Slow Saturday

For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies.
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
================Pilgrim verse, circa 1630

I've taken a break from the pumpkins today. Spent the morning by the fire with Gutenberg listening to music and only thinking about pumpkins when I planned the dinner. I have a beautiful cookbook by Troth Wells, "The World in Your Kitchen, vegetarian recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western kitchens with country information and food facts". There are several pumpkin recipes in it — today we tried "Colombo de giraumon" (spicy pumpkin) from Martinique. I'm sorry that I'm not able to share it with you because of the copyright.




But the bread I made yesterday is my own recipe. I like to use the stone ground flour that comes from a local mill, but use what you have.

1½ cups water
1 cup pumpkin
1 cup stone ground rye flour
3 cups stone ground wheat flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup cracked rye
1 tbsp sweetener
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp savory
1½ tsp yeast
½ cup lingon berries or cranberries

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins

Greek pépōn denoted a variety of melon that was not eaten until it was fully ripe (the word was a noun use of the adjective pépōn ‘ripe’). Latin took it over as pépō, and passed it on to Old French as pepon. Through a series of vicissitudes this evolved via popon to early modern French pompon. This was borrowed into English in the 16th century, and soon altered to pompion; and in the 17th century the native diminutive suffix-kin was grafted on to it to produce pumpkin.
from Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto

We have two (not so) super markets in my small town ,they both had pumpkins but not much to choose from — the other store had only huge ones. So I came home with two rather small ones. Tomorrow I start experimenting — I have some cookie recipes that I'll alter. Later I hope to have the strength to make a pumpkin dinner.

Blogger is running amok – it has taken me over half an hour to get this short entrance in place. Well I hope it is in place, at one point only parts of the text showed up.

Help needed

The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes by The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes with illustrations by Blanche Fisher Wright
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“What makes you run, my little lass?
You’re almost out of breath.”
“A pumpkin made a face at me,
And scared me half to death.”

What have I done?
I got a phone call from our local radio station today. My friend Steven, an American who lives not far from me, had given them my name and told them that I bake the yummiest bread and pies. That's only because I sometimes make him brownies, doughnuts and other things that are not so common here. (I just got a mail from his wife who told me that he had said that I'd probably kill him for this. Well, I'm not in the habit of killing people so I have to think out something else...)
Anyhow — I ended up promising to talk about pumpkins next Thursday. I'm supposed to share some of my recipes too.
So here I am wondering if I have promised too much. We can't buy canned pumpkins here, so I need to find some pumpkins very soon and start to experiment. The selection of pumpkins is minimal here — most pumpkins they sell are meant for decorations.
I'd love to hear from you — do you have a favorite pumpkin recipe. I've used pumpkins in pies, cookies and bread but very little in main dishes — can anybody help me there? You can either leave a comment or mail me (you find the address to the right, under the photo of me).
And I know absolutely nothing about different kinds of pumpkins — is it a good site where I can learn?