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.

A Football Game In Ann Arbor

We walked past the Michigan Stadium — “the Big House” — just as the 100,000 spectators were
taking their seats and the kickoff was about to happen. Just sightseeing! We live around a mile from
the stadium. Michigan did win today: it’s been a good season so far. That’s Evelyn with her camera.

The tracks run quite close to the stadium. 100 years ago, there were trains from Detroit to
bring fans to the games, but that hasn’t been the case for a long long time. Now everyone
drives. We saw lots of parked cars and a few people winding up their tail gate picnics. 
As the game was beginning, we walked back home. Not really sports fans.

 

Dormitory Food: A Guest Post By Alice

ALICE WRITES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA:

In August I started my first year at the University of Virginia and I have been reflecting on all of the eats of the past weeks. College has been amazing so far and the food has been especially a high point. At UVA, first years get unlimited access to the three dining halls along with many restaurants on grounds to eat at. 

A Banh Mi Sandwich

O’Hill

I most often eat at the O’Hill dining hall, only a three minute walk from my dorm, and love staying there to study and chat with friends. For breakfast I usually get eggs, sausage, some form of potatoes, and a pastry, pancakes, or french toast. For lunch and dinner, I pick out my meal based on whichever station looks the best or has the shortest line. There is pizza, burgers and fries, the salad bar, sandwiches, and two to three different rotating meals. Additionally, there is a dessert bar that has cookies and sweets at all times of day as well as a self-serve soft serve station. I am still practicing up on my ice cream skills, thus my ice cream still looks a little funny when I get it. 

The main area of the dining hall with all the different stations.

Breakfast at O’Hill

Dinners and Lunches at O’Hill

I study while I eat. 

From the vegan station.

National Guacamole Day.

Yogurt station with fruit and granola.

Restaurants

In addition to the dining halls, my friends and I go out to eat on The Corner almost every weekend. Our favorite restaurants have been Asado’s, Mellow Mushroom, and Got Dumplings. We also go to a smoothie shop, called Juice Laundry, that is inside of the gym.

 

Restaurant Photos

Dome Dinner

Every year each first year residence hall is invited to a fancy dinner in the dome of the Rotunda. Ours was spectacular- strawberry feta spinach salad, rolls, pasta, couscous, flank steak, green beans, and a fruit crisp dessert. 

Dome Dinner Photos

The Rotunda at the University of Virginia. Designed by Thomas Jefferson.

At dinner: wine glasses with sweet iced tea or water.

Questionable Food Experiences

Although the food has been great at UVA, there have been a few dinners that were a bit weird. Most notable were the tofu pasta and the bean sauce on pasta. 

Pasta Photos

The outdoor dining and study area.

Blog post © 2021 mae sander and alice wanner.

All photos by alice wanner.

Evelyn’s iPhone Close Up

The latest iPhone, which Evelyn just received, has many new features, including a very good macro lens.

Popcorn.

Cumin.

Cloves.

Star Anise.

Anise.

Red pepper flakes.

Non-macro photo.

All photos by evelyn sander. © 2021.

A Few Beautiful Places

 

Riding on a Zodiac from our last excursion, which was kayaking and just lovely.
The trip had many really nice parts, as well as the long bus rides that made me complain!

Sunrise on the last morning, just before we left for the bus ride to the airport.
Of  course we are now at home.

Almost Home! A Post from the Airport.

One night on the ship I decided to try an actual cocktail while we went through another set of locks.
The bartender recommended this: “The Bee’s Knees” made with Tanqueray gin. I told him I wanted
something exotic.

The first winery we visited in Idaho was called “Rivaura” — it’s not well-known elsewhere.
The wines were ok but not super memorable; however, the scenery was quite beautiful.
The fields were used to grow alfalfa until around 7 years ago when the owner switched to vineyards.

Another Idaho vineyard, our last stop on the trip. All the grapes have been harvested,
and the 2021 vintage is already fermenting.

The wines from the last vineyard are sold mainly thorough the vineyard’s wine club. This winery uses grapes grown on the surrounding lands (which were formerly wheat fields) and also purchases grapes grown in eastern Washington. The wines were also ok, but we didn’t buy any.

For our taste, the trip included too much time on buses and not enough time outdoors viewing nature and wildlife. We saw only a few birds, and not enough of the rivers, other than from the boat. It was great to get away from home, and there were some fun times and nice conversations, but all in all this week was a bit disappointing. Several of our fellow-passengers agreed with this reaction.

I’ll be back to several of my blogging activities this week, and decided while waiting for the last leg of the plane trip, to feature some drinks we enjoyed on the trip, to share with the bloggers at Elizabeth’s weekly blog party.

Blog post © 2021 mae sander.

The Nez Perce

 We spent the day on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho, as shown on the map. Before we left, a story-teller from.the reservation sang and told stories in the ship’s lounge. We had a beautiful visit to the tribal museum and surroundings, and then went to two Idaho wineries that are on reservation land. I have many more photos, which I’ll post in the future… meanwhile, we fly home tomorrow.

blog post © 2021 mae sander.