You really should go visit a local pumpkin patch. Don’t get lazy and just buy one at the grocery store. I had a charming morning encounter with a couple of sprightly old men when I walked into the Episcopal church pumpkin sale in our town. The pumpkins were grouped by size and shape on several of the flat gravestones in the 18th century churchyard. I wandered around, enjoying the views of exotic gourds and enormous pumpkins before I bought a couple of decorative white pumpkins to put on the kitchen table, and a small pumpkin for making my own pumpkin purée. I’m sorry, Libby’s, but we are going full homemade for baking this week.

Pumpkins are not just for Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving pie. It’s time to expand our repertoires and use some of our local produce with seasonal gusto. I love a nice spicy pumpkin cake, and even though I have it all gussied up as a fancy cupcake in this week’s illo, it tastes just as deelish when baked as a utilitarian sheet cake, slathered with un-photogenic swathes of cream cheese icing. Behind-the-scenes homely sheet cakes are every bit as wonderful as the fancy shop cupcakes, and easier to pack in lunches, too.

You will need to make pumpkin purée. It is messy and fun, and for your first batch you can employ child labor. After that they will be wise to your ways, so enjoy yourselves for an afternoon. It is an early lesson in farm-to-table. They can pick out the pumpkin, bring it home, carve it up, bake it, purée it, and bake a pumpkin cake. So artisanal! So Union Square Greenmarket!

Be sure to choose smaller pumpkins, weighing 2 to 4 pounds, for making purée. Larger pumpkins tend to be dry and stringy. An ice cream scoop is a handy tool for removing the seeds and membrane from inside the pumpkin – but I once used an electric jig saw for jack-o-lantern carving, so use whatever makes you happy. You can store the purée in bags or in freezer-proof dishes, which means you can whip out homemade purée for almost any occasion. I know some people use it for making homemade dog treats, but Luke the wonder dog is just going to have to be happy with store-bought kibble!

The Pioneer Woman has a nice and easy step-by-step post about making pumpkin purée: https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/make-your-own-pumpkin-puree/

Pumpkin Cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups pumpkin purée
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus an extra 1/4 cup if needed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. I always use this glass pan.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.

Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-36 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the top or edges of the cake is/are browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.

Remove the cake from the oven and set the entire pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. After about 45 minutes, I usually place the cake in the refrigerator to speed things up.

Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I add it). Spread the frosting on the cooled cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This helps sets the frosting and makes cutting easier.

Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-pumpkin-cake/

Pumpkin cake from Martha – she calls for canned pumpkin purée: https://www.marthastewart.com/1128115/pumpkin-bars

Grown-up pumpkin bundt cake (no frosting!):
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/moist-pumpkin-tube-cake/

Pumpkin cupcakes: https://beyondfrosting.com/2018/09/17/moist-pumpkin-cupcakes/

Luke insists that I include this recipe for dog treats: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/pumpkin-dog-treat-recipe/

I found this recipe at the Redman Farms Facebook page: https://www.cookingwithmaryandfriends.com/2012/09/oooo-i-just-love-fall-and-all-yummy.html?

“Like many indelible family memories, carving a pumpkin begins with someone grabbing a really sharp knife.”
– Dana Gould

No, you do not need to drive to Vermont – although it is probably looking colorful there, and well worth the drive. And you do not need a deep fat fryer. You do not need to be Homer Price with a magic doughnut machine to make your very own baked apple cider doughnuts. Just trot down to the farmers’ market or the corner grocery store and buy a little fresh autumnal apple cider.

We once lived about two blocks away from a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Luckily, it was in the days before internet hype, and we regarded it as a cute local establishment, and gave it wide berth, because even in our youth we were dimly aware of the addictive qualities of hot sugar-glazed doughnuts. So foolish!

