Long Island Cheese Pumpkin {Favorite Flavors}

Have you ever had finger-licking good pumpkin?

You might think that such a thing doesn't exist. Truthfully, I didn't either. I am disappointed by watery, slightly bitter squash every time I roast a pie pumpkin. I honestly usually enjoy the roasted seeds more than the pumpkin.

That is, until my farm friend Al from Stonefield Naturals gave me four heirloom winter squash to compare. Four deeply autumnal colored skins, four textures of flesh, four sizes of seed.

roasted pie pumpkin

I took the variety to a potluck dinner. We scooped the oven-roasted squash plain to taste all the nuances of the flavors.

Long Island Cheese, the biggest squash, won every person's vote. The dusky sunset-colored skin yields fully cooked, deep orange flesh after a fourty-five minute roast in a medium oven. Buttery in texture and mildly sweet, the Long Island Cheese flavor embodies everything great about fall - warmth, richness, settling earthiness.

I shared cold puree with friends who couldn't believe I'd added no sugar, no fat, or seasoning. The Long Island Cheese is scrumptious all on its own. I couldn't help myself but lick my fingers as I pressed the roasted squash into jars for storage and I keep coming back to the fridge for spoonfuls.

wp-1447451390111

You can bet I'll buy some more of these beauties from Al at the Worthington Indoor Farmers' Market before the season ends. They're going in my garden plan for next year too - Baker Creek caries the variety if you can't get your hands on seeds to save.

What's your favorite flavor these days?

It's Squash Season - Grab a Grapefruit Spoon! {One Great Tool}

Today I'm introducing a new series, One Great Tool. In each post, I'll highlight one hand tool that is indispensable to our daily cooking and gardening activities. We hope that by sharing our favorites with you, we can encourage more efficient and fun homesteading.

The first step to cooking any winter squash or making a jack-o-lantern is to remove the seeds and stringy flesh from the inside. Pulling them out by hand is one way, but it always reminds me of the 'cold bowl of spaghetti masquerading as pig guts' trick. It feels icky and rarely removes all of the seed material.

Instead, we go right for a grapefruit spoon. The row of metal teeth is meant to perfectly separate sour grapefruit segments from thin, bitter membrane. More frequently in our house, the teeth scrape the insides of harvest orange winter squash.

With a few simple scrapes using the spoon, all the gooey bits of the squash separate from the flesh which can then be roasted whole, roasted in chunks for soup or boiled. We save the seeds for roasting or replanting.

We reach our hands, clutching a grapefruit spoon, into the middle of jack-o-lantern pumpkins too. The spoons cleanly remove the bits of membrane that might otherwise catch on fire when you light the candle. I've even used it to remove the seedy middle from halved zucchini and summer squash.

We don't eat grapefruit very often because it isn't grown in Ohio and some people experience a negative interaction with a medicine Alex takes. But we do use our grapefruit spoons for squash frequently, especially in the fall.

Meal Plan April 10, 2011

Ingredients & Inspiration:

• Leaving on a 10 day vacation to Massachusetts on Thursday = Operation clean out the fridge
• We have half a head of cabbage, a head of lettuce, two boxes of spinach, three half gallons of milk, two bags of mozzarella cheese, a half dozen homemade buns, and most of a 32 oz container of yogurt that will spoil if we don't use them
• We have one last large pie pumpkin from the fall that needs to be used
• I would love to avoid grocery shopping until we leave
• My family is coming over Wednesday for a last meal before we leave

Menu:

Monday - black bean tacos/burritos with cheddar cheese, cabbage, salsa

Tuesday - egg salad sandwiches, salad, pumpkin muffins or pie  Lil is bargaining for pie

Wednesday - spinach lasagna with homemade ricotta and tomato sauce Yes, this was on last week's menu too but we never made it

Menu Plan March 6, 2010

Ingredients and Inspirations:

• Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday = great food traditions! We care little for the various religious meanings; we adopt the recipes we love.
• Dine Originals Restaurant Week = date lunch and maybe dinner out
• Mashed potato leftovers from my sister's birthday dinner = potato pancake makings
• March Charcutepalooza challenge = home made cured brisket ready to cook this week

Monday - Lasagna roll ups with homemade tomato sauce, homemade ricotta from Snowville milk and fresh cooked spinach

Tuesday - Pumpkin pancakes with homemade butter milk and home grown & frozen pumpkin puree, king cake for dessert

Wednesday - Bowman & Landis turkey thighs, potato pancakes, frozen green beans

Thursday - dinner at friends

Friday - Rachel Ruben sandwiches, homemade applesauce, potato chips

Saturday - leftovers or dinner out at a Dine Originals restaurant

Sunday - family dinner/reception after cousin's Eagle Scout ceremony

Healthy Snack Cake

The other day I noticed a little bit of homemade applesauce and some home-pureed pumpkin leftover in the fridge. I wanted to make something with them before they went bad. Five year old Lil and I had just made muffins for a meal so we wanted something a little different and came up with this cake. The batter is made in a single bowl for easy cleanup. Kids are great helpers for this recipe because there are no special techniques - just measure, dump in the ingredients and mix.

The ingredient list is adaptable to any fruit puree you might have around including pearsauce, applesauce, mashed banana or pumpkin puree. If baking with a child, ask them which spices they would like to match with the fruits used. Take their suggestions and you might both be surprised by how lovely a new combination tastes.

With minimal fat and extra fiber from the whole wheat flour and fruit, this is a cake I don't mind serving as a snack.

[print_this]Snack Cake

10 minutes cooking, 20-25 minutes baking

makes 9 servings

3/4 cup fruit puree (applesauce, mashed banana, pear sauce, pumpkin puree, etc.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup King Arthur white whole wheat flour

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sweet spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg or a mixture

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1. Add all ingredients to a stand mixer bowl or large bowl.

2. Mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer on low for 30 seconds.

3. Increase speed to high and mix for three minutes.

4. Pour into buttered and floured 8x8 inch pan.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

[/print_this]

Frigidare just launched a family friendly website Make Time for Change. In addition to sharing recipes and tips on cooking with kids, they are donating $1 to Save the Children for all new visits to their site. Frigidare and my ad network, Foodbuzz, are donating an additional $50 for this post. Score for Save the Children!

Added to Hearth and Soul Volume 32.

Open a Hard Winter Squash Without a Knife!

How do you open an acorn squash? Or a huge Cinderella pumpkin? I usually pull our big cleaver from the magnetic knife strip. I hold it with both hands and smack at the tough skin. The squash rolls and I try to right it. The cleaver gets stuck and I smash down further anyways.

Alex sees me, fears for his beautiful countertops and my fingers, and takes over the job.

Recently, my friend Susan let on that there is a better way....a method so simple a five year old can do it with no knife!

In our preparations for Christmas Eve pumpkin soup, I decided to try it. I handed Lil a large white pumpkin grown by a friend, whispered the instructions, and turned on the video camera.

What do you think? Will you try the throw and crash method to open a winter squash soon?

Added to Hearth and Soul Volume 29.