Pickin Pumpkins
Pumpkins are native to America and Mexico was the first country to
cultivate the pumpkin, mainly for its
seeds
(pepitas).
First rule to finding the best pumpkin?
Buy early, especially for
the perfect jack-o-lantern.
From the 17th Century, Jack-o'-Lantern meant
a night watchman
a man (named Jack) who carried a lantern.
If you wait, the best ones will be gone.
You can't get to the pumpkin patch too early.
Buy a pumpkin that has character
(yes, before the carving).
The perfect jack-o-lantern needn't be perfectly round and symmetrical.
A pumpkin with character adds drama to the season, lol.
Look for ones with the long, gnarly stems, and
thin, dried shoots with leaves too.
To choose a pumpkin that won't "melt" on your front porch,
feel the blossom end.
Pumpkins are part of the hard-squash family, so
the end should feel hard.
If it feels soft or spongy, try another.
Tug on the stem, it should stay firmly attached.
For cooking pumpkins?
Look for "sugar cracks", a good sign of a sweet one.
And choose one that feels heavy for it's size.
"That's one big-assed pumpkin, Daddy!"
Caroline - 5 years old.
Pumpkin-Face Bunuelos
Using an exacto knife, cut out the same kind of pattern that you would use, to
cut out your jack-o-lantern "face" on a pumpkin, onto a flour tortilla
Fry in about an inch of corn oil, on medium-high heat, turning over a couple
of times to almost golden on both sides.
I often drip-dried mine in a plastic dish rack. (drain them thoroughly)
Using a small sieve, sprinkle powdered sugar onto the "faces".
Play with the amounts for your taste, and add either cinnamon alone, or
pumpkin pie spice mix to your powdered sugar.
Just before serving:
Through a small, fine-meshed flour sieve, sift the
powdered sugar, or spiced powdered sugar mix
onto your fried tortilla pumpkin faces.
And, be sure to take a picture of your proud artist/chefs.
(I don't have any, whaaah!)
Fair warning:
If it's not warm enough, where you are,
eat them over the table.
The powdered sugar goes everywhere!
Stuffed Instestines
(A healthy Halloween Food)
1 cup cooked baby-butts (garbanzo beans)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup vegetable shortening or margarine (lard & unsalted butter?)
6 Tablespoons water
*Red/Blue Food Coloring (follows)
Puree the baby butts and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and cumin.
Add the chickpeas, shortening, and water.
Mix together until a dough forms.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 3-5 minutes.
Cut dough into 4 pieces and use a rolling pin to roll each
one into a long strip about 1/8 thick.
With your first strip of dough, experiment with the width since
you will need to to leave enough room for filling and seams that
you'll press both sides together.
This size will vary depending on how long/thin you want the
intestines and how big your pan is.
(This crust doesn't taste like baby butts.
The chickpeas add texture and a rich/crumbly feeling.)
16 ounce bago of frozen peas
1 1/2 cups non-dairy (soy, almond or rice) milk
spice blends (Bam? Old Bay?, etc)
the veggie filling:
Play with this recipe and choose any veggies you like.
(Greek olives, rather than canned slices? beets?, etc.)
2 cans sliced black olives (greek olives are slimier)
1 (some kind of) onion
8 ounces frozen corn (16 ounce bag)
2 yams, peeled and sliced
spices for flavor
olive oil
More play: we sauted the veggies in olive oil, to al dente as they'll bake in the oven, too.
In a big skillet, lightly fry up your onions in some oil.
Remove from pan and set aside.
Add more oil and fry up the yam cubes until you can almost
stick a fork through them.
Lower to medium, and add the onions in with the corn and olives.
Add spices (and/or herbs?) to taste.
assembly: Take dough strips one at a time, and
lay out a thin line of veggie filling.
Top that with a coating of green guts filling.
Carefully bring the edges of the dough together and pinch
them shut, sealing everything inside like a
snake who just had a big meal.
lol.
In a 13X9-inch, ungreased glass casserole pan, very carefully
lower your first filled intestine at the bottom of the pan.
Roll it until seams are hidden (underneath), and start to snake
the tube into an S shape like real intestines.
(An extra set of hands at this point would be helpful!)
Continue on with the other 3 tubes, and assemble them
all together in the pan.
Pinch/fold and generally manhandle the seams in-between the
tubes so you make them blend together, appearing as though
it's one continuous tube.
