"pepitas" news and stories

In just a few short weeks, we'll be giving our undivided attention to turkey, but until then, we might give another bird a try: duck. The idea of cooking duck at home might instill fear, but the San Francisco Chronicle went to Bay Area experts to find out the best, easiest way to prepare the bird. The accompanying recipes are: Nancy Oakes' Slow-Roasted Duck, Cindy Pawlcyn's Roast Duck, Bay Wolf's All-Day Duck, Bay Wolf's Seared Duck Breasts with Spice Rub, Manka's 'Shut Up' Duck Legs, and Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms with Duck Confit.

If you don't have your Jack o' Lantern up yet for Halloween next week, go ahead and grab a pumpkin, do your thing, but save the seeds! Pumpkin seeds are awesome in everything from a deeply rich Pipian Mole to dessert, Candied Pepitas!

For many of us going "home" for the holidays means ill-fitting gift shirts, drug store chocolate, eggnog spiked with bourbon, abusive grandparents, drunken tears, broken glass, the wail of sirens commingling with Xmas carols, blackouts, stunned girl or boyfriends gaping in mute horror at our ancestral home decor, and nonstop football on television.

Isn't it amazing that a simple few items of nutrition can make this sort of trauma pass like it was a summer night under the stars with the Philharmonic and a loved one by your blanket? Sound too amazing to be true? It isn't, dear friends, gather 'round. I've learned the key to holiday survival, which is to assume that wherever you go, no one will understand your culinary needs. You will need to bring all your weird herbs and foods with you, in little marked packets, for your relatives to make fun of.