Bah! Pumpkin!

[caz963]

We're not great Halloweeners here in the UK. The kids love it, but a crotchety old thing like me remembers the days when we didn't bat an eyelid on 31st October. Now, of course, you can't move for bats in the shops from about July onwards.

It's not that I object to Halloween itself - it's an ages old festival anyway. I just don't like the way that it's been so ruthlessly promoted over the last 15 years or so, as a purely commercial exercise.

Yes, I know. Christmas is no different. Except - that it sort of is. Because we've always "done" Christmas and it's always (for as long as I remember) been commercialised. Okay, maybe it wasn't back in the year dot in Bethlehem, but hey - presents?! And you know what I mean.

But the explosion of Halloween over the past decade or two over here is due to nothing other than greed on the part of retailers who are desperate to rake in some money before the big bang of Christmas. And that annoys the hell outta me. I'm sure that, if Christmas had just been invented, or if we were adopting it as a custom that had emerged in another country, things wouldm't be any different.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't bug me.

The good thing about Halloween is the abundance of pumpkins in the shops... which all seem to disappear on 1st November. I remember trying to get one around here the week after Halloween last year, and it was impossible! This year, however, I plan to buy a few over the weekend and either cook the flesh and freeze it or just cut it up and freeze it raw. Any recommendations?

I am also possessed of one of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen, courtesy of a friend of my MiL. It's huge - took up about a quarter of the space in the back of the car when we came home! I haven't weighed it, but I reckon I'll get at least 6 pumpkin pies and a few pints of pumpkin soup out of it. My thoughts are also turning to things like pumpkin risotto (I'll make it up if I can't find a recipe) and pumpkin ravioli. Yum.

Half-term means that it's time to make the Christmas cake and pudding, both of which have duly been done. Well, the pudding has a few hours left to steam, but that's it.

Right - the kids want to make Halloween biscuits, so I'm off.

Comments

[canterlevi.livejournal.com]

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/pumpkin-risotto-recipe/index.html

Let me know how it turns out!

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ta!

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

Halloween has long been a tradition around here but I'm still with you on the increased commercialization. Now you're expected to buy all kinds of decorations and put up lights and have a party. So far we've resisted that and stuck to buying a costume for Chicklet (which I bought last year on sale \o/) and carving a pumpkin.

I'm curious though. Why Christmas cake and pudding now? Do they need to sit for a while?

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Tradidional Christmas cake and puddings are supposed to be allowed about 8 weeks to "mature". We also 'feed' our cake with copious amounts of brandy over that period :-)

[salr323.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. We used to have Halloween parties at Brownies and fancy dress competitions, but all this decorating of houses and trick or treating is very new and feels like a bolt-on rather than an actual custom.

Still, I guess for our kids it will seem like something that always happened. Bah-humbug, nonetheless. (Nice icon btw! lol)

[hooloovoo_42]

Ditto in the Halloween parties at Brownies/Guides. We did apple bobbing and costumes, but nothing like trick or treat. If we made lanterns, they were made from swedes or turnips.

I was stunned to find out how much USians pay for costumes for their kids. I saw an advert last week that said "all costumes reduced to $80". HOW MUCH!!! For a frakkin' costume they're gonna wear onece. I think NOT!

Bah Humbug!

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

Heh. As an USian, I will say that price would make me choke as well! I spent about $10 and it'll go into her dress-up bin after Halloween where it'll get used whenever she has friends over.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I remember doing stuff like that, too, but definitely no trick-or-treating.

I found the icon last year I think and it was too good to pass up *g*

[flippet.livejournal.com]

Make sure you've got pumpkins of the right variety for cooking/eating.

I mean, I don't cook, so I know nothing of the details, I only know that some varieties are good for making jack o'lanterns, and some are good for eating, and they don't always cross over.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I actually read an article yesterday which talked about "culinary" pumpkins - I wasn't aware there wae a difference!

I'd have thought that as there isn't a huge market for them over here, that they'd be likely to be the eating variety, but then again, most people buy them to carve and probably throw the flesh away (idiots!), so who knows?

Mind you, whatever type I had last year made a more than decent pumpkin pie ;-)

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's been a couple of years since i made pumpkin, but here's what i remember. I'm pretty sure that it is strongly recommended to cook pumpkin before freezing. There are websites that can give you the 411 on such things, unfortunately i seem to have lost the bookmark for the page that i used.

All pumpkins can be cooked. Yes, certain types are "preferred" for making pies, etc., but any pumpkin is edible. The small ones are generally sweeter and smoother, but i cooked some pretty large ones and didn't have to use as much sugar in my pumpkin pies that year as i would have done with canned pumpkin. In fact, we ate some of it when it was done cooking, before freezing, plain, no sugar at all, and it was delicious. The smaller the pumpkin, the easier it is to get into the oven, and the faster it cooks, but the large pumpkin will cook up fine.

