No. that isn't a typo in the title. Yesterday was March 14th, which, in abbreviated form, is 3.14 (feel free to add the 1592653589793238... if you so desire), better known to us non-mathematicians simply as Pi.
As is usually the tradition here at Slashfood, we are willing to turn just about any circumstance into something to celebrate, so why should Pi Day be any exception? Fortunately for us, the blogosphere was full of others who jumped on this bandwagon as well. In fact, Kitchen Parade collected submissions all week, resulting in dozens of mouth-watering pie recipes all linked up on one page.
So without further ado, following are my top eight favorites, which I will be putting on my "need to make" list. (Corresponding photos can be found in the gallery at the bottom of the page after the jump.)
There is an annual debate in my house about what to have for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. Half my family believes that that last thing we want to eat is anything that has to do with Thanksgiving since we'll be gorging ourselves on the same foods for three weeks straight (or however long the leftovers last). The other half of my family thinks that the whole day should be all about autumnal Thanksgiving foods, including breakfast. I change my mind every year, but this year, I may go with the latter half of my family just for Pumpkin Waffles, as made and blogged by Smitten Kitchen. The kicker in the recipe? Fluffy whipped egg whites that make the waffle batter light and airy.
Sometime last week, while I was on the phone with my mom, she said, "Just a second, there's a recipe I want to read to you." Pulling out an ancient pumpkin cookbook, she proceeded to narrate a recipe that consisted of pumpkin, potato, cheese and egg, all mashed together and baked in a casserole dish. It sounded yummy, but a little plain, and so I tucked it into the back of my mind to let it hang out for a couple of days.
Then Friday rolled around and I needed a recipe that would be delicious, seasonal and just ever-so-slightly impressive because it would be my offering at the first-ever Philly food blogger potluck. I called my mom for the exact recipe to use as inspiration and then went my own way with the dish. The final product was amazingly good, full of acorn and butternut squashes, yukon gold potatoes, gruyere, parmesan, sage and nutmeg. It was something of a hit with the food bloggers and by the end of the night there was only a little bit left in the far corner of the pan. If you're looking for something new for your Thanksgiving table, this would be an excellent way to go.
Now I realize that it's the day after Halloween and the last thing you want to be thinking about is pumpkin, especially since some of the neighborhood kids smashed your jack 'o lantern last night and you have big chunks of pumpkin to clean up off your front porch. Be that as it may, I wandered across a really fun recipe for pumpkin steaks and I couldn't help it. I had to share.
It's sort of a labor intensive recipe, in which you cut the pumpkin into flat chunks, bake it in the oven until its tender and then pan fry it. But gosh does it sound good. I'm tempted to get my hands on another cooking pumpkin and try it out. It would be a great one to tuck away for Thanksgiving, for those of you who are tired of the same squash or sweet potato dishes. The full recipe is after the jump.
It can't be all hard liquor at your Halloween party -- not that you don't plan to sip martinis all night, but some of your guests might prefer beer or wine. For the beer drinkers at your Halloween party, there's Post Road Pumpkin Ale. Each batch of beer is made from hundreds of pounds of pumpkins, which create an orangey amber-colored beer with a pumpkin fragrance. The Pumpkin Ale is available for about $9.
Now here's a tip for chilling and serving that Pumpkin Ale. Get your hands on the largest pumpkin you can find, top it off, hollow it out, clean it, then fill with ice. It's a pumpkin cooler!
When I hear "tarte tatin," naturally I think of an apple dessert. However, in a recipe by Regina Schrambling that was originally published in 2003 and just re-printed in this past Wednesday's LA Times Food section, tarte tatin goes savory. Not only does it go savory, but the inverted tart uses pumpkin to create an appetizer (or meal, if you add some other dishes). If you're having a Halloween-themed dinner party and want to keep it more adult, i.e. staying away from orange food coloring and gelatin-molded brains, the Pumpkin Tarte Tatin is a great addition to the menu. Basically, you place wedges of sugar pumpkin in the bottom of a skillet, sprinkle with goat cheese, cover with pie crust (of puff pastry), bake, then invert onto a plate to serve.
I know, I know, but how can I resist posting something about Halloween that has the word GHOUL right in the name (with a slight change in spelling, of course).
This is from the October issue of Bon Appetit. It's a lighter twist on the usual Hungarian stew, made with turkey and pumpkin. This is a rather unique dish that I bet a lot of people would be interested in trying. Full recipe after the jump.
The first time I had Yumpkins (pumpkin cheesecake bars with a poundcake crust) was my freshman year of college, at a parents' weekend reception held in my residence hall. My friend Amber made them as her contribution to the dessert buffet that we served up to accompany the student/parent talent show (I realize it sounds dorky, but it was really very fun). The Yumpkins made such an impression on my mom that she asked Amber for the recipe.
Back in the summer, my mom sent me a bunch of recipes from the three-ring notebook she's been accumulating for nearly 40 years. The printed out recipe from Amber was included in the envelope, along with a note saying that Amber's mother often serves them with whipped cream, but that she find them rich enough just on their own. The recipe is after the jump.
Speaking of pumpkin-based baked goods, another one of my favorite recipes for this time of year is for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffin. It's true that you can make these puppies any time of year with canned pumpkin puree, and that's a good option for when you start craving them in March. But there's no better time of year than now to whip up a batch of these puppies with freshly roasted pumpkin. The recipe is after the jump.
