Morning 50: Looking for the Great Pumpkin

It's 0100 on a Wednesday morning, and I can't sleep.  So what do I do?  Just what any healthy, well-adjusted 23-year old guy would do:  I get up and start cooking and blogging.

To be fair, I suppose I'm not really cooking so much as assembling a cake, but it's still probably not the normal early morning activity for my peer group or most people.

Anyway, I'm writing as I'm waiting for my pumpkin ice cream to soften a bit sitting on top of the pumpkin cake I made so I can roll it up to finish off the double pumpkin roulade I started making last week before my adventures to Connecticut.  I like the fact that this dessert can pretty much be prepared and stored, though I may be stretching the limit as far as time before assembly goes.  When I was making both the ice cream and the cake last week (that's where Tuesday and Wednesday went), my home smelled delicious...maybe the best so far, or at least tied with the granola.  I never really knew what all went into "pumpkin spice" things, but it turns out that cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg do a pretty good job of it.  I have three more pumpkins that my sponsors gave me two weekends ago when I was there (it turns out they yielded plenty enough for the Project), and I don't quite know what to do with them.  Any suggestions?  I don't really want to make a pumpkin pie.  Not because I am suddenly above pumpkin pie, I just don't want another dessert around unless it's unusual.

So, the pumpkin spice puree that went into making the cake was fantastic, and the cake set very moistly so that I could roll it up and store it in the fridge on a sugared tea towel--that is to say, it would have been a tea towel if I had had a clean one handy; rather, it turned out to be a heavily sugared hand towel from my bathroom...it worked the same.  This time I gave the ice cream enough time to freeze hard in the baking pan to avoid a soupy disaster like at my sponsors.  And now, after letting the slab of pumpkin ice cream soften just enough to dimple when poked, I rolled it into the cake.  It's not as pretty as it could be, I think I needed to let it soften just a tad more before starting to roll to not break the initial bend, but I definitely have the idea down.  I think I'm going to bring this in to work tomorrow and see how it goes over.  I'll edit this post with pictures tomorrow, but I don't have my camera cord and such out right now, and I am trying to go to bed, after all.

I can't wait to taste the pumpkiny creation.  I'm very grateful that I have sponsors who take care of me so.  Homestead Gardens is about to start up their annual Fall Festival.  If you're in the Chesapeake region, it's worth checking out.  I wish I got all my produce from them, but I can't make it there every time I need something (and goodness knows I'm not prepared enough to make a list every time I head up that way).  Go check out that or any other fall festivals or fairs in your area.  Go with family, friends, or even on your own.  You never know what you'll learn, who you'll meet, or over what meal you'll end up sharing grace.

Happy Ham Day!

The Official 2010 Ham Day T-shirt

Today is Ham Day.  I enjoyed ham as part of my three meals today, did you?  For dinner especially, I adapted one of Patrick's recipes to make a ham/bacon linguine.  I sauteed some vegetables in butter (of course delicious), added some bacon (sounding better), then added a little ham, sherry, and chicken stock and cooked it down till it was thick enough to pour on the linguine.  I highly recommend something along those lines if you're looking for a non-tomato/non-cream pasta sauce.  It was easy, and you can put in whatever root sort of vegetables you want (leeks, onions, carrots, celery, etc.).


The below was written by my sister, the Prophet of Ham Day.  She did her part to spread the holiday this year by taking ham biscuits to school to share with her friends and teachers.  I really think this holiday is starting to take off.  I encourage you to read its history and mark your calendars for a year from today (and don't worry if you missed it, you can celebrate a day late):



Ham Day: some fear it, some turn their noses at it, some even doubt its existence. Well, I’m here to tell you once and for all that some, are wrong.

Ham Day is a time-honored holiday celebrating its eleventh anniversary this year. Its fans are concentrated mostly in Austin, Texas, its hometown. However, this fan base is growing, and all of y’all get to contribute.

