Pumpkin Chili

A friend bestowed upon me a glut of sugar pumpkins. So, I went online and began a search for pumpkin recipes. Turns out there's quite a few interesting uses for pumpkin, but for this post I'll confine myself to Pumpkin Chili. The pumpkin puree adds a hearty, earthy flavor. After making it a couple of times, I've come up with this version as a starting point. The great thing about chili is you can adapt and modify it any number of ways based on what you like or what you happen to have in the refrigerator and pantry. So use this as a starting point and improvise as you like!

PUMPKIN CHILI
Serve 8-10

Heat 1-2tbs oil in large stockpot, then saute until tender:

• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

Add to onions and green pepper, and saute until turkey is no longer pink:

• 1.25lbs ground turkey

Add following ingredients to ground turkey mixture, and saute 1-2 minutes more:

• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-3tbs chili powder, or to taste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Add the following to the seasoned ground turkey mixture:

• 2c pumpkin puree, fresh or 1-15oz canned pumpkin
• 2 - 140z cans diced tomatoes
• 2 - 14oz cans red kidney beans
• 2 - 4oz cans green diced chilies
• 1 - 15oz can chicken broth
• 1 - 15oz can tomato sauce
• 1 - 6oz can tomato paste
• water, adjust amount depending on the consistency you like
• salt and pepper to taste

Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Taste again and adjust seasonings to your liking.
Serve with your choice of toppings: sour cream, grated cheese, chopped red onions, diced avocado, chopped cilantro, etc.
Variations:
Instead of ground turkey, you can of course use ground beef, or add 1-2cups of cooked, shredded chicken to the chili towards the end of the cooking period, just to heat thru the chicken. Or for a vegetarian version, substitute 1cup of bulgur, first soaked in hot water for 15 minutes.
In place of some of the tomato sauce and paste, I've even used leftover pizza sauce. Love these "everything but the kitchen sink" -type recipes!
Note:
I included a link (see above) on how to make your own pumpkin puree. My own preferred method is to split the sugar pumpkin in half, scrape out the seeds, then place cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 45 min - 1hr. Just stick a knife or fork into the pumpkin and test to see if it is soft. Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, scoop out pumpkin. I like to use a ricer to "mash" the pumpkin, but a hand-held immersion blender works too. I also like to drain the pumpkin puree so it's not as watery. I simply rice the pumpkin directly into a fine mesh strainer and let it sit for an hour or so over a bowl.

Sesame Noodles

This is a favorite potluck/buffet dish of mine. It's fast and easy to make and it can be served cold or at room temperature. The recipe is from Barbara Tropp's classic cookbook, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking.


Orchid's Tangy Cool Noodles

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. To release any tangles, fluff:

• 1 lb thin Chinese egg noodles, fresh (see Notes and photo below)

Add noodles to pot of boiling water, stirring gently to separate the strands. Cook for approx. 2-3 minutes; you want the noodles to still be pleasantly firm to the bite. Drain immediately in colander, then rinse with cold running water so noodles do not clump together.

In a large bowl, mix the following:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3 1/2 tablespoons Chinese or Japanese sesame oil (I like the Kadoya brand)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons black soy sauce (see Notes and photo below)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons well-aged Chinese black vinegar (see Notes and photo below)
• 1/2 - 1 tablespoon hot chili oil (I put in the lesser amount for the kids)

Place cooled noodles in large bowl and toss gently with your hands to separate noodles and distribute the sauce. Add:

• 4 heaping tablespoons thin-cut green and white scallion rings

You can serve immediately, garnished with additional scallion rings or chill overnight.

Notes:

• I like the New Hong Kong brand of thin cut fresh egg noodles. You should be able to find them in the refrigerator section of any Asian market. I usually buy a few extra and freeze them for later use.

• Black soy sauce is a thicker, more syrupy version of regular soy sauce. The Pearl River Bridge brand (pictured on left) is called Dark Soy Sauce. DON'T substitute with regular soy sauce. The dressing will be too runny.

• The bottle on the right, Chinkiang Vinegar, is the Chinese Black Vinegar. Barbara Tropp says an acceptable substitute is balsamic vinegar, but since it's a bit sweeter, decrease slightly the amount of sugar. I say if you're at the Asian market getting the noodles and the black soy sauce, might as well get a bottle of the black vinegar!

California Academy of Science

With a certain amount of dread and trepidation, I took my three kids up to the City to check out the newly renovated California Academy of Science. Actually, I think it's been almost a year since they reopened, but based on the latest Yelp reviews it sounded like the crowds hadn't abated.

Nevertheless, with a little pre-planning, we managed to avoid most of the long lines and had a thoroughly enjoyable visit.

First off the bat, I scheduled a weekday visit and bought tickets online, printing them out at home. Upon arriving, we walked right up to the entry door, sidestepping the long line to purchase tickets. Consensus is you should arrive at 9:30am (opening time) or even earlier, but we didn't get there till 10:45am and it still worked out fine for us. But I did notice by Noon, the entry lines were very long and they were letting in only a few visitors at a time.