Using your food coloring and a tiny paintbrush
(super clean or brand new), apply
the veins and other anatomical markings to make the
intestines appear less like dough and more like the
creepy Halloween recipe, that it is.
Bake in a 375F oven for about 30 minutes, or
until the crust is golden brown.
(Remove from oven, cool, and just before serving,
squirt or mop on some kind of super-spice "tea" onto
the intestines?... for more sliminess effects.)
Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Brittle
To toast raw green pumpkin seeds--called "pepitas" in Latino markets--bake at 350F until they start to pop, 8 - 10 minutes.
(28 1-ounce servings, 1 1/2 pounds total)
1/4 cup butter, cut into chunks, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cups toasted, hulled pumpkin seeds
Lightly butter a 10X15" baking pan.
In a small bowl, stir baking soda in vanilla to dissolve; set aside.
In another bowl, stir together cinnamon and salt
(to help the cinnamon distribute evenly when it's stirred
into the sugar mixture.)
In a 4- to 5-quart saucepan over medium-low heat, use a
heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to stir together sugar
1/2 cup cold water
the corn syrup and
1/4 cup butter
until butter is melted and sugar is completely dissolved.
Increase heat to medium and boil sugar mixture, stirring occasionally,
until it turns a deep amber and measures 335 - 340F on a candy
thermometer.
8 - 12 minutes.
Remove sugar mixture from heat and carefully stir in
vanilla and cinnamon mixtures
(they will bubble up).
Immediately stir in pumpkin seeds and pour into prepared pan, using a
heat-proof spatula or wooden spoon to even spread and fill pan.
Let brittle cool at room temerature for 30 - 40 minutes.
Gently twist pan to release brittle
(if necessary, run a heatproof spatula underneath brittle to
help release it),
then chop or break it into chunks.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Eerie Eyeballs
(over 100 bite-sized eyeballs)
3 oz (small box) lemon gelatin (can be sugar-free)
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
8 ounce cream cheese
Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add
marshmallows and stir to melt.
Remove from heat.
Add pineapple juice and cream cheese.
Beat until well blended. Cool slightly.
Pour into a deep ceramic dish and chill until thickened or
firm enough for scooping into eyeballs.
Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and
set aside for decoration.
To decorate, use liquid food coloring and a
detail paintbrush and get creative.
You will need black food coloring for the pupils.
(Michael's)
If you're in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can
carefully dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to
approximate size of the iris, but still
paint on the pupils.
Note: if you are using the melonballer method, add
one package of plain gelatin to your mixture.
The molds work fine with just the lemon gelatin to
make gently squishy eyeballs.
Rubber ice cube trays work much more easily, with
much less waste than melonballers.
Spray the trays with non-stick cooking spray, beforehand while
the gelatin mixture sits in the fridge to set.
Carefully pop the eyeballs out to paint.
(some will break).
They have one flat side
(they don't roll around when ya paint 'em.)
Wilton truffle candy molds are the best,
(again, Michael's), as the swirl design on top is
perfect for cornea shapes.
With the truffle molds, one recipe makes
about 9 dozen eyeballs.
Creepy Witches' Fingers
(5 dozen)
1 cup unsalted (sweet) butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup almonds, whole blanched
1 (or 2?) tube(s) red decorator gel
(Wilton's at Michael's)
paint brush to use with "fingernail polish".
Beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla.
Beat in flour, and salt.
Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Working with a quarter of the dough at a time and
keeping remainder refrigerated,
roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie.
Press almond firmly into 1 end for "finger nail".
Squeeze in center to create knuckle shape.
...see picture for long rolled shape with bulge at centre for knuckle;
puff it out rather than squeeze it in, and...
make them extra narrow. they'll puff out.
(practice always makes perfect)
Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.
Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake at
325F for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden.
Let cool for 3 minutes, and
place on racks to cool completely.
Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto
nail and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath.
You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them, and
let the "blood" drip down.
Mwhaaahahahaha.
Remove from baking sheets and let cool on racks.
Repeat with remaining dough.
Spooky Napkin Holder
www.marthastewart.com
Buy doggie bone chew toys from pet-food stores.
The bones are sterilized, and precut.
Slip a cloth napkin through the hollow center.
Give the napkin holders to your puppy-owner guests.
;)
Caprese Eyeballs
Daddy and Dave'll love these.
I love the Whoopies w/Fried noodles, lol.
Something for just the two of ya's? Or
that work crew that you like to feed?
Visit:
for free, original DHTML scripts and components,
all of which utilize the latest in DHTML and JavaScript technology!