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Paula Deen's pumpkin bars.

I think of it more like cake, but it can be cut into bars. The moistest cake you've ever tasted, spiced with just cinnamon, and topped with cream cheese frosting. I make it in the middle of summer I love it so much!

i love this cake -- make it all year, and always on thanksgiving.

pumpkin spice cake

3 c flour
2c sugar
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
2 c vegetable oil
1 15 oz can pumpkin
4 eggs

combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat at medium speed for 4 minutes. pour into greased and floured 12 cup bundt pan. bake at 325 for 1 hour or until done {there should not be any wet spots under the top cracks and a tester should come out clean}.

cool 20 min and turn out on rack.

you can easily up the spices on this -- i quadruple the ginger and use one teaspoon of ground and about a tablespoon of freshly grated. i also use more cinnamon and more nutmeg.

i either top this with a glaze made by combining fresh OJ and zest with butter and confectioner's sugar or with a butter and cream cheese frosting.

we're always too full to have this on thanksgiving after dinner, so we have it the next day for dessert after eating our turkey sandwiches.

Luna! haha My Sarnia self? I'm, surprised you remember it! I'll take a look at that cookbook! If anyone is interested here is the link for that bread - it looks so good!

Pumpkin Bread

if you like indian food, try adding chunks of pumpkin to a recipe for sambhar (google it).

PS: Crap still tastes like crap, even when cooked in a WOOD FIRED oven.

My respect for Ed has just gone up another 10,000% for recognizing Sal and Carmine's as the best new york style slice in NYC, hence THE WORLD. I hope to see you there someday Ed, I usually get my slices after I move my car for alternate side parking.

There are a couple pizza places upstate that you would be interested in trying the next time you're there. Picnic Pizza: they have two locations, one in Kingston right off the thruway exit, and one in Saugerties, in the little strip of commercial area where the Grand Union used to be. They boast WOOD FIRED ovens, and make a mean neapolitan style pie.

My local fave for real sit down food, is PicNic (purely coincidental) between 101st and 102nd on bway. Very good food if a little pricey, but sometimes you just want quality.

I'm pretty sure other New Englanders might have different answers (which is the sign of a truly local food, imho), but a frappe is ice cream and milk while a freeze is ice cream and soda water (and maybe syrup or other ingredients).

in los angeles:
IL TRAMEZZINO BEVERLY HILLS-
chicken special (pesto sauce, provolone, grilled chicken. sundried tomatoes panini-ed to perfection)
croissant nutella (nutella alone or with bananas and/or strawberries also panini-ed to perfection on a croissant)

IRV'S BURGERS WEST HOLLYWOOD-
amazing burgers and good prices to boot

BRENT'S DELI NORTHRIDGE-
better then any nyc deli guaranteed

SUSHI MON LOS ANGELES
nothing beats spicy tuna mixed with fresh slices of tomatoes on top of rolls and amazing quality and quantity for the price!

I love 2Amys, ChristineB. I wrote about it in my pizza book, Slice of Heaven.

I almost forgot to mention my absolute favorite under the radar joint here in NYC. Kar Won, a grubby little chinese joint on 60th btwn Lex & Park makes Dan Dan noodle soup that is the best hangover cure in existence. And their pork & pickles soup is pretty spectacular as well.

Out in my neck of the woods (Bay Ridge) my favorite go-to restaurant is Polonica on 3rd Ave. The clear borscht with mushroom uzka and their pirogies are perfect.

Salumeria Biellese on Eighth Avenue for Italian sandwiches, Blue Ribbon Market for open-faced sandwiches, Roast Pork Egg Foo Young at La Caridad, 78th and Broadway, Isabella's Oven for Neapolitan-style pies, Sal and Carmine's for perhaps my favorite slice in Manhattan, Roast chicken hero at the Dominican restaurant on 25th Street just east of Seventh Avenue, Chinese Barbecue Spare Ribs at Pig Heaven, I could go on for a long time. Again, I'm listing places that are generally under the radar.

Tommaso's for spinach pizza in San Francisco. There's a table in the back with a sign that says "reserved for family" which makes you feel like part of the mob or something if you get seated there.

Liled's Candy in Vallejo, CA (NE of San Francisco) for great homemade ice cream and candy in what was probably once a nice neighborhood but is now a bit run down.

This might just be a personal favorite since I used to work there, but for a California deli it's pretty darn good: Village Delicatessen in Benicia, CA (also NE of San Francisco, you can pass through on the way to Napa). Though they have changed hands recently so I can't promise anything.

Perhaps it's time I get a local fave in a city in which I actually reside...