Category Archives: Pumpkins

The easiest pumpkin soup recipe ever and … my pressure canner to the rescue

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Everyone has their favourite pumpkin soup recipe.  My favourite is one I have posted before – Pumpkin, cashew and coriander soup.  It is a beauty (check it out here) but it does take a bit of effort.  And there are plenty of times when effort does not figure.  For those times, I have been dreaming of a recipe my mum used to make.  I had it hand written in my recipe book but somehow I lost it.  I did ask my sisters but to no avail.   I remembered the ingredients – chicken stock, pumpkin, tomatoes and onion but I couldn’t remember the proportions.

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Pumpkin espresso loaf cake

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I was going through my emails the other day, deleting like mad.  In this household, we get five of every email, we have two computers, an iPad, and two iPhones.  That is a lot of deleting.  To make matters worse, when we arrive at either Bridgetown or Perth, the in-box is chockers after not being open for up to two weeks.  On the night of arrival, I delete like crazy and, again, on the night before departure.  Sometimes, I get carried away and delete an important email or one I had saved to read – que sera, sera.

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Candied pumpkin

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I still have 14 pumpkins from last year’s crop and I am told it is very difficult (impossible?) to store them over summer.  Shit!  I was under the impression that they could last out the year.

Oh, well, …  I haven’t given up hope.  Everything I have read says keep them in a cool dry place.  As you all know, there is no such place during an Australian summer.  The only other advice I have read to prolong their life is to wipe them with disinfectant.  This protects them from  bacteria.  I washed my pumpkins in diluted Pine-O-Cleen, made sure they were perfectly dry, then put them in the cool room.  Here’s hoping.

Postscript:  I have just read this post where a pumpkin soaked in a weak bleach solution was still perfect after nine months.  There is hope. Continue reading →

Pumpkin sourdough loaf

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I showcased this loaf in my latest IMK post.  As I mentioned in that post, I always make the same recipe (this one) but, the other day, decided to make an effort and try something new.  And with all those pumpkins lying around, a pumpkin loaf seemed logical.

I must say, I was pretty happy with the loaf when I took it out of the oven but, at the time of writing my IMK post, I hadn’t cut the bread and tasted it.  The loaf was well risen and a delightful colour.  It verged on warranting the description, ‘beautiful’. Continue reading →

Spicy pumpkin loaf

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As you all know, I made my mum’s pumpkin fruit cake last week.  I am not a fan of fruit cake but thought I would make it because I have pumpkins galore.  Also, every now and again I do like to make something that my mum made.

In my hand written recipe book, on the same page as mum’s fruit cake is this recipe.   I had made it before but it was long forgotten. Continue reading →

Pumpkin fruit cake

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You know, I have never been a fan of fruit cake and I place the blame squarely on this recipe.

My mum was a take it or leave it type of person.  If you didn’t want what was on offer, then you could go without.  Many times I would be starving, as only a child can be, and I would ask mum, ‘What’s to eat?’  The answer was, invariably, ‘There is some pumpkin cake in the tin.’ There was always bloody pumpkin cake in the tin!!  For the whole of my childhood, I don’t remember there ever being another variety of cake in the tin. Continue reading →

Spiced pumpkin and walnut muffins

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These little guys look very rustic but geez they taste good.

A friend dropped in the other day.  Luckily, I had some muffins in the freezer so it was just a matter of zapping them for a few seconds to create an impromptu morning tea.  The situation reinforced to me how useful a few muffins the freezer can be.  When my friend left, I thought I would grab the opportunity to replenish our supply. Continue reading →

Pumpkin and Bacon Fritters

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“What, not fritters again?”,  I hear you say.  Which reminds me of a story Maus often relates.  Her nephew (who is now 40) as a small boy (about 4 years-old) was a very fussy eater.  The only thing he seemed to like was tinned baked beans.  Every time he visited his grandmother (Maus’ mum), she would give him what she thought was his favourite meal, baked beans. That is, until the day the poor boy exclaimed, “What? Not bloody bake-ked beans, again?”

I like fritters because, in my humble opinion, we eat too much meat.  Fritters are a great way to present a satisfying meal with no (or very little) meat involved.  These have bacon in them but, if you are a vegetarian, you could replace the bacon with grated haloumi. Continue reading →

International Scone Week 2012

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It is International Scone Week, according to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial (and she should know since she invented it).  I usually make Belinda Jeffrey’s buttermilk scones or Margaret Fulton’s sultana scones but both books are in Perth and I am down south. How silly of me not to come prepared.  I should have known it was International Scone Week:)  But, as luck would have it, I had brought down Merle’s Kitchen by Merle Parrish.  I was in business. Continue reading →

Pumpkin, Cashew and Coriander Soup

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The weather has finally broken in Perth and it is cool enough to consider soup.

Remember those pumpkins and the pumpkin soup recipe I promised?

This is my favourite pumpkin soup recipe, ever.  I found it in my November 2008 copy of Cuisine magazine.  Cuisine magazine is a NZ publication.  It’s a great food, wine and life style magazine.  It’s the only magazine to which I subscribe. Continue reading →