My daughter lives close to another baking emporium, Cinotti’s in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (https://cinottisbakery.com) Cinotti’s has world-famous pumpkin spice doughnuts, available only for a short period of time each year, which are also worth the drive, although my personal faves are their maple and bacon doughnuts. I can’t begin to imagine how many calories there are in maple and bacon doughnuts. But once a year I do indulge. I just cannot imagine why the entire town doesn’t waddle around, jiggling excess doughnut weight, while they go about their usual activities of biking or surfing. They don’t need drink cup holders on their beach cruiser handlebars, just sturdy doughnut poles for transporting Cinotti’s doughnut towers. Such self-restraint is deeply admirable, particularly when you realize how many different kinds of doughnuts Cinotti’s sells: coffee, strawberry, pumpkin, glazed, chocolate glazed, chocolate cake, jelly, cinnamon swirl, red velvet, buttercream filled, zebra glazed, long john, apple fritters and cinnamon knots. And that is just the published list of doughnuts! Imagine what spur-of-the-moment creations suddenly appear in their long glass cases each morning!

But here we are, trying to greet fall even though we have gone back to wearing summer clothes. And being mindful of our waistlines and our lack of surfing opportunities, we have to enjoy ourselves in slightly less bacchanalian ways. Namely homemade, baked doughnuts. Thrifty and wholesome, they will evoke fall. And it will use up the apple cider we buy every year, and forget to drink after we have had a celebratory glass or two.

Though there are many ways in which to enjoy apple cider:Warm family-friendly apple cider: https://www.asweetpeachef.com/hot-apple-cider/

Martha’s is a little more complicated: https://www.marthastewart.com/313105/spiced-apple-cider

Although she does display a little holiday spirit with a spiked version, too: https://www.marthastewart.com/318051/apple-pie-spiced-cider

The recipe I baked I found in the New York Times. I found they were a little too generous with their measurements of butter and cinnamon sugar, but they might just suit you fine.

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup apple cider

Heat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease 2 6-cavity doughnut pans (I have silicon which don’t require extra grease). Or you can make 12 muffins – be sure to use cupcake papers.

Use a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and grate the nutmeg. Set bowl aside.

Now haul out the stand mixer, so you can walk away and empty the dishwasher while mixing, cream 10 tablespoons of butter, brown sugar and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, on medium speed, until the mixture is light and fluffy – 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Beat in vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed. While the mixer is running, add the apple cider.

Spoon the batter into the pans – it is messy. Fill each well about half way. Bake 12 to 15 minutes for doughnuts, 15 to 20 for muffins.

While the doughnut bake, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar with the other teaspoon of cinnamon, in a small bowl. (You will have plenty left over for cinnamon toast.) In another bowl, melt the remaining 6 ounces of butter. I think you can get by with 2 or 3 tablespoons, but that’s me.

Let the doughnuts cool for about 5 minutes after baking, and then unmold, brush with melted butter and dredge them in the cinnamon sugar. Serve warm, or let cool and have a delicious breakfast. I sent 10 to Mr. Friday’s office, along with the jug of cider. Happy fall!

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019593-baked-apple-cider-doughnuts?

Going to hell in a hand basket apple cider doughnuts: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/baked-salted-caramel-apple-cider-doughnuts/

And you can also start your day with apple cider pancakes! What a fabulous concept! https://jeanieandluluskitchen.com/mulled-apple-cider-pancakes/

“I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.”
― Mark Twain

The end of September is an odd transitional time of the year when some mornings it is cool enough for a light jacket, which we will regret wearing along about eleven, when the temperature rises precipitously. The angle of light is changing, the sun is going down earlier, there are some leaves falling, as well as some paint-damaging acorns, and we are about ready for a change. Summer is a grand season, but I am looking forward to sweater weather. It looks like it should feel cooler than it actually is.

I love the simplicity of summer cooking, but you know that my summertime philosophy is to send as much of the cooking outside to Mr. Friday and his grill as I possibly can, without looking too churlish. I need to figure out what dishes I can bring inside, without compromising said philosophy. And that is why I looked into what the cast-iron frying pan can do for me.

And instead of wandering freely (translation:lazily) around the internet, and relying on my favorite crutches of Food52 or Bon Appétit websites, I trolled some of my actual cookbooks for some ideas. One of my beloved cookbooks provides me with hours of entertainment: The Southerner’s Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories From the Editors of Garden & Gun. These are well-researched recipes, which are kitchen-tested, as well as being traditional, and reliable.

