It's Not Pumpkin Spice -- It's Pumpkin!

I'm not a fan of "pumpkin spice"

unless it's spicing pumpkin!

After all a "pumpkin spice" latte is just coffee with

cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves

It has nothing to do with a pumpkin!

But I love pumpkin

And we have several favorite pumpkin recipes that

I make year after year

One of my favorites is a Cranberry Pumpkin Coffee cake

Found eons ago in a Victoria magazine cookbook

It has the flavors of November . . . 

pumpkin and cranberry!

It's a great breakfast bread for Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving weekend

Of course, there's pumpkin pie

Our first is usually for dessert on Halloween

preceded by our traditional chili

I use Mother's recipe which is as old as the hills for it doesn't

use evaporated milk!

Our first is Halloween and then we have it again on Thanksgiving

for Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving unless there is pumpkin pie for dessert!

I made pumpkin pancakes one morning for breakfast

Eaten with real butter and real maple syrup

and little link sausages

They were good and I used a half a recipe which meant that I had a cup of pumpkin left

So I made mini loaves of pumpkin bread

(another favorite of mine)

and, although the recipe is not mother's, it is an old one and is plain --

no nuts, no raisins

Just pumpkin and spices!

I love pumpkin bars and you'll find them on almost every dessert table in October and November.

I have a great recipe -- called "Killer Pumpkin Bars" and it was a winner

but this year I tried a different version -- with cranberries and a brown butter frosting

Oh, my, they were good.  

Now I'm not sure which recipe is the best!

I do love pumpkin and the traditional pumpkin dishes that appear

as dinner dessert or tea time treats during October and November.

Here are the recipes:

PUMPKIN CRANBERRY COFFEECAKE

2 1/4 cups flour

1 T. pumpkin pie spice

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup cranberries, coarsely chopped

Granulated sugar for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8 cup ring mold or other decorative mold. Dust the pan with flour, shaking out the excess.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, pumpkin-pie spice, baking soda and salt.

In the medium size bowl of an electric mixer, at medium speed, beat the eggs until they are foamy. Beat in the granulated sugar, pumpkin puree, and oil until well blended. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until a batter forms. (Do not overmix). Gently fold in the cranberries.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a thin metal spatula around the edge of the mold to loosen the cake and turn the cake out onto the rack to cool completely.

Sprnkle the cake with granulated sugar before serving.

MOTHER'S PUMPKIN PIE

1 unbaked pie shell

1 1/2 c. cooked or canned pumpkin

1/3 c. white sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 t. ginger

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. cloves

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 c. rich milk (I use half and half)

1/2 c. heavy cream

Mix all ingredients but the pie shell together.    Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell and bake in a 400 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until firm or until  a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.    Cool the pie well.

PUMPKIN TEA BREAD

3 1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

1 1/2 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2/3 c. water

2 cups canned pumpkin (a whole can)

3 cups sugar

Sift dry ingredients together.    Mix pumpkin, walt, oil and eggs together.    Pour into dry mixture and mix well.   Pour into greased and floured bunt cake pan and small loaf pan or two medium loaf pans.    Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350.    Cool 30 minutes before removing from pan.    (Obviously, the smaller pans will take less time to bake.)

Relish Trays

Growing up

there were two things every bride got for a wedding gift

A deviled egg plate

and 

A relish tray!

I DO have my Grandmother's deviled egg plate and I use it -- 

mostly for Easter dinner for that's when we have deviled eggs --

the colored Easter ones are always on the Easter dinner table.

But alas, I have neither my mother's nor my grandmother's 

relish tray.

Growing up, if we ate in the dining room, there was a relish tray on the table.

With celery, olives (usually green pimento stuffed ones)  and small sweet pickles.

As a child, it was one of my favorite dishes!!!

And every holiday dinner included the relish tray

But for holiday dinners it included both kinds of olives -- the big black ones and the green stuffed ones -- the celery too, was often stuffed with cream cheese

I think ahead and sometime during my first year of marriage,

at a flea market that we frequented every Sunday morning,

I found the relish tray of relish trays!

It's big -- think at least 12 inches and it has slots for all the ingredients of a relish tray -- 

with the picture of the ingredients embossed.

