Monday, October 25, 2021

Pumpkins

Every October our neighborhood is filled with pumpkins, ghosts, haunted houses, covens of witches, pretend grave-stones, giant inflatable spiders, and many more Halloween-themed gardens and elaborately garnished houses. I’ve posted photos of these wonderful and imaginative decorations before, and many of the neighbors reuse and expand the same tableaux every year. Next door to us, there’s a new, simple and delightful yard scene:

I’m thinking a lot about pumpkins, thanks to all the nearby displays, but I’m thinking about pumpkins as food! My own favorite pumpkin dishes are pumpkin soup, pumpkin stew, and pumpkin sautés, all with savory spices and usually lots of onion and peppers. I posted my pumpkin lasagne recipe a few years ago:

 https://maefood.blogspot.com/2010/11/pumpkin-lasagna-recipe-by-request.html

My choice is always for fresh pumpkin with some of the crisp texture preserved: never canned purée! Sweetened pumpkin dishes flavored with the traditional “pumpkin pie spice,” such as pumpkin pie, turnovers, muffins, and cheesecake don’t appeal to me as much. Least of all do I like sweet pumpkin beverages. The less said about Starbucks, the better.

Pumpkin Juice

I do want to mention Harry Potter, though, and the amusing beverage pumpkin juice that was served at Hogwarts. Another clever twist in these most-imaginative books. Obviously, witches want pumpkin. (Obviously? Well, yes.)

The Hogwarts Dining Hall.
Did pumpkin juice even exist before Hogwarts? Surely not very much. I find the idea quite unpalatable, though the many recipes on offer web-wise add lots of sweeteners like brown sugar, other fruit flavors, and a hefty dose of  “the spice” to balance out the actual pumpkin taste. I suspect the young witches were drinking straight pumpkin juice: they are different from you and especially me.

Boozy Pumpkins?

“11 Pumpkin Cocktails to Try Right Now” by Naren Young”—  https://www.liquor.com/articles/pumpkin-cocktails/  — recently appeared on a website about all things liquor. I’m not much of a cocktail drinker (I have had one cocktail in approximately the last two years) but I find this to be a very entertaining article. It mentions a Sazerac, a Flip, a Buck, a Toddy, a Nog, a Margarita, a Ramos Gin Fizz, a Piña Colada, a Whiskey Sour, a Gimlet, and an Old Fashioned made with pumpkin, as well as a few others. I do like cocktail names!

Naren Young’s  Pumpkin Punch, served in little pumpkins.
Contents: "bourbon and ginger liqueur with apple,
lemon and pineapple juices, pumpkin puree and a fall spice syrup."
Maybe this is what the house elves concocted for the Hogwarts’ faculty.

Whatever you drink for Halloween, I hope you will have a great holiday! I still haven’t decided if I will invite the trick-or-treaters this year. It’s still a little risky, I think, though I’d love to see the costumes.


Blog post © 2021 mae sander, photos as credited.

23 comments:

Divers and Sundry said...

Pumpkins are purely decorative for me. It was never a food we ate while I was growing up, and I've never expanded my food horizons in that direction. Maybe this season would be a good time...

Kitchen Riffs said...

Fun post, and those are some interesting pumpkin drinks. I think if I had to make a pumpkin cocktail -- and I'm not sure I want to! -- I'd probably do a pumpkin hot buttered rum, adding some pumpkin puree and allspice dram to dark rum and hot butter, garnished with a big knob of butter. Might add some apple brandy to the mix, too, or some apple cider. :-)

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I cooked a pumpkin a few years ago. I made soup and I made a pie. I've never seen a Harry Potter movie or read one of the books, so I would not be tempted to try pumpkin juice, if it even exists. I DO like your take on pumpkins and your neighbor's cute display.

kathyinozarks said...

I enjoyed your pumpkin post, I have heard of a pumpkin margarita but although I do love pumpkins in foods not sure I would enjoy it in a margarita haha. Happy T wishes

thecuecard said...

