Photo of the Day: United Pumpkins of America
What do you do with all those leftover Jack-o'-Lanterns? Make a make of the United States made out of pumpkin rind!
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Entries from Required Eating tagged with 'pumpkins'
Heirloom Pumpkins
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
Until recently, I wasn't aware that you couldn't just buy any pumpkin and use it for cooking. There are jack-o-lantern pumpkins bred to be big and look good, and then there are pumpkins that are bred to taste good. Seems obvious now, and in fact I did know that most recipes that call for pumpkins are really better with butternut squash instead. But this year I got bitten by the pumpkin bug and was feeling like a purist.
So you can imagine my delight when I spotted some sugar pumpkins for sale last week at the Union Square Greenmarket. I bought a couple and planned to make a pumpkin and leek soup, spiced with some garam masala. Unfortunately, these sugar pumpkins also turned out to be tasteless with a texture that can only be described as ropy. Clearly I was in need of some pumpkin schooling.
Photo of the Day: Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin
For a take on pumpkin pie that's cuter than the traditional crusted version, try filling baby pumpkins with pumpkin pie filling. Lara Ferroni shares the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin accompanied by her beautiful photos on her food blog, Cook & Eat.
How to Carve a Pumpkin
The above video from About.com shows you how to carve a pumpkin in just three minutes!
...I mean, the video is three minutes long. It'll probably take you longer than that unless you have an electric saw. Whatever you do, don't hack it with a sword.
Carving a pumpkin is easy, results in a nice decoration, and is a good way to get our your aggressions if you want to stab something. Check out these links for pumpkin carving tips, stencils and inspiration:
- Pumpkin Carving 101
- Pumpkin Carving Tips - How to Carve a Pumpkin for a Jack-O'-Lantern
- Howstuffworks - How to Carve a Pumpkin
- How to Carve a Pumpkin Video
- Extreme Pumpkins (How-to, gallery)
- Pumpkin Way (Gallery)
- The Pumpkin Wizard (Gallery, patterns)
- Pumpkin Carving Templates
- Homestar Runner templates
And if you don't have access to a real pumpkin, there's always virtual pumpkin carving.
1,524 Pounds of Pure Pumpkin Power Wins the Contest
The grand prize of the 34th Annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-Off went to Thad Starr and his 1,524 pound pumpkin. How does one grow a pumpkin that large? According to Starr, all you need is "yards and yards of chicken manure, lots of mixed compost, and lots and lots of time." With enough hard work, a winning pumpkin can gain up to ten pounds a day during peak growing periods.
But what happens to these pumpkins after being declared "heaviest of them all"? One option: turn them into paddle boats.