I want to enjoy corn for another few weeks, or as long as our farmers’ market sells it. Here is a great recipe from Garden & Gun for Cast-Iron Charred Corn:

8 ears of corn, husks and silk removed
1/4 cup finely diced bacon
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup minced Vidalia onion
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives

To removed the corn kernels, cut off the ends of each ear to make flat surfaces. One at a time, stand the ears in a wide casserole dish and carefully cut down the sides with a sharp knife. Next, hold each cob over a bowl and scrape the back edge of the knife to remove the “milk”. Discard the milked ears and set liquid aside.

Place a cast-iron skillet over medium-high eat. Add the cut corn kernels to the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add the bacon and continue to cook until the kernels are slightly charred and the bacon begins to crisp, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the corn “milk”, the charred corn and bacon mixture, and the cream. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the chives and serve hot.
And now you will never need to read the recipe again. You can add this to your summer side dish rotation, but it can also ease you into fall.

Oh, look! It’s also available online: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/cast-iron-charred-corn/

Another beautifully designed southern cooking book is Vivian Howard’s Deep Run Roots. Like Garden & Gun, Howard’s preparation is simple and the end result is satisfying. You will need to read this recipe just once before you commit it to your memory and your dinner repertoire.

Corn and Snap Bean Succotash with Basil and Jalapeño
Makes 5 cups

1 cup leeks, sliced into 1/3-inch rounds
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
3 cups corn, cut from 6 – 7 ears
2 cups snap beans (we call them string beans), cut into 1/3-inch pieces
1 tablespoon minced jalapeño, seeds removed, if you like
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water or corn stock
1/3 cup whole basil leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter

In a 10- or 12-inch skillet or sauté pan, sweat the leeks and ginger in the vegetable oil for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, corn, beans, jalapeño, salt and water. Bring it up to a simmer and cook until all but 1/4 cup of the water has evaporated. I know that is impossible to measure, so just eyeball it. Stir in the basil leaves, lemon juice, and the butter. Serve warm.

And here is a link to the recipe, which is not as lovely as the cookbook version: https://books.google.com/books?id=jRTyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT382&lpg=PT382&dq=Vivian+Howard+corn+and+snap+bean+succotash&source=bl&ots=XA8rrzHHPR&sig=ACfU3U1TYhuieMzHB8tT9HqbiCZrFe12bA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiozZup9u7kAhUCA6wKHWvUDlwQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Vivian%20Howard%20corn%20and%20snap%20bean%20succotash&f=false

We must give the Food52 city slickers their due: https://food52.com/recipes/28514-granddaddy-s-skillet-fried-corn-with-bacon

And while we wait for the weather to catch up with the calendar let’s move out to the back porch for a glass of wine. It’s almost dinnertime. I can hear geese some afternoons, and I watch the squirrel hunting parties rustling around while they are checking on this year’s pecan harvest. Luke the wonder dog is quite grateful for the extra exercise.

“On September twentieth every year, I got to choose my menu – meatloaf, corn niblets, and rice were followed by candles on chocolate cake with vanilla icing and a scoop of Brock-Hall ice cream.”
-Donald Hall

All my helpful kitchen assistants evaporate shortly after meals have finished. Even Luke the wonder dog knows that the show is over, and there won’t be any more tasty tidbits falling from the cutting board. He has taken up his sentry post by the pantry door, waiting anxiously for his postprandial rawhide chewy. No loyalty.

Everyone deserts the hapless cook and the aprés dinner dish washing. But I am learning to fool those casual diners, by using fewer cooking pans. One of our favorite chicken dishes is what we call Chicken Schnitzel. Usually we flour the flattened chicken breast, dip it in egg, then slather it with Panko bread crumbs before putting frying the chicken in a skillet of hot oil. That means we usually employ three fancy Sur la Table metal pans for the flour, egg and bread crumbs, and the skillet. With this new recipe we eliminated a step or two, a couple of pans, and some calories, I hope!

This recipe eliminates the flour, and calls for a sheet of parchment paper lining a baking sheet. We are cooking the chicken in the oven, instead of frying. So no oil to dispose of, and no greasy pan to wash up afterwards. And no grease-splattered stovetop. Genius! https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/sheet-pan-chicken-parmesan (I would suggest tossing everything on the cookie sheet at the same time, instead of in the suggested stages. By the time our chicken was ready, the garlic had self-immolated.) This was a great way to use up the last handful of garden cherry tomatoes, too. The chicken was hot and crispy, without the looming specter of fried food hanging over the meal and our clogging heart vessels.

