off my gourd

Pumpkin is a delicious food. It is also relatively cheap, when purchased in a large can from the Safeway. Don't bother me with the roasting and pureeing by hand bullshit, cuz I'm just not going to do that. Whole pumpkins are for carving funny faces into while you remove and roast the seeds, then watching them decompose on your front porch. They are not for hand processing. At least, not for me. But I will buy a big can of Libby's and go nuts.

This was definitely a pumpkin-themed week, and not even on purpose. I just didn't want to waste any. First I baked a batch of my all time favorite cookies. They're soft pumpkin cookies that I adapted a bit, then added chocolate chips to satisfy my craving for chocolate. They're spicy, cakey, almost like a muffin top, and a bit chewy all at the same time. They're also orange and black in a completely non-food-coloring sort of way that I appreciate, so I call them my Halloween cookies. Delicious. Cannot stop munching upon them. Though I probably should.

But that only used one cup out of the big-ass can, so I made Pumpkin Penne for dinner the next night. Ground pork, onions, sage, pumpkin puree, a touch of half & half, cooked penne, then topped with bread crumbs and parm. Baked until I can't stand it any longer (about 15 minutes), and it's a wonderfully orange treat for dinner. Sorry, no pictures. I was in a hurry to eat it.

Then my play date. Over the weekend, a very close friend from the high school days (which was the last time we spent any significant time together) came over to play. She wanted to learn how to make cheesecake. Fortunately, this is an area where I have a bit of experience. Right out of culinary school, I worked as the morning baker at a quaint little bakery/cafe in my hometown. I would show up at 4am, whip out the morning bake, then spend the rest of my shift on pies and cheesecakes, which were both huge sellers. The cheesecake recipe is ridiculously simple, and I learned that simple = better, so I still use it today.

First, don't mess around with recipes that call for sour cream in the filling. Bah, that's just asking for trouble. Sour cream goes on top, and only on top. The filling should just be cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Plus whatever flavoring you want. Second, graham cracker crusts are the devil. Serious pain in the ass, and not really worth it. I use a simple sugar dough, made in the food processor, then pressed into the springform and chilled for a bit while working on the filling. It's much quicker and easier to work with, and sturdier when baked. Third, don't mess your pants if the top of the cheesecake gets dark brown. It's going to do that. That's what the sour cream is for.

Cheers to a job well done.

So we made our pumpkin cheesecake with the rest of that big freakin' can. Can finally emptied, poor persion "waste not, want not" tendencies satisfied. Pumpkin also happens to be my favorite cheesecake flavor. My friend went home with the recipe and a bunch of cheesecake, I kept the rest. Which is still in my fridge; a fact I'm very proud of.

Yesterday, CK decided he wanted to keep the pumpkin trend alive a bit longer. He very politely requested two pumpkin pies. Yes, two. He's nuts. I don't even like pumpkin pie (hence the cheesecake), but he vowed to eat it all before it went bad, or take some to work. So I became nice wife and made a batch of cream cheese pie dough (it gets puffier and doesn't use shortening or lard). I meant to make quiche this week anyway. So another big can of Libby's later, I now have two - count them, TWO (two pies, ah ah ah) - pumpkin pies in my fridge as well. Also no pictures. Everyone knows what pumpkin pie looks like.

So now I'm wondering if over-consumption of pumpkin will have any serious physical side effects, like turn my face orange a-la George Hamilton, or maybe make me pee orange until Thanksgiving.