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

[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.