"october" news and stories

It's the first day of October and so is now officially pumpkin season (at least in my mind). My first pumpkin came my way last week, in my second to last CSA delivery, but I foresee many more drifting my way in the next month (there's even an pumpkin carving contest coming in a few weeks).

This picture, from Karen, is of a trip she and her family recently took to a pumpkin patch, to pick out their first pumpkins of the season. Great picture, thanks Karen!

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Since the two main elements of Halloween are candy and pumpkins, what could be a better way to start the day off that with a batch of sweet, fall-flavored pumpkin muffins? The only thing that could top these Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Molasses Glaze from What We're Eating would be a batch that was emerging from your oven - as opposed to your computer screen - right now. Fortunately for anyone who wants to get into the seasonal spirit by doing a little baking, Amada included her recipe along with the oh-so-tempting photograph.

The muffins have typical pumpkin muffin/bread ingredients - flour, pumpkin, molasses - with one exception: fresh ginger juice. Instead of simply mincing the ginger or adding candied/crystallised ginger. It seems that the advantage of using the juice is that you get all the flavor from the ginger and it is more evenly distributed throughout the muffin, with no risk of biting down into an unminced bit and disturbing the balance of the pastry. Although, if you're a ginger fan, as I am, it probably wouldn't hurt to toss in a handful of crystallised ginger for good measure.

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After getting all that Pink tea from the Republic of Tea, it's probably a good idea to have something to drink it out of and, since we're already looking at a lot of pink-themed things for breast cancer awareness month, why not a pink ribbon cup, as well? While buying one tea cup at a time isn't the most practical way to outfit a kitchen, it's nice to be able to get one to support a cause. The Pink Ribbon Tea Cup is another product where a portion of the proceeds go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and its connection to the charity extends beyond the color outside cup to the little pink ribbon within.

We think that a cup like this would make a great gift set when paired up with some favorite teas. The teas mentioned above would be a good choice, but other purveyors, including Adagio, will give you a wider range of tea options to choose from, although coffee is always an option, too.

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Mini desserts are wonderful things. Not only are they automatically cute due to their size, but you will never have to worry about a cake being large enough or whether there will be enough ice cream/gelato to go around, since all you have to do is match up the number of desserts with the number of guests you need to serve. They also provide built-in portion control if you are just making them for yourself. These Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes, made by Nicole at Pinch My Salt, are a great way to eat a rich dessert without going overboard because indulging in one (or two) is much better than indulging in a whole cake! The pumpkin cheesecakes have a lot of fall flavor since she combined pumpkin with a touch or maple syrup in the filling and used a spiced graham cracker crust for the base. When serving, though it is not pictured, Nicole topped these with whipped cream, lightly sweetened and spiced with cinnamon.

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If you want to honor breast cancer awareness month, or if you just happen to like pink, there are a lot of options for pink foods that don't require you to get a new set of cookware or buy cookies. Besides, baking your own cookies is much more fun, isn't it?

A good place to start is by looking back at our archives, because last year some food bloggers got together to make up their own pink recipes. Once you've had your fill of those, you can take a look at the famous pink recipes from KitchenAid's Cook For the Cure collection, as well as looking (perhaps somewhat lustily) at all their lovely pink appliances, as well. iVillage has a complete pink party menu that will get you from appetizers and cocktails through dessert. Speaking of cocktails, there are well over 100 cocktail recipes that turn out pink-hued drinks, or at least use pink in the name. Finally, RecipeZaar, a great online recipe source full of user-submitted recipes and reviews, has 156 pink recipes, including one for Pink Fluff, a sweet concoction that can be either salad or dessert.

Whew! That was quite a list, but you should be able to find plenty of pink foods even without using these resources. How about a medium steak for dinner, followed up by a creamy strawberry milkshake?

[Thanks for some of the tips, Ken!]