When the frost is on the pumpkin…
In my area more than the frost is on the pumpkin. We’ll have to brush the sand off too! But wherever you live the calendar pages are turning and the path to preparing for the holidays is lighting up. I mentioned back in September, that I was drawing up my master food shopping list for the various “feasts” ahead. No matter what your situation, there are bound to be increased provisions to acquire and increased costs to be faced in the coming weeks. Amortizing both over a period of weeks, even months, reduces the stress on you and on your wallet and helps turn panic to pleasure. Pre-planning also allows you to recognize and take advantage of the best “deals” on different products as they appear.
Experience teaches the times when different products will be at their best prices and to anticipate them. For years I thought that it was best to buy the basic ingredients for Christmas baking before that holiday, but it isn’t. It’s before Thanksgiving. The different products may be highlighted in December, but the sale prices on them are now. Next week’s flyers have very reasonable listings for flour, sugars, butter, eggs, cooking oil, flaked coconut and chocolate chips. They may be featured later, but I’m confident that the prices won’t be lower, so I’m buying now.
By the same logic, for example, one of our family holiday favorites is home roasted, salted nuts. I found one store where the raw nuts are always on sale in August and that’s when I buy them, at a real saving considering the cost later. Before the end of summer, I bought the celery and onions I use to flavor my turkey stuffing, processed the amount I needed and froze it. That’s a true time saver as well during the busy holiday cooking days. I’ve also been stocking up on the items with long shelf lives, like crackers and condiments. These are things I will definitely need which are easily remembered now, but if overlooked later in the crush, become last-minute disasters and can cause register shock. Just be sure that they are in air-tight packaging and the expiration dates are viable and you’re set to go.
Incidentals aren’t the only thing I’m going to look for in the coming days. Traditionally, our Christmas dinner is turkey. We need one over 25 lbs. and they’ve become hard to get recently, plus more expensive since the price per pound doubles, even triples between Thanksgiving and Christmas as I learned to my shock a few years ago. Habitually, a few days after Thanksgiving, I ordered a fresh bird to be picked up the morning of Dec. 24th. Three years ago I paid almost $3.00 per pound for a turkey when the ones in the counter when I ordered it were under $1.00 per pound! The following year there was a sale on frozen turkeys in one of my favorite markets for $0.39 lb. the first week in November. The butcher agreed to hold the one I chose at that price until Dec. 1st. I cleared space in my freezer, then thawed and cooked it for Christmas and no one even guessed the difference—except my wallet, which grinned and grinned. Prices of course have gone up, but I have already put in an order for this year’s bird at $0.59 lb. because I don’t think I will do better.
Turkey isn’t the only Christmas dish that I’m counting on buying this month. Cranberries and sweet potatoes will go up in December and both keep well. The gingerbread mix I use for my Yule Log will cost more and I’m watching for featured sales on the vegetables I plan to serve, fresh or frozen. If fresh, I can parboil and freeze them, adding flavorings or sauces a day or so before. Having all this done in advance relieves a lot of pressure, not only from the aspect of a time frame, but most of the expenses are behind me as well.
I don’t want to sound as if I’m downplaying Thanksgiving though, because with no gifts to buy AND wrap, and no house to decorate, it’s becoming my favorite holiday. It’s more about The Tradition than the traditions it involves, so it’s more relaxed and open to suggestion. There’s a casual atmosphere. Often the meal is communally contrived which allows for a general acceptance of variety. It’s a chance to try different stuffings, experiment with desserts and sides. I like to use the seasonable vegetables, and fruits, especially squash and have included some simple recipes below. Above all, I appreciate an opportunity to have ways to use those Halloween pumpkins and yes, all squash are fruits because they have seeds.
Pumpkins will keep for weeks if they are not carved, or allowed to freeze and thaw standing out in the weather. They also suffer in the heat. If you want decorative ones, buy the painted kind, and if it turns cold, or hot for those in the South, take them in if you plan to cook them.
Despite what is written and said, I have successfully cooked the larger size, as well as the small sugar or pie pumpkins. After all, the colonists used the fully mature fruit, in its original form, not hybrids, when they were developing the recipes we value today. I will admit that the bigger ones are better cut from the rind, chopped in large cubes and boiled, than roasted. When drained, they can be mashed and used in baked goods or frozen for later use. Their meat is best when mixed with other ingredients. The little pumpkins don’t need to be peeled, depending on the purpose, but can be served sliced or halved and roasted, by themselves or with the meat scooped out and made into pie.
