Monday Recipe - Pumpkinfest

So what did I do the weekend after gorging myself on two big Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday? Well, cook of course!

Christmas this year is going to be a lot of homemade stuff. I'd already made apple butter, and decided I was going to try my hand at pumpkin butter (I had some from the farmer's market that was delicious). So, Wednesday afternoon I headed to my local farmstand. And they had only one pumpkin left. I hadn't realized that pumpkins are nearly past season, but apparently it's so. And I should've taken a picture with this pumpkin, because it was an 18lb monster.

Saturday morning, I cut up the pumpkin into manageable pieces and popped it in the oven to bake (after having only once cut up and de-skinned a large pumpkin to make soup, I'm NEVER doing that every again, for the health of my poor hands and shoulders. Cutting up a raw pumpkin is HARD!). But because the pumpkin was so large, it took two shifts in the oven and about three hours total. I scooped the pumpkin out of the shells and put it in the fridge while I went off to enjoy the rest of my day.

On returning home around 9 or 9:30 with some DVDs and some hard-found mason jars (apparently these are going out of season too), I mixed up the seasonings into the pumpkin because it says to let it sit and marinate for 8-10 hours. Watched Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Cute movie. Set spiced pumpkin on the counter to marinate overnight. I put it on the stove around 9:30a to cook down while I made eggplant parm (with farmer's market kale and mushroom instead of spinach and portabello). I finally started bottling the pumpkin butter around 4p. If you follow the recipe below, it will take much less time than that. I made a quadruple recipe (the original recipe said it would take about 1 hour to cook down), and it made 12 jars of butter.

Pumpkin Butter

3 1/2 cups of fresh and canned (unspiced) pumpkin
2 1/2 cups of brown sugar
1/2 cup water
juice and zest of one lemon
T cinnamon
t ginger (I ran out, so barely had any in there, and it came out fine)
t allspice

Bake the pumpkin in the oven until soft and scoop out contents into a bowl. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, this could take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.

Mix all ingredients except water into the pumpkin and let stand in room temperature for 8-10 hours.

Put spiced pumpkin in a large pot on the stove and add water. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until it has reduced down to jam consistency. I had more trouble figuring out when this happened with the pumpkin butter because it was naturally chunkier than the apple butter (which I had smoothed out in a food mill). Definitely set aside some time for this part of the process. If you're making the recipe above, it might be quick, because the original recipe did say it would take about 1 hour. However, both times I've made jam (in admittedly large batches), it has taken me the majority of the day. If you're unsure whether it's the right consistency, try spreading some on bread to test it out.

There are a lot of different methods of canning. Some boil the jars into a big pot, pulling them out with tongs. Some run them through a dishwasher. One of the suggested methods I found works well for me - it's to put the jars opening side up in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes. While they're sterilizing in the oven, I put the lids in boiling water. Then with tongs, I take out one jar at a time, fill it with pumpkin butter, and set it on the counter. I then fish out one of the lids, dry it off with a clean cloth, and close the jar tightly. Then tip the jar upside down on the counter to cool (I'm told that doing this will help the seal because the butter is right next to the jar top).

Fun New Foods: Durian Fruit

The main distinction about durian fruit is its notorious smell. It's a native of Asia, where the fruit is banned in public places, such as subways, malls, and hotels. That just piques my interest right there. Mother Nature created a fruit, which people actually eat, that's so noxious-smelling that it had to be banned in public places? Color me curious.

It's called "The King of Fruit." If I were a fruit, I'm not sure I'd want my king to be a stinkypants odor-challenged mega-fruit, but hey, to each their own, right?

Anthony Bourdain, the chef and food writer, described durian thusly "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother."

Ok, so, perhaps not such a pleasant experience. But if it's that bad, then why do people eat it?! Perhaps it's like stinky cheese. Some of the best European cheese (don't get me started on the flavorless pasteurized cheese here in the States) smells as bad as your week-old sweaty socks. But tastes quite yummy when spread on bread or a cracker and eaten with relish (the emotion, not the food).

Hence a quote from a British traveler to Asia in 1599: "It is of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavor all the other fruits of the world."

Funny durian story involving a space suits, spray cans, and chastened hotel guests can be found here.

I find it amazing though, given how intermingled our senses of taste and smell are, that something that's quite that odiferous could turn into something quite so tasty. Maybe it's an acquired taste? Or maybe there's something in it that's just really tasty once eaten, just like there are some foods that smell great but then aren't so tasty (the roasted chestnuts they sell in the subway, for instance). But to some accounts, the durian flesh is almost like vanilla pudding, very creamy, and doesn't taste at all like the smell would suggest.

I've oft been curious about durian fruit. I've read about it in travelogues. I've seen it in the Super 88 (Chinese grocery store with tons of random international foods). I wouldn't have a problem buying some and trying it, because trying wacky new things is fun (I actually offered people Mexican-spiced dried worms at a party once, partly to see the looks on their faces. Only one person took me up on it).

But here's the thing, I have a really sensitive nose. So I don't want to put the durian fruit in my car, because the smell will stick around. I don't want to eat it outside, because I might get covered in the durian juice and then become stinky myself. I don't want to bring it home because then my condo will smell worse than the pig farms I've driven past in the countryside. So where do I eat it? If they offered it on a menu, I'd totally try some. But then, it would probably scare away all the customers, because they'd come in to the restaurant and then turn around and leave right away.

Maybe I should just wait until I finally manage to get to Asia and try it over there.

Have any of you tried durian fruit? If so, what was it like? If not, any inclination?

