Back in the sweet summertime (man doen't that feel like it was another life time? Do you remember going outside NOT bundled in layers? Do you remember wearing short sleeves? Walking to the grocery store? Sigh, it'll be back... someday) we planted a garden, and had some success, and some failures, but a big success was the pumpkins. So, now we have.... a lot of pumpkins. They are in the garage/cold cellar, waiting to be eaten. And if we were good pioneers we probably would have polished most of them off by now. But really, at 5:00 in the afternoon, as I try to think what I could make for dinner, I'm sad to say that I am rarely inspired to use a pumpkin. All I can think of is pumpkin pie (not a dinner menu item, really) and from there I move on to something easier, like pasta or scrambled eggs on toast. I just have no energy for thinking up exiting meals these days.
But that pile o' pumpkins the the garage is not going anywhere and stares at me reproachfully as I sidle past them to get to the car. "Use us UP!" they plead, "Before we get all soft and gross!" And then an especially spiteful one adds in a whisper "What would your Grandmother say?"
Indeed. My grandmother was an immigrant, and would have used up those pumpkins six ways to Sunday by now. But me? I am clearly a horrible spoiled child of the '80s who grew up in comfort instead of want, and is letting perfectly good pumpkins go to waste. Bad, bad second generation immigrant child.
In an effort to be more thrifty and also, to stop wallowing around in unnecessary guilt, last night we decided we just had to roast a couple of them and keep a big jar of pumpkin puree in the fridge, and that way we might have a chance of using them. It was a team effort. I looked up how to roast them (in the good old 'Joy of Cooking') and Hubs did the grunt work (chopped, seeded, put 'em in a pan, put 'em in the oven). So this morning I got down to making stuff. Paged through my binder of recipe clip outs and downloads and found some likely candidates. Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Caramel Swirl was the plan, but when Hubs came back from a grocery store run for the few items I didn't have on hand, he informed me that whipping cream (or 'ripped cream' as the Little Dude calls it and it will henceforth and forevermore be known around our house, because its so fricken' cute) was unavailable. So I was back to square one. Hubs was out for the morning, so the Little Dude and I decided to do a recipe mash up and make something from what we had. This is what we ended up with:
I'm going to call it a Pumpkin Flan with Cheesecake Frosting. Basically I used a recipe for a Pumpkin Jelly Roll, but only the roll part, and then topped it with a Cream Cheese Frosting that I sort of made up. And then drizzled it with Caramel Sauce (the kind you buy in a jar. Back in the day I might have made my own caramel, but dudes, I have a toddler now).
It turned out really, really well. That is to say, by the end of the day there are only two pieces left. Though that is slightly misleading because I also made 17 cupcakes out of the same batch of batter and brought those to my quilt guild meeting to share.
Its a very light, spongy cake (6 eggs, separated and beaten and then folded back together with flour and spices and pumpkin) and as a pregnant lady, I like to think of it as being a serving of protein because of all the eggs. And its interesting because the icing is much more dense than the cake (being made of cream cheese, butter, vanilla and icing sugar) so its a very unique texture experience.
As you can see, it was very well appreciated. Nothing warms a cooks heart more. Though I have to say, that one of the interesting things about raising a kid with minimal added sugar in his diet, is that when you do give him a little bit of sugar, he is absolutely amazed by how awesome it is. I'd spent the morning with L.D. making the cake together (well, he ran some apples through my sifter and put pretend eggs in his little play oven over and over, but really, as far as he was concerned he pretty much made that cake) so I didn't feel it'd be in any way fair not to let him have some. Though I tried to frost his portion a little less generously than ours. But he LOVED it. He sucked that little piece of cake back in about 10 seconds flat.
Anyhow, if any of you want the recipe let me know in the comments, and I can try and post it another day. It's from an old magazine clipping, so I don't really know what the copyright issues are, and I just made up the frosting as I went along, but I could probably give a stab at writing it out. Oh, and you should always make extra cream cheese icing, because it is SO GOOD on toast the next morning. If you can wait till the next morning. I had mine for an after dinner snack. You have to use really good multigrain bread though, because its such a great contrast to the sweet, rich icing, and the toast has to be HOT so that the icing gets all melty. Wow. Now I can't wait till breakfast.
Sounds great! I'd love a copy!
Posted by: Caroline | 01/31/2011 at 07:32 AM
Have you thought about not going the dessert route with the pumpkins? It is, after all, a squash, and a nice big hollow one at that. Growing up in a house with a father who was addicted to cooking shows, I can promise you that there are TONS of things that can be done with squashes.
Examples!
Using the pumpkin to hold a casserole. I've had something similar to http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/dinner-in-a-pumpkin-i/Detail.aspx only with wild rice and kale instead of cabbage. Well, and it was stuffed in a winter squash.
A savory pumpkin bread. http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,174,155168-253204,00.html
Never tried it myself, but I have made zucchini bread with great success.
I've even seen cooking shows cut up and roast the pumpkin with other earthy, winter-y vegetables or roasted, pureed, & used to make a sauce for gnocchi. And every Halloween, I swear that I'm going to make one of these: http://www.pumpkinsoup.org/
Never seem to get around to it though.
Posted by: Lisa D'Addio | 01/31/2011 at 10:05 AM
DELIGHTFUL and YUMMY! Recipe please!
O and thanks Lisa for your thoughts -- I have just one pumpkin waiting to be used. I'm going to check out the soup :)
Posted by: Marcia Van Drunen | 02/01/2011 at 06:54 AM
Have been following your blog---what a great way to keep in touch when away!! Eleanor said to tell you she has a great Pumpkin Bars recipe she'd love to give you. I'll bet my Burnt Autumn Soup would be delicious using the pumpkin instead of Butternut Squash! Keep cooking!
Posted by: Leni | 02/01/2011 at 07:38 PM
Ok, I'm going to do my best to do a big pumpkin recipe post tomorrow. And Lisa, good advice, we had great pumpkin soup both tonight and last night. Thanks for the link!
Posted by: finger thumb | 02/01/2011 at 10:51 PM