ingredients

to can or not to can? that is the question

by Patricia on November 4, 2010 · 8 comments

behold, the pumpkin.

A few years ago, I decided I needed to make a pumpkin pie using an actual pumpkin. Do you get these kinds of urges? I get them all the time. Like what’s the best kind of pie crust? How do you make brown sugar? And what would happen if I substitute a little butter with bacon fat in some chocolate chip cookies?

So I did it. I bought a sugar “pie” pumpkin. When I got it home, I realized I had no clue where to begin. So I consulted books and the internet to figure out what to do with the thing. And then I made a pie. A pie that will live forever in my memory.

While I do still use canned pumpkin, it has become a tradition of mine to make at least 1 pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin each holiday season. And since I buy one or two pie pumpkins as decorations anyway (they’re just cute), the pumpkins do double duty.

So if you have a sugar pumpkin in your decor, consider using it to its full potential.

Now let’s purée some pumpkin.

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make your own brown sugar

by Patricia on November 4, 2009 · 23 comments

brown-sugar

Sunday night, Dan and I were cooking dinner when we found ourselves in negotiations over the last half cup of brown sugar. He wanted it for the ham, I wanted it for the sweet potatoes and acorn squash. Just as Dan offered to split it with me, leaving us both a little short of what we really needed, I remembered the Molasses Episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown made white sugar into brown sugar. But… was there any molasses in Dan’s kitchen? I checked the baking pantry and came away happy. We both had enough brown sugar to cook without compromises, and dinner was saved (cue heroic music).
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