct 22 - 01:45 PM

Nebraska man floats 38 miles down the Missouri River in a pumpkin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBCElzwnDc

I'm not sure how big the Missouri River is in Bellevue NE, but folks, in general do not take small craft on the Missouri.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Oct 22 - 07:51 PM

Steamboats are famous for navigating the Missouri River, much more than pumpkins.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Neil D
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 04:09 PM

Small pumpkins have better flavor.
The first time I made pumpkin pie from scratch, I cut the pumpkins into chunks to fit my pan and steamed them. After steaming I was able to scrape the meat from the rind with a spoon. Very easy.
I have to admit that now I use canned pumpkin, which is 100% pumpkin and unsweetened. I also use pre-made crusts. These days it's all about convenience.
Most people find pumpkin pie, especially store bought, to be bland. To avoid this double the spices called for in your recipe. Quadruple the ground clove. I believe that like other squash, is best used as merely a vehicle for showing off your spices.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 05:18 PM

Thanks for the hints, Neil D although the chances are I'll never make a pumpkin pie here in Oz. :-)

I forgot to say earlier, when choosing pumpkin for roasting I always get the one which has a good orange colour inside to get the best flavour. They are sold chopped into quarters or smaller wedges here so it's easy to see the colour inside. Not so easy if it's a whole pumpkin. I think the trick for that is to take a core sample to look at the colour without having to cut up the whole pumpkin so that the ripening process isn't stopped, or some people have the trick of knocking on the pumpkin and they can tell whether it is ripe by the sound it makes.

A well-roasted ripe pumpkin has a lovely rich flavour.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 06:39 PM

I made a big batch of my favorite kidney bean recipe (it is based upon a Puerto Rican recipe with a onion/garlic/pepper sofrito). To thicken it I added a cup of mashed pumpkin from the freezer. Mashed last year, and most of it is used for making pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Oct 22 - 03:20 PM

That sounds delicious and healthful, Stilly.

When I make pumpkin pie, I use the recipe from the Joy of Cooking. The pie shell is baked in the oven, but the filling is cooked in a double boiler and put in the shell at the last minute. This method preserves the fresh, fruity taste of the pumpkin.

I don't care for the taste of the mixed spices called for in pumpkin pie and spice cake. I prefer to pick one taste - such as nutmeg or ginger - and add a small amount of cloves just to be traditional.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 07:25 PM

Maggie, you have reminded me of a dish I used to make a lot, from the mid-70's after I bought a vegetables recipe book called Sunset Ideas for Cooking Vegetables.

Pumpkin Succotash

(Note: I had never heard of succotash before that.)

4 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3 cups peeled, seeded pumpkin, cut in 1/4 inch cubes
1 can (1 lb) tomatoes
1 cup uncooked sliced green beans
1 package (10 oz) frozen whole corn kernel corn, thawed
2 teaspoons salt (Note: I'd cut that amount back these days)
Dash pepper

Fry bacon until it is crisp; drain and reserve. Measure drippings and return 1/4 cup to frying pan. (Note: I'd use olive oil now.) Add onion, garlic, green pepper and pumpkin; cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, beans, corn and salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until pumpkin is tender (about 25 minutes). Serve topped with bacon. Makes 6 to 8 serves.

I'll have to try it again. I used to like it and then for some reason I stopped making it.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 08:44 PM

Sounds good. As long as it doesn't have lima beans.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 09:12 PM

You don't like lima beans? I may have had the green ones once or twice way back when I lived at home but I just Googled lima beans and they are the same as butter beans and they are my favourite type of canned beans. I mash to them use as a base for making vege or salmon patties, or as filling for what I call not-sausage rolls with a variations on added flavours.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 09:45 PM

Sounds good and versatile as cauliflower with variations like sausage spices.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 09:52 PM

Donuel, maybe you added the wrong link? Or is there a reference somewhere in the video to cauliflower?

https://www.pbs.org/video/can-psychedelics-cure-lxqulz/

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 10:09 PM

Nope. Don't like lima beans. And like George H. W. Bush who didn't like broccoli, I'm a grownup and I don't need to eat them now. :)

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Helen
Date: 20 Oct 22 - 10:50 PM

I looked at the other recipe for succotash in that book, and there they are, lima beans!

In a saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Stir in about 2 cups cooked corn kernels, 1 1/2 cups cooked lima beans (or 1 3/4 cups cut green beans), 1/4 cup finely chopped green onion (including part of tops), and 1/2 cup whipping cream. Simmer until slightly thickened and heated through. Season to taste with seasoned salt and pepper. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

I have to say, that doesn't appeal to me as much as the first recipe and I've never been tempted to cook it.


And yes, you have your own permission to leave the table without eating your lima beans.

Subject: RE: BS: non-music thread for all things pumpkins
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Oct 22 - 07:08 AM

I admit I hated them when I was a kid.

The show NOVA was playing as I was posting. It was typically good. Micro dosing Mushrooms daily is now a 'thing' in the US and attitudes are normalizing. I prefer a one and done approach but c'est la vie.

Washing pumpkins in dilute bleach extends their life outdoors and does not harm wildlife.