You can use sheet pans for more than cookies or Sunday bacon. The single sheet pan mindset allows for relaxing breathing space, instead of the wizardry called for in simultaneously cooking and coordinating separate frying pans and saucepans. You can cook chicken, asparagus and potatoes on one sheet, and laugh your way through clean up. Plus you can sit down at the counter and read another chapter of Fleishman Is in Trouble instead of standing and stirring, and timing. Why, a glass of cheap white wine is an excellent idea for the frazzled cook! Pour away!

Chicken, Asparagus and Potatoes:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sheet_pan_chicken_with_asparagus_and_potatoes/

Food52 always has excellent ideas for sheet pan meals: https://food52.com/blog/23683-best-sheet-pan-dinner-recipes-chicken-eggs-vegetables

You can plan a whole week of sheet pan meals thanks to Epicurious: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/weekly-meal-plan-sheet-pan-dinners-back-to-school-article

And some more! Thanks, Damn Delicious! https://damndelicious.net/2017/04/29/10-sheet-pan-dinners/

What will you do with your new-found time?

“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”
–Agatha Christie

School has started and our young are out of the house, learning and thriving and growing by leaps and bounds. They are ravenous and insatiable, devouring books, videos and after-school snacks like a cloud of locust. As a matter of fact, I’m feeling a little peckish right now, too.

Michale Pollen, the great and powerful, said if you are hungry, then eat an apple. If you don’t want to eat an apple, you are probably not actually hungry. That has become my new mantra. It works fine for me, because I have decades of guilt and insecurities, but it is not a popular theory with the young folks. They can be snappy and irritable after school, and would prefer something crunchy and sweet and salty – nothing so banal and clichéd (or available – look at that bowl full of fruit sitting on your counter!) as a simple apple.

We don’t want to load up or lard up before dinner, but sometimes a little taste treat is the answer to everyone’s general crankiness. And a moment spent lingering together in the kitchen, or chatting while driving to the next practice is the only quality conversation we will have some days.

Luckily, with the miracle of the internet, there are so many expert snacking tips floating around the ether – ideas coming from folks who understand the science of nutrition, who aren’t just trying to silence the shrieks of desperation from bored and cranky children. They have answers that fill our new re-usable silicon snack bags and adorable Bento boxes. (If we shouldn’t be using single use straws or shopping bags, should we actually be using plastic baggies? We are trying to wean ourselves off the soul-crushing dependence on plastic bags. That’s why the fridge looks so tidy these days.)

Food52, always our favorite place to start food and meal research, has lots of tasty aprés school snacks. They will also feed the self-employed, who wander into the kitchen at all hours, seeking sustenance and a short diversion from one’s own dull and repetitive thoughts. Here is a no-recipe recipe for a Chex-y snack mix. It will use up a lot of half bags of pretzels, and boxes of cereal. (It is also excellent when served with beer.) https://food52.com/blog/9403-how-to-make-snack-mix-without-a-recipe-savory-or-sweet

Martha has a simple recipe for oatmeal cookies, that you can prepare with the children. Or not. I always enjoyed baking with our children. There is nothing quite so wonderful as learning how to measure flour, and then getting it all over the kitchen – life as a science fair project. https://www.marthastewart.com/315977/healthy-oatmeal-cookies

Obviously, I am a salty fatty snack person. Which is why Luke the wonder dog and I walk for an hour every day, to atone for my fatty snack sins. But I have never understood why people buy microwave popcorn. You might just as well plunk $5 down for pre-popped corn. I love cooking popcorn on the stove, with oil and generous lashings of melted butter. But that is when we are having a tear-jerk movie marathon, not trying to fill the after school furnaces that need stoking. And so I pass along a very simple, and a healthy alternative to chemical laced commercial popcorn:
DIY Microwave Popcorn:
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
1 medium brown paper lunch bag
1 staple
Melted butter and salt or other seasonings to taste

Pour the popcorn kernels into the paper bag and fold the top over, and staple once, in the middle. No more staples or the microwave will explode!
Microwave on high until the popping slows, about 90 seconds. You do not want to burn the popcorn! Never!

