Armchair Dining on DP

Growing up in Russia that was my understanding too: gourds, pumpkins are pig's food. When I first came to the US a pumpkin pie seemed like a joke to me. If offered I'd eat it, but I'd cover it up completely with Cool Whip. That flavor, how can anyone enjoy it without Cool Whip? Thankfully my wife doesn't like it either so we never have a pumpkin pie at home. But then again, some stuff they eat in Russia... Americans cringe every time they have to eat one of those things, things like "seledka pod shuboy" (YT video). Personally, I love it.

 

Last October I was served some pumpkin scones. Honestly I hadn't even heard of them, they weren't bad at all. Thinking of this thread I got my friend to e-mail me her recipe today.
All purpose flour...3 cups
Brown sugar........1 cup
Baking soda.........1/2 tsp.
Baking powder......2 1/2 tbsp.
Salt.....................3/4 tsp.
Ginger.................1/4 cup
Cinnamon............1/4 cup
Buttermilk............1/4 cup
Vanilla extract.......2 tbsp.
Butter..................1 cup
Lemon juice..........1/2 tsp.
Heavy cream.........1/2 cup
One can of pumpkin puree.

Preheat oven to 375. Put it all into a bowl and mix until a dough forms. Pat into 6" rounds on a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown for 20 minutes. Add glaze and they are ready to eat.

 

We are on the same page on that, but she used puree. I'm presupposing that it was a matter of convenience. Manipulating a heavy pumpkin and gutting it may have been too much of a challenge for her. I'm guessing her body weight at around 100 pounds.

 

LOL! Not only do we make pumpkin pie here, but we also make sweet potato pie and squash pie as desserts. I guess, for we Americans, there are not many items that cannot have sugar added to them to be turned into a sweet. Of course, we do eat sweet potatoes and squash as savory vegetables, but the only savory adaptation of pumpkin that I have ever seen is pumpkin soup. Your Irish friend might be horrified to learn that roasted pumpkin seeds are also a treat for us.

One of the issues here is that the typical pumpkin that is used for Halloween is not the right one for making a dessert. You need to find what are called "sugar pumpkins" to have the right taste in the confection. Canned pumpkin is much easier to find and use and is available year round, not just for a month or two in the Fall.

I would definitely try the "Herring Under Fur" dish! It looks pretty good. I have to admit that I have never a dish with fish and beets, but it sounds like it would be different and tasty. The lady in the video had a Christmas tree in the background. Is it a holiday dish?

Have never had a pumpkin scone. Will have to find one or convince the wife to make up a batch. Thanks for this recipe!

 

Yes!... I now feel vindicated. Only an American would know all about pumpkins as opposed to a Kiwi.

 

I will be honest with you: my experiences have been much better with canned pumpkin creations than when people try to use fresh sugar pumpkins. It could be because most canned pumpkin is not just cooked, but also correctly seasoned/spiced and generally tastes better to me.

 

Let's hear it for canned pumpkin:
Hip, hip, hooray!

 

Any holiday, including Christmas, other big occasions like weddings, b-days. It's a good question. Thinking back, I don't think my mom ever made that dish just for fun of it. It was always around a holiday or a b-day.

 

Not sure why, but for many years now my taste in pizza has changed quite a bit. If I am having a pizza with a tomato sauce base, I really only prefer it to be plain cheese with no toppings (very minimalist.) But, I really prefer pizzas with a white sauce or even a barbeque sauce over tomato sauce. My absolute preference, these days, is a white pizza with fresh tomato slices:



The biggest problem that I have is that the pizza joint that makes this pizza is generally frowned on (in favor of other places) by my wife and kids. What that translates to is that I do not get to eat this pizza very often.

Would love to hear/see your favorite pizza configuration!

 

"When you have a smile, like a big pizza pie that's amore" (Dean Martin). Mamma mia...now you talkin' my lingo...gooda for you!
Anyway my favorite is chicken/spinach pizza. This wonderment comes with lots of tomato sauce topped with feta cheese. Simple, but oh so sweet.

 

That sounds great, except I might substitute a white garlic sauce for the tomato sauce. Though, I could definitely eat it with tomato sauce. My favorite pizza with chicken, however, is a barbeque sauce with chicken and onion pizza made by California Pizza Kitchen which is a national restaurant chain (pricey, but worth an occasional visit) and this is what it looks like:




So, now I want pizza for breakfast this morning.

 

I can relate to the garlic but.....I have to deal with John Q. Public on a daily basis.(tenants, contractors etc.) I cannot afford to be going around with bad garlic breath.

 

So, what is your favorite topping(s)?

 

Here in New England, we call a ham and pineapple pizza a "Hawaiian Pizza" and it may be my daughter's favorite. My wife and I used to order a pizza with bacon all of the time, but have not in a while. Tomato and cashew pesto sounds interesting, though we have banned cashews from the house because it is possible (not entirely proven) that my son is allergic to them.

Anyway, after all of this discussion, I need to get some pizza! Probably just tomato sauce and double cheese.

 

Not everyone is into pizza, but everyone is into snacks. So why don't we talk about.......SNACKS?
My two favorite snacks are smoked oysters and vanilla yogurt. I retrieve a can of smoked oysters from the pantry, drain the oil, and put them on a saucer and grab a toothpick...yummee! Or I'll get a 6 ounce glass and fill it with frozen vanilla yogurt and grab a teaspoon....sooooo good!

 

Great idea! I have too many favorite snacks to list all of them here, but chocolate is typically involved. Here is my favorite candy bar:

 

Even though my place is located at the base of a ski hill I still manage to get a lot of kids at Halloween. You'd presuppose that their parents wouldn't want to drive all the way up the hill to get here, but they do. I've got all my Halloween decorations up...skeletons, witches, scarecrows, ghosts etc. And of course I've gone and bought my favorite chocolates to give out to the trick or treaters. They are namely Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Cadburys Caramilk Bars.

What inevitably happens is that there are always left overs, and take a wild flying guess as to who gets to eat them the day after Halloween!