But on to our events of the day. Because I had a 5 year old, we couldn't see the Planetarium show (recommended for 7 and older), so we skipped that. However, for those interested in seeing the show, you'll want to head straight over to the Planetarium (where you'll most likely encounter another line) to get a ticket. There's no additional cost, but you must have a ticket in advance in order to see one of the shows shown every hour on the half hour. The same goes for the 3D Bug show on the 2nd floor. If you have two adults in your party, split up and have one stand in each line. The tickets are usually gone by Noon.

For us, we headed straight for the Rainforest. It has a Disneyland-style line that wraps around the exhibit with signs indicating how long the wait is from that point. We started at the 10 minute sign, but saw waits as long as 30-40 minutes later in the day. The exhibit covers 3-stories representing the levels of a rainforest - the Floor, the Understory and the Canopy + Emergent. The kids loved the challenge of finding the bugs, frogs, snakes and other fascinating creatures in the displays, many of which were sooo very tiny and sooo very well camouflaged. I was amazed at the sight of tropical orchids, pitcher plants and mango trees growing in our temperate San Francisco, albeit in an enclosed, controlled environment. And we all loved the eye-popping, technicolor butterflies that flitted about, close enough to touch. Don't forget to dress in layers as it gets warm and humid in the Rainforest!

After a little over an hour in the Rainforest, the kids were hungry so we found our way over to the Piazza where we managed to snag a table and chow down on the lunch I had packed and brought from home.
The museum doesn't seem to have a problem with visitors bringing their own food and drinks as I saw several people toting small coolers. It sure beats standing in another line and paying $8 for a sandwich. If the kids need some fresh air and room to run, another nice place to eat is the Academy Garden. There's one located at each end of the museum.

Other sights we saw after lunch included the Living Roof,

a Penguin feeding, the African Hall, an albino alligator,

and a Coral Reef dive.

It really is amazing what the Academy does to recreate and maintain these eco-systems. For the Phillipines Coral Reef exhibit, the second largest of its kind in the world, they employ huge industrial halide lights to simulate the abundant sunshine necessary for coral and algae to co-exist and grow.

By remembering to take a few breaks to refuel with snacks, and run around and let loose some steam, we were able to spend 6 1/2 hours at the Academy with minimum whining and maximum fun. And they didn't even fall asleep on the car ride home!

Top Tips:

• Buy tickets online and print at home
• Avoid weekends and Free Wednesdays, if at all possible
  
• Arrive early or stay late, crowds thin appreciably after 4pm. Also, doors open till 8pm on certain days during the summer. Check the Academy website for details.
  
• Grab tickets for the Planetarium and 3D Bug show first thing if you want to see those shows
• Next, see the Rainforest and don't forget to dress in layers!
  
• Bring your own food, drinks and snacks
• Underground parking lot is convenient, but costs up to $20 for 6-7 hours and often fills up on weekends.
• If you're willing to walk a little, there's free street parking in and around GG Park
  

Bonita's Spinach Salad

I got a request for the salad dressing recipe from Halloween Night. This is from Tristan's Aunt Bonita, who always brings yummy food to their family get-togethers. The dressing is a variation of the old Russian dressing, which is actually an American invention from the late 1800s/early 1900s. In this variation, canola oil is used instead of mayonnaise, so you can tell yourself it's healthier. Here's the whole salad recipe in case you want to serve some greens with the dressing :-)

Bonita's Spinach Salad

Blend dressing ingredients in a 16oz mason jar, 1 day ahead, to let flavors meld:

• 1/2 onion or shallots, minced
• 1/3 c ketchup
• 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c white vinegar
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 c canola oil
  

For the salad, combine in large bowl:

• Baby spinach
• 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
• mushrooms, thinly sliced
• bean sprouts
• bacon, crumbled (we use soy bacon bits)
  

Toss with dressing and serve immediately.

Extra dressing can be refrigerated for 2-3 days.

Bubble Wrap and Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

When we remodeled two years ago, we replaced most of the existing single pane aluminum frame windows with double paned windows. But we left five 9' tall, floor-to-ceiling, obscure reeded glass windows in our stairwell. The cost to replace them was prohibitive and dare I say I had started to find certain elements of our old house endearing. They bring in wonderful light, but in the winter they also bring in a noticeable chill.

Then I read about bubble wrapping your windows in The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. "Simply cut sheets of bubble wrap so they are sized to fit your windows, apply some water to the window with a spray bottle and before it dries, stick the bubble wrap on the glass. It will stay put." I couldn't wait to try this out. I did a little trial area and whaddya know, like magic, it really does stick!


Granted it's not the prettiest way to reduce heat loss, plus it obscures your view if you're using it on clear glass, so I don't plan on doing this in the rest of our house. But since our stairwell is in the back of the house and the view is already obscured, why not. And dare I say, those round bubbles against the vertical stripes of the reeded glass makes for a cool graphic look!