Looking for a seasonal treat that would appeal to kids and adults alike? If so, I recommend you check out Jennie's recipe for Pumpkin Pop-Ups with Brown Sugar Icing. One day she found herself in the paper goods aisle at a local grocery store and wondered if it would be possible to bake a dessert in a non-waxed Dixie cup. One try later and she discovered that not only is it possible, but it gave these pumpkin cookies (I can't help but think that they look more like muffins than cookies) an appealing and unique shape and presentation. They'd make a perfect dessert contribution to any party you might be attending over the weekend as they are easily transported and packed with pumpkin-y goodness.
I've never given much thought as to whether South Africans celebrate Thanksgiving. However, when I read that a team of bakers created what they're calling the the world's largest pumpkin pie last weekend, I'm beginning to think folks in Pretoria might just have their own version Thanksgiving. The 1.15 ton treat took two days to make and bake and measured some 3 feet deep. It's worth noting that the pie's other dimensions were 28 feet long and 7 feet wide. While I'm all for the South Africans trying to break a record set by a group of U.S. farmers two years ago (pictured), someone needs to tell the South Africans that pies are round. If the dimensions I read are not a typo, the mammoth pumpkin pastry qualifies as a loaf with a crust, but not a pie. A ton of the orange gourd was used to make the "pie." As of press time, there's been no reports of how many pounds of Cool Whip were used to top the purported pie.
I have very strong memories of carving pumpkins when I was a kid. My parents would cover the dining room table in newspaper, bring out strong serving spoons (for scraping down the inside of the pumpkin) and put a large metal mixing bowl in the middle of the table. All the pumpkin innards would go into that bowl and while my sister, dad and I were happily carving our pumpkins into goofy, spooky faces, my mom would get the not-so-nice job of separating the pumpkin guts from the seeds.
She was meticulous about liberating every last seed from the slimy strings of pumpkin entrails. She'd rinse the seeds well and dry them in a single layer on a kitchen towel. Then she'd spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle them with salt and roast them in the oven until they turned golden brown. I loved taking a little container of these roasted pumpkin seeds to school with me for an after lunch treat and I was always sad when they were gone.
Yesterday I toasted up the seeds from a small baking pumpkin I had. I didn't do it quite the way my mom used to. Instead, I melted a small pat of butter in a medium non-stick skillet. When it was melted, I added the seeds and let them start to toast. When they were getting near the brown color I was going for, I added some kosher salt, cracked pepper and crushed, dried rosemary leaves. A couple last tosses in the pan to combine the seasonings and they were done. Just like childhood (if even slightly better).
Maybe you were inspired by my post last month, asking for fresh pumpkin recipes. Or maybe one showed up in your CSA box and has been sitting on your counter for the last week, gazing at you serenely as you try to figure out what to do with it. However you came to be in possession of a cooking pumpkin, now that you have one, you've got to determine how to deal with it.
Apartment Therapy Kitchen has a post up today on the best way to crack open a cooking pumpkin, so that you can extract the seeds (delicious toasted with a little butter and salt) and roast/steam/bake the flesh for delicious eating. Their pictures take you through the process of cutting open the pumpkin and are really helpful if you're feeling a little daunted by your pumpkin's tough exterior.
Most years, my parents grow pumpkins in their vegetable garden. One year a pumpkin got lost behind some particularly large leaves and was left to grow for an extra month after its brethren had been removed from the vine. By the time we discovered it, it was huge (and starting to shuffle its way off this mortal coil).
It seems that our pumpkin was nothing in comparison to the pumpkin that took the honors today at the Half-Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Weigh-off. Clocking in at 1,524 pounds, that pumpkin was grow by Thad Starr from Pleasant Hill, OR. For bringing the largest pumpkin to the festival, Staff gets a prize of $6 a pound for his gigantic gourd. That comes out to a not-so-shabby $9,144.
The five largest pumpkins will be on display at the festival through the weekend.
Some people think that Fall has begun when the leaves start to turn or when the air finally starts to cool down at night. For others it is the start of school or the fact that darkness comes before 8 pm. Here in Philadelphia, it isn't Fall until the Taskykake Pumpkin Pies hit the shelves of our local grocery and convenience stores. What are the food products that mark the the change of the season for you?
It can't be all hard liquor at your Halloween party -- not that you don't plan to sip martinis all night, but some of your guests might prefer beer or wine. For the beer drinkers at your Halloween party, there's 
The first time I had Yumpkins (pumpkin cheesecake bars with a poundcake crust) was my freshman year of college, at a parents' weekend reception held in my residence hall. My friend Amber made them as her contribution to the dessert buffet that we served up to accompany the student/parent talent show (I realize it sounds dorky, but it was really very fun). The Yumpkins made such an impression on my mom that she asked Amber for the recipe. 
I've never given much thought as to whether 
Maybe you were inspired by 
Most years, my parents grow pumpkins in their vegetable garden. One year a pumpkin got lost behind some particularly large leaves and was left to grow for an extra month after its brethren had been removed from the vine. By the time we discovered it, it was huge (and starting to shuffle its way off this mortal coil). 
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