I wish i had the time to cook up all my pumpkin fresh...maybe next year. Just one more semester, just one more semester, just one more semester...please God.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I don't have much time to cook these days either :( I do enjoy it, and I try to do simple stuff with the kids when I can, but Mr Caz cooks day-to-day.

We can't get canned pumpkin here, I don't think, so I have to use fresh anyway.

[foreverdreaming.livejournal.com]

Tip - you can get what i'm told is the best american brand of canned pumpkin from the American Soda website. I think it's called Laura's or something?

[canterlevi.livejournal.com]

Garrison Keillor, an American humorist, has pointed out that the worst pumpkin pie you've ever had is really not all that worse from the best pumpkin pie you've ever had.

[lurkmuch.livejournal.com]

We get a ton of winter squash with our farm share, and I usually find it easiest to cook it (either cut up in a veggie steamer on the stovetop, or cut 'em half and microwave them cut side down in a little bit of water.) I measure them out into 1 cup servings and stack them up separated with wax paper, throw it into freezer bags and voila, ready for baking/cooking later. (I have grand dreams of making pumpkin cupcakes with brown butter-bourbon frosting for Thanksgiving. Which may only be a dream, but it will be a lovely one.)

Pumpkin risotto sounds yummy. I meant to make some last year and didn't get around to it.

If you're interested, I have a personally tested, reasonably easy, totally delicious recipe for Winter Squash Cream Sauce (I've made it with butternut, although the recipe says either butternut or pumpkin) involving leeks and cream and sage that is *excellent* over cheese tortellini.

[foreverdreaming.livejournal.com]

It's weird, I know I'm a bit younger than you, but I ALWAYS remember trick or treating. But then I grew up in Scotland until I was 8, and the other day I heard someone make a comment about how Halloween is a bigger deal in Scotland than in England. I'd never really been aware of that before, but maybe that is part of it?

I'm sure trick or treating is a bit different in Scotland too (or at least it was in the 80s!). We all had to tell a funny halloween joke to get whatever goodies people were handing out. And invariably those goodies ended up being about 50% monkey nuts. And when we moved to the north of England I seem to remember being puzzled my first halloween there by neighbours handing out pennies....

[hooloovoo_42]

Even when I was a kid (looooong ago), I remember seeing stuff on Blue Peter and other shows about ToT being big in Scotland. In Yorkshire, 4 November is Mischief Night, which is when kids went out playing tricks on the neighbours. And in the run up to Bonfire Night, kids used to collect "Penny for the Guy".

Different areas had different traditions, all of which seem to have given way to USian imports, promoted by the purveyors of greetings card and sweets.

[kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com]

I cook, puree and then freeze my pumpkin. Same thing with zucchini at the end of the summer.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I cooked and froze about six pounds of pumpkin flesh yesterday, AND made a pie!

[anatolealice.livejournal.com]

We used to try trick or treating when I was a kid (about 9 or 10 - this was in the mid 80s). There was a hell of a lot of walking for very little sweet stuff. Half the people just gave us a lecture on how this isn't America (a lecture we'd already heard from our parents before we left home) and even if they were charmed my our costumes and happy to participate, most people do not have stashes of lollies/sweets/candy at home. We were lucky to get a few chocolate biscuits. Still, it was good fun.

[radiantbaby.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to hear about Hallowe'en from a UK perspective.

Around here (in Atlanta, GA), while there is definitely a lot of Hallowe'en related retail all over, I haven't seen any trick-or-treaters for years (and I know that my parents, who live across town, have said the same thing). I think parents have just become very worried about the safety of their children, so they only bring them to Hallowe'en parties, but don't let them wander the streets (like I did as a youth in the 70s-80s).

I suppose that ultimately works to my advantage because I never get round to buying candy for them anyway, so I'd have to ignore the door anyway. I know my parents still do, but end up eating all the candy themselves!

[cordeliasmarz.livejournal.com]

Sorry this is so incredibly late but I had loads of posts open in my tabs I hadn't got round to reading!
Basically, I really agree with you on all of this
I hate the totally commercialised aspect of Hallowe'en (ie. pretty much all of how it is to us at the moment)
I think it would be really great for it to be more traditional and celebrate it in a way that means more than it does right now
As it is, I don't bother with it
I hate the idea of "Trick or Treat" and just going round getting sweets
I like the dressing up but I feel like there's so much potential in this holiday that's not really taken up
I learnt about the traditions etc. at one point but don't remember now! It sounded really interesting anyway and something that would be fun to celebrate in a proper way
So yeah.
That is all :)
Hope you enjoyed your pumpkins :D