The Wonderful World of Snacks

So I'm at the Boston Mania fitness conference today and (surprise surprise!) one of my big focuses is food. I'm going to be running around all day setting stuff up, lifting and carrying, trying to stay hydrated, and trying not to get so hungry I eat my shirt. Normally, my morning snack at work is a slice of multi-grain date toast with a thin spread of nutella, and my afternoon snack is the same toast with a thin spread of all natural creamy peanut butter. But not having a toaster puts a kibbotch on this plan. So what's a girl to do?

Healthy Snacks on the Go

1. Plain nuts (my faves are almonds and walnuts). Roasted and salted adds some unhealthy fat and a big dose of sodium. And frankly, I think they taste better plain (except peanuts, I don't like plain peanuts).

2. Dried fruit like apricots, cherries, cranberries, or goldenberries. They're sweet, but they don't have tons of calories or fat in them. And they're great paired with nuts. When I was in Cairo in May, I went through a big bag of almonds and another of apricots over the week.

3. Snack bars. The South Beach snack bars have a good amount of protein and taste pretty good, though they do have a bunch of those unpronouncable chemical ingredients I don't like so much. Kashi makes a cherry dark chocolate bar that's very yummy and have the whole grains to keep me full for longer (wow, now I sound like a commercial. I swear, Kashi hasn't paid for product placement....unless there's a Kashi rep reading this who wants to...).

Those three are really my go-to foods. I've also in the past brought oatmeal pancakes with me (dry oatmeal blended with cottage cheese, eggs, and spices and then cooked up into pancake form) and that works ok, but they're cold and rather dry, so not as appealing a snack.

Then there are the times when I'm not on the go.

Everyday snacks

1. The aforementioned toast with PB/jam/nutella/cheese. Protein generally tends to fill me up for longer, which is why I have the PB toast in the afternoon instead of the morning.

2. Fruit. Some people swear by having an apple/banana/orange for a snack. Me? That might keep my stomach busy for a half hour (if that), but that's about it! While tasty, I'm going to be left very soon noshing on something else. And the second snack is not likely to be more fruit.

3. Cookies/candy. Not a healthy option, but sometimes that's just what the body craves. The sugar will spike up your blood sugar and then drop you on your ass, but man is it tasty while you're eating it (then once you crash, you can eat some more). I went into a chocolate shop the other day and almost bought some elephant and donkey election truffles for a party, until I realized they were $3.50 a pop.

4. Protein bars. A healthier (and longer lasting feeling of full) option to candy is a protein bar coated in chocolate or vanilla or what have you. Because the protein in it will help you feel full longer. But they also tend to have lots of calories and hidden fat, as well as all those pesky unnatural ingredients. I used to eat them much more often (every day for my snacks, in fact), until I realized just what they had in them.

What do you snack on?

Friday Rant - I am NOT a fruit!

Ever since I was a low-esteemed teenager I've had trouble with using fruit terminology to describe people's bodies. Now that I'm a confident almost-30 year old, I have even more of a problem with it, but for different reasons.

And here's my problem, I have a classic hourglass shape. Large chest, good sized hips, small waist = hourglass. The problem? In the fruit system, this equals an apple shape. And granted, if I were to gain a bunch of weight, it would tend to center around my middle first, and would turn me into an apple shape. But as of right now, I am not and apple shape. But the fruit system doesn't allow for hourglass. It's apple or pear (is there another one I'm not aware of?).

Growing up, my mother used this system (she has a pear shape and would tell me I was an apple shape. Not to say I was large or whatever, but as a statement of fact, since that is how that system works). And I was a teenager in the 90s, and fully embraced the plaid shirt grunge trend, so my shirts went straight down from my chest, which did in fact make me look like I had a big round apple shape. So this made me feel like I was fat, even though looking at pictures now I realize I wasn't.

But now that I have a more confidence voice on me, I'm speaking out against this system, because really, there are so many more shapes than just apple and pear. I like this site, which seems a lot more reasonable. They list three body types:

1. Short waist - your body may be defined as an H shape, or column (Princess Diana, Anne Hathaway), or if you become overweight, you may become an apple shape (Dawn French) - am I supposed to know who that last one is? The thing I really like here is that it says that you may become an apple shape if you become overweight, not just if you have big chest and hips

2. Long waist - shoulders approximately the same width as hips, in either an 8 shape (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cate Blanchett) or hourglass shape (Jessica Simpson) - I have a really long waist, such that I can be shorter than a guy standing up, then taller than him sitting down

3. Shoulders narrower than the hips, then you're a V shape (Jennifer Garner, Keira Knightly - long waisted, Salma Hayak - short waisted), and if you really must use the fruit system "pear shaped"

I must say I like the letters and numbers system so much better. V-shape, 8-shape, H-shape, all good. No easy letter/number for hourglass, any suggestions?

I just feel like telling anyone, especially a young adolescent girl, that they're an apple shape, or even a pear shape (have you seen a pear? That bottom half is really big!) just reinforces any sense of low self esteem they already have about their body. Because even if you know you have an hourglass shape, you may not be confident about it, and being called an apple focuses your attention on your tummy and how big it is (even if it isn't all that big) and makes you feel bad about it.

Ok, now to get out of my teenage mind spiral. I am confident about my body now, given how well I eat and how much I exercise. I have the same twinges of body issues that all American women have, because seriously, in this society it's hard to get away from it. But I seriously bridle every time I hear someone called an apple shape or a pear shape. Even if someone is truly an apple shape with a "buddha tummy," I don't feel like it's positive reinforcement to say that to them (and isn't necessarily going to inspire them to lose the buddha tummy, even if they can).

Agree? Disagree? Never thought about it?