Technically, pumpkin is of the squash family, which in turn is divided into two categories. There are the thin skinned, more watery summer squashes like yellow, zucchini, and pittypan, which cook quickly with their pith and seeds, and the hard shelled winter verities, like acorn, tan butternut and Hubbard which need to be hollowed out and require time to cook. Any of the winter squashes are great roasted, in cubes, with some root vegetables, onions, turnips, carrots, even red beets, parboiled or canned and drained make a great side dish. Just toss them in a couple of tablespoons of oil, a pinch of salt and seasonings of choice, garlic, thyme, rosemary and sage are the most common. Start with the ingredients requiring the longest cooking time and add the others according to a time chart. There is one for free download on my book web site dinnerswithjoy.com.
My family loves roasted acorn squash or sugar pumpkin halves and I’ve never had a problem cooking them. I hollow them out, spear the inside several times with a fork, put a small sliver, about a teaspoon, of butter in each and bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. Then I sprinkle 1 tsp. sugar and a bit of cinnamon in each half and cook for another 15 mins. Although with the price now at about $0.99 lb. for acorn squash and acorns usually average 1 ½ to 3lbs, we may see less of it as a side and more as an entrée. One of the simplest ways to do this is to bake it as above for 40 mins., then fill it with your favorite meatball recipe or another ground meat mixture including the usual ingredients, onions, celery, peppers and /or breadcrumbs, but no egg and continue as directed above or until the stuffing is done.
It’s important to remember when baking ANY squash in its shell, even the summer ones in their edible skins to use a water bath or they may burn. That means to add at least ½ inch of water to the pan first. If the pan is metal, include a teaspoon to a tablespoon, depending on the size of the pan of lemon juice or vinegar to prevent discoloration of the pan. I also have one dish I love which makes a great, and impressive for company, dinner using a large pumpkin. I’m including its recipe below too.
In any case, give thought to trying some squash dishes this season and by all means, save money by putting those Halloween pumpkins to good and tasty, use! To paraphrase James Whitcomb Riley’s poem: “When the frost is on the pumpkin………They’s something kindo’ hearty-like about the atmusfere. When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’fall is here……”
Easy Corn Pudding; Serves 6
(2) 14 oz cans whole kernel corn – drained
(1) 14 oz can cream style corn
2 eggs well combined
Mix everything in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hr.
Serve hot.
Spinach Pie; Serves 4
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2 eggs—slightly whipped
2 envelopes of chicken or beef bouillon granules
Ground nutmeg
Gently press the water from the spinach and mix in an oven proof dish with the eggs and bouillon. Sprinkle the top with nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. Serve in wedges.
Cauliflower au Gratin: Serves 2-4 per head depending on size
! head cauliflower
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 cup milk
½ cup grated sharp cheese—or more depending on taste
Salt and garlic powders to taste–optional
Paprika and dried parsley for garnish
Trim the leaves from the cauliflower and cut off the stub of stem. Boil the cauliflower upside down in a pot of water just until soft-15-20 mins. Turn right side up in a shallow dish. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat until it foams. Remove from heat and stir in flour to make a paste. Quickly add milk and stir constantly over a high heat until the sauce thickens. Add ¼ cup cheese and stir to melt. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower. Garnish with, in order the remaining cheese, paprika and parsley. Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese browns and the sauce bubbles, about 40 mins. Serve hot.
Stew in a Pumpkin; Serves 6-8
3 Tbs. butter
2 lbs. beef for stew cubed
3 Tbs. cornstarch
2 large onions diced
3 tomatoes chopped
2 Tbs. butter
¼ tsp. EACH salt and pepper
3 cups beef stock
½ lb. prunes
½ lb. dried apricots
3 sweet potatoes sliced
(2) 10 oz packages corn –thawed and drained
1 pumpkin, top cut off and reserved, cleaned of pulp and seeds. Melt 3 Tbs. butter in a Dutch oven. Roll the meat in the cornstarch and brown. Set aside. Melt 2 Tbs. butter in a separate pan and sauté vegetables until tender. Add to meat with juices. Add all remaining ingredients except pumpkin, cover and simmer 1 hr. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Ladle stew into the pumpkin; set in a roasting pan with 1 inch of water, and bake for 1 hr. Carefully transfer pumpkin from the pan to a serving dish and replace its top as a lid for garnish. Serve at once scooping out some of the pumpkin meat as you ladle out the portions.
NOTE: I save clean-up by sautéing the vegetables in the Dutch oven first and then browning the meat. It’s one less pot. Also if you have it on hand, replace one cup of stock with beer. It deepens the flavor.