Slow Cooking

I bought myself a slow cooker, aka crockpot, for the first time and I've been trying out a lot of recipes. The first ones I tried came from an older cookbook and quite frankly they weren't all that great.

Then I got Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. After trying a few recipes, I was so confident about the quality of their work, I made their Vegetarian Chili for the first time for a dinner party. I doubled the recipe and used mild, chopped, canned green chiles as opposed to the jalapenos. Next time, I would halve the amount of brown sugar; it was a bit too sweet for my taste. Still, it was a big hit with the diners and there were lots of requests for the recipe. Here is the original recipe without any of my noted modifications:

Vegetarian Chili sin Carne serves 4
Cooker: Medium or large round or oval
Settings and Cook Times: HIGH for 1 hour, then LOW for 4 to 6 hours

Put in slow cooker and let stand for 15 minutes:

• 1/3 cup bulgur wheat
• 2/3 cup boiling water (or replace some of the water with juice drained off the diced tomatoes)

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbs of olive oil in a large skillet and saute 5 - 10 min, until softened:

• 2 med-size yellow onions, chopped
• 1 med-size green, red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

Transfer sauted vegetables into cooker. Add to the cooker:

• 1 - 28oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 - 15oz can tomato sauce
• 2 - 15oz cans red kidney or pinto or black beans or combo, rinsed and drained
• 2 tbs chopped canned jalapeno
• 2 tbs chili powder or pure New Mexican chile powder, or to taste
• 1 1/2 tbs ground cumin
• 2 tbs light or dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp dried oregano or marjoram
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• Pinch of ground allspice

Stir to combine. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour.
Turn the cooker to LOW and cook for 4 to 6 hours. During the last hour, season with salt. Serve the chili in bowls topped with:

• grated Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses
• sliced ripe California black olives
• sliced avocado
• chopped fresh cilantro
• sour cream

You can also serve the chili over hot brown rice and accompany with warm cornbread and a big green salad.

Whole Lotta Pumpkin

A couple of months ago, we acquired a 20-lb Amish pumpkin courtesy of Freecycle which Tristan cut up, steamed and then froze for future use. A week and a half ago, we pulled out one of the bulging gallon ziploc bags and used a fraction to make pumpkin soup for Canadian Thanksgiving. What else could we do with several cups of cooked pumpkin?

Well, pumpkin pie for starters. Pressed for time, I bought pre-made frozen pie crusts so all I had to do was make the filling. Even better, the package came with two crusts, so I could make two pies and use up even more pumpkin! This recipe, simply called "Best-Ever Pumpkin Pie" is from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax. It was pretty popular at last night's dinner party!

Best-Ever Pumpkin Pie
Makes one deep 9 1/2" pie; serves about 8

• 2 cups pumpkin puree, preferably homemade; if you use canned pumpkin, be sure it's unsweetened puree, not pie filling
• 2/3 cup packed dark or light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• Pinch freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tbs bourbon or rum
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 F. Whisk together all the above ingredients in a large bowl. Pour mixture into frozen unbaked pie shell.
Bake until the filling is set but still slightly wobbly in the center, usually about 45 minutes.
Cool the pie on a wire rack. Serve with whipped cream.

Notes:

• To make your own pumpkin puree: Preheat oven to 375 F. Halve a sugar pumpkin crosswise and place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Cover the entire sheet with foil, tenting it over the pumpkin and crimping the edges. Bake until the flesh is very tender, usually about 1 1/2 hours.
  Remove foil; let pumpkin cool. Remove seeds, scrape flesh into food processor; puree until smooth. Pack puree into 1-pint containers; label and date. Refrigerate or freeze. Frozen puree keeps well approx. 6 months.

• If you want to make your own pie crust from scratch, Richard Sax recommends pre-baking the shell until the surface of the dough is dry, but not yet baked all the way through.

• I placed my unbaked pies directly on top of pizza tiles that were already in the oven and preheated to 375F. I find often times, the bottom of the crust is a bit soggy and pale. But with the tiles, the added heat really browns and crisps up the bottom crust.

The next pumpkin recipe has become a Fall family favorite. I replace 1 1/3 cups of the all-purpose flour with an equal amount of whole wheat flour; add in the pumpkin and you can tell yourself it's healthier than the usual sweet fare. But just in case the kids need a little nudge, there's the chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Makes two 9-inch loaves, about 16 slices each

In a large bowl, cream together:

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 2/3 cup sugar

Beat in:

• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups (or one 15-oz can) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 2/3 cup water

Add, stirring to blend:

• 3 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Finally, mix in:

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Divide batter into two well-greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. (Note: Just to be safe, I also use parchment paper on the bottom of the pan.) Bake bread for 60-75 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of one loaf comes out clean. You may need to cover bread with foil during last 15 minutes of baking if the top is getting too dark. Remove bread from oven, cool on rack for 10 min. Turn out and finish cooling on wire rack. When completely cool, wrap well in plastic wrap and store overnight before serving.  If you find you can't wait overnight to eat it, then by all means, go ahead!  I can't remember the last time we waited :-)