Pour the popped popcorn into a large bowl and season as desired. Some people add seasoning salt, ranch dressing mix, cinnamon sugar, olive oil and sea salt, or sautéd garlic butter.

Smoothies – cool and refreshing, noisy and messy. If you are alone in the kitchen you can sneak in some kale! Something to appeal to everyone: https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-make-a-basic-smoothie-2506858

And then there is always the basic peanut butter on whole wheat bread, or if you have exhausted every possible food avenue, eat an orange.

“Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”
– Some Dad, Somewhere

We are anticipating a little squall this week, and ask your indulgence as we repeat a Food Friday from last year.

It’s time for all the kiddos to go back to school. Everyone gets back into the comforting routine of an academic year, and the frightening reality of daily lunch obligations and responsibilities. Lunch is my favorite meal to have in a restaurant; I love a good turkey sandwich and please can I have some crispy, hot French fries? But that is my fantasy life – the one where I also live in a cozy little pied-à-terre in London, and get invited to paint watercolors with Prince Charles a couple of times a year. But I digress. Lunch.

Lunch can be a wonderful treat, or the slough of despair. You can take all sorts of time and imagination stuffing little bento boxes with cleverly crafted Where the Wild Things Are broccoli-based creatures, or you can assemble lunches using the items from Columns A through F. These are practical, nutritious and will make you life easier. Because then you can spend more time reading with your own Wild Things, and less time in the kitchen. Print this list and keep it handy whenever you troll the grocery store.

This is the time-honored Spy Test Kitchens Back to School Sandwich Ingredients List. Enjoy!

It is just as timely today:

Column A
Let’s start with bread:
Ciabatta bread
Rye bread
Whole grain breads
Hard rolls
Portuguese rolls
French baguette
Italian bread
Brioche
Flour tortillas
Croissants
Bagels
Challah bread
Crostini
Cornbread
Naan bread
Focaccia bread
Pita bread
(If storing overnight, top bread with lettuce first, then the spreads, to keep sandwich from getting soggy.)

Column B
Next, the spread:
Mayo
Sriracha
Ketchup
Dijon mustard
Honey mustard
Italian dressing
Russian dressing
Cranberry sauce
Pesto sauce
Hummus
Tapenade
Sour cream
Mango chutney
Butter
Hot sauce
Salsa

Column C
Cheeses:
Swiss cheese
American cheese
Mozzarella
Blue cheese
Cream cheese
Havarti cheese
Ricotta cheese
Cheddar cheese
Provolone cheese
Brie cheese
Cottage cheese
Goat cheese

Column D
The main ingredient:
Meatloaf
Turkey
Chicken
Corned beef
Bacon
Crumbled hard boiled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Corned beef
Salami
Italian sausage
Ham
Roast beef
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham salad
Crab salad
Chicken salad
Turkey salad
Lobster salad
Tofu

Column E
The decorative (and tasty) elements:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Basil
Onion
Avocado
Cucumber
Cilantro
Shredded carrots
Jalapenos
Cole slaw
Sliced apples
Sliced red peppers
Arugula
Sprouts
Radicchio
Watercress
Sliced pears
Apricots
Pickles
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Grapes
Strawberries
Figs

Column F
Finger foods:
Cherries
Carrots
Strawberries
Green Beans
Broccoli
Celery
Edemame
Granola
Rice cakes
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Melon balls
Raisins
Broccoli

Be sure to check with your school about peanut policies.

Nobody will ever complain about lunch again if you can remember to jazz it up a little. My son, who lived for at least an entire year on (requested) white bread, bologna and yellow mustard sandwiches, is now a strapping 6 feet 4 inches tall. Imagine how far into the clouds he would stretch if we had thought to make him fig, goat cheese and caramelized onion sandwiches.

From the people who have time to recreate literary masterpieces: https://www.chron.com/living/article/TK-amazing-lunch-box-ideas-for-back-to-school-11947764.php#photo-10833935

And don’t forget dessert!

“A party without cake is just a meeting”
― Julia Child