Pumpkins cocktails sound fun. Haven't tried that before. Pumpkin dishes are all pretty healthy right? I love pumpkin pie! Just keep the pie coming. Happy Halloween.

Kate Yetter said...

I love pumpkin in food but I am not sure about drinks. I may have to try some out to decide.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate

Linda Kunsman said...

Pumpkins! I love them to decorate with, to eat in savory or in sweet dishes, and uh, I do enjoy the flavored coffee in season too;) Happy T day!

My name is Erika. said...

Pumpkins are the fruit of the day. And they are good in so many ways. Thanks for sharing. And have a wonderful T day too. Hugs--Erika

Sharon Madson said...

Love all the pumpkins. Happy T Day!

nwilliams6 said...

Mae,

I love pumpkin fresh or out of a can. It is one of my favorite Fall treats. I love your post with all these great pictures and ideas. I am going to try that lasagna! TFS!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I should have realized this was for T Tuesday. Thanks for joining in again this week. BTW, I want to be invited to Naren Young's party, so I can drink out of one of those little pumpkins.

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

There were pumpkins everywhere in Holland, and lots of places getting ready for Halloween. I'm not so sure about pumpkin juice either and also prefer this as a vegetable as is.

Anne in the kitchen said...

I am not a big pumpkin fan but love the ice of using a pumpkin as the punch bowl.

Iris Flavia said...

What a first very cute pic! I would call Ingo to get rid of that spider, though ;-)
Sadly this year the summer was so bad on the market you cannot buy pumpkins (the vendor is an honest person, they came out dry like wood).
Booze is a new one in this context! Interesting, I´ll keep that in mind!

Lisca said...

That is a fun post! I loved reading your pumpkin lasagna recipe and I would to love giving it a go. We haven't got many pumpkins yet as it is early in the season, but we can get butternut squashes in the supermarkets. But come November, I will probably get given a few pumpkins and i will make this lasagna.
The pumpkin cocktails looked interesting. Of course many of the ingredients are unknown to me, like pumpkin ale and pumpkin butter and pumpkin soda. But it sounds fun. Pumpkin essentially has a (fairly) neutral taste so you can combine many things with it.
Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca

Valerie-Jael said...

I think the Hogwarts House Elves used magic to make the pumpkin juice taste nice! Happy T Day, Valerie

Tina said...

I love the pics of your neighborhood! Also being a Potterhead I liked the nod to pumpkin juice!

DVArtist said...

Wow Mae this is a great post. Pumpkin cocktails brilliant.

Jeanie said...

What a fun post! I really love those pumpkins on the pink chairs, especially!

Let's Art Journal said...

Such a fabulous post! I love everything pumpkin so this was fun 😀. Happy T Day! Hugs Jo x

CJ Kennedy said...

Pumpkins catching rays on Adirondack chairs. My kind of fun in the sun. I like pumpkin in bread and muffins. Pumpkin pie is okay, though not my favorite. We don't get any trick or treaters haven't since my girlies were in their teens. The problem with living in a rural town with no sidewalks. The school puts on a trick or trunk event and the main fire station has a ghoul parade on the town common and then treats at the firehouse. Happy T Day and have a Happy Halloween! 🎃

pearshapedcrafting said...

The link seems to have disappeared from E's blog so i am going down here comments list to visit. Blogger is being a real pain to me on my new computer and I am back on the old one now-fingers crossed.
Halloween is a much more celebrated holiday in the US but I do love Pumpkins and there are plenty around in the UK these days. Pumpkin punch sounds great.
In reply to your comment on my blog - yes we did the sights years ago and only go to them if we are with someone new to Paris. We are never disappointed with the places we come across. Hugs, Chrisx

Empire of the Cat said...

I love the idea of pumpkin juice when they mentioned it in Harry Potter, but I wonder how much juice you can get out of a pumpkin lol. Happy belated T Day Elle/EOTC xx