The pickles, the olives, the celery . . . and then there is a fish!

I'm not sure if the fish is for caviar or perhaps chunks of tuna

But it is there --

At my house it is another slot to put olives!

It's a depression era piece, I'm sure, but I don't know who made it.

It's not all that common a piece (not like the relish dish like my Mom's that I pictured above)

but I have seen it occasionally.

I knew that one day that I would be hosting and this was a perfect dish!

And it's true, I became the host and so every Christmas, every Easter, every Thanksgiving,

I would get out my dish, fill it from the jars in the fridge, cut celery into sticks, plunk the pickle fork on top and set it on the holiday table.

I was at the Methodist Church Bazaar in the little town 20 miles from us

and there was this dish!

It's small -- about six inches square

But it has the same pictures embossed in it.

So I am sure it's made by the same company in the same time period

It was way more than $2 -- $12 actually, but I knew it had to come home with me.

I thought that I would revive the relish tray for our dinners.

Husband Jim is not big on olives (unless they are in a martini) but he does love pickles and celery

So Tuesday night, I filled the tray and put it on the dining room table.

We ate everything!

And everything is placed correctly, because there is a picture to tell me so.

Those don't look like little sweet pickles, you might comment,

And indeed, they are not -- Husband Jim likes pickles that are spicy or even

a whole raw Jalapeño pepper with his meal

So the pickle slot is filled with a hot pickled pepper.

I love my new relish tray.

It's home is in a kitchen cabinet, not the china cabinet like it's bigger sister.

For it's for everyday use -- not holiday only use.

I think we should revive the tradition of a relish tray with dinners.

It adds a layer of flavor to a meat and potato meal.

The Waterford

Our 50th Anniversary is not just a "one day" celebration . . .

We're making it a month plus long celebration.

On our 25th Anniversary in 1994,

Husband Jim gifted me with

A silver punch bowl

Probably a month or so after our wedding, I stated that for our 

25th I wanted a silver punch bowl.

Of course, 25 years was eons away!!!!

But a silver punch bowl it was -- my present for our 25th

Alas, not engraved but just silver

Reed and Barton is the brand

And it has about 16 little silver punch cups to go with it.

I didn't have an "always wanted" for our 50th

In fact, I couldn't think of a thing I really did want.

I have my engagement ring and my wedding ring

(it is the "golden" anniversary after all)

And I didn't really want to replace them.

I don't need a gold necklace for I wear little jewelry

And then, we decided to get

 The hock glasses in my Waterford pattern

Eight of them!

Hock is the shape for German wine -- think Riesling

I have wanted them "forever" but they were just too expensive.

But, alas, prices have tanked on crystal -- even "Waterford" crystal

And so we got 8 at a very good price

They arrived this week!

 And I couldn't resist setting a table with the water, the hock and the wine!

The water glass was our first purchase.    Husband Jim picked out the pattern -- Kylemore

Much less popular than Lismore which is what everyone seemed to be buying in 1972.

He bought two -- for me for Christmas!

And every monthly payday after for the following six months, I would go down

to the store and buy another one.

They started out $10 each but by the time I had bought the 8th one,

they were up to $12 or $13.

We purchased a lot of the Waterford in the same manner, a piece a month.

Then we got lucky, and found some at flea markets for a good price,

and so those pieces came home.

When Jim had annual training overseas, we could order from the

military catalogue and ordered some from there.

It was, by that time, way more than $12 a stem!

It rose to all of $100 per stem for those water goblets that we basically paid $10 each for

And those hocks, why they were close to $200 which is why we never bought any.

But, sadly, crystal isn't worth what it once was, although at $10 per stem, I'm thinking we could get our money back on those first few purchases!

I love my Waterford and I do use it.

It's home on the top shelf of the curved glass china cabinet

Waters in the middle, hocks on each side, then wine, then sherry, port and the funny little 4 3/8 inch stemmed glass that I can't figure out what it's for.

(Bought I am sure at an antique mall a long time ago -- it's marked Waterford on the stem, so it's the real deal!)

Whenever I use the hocks, I'll remember our 50th Anniversary

And how, 40 or so years ago, husband Jim surprised me one Christmas

with two goblets.