Ham Day started, as so many great things do, in the mind of--most would say--a child prodigy. She had noticed the constant comparison of ham and turkey, a battle for the ages. People were taking sides, things were ebbing on outrageous. Manufacturers were trying to outdo each other with spices and packaging. Judgmental sidelong glances were being shot across the aisles of grocery stores based the contents of carts.   And the omnipresent question at every sandwich restaurant loomed over each customer, “Ham or turkey?!”

Society was losing it, the world had gone mad!

If something didn't change soon, we could’ve lost everything near and dear to us. Enter Clara Navarro, our protagonist. There could only be one winner.  There just wasn’t room enough in the fridge drawer for two deli meats.

Obviously, ham was the superior choice. To secure its place in the winner’s circle, she saw only one option: a holiday honoring all that is ham. She knew that it would be an instant hit and was right on all accounts. It continues to touch the very fiber of humanity’s being every year on September 20th.

The basis of Ham Day is simple: do all possible to show your love for this pig-derived wonder. That means its presence at every meal is mandatory. Shirts, hats, and banners announcing the sheer joy ham has brought into your life are heavily encouraged. Ham is a versatile food. There are endless possibilities and absolutely no excuses for a Ham Day, God forbid, lacking ham. Tell everyone you know, plan a festive dinner, host a hog-tying contest--whatever tickles your fancy, go for it!

The one rule: by no means, NO MEANS is there to be any turkey celebrating! Celebrating includes eating!

So now, armed with knowledge and filled with the spirit of this awe-inspiring meat, go forth and make a ham sandwich, fully confident that you have chosen correctly.

Coley Conquers Connecticut

The below is a guest post from Red, a friend I've had since the fifth grade, whom I visited this weekend in New Haven where she's being a real scientist:

I’m happy to be guest-blogging tonight, as Coley travels on a (fortunately) delayed train back to MD.  He brought his project along this weekend, whipping out the cookbook when he first arrived and after a quality day of Yale football and New Haven pizza, we made a somewhat scrambled shopping list for the evening.  We enticed my Swedish neighbor Mattias to come along when we mentioned Lingonberry salsa, which I’ll describe later.  One lesson, if you don’t start shopping until after 6, then you won’t be cooking until after 8, and the food tastes that much better when you finally start eating after 10, not to mention how incredible dessert can be at 1 am...  I diverge.  

In general, I think our meals were good efforts but we didn’t always cook exactly by the book, so I don’t know what Patrick would think. We did check off a few more recipes for the project.  Tonight we cooked the red pepper soup, but be careful because the cream sauce with Sambuca can turn to butter before you know it.  Coley cooked up his favorite corn and pepper saute, topped with bacon of course.  And, we followed with the lamb carpaccio on a bed of arugula and mystery greens.  The greens give the dish an important crunch, but perhaps we should skip the mystery greens next time and stick to the arugula.  Mattias whipped up a delicious dill mayonnaise, although he didn’t even put a dent in my preposterous stash of fresh dill coming from the garden this time of year.  We finished the meal with a team-effort Chocolate pecan bourbon pie, which is pretty much what it sounds like -- take everything delicious, put it in a newly acquired pie dish, and bake until it reaches the consistency of gooey-goodness.

We went to bed full, tired, and happy, and woke up just a few hours later to prepare breakfast before church.  I put together the lingonberry salsa -- lingonberry preserves, chili, cilantro, lime.  According to Wikipedia, lingonberries can be called cowberries, and are small red berries found most prevalent in Scandinavia and IKEA.  I’ll take the rest to Mattias to test the authenticity of the jam.  Coley cooked his potato crusted fish, and on the side I put together the spicy pecans.  The pecans could take a second try to perfect, I think Coley is up to it.  

I should mention also that Coley whipped up a giant batch of granola in no time at all, using whatever random oats, nuts, honey and maple syrup I had around, and I’ll be thinking of him as long as I’m snacking on this delightful treat.  My house smelled incredible all weekend, so I’d say Coley is the best house-guest ever, y’all should be fighting over who gets to host him next time!  Time for me to sign off, as I just finished a piece of leftover pie and I’m heading back for more.