Pumpkin magic

My grandfather has his own farm and tends to spend every sunny day of the year working on it. In late summer and fall, he very generously gifts us with whatever he has harvested: apples, pears, potatoes, carrots, parsley... so much that I usually have to keep on gifting the rest of the family. And friends. And neighbors... (I once gave a pumpkin to a stranger riding with me in my in-laws' building elevator).

Recently, he gave us a very large, beautifully orange pumpkin. I decided to keep it and try to use it to make something new and exciting. However, with million other things to do, it took days for me to finally approach it. But I was ready and I did the research and knew exactly what I want to make out of it: pumpkin puree.

So I washed it and cut it open and... was completely overwhelmed with its rich and powerful color! It just so happened that it rained that day and I felt like someone gave me a piece of sun just to shine from my kitchen counter. When I finally peeled my eyes off of it, I went about preparing the pumpkin for the oven by cutting it in pieces and removing its seeds. Steps for preparing the puree go as follows: bake the pumpkin until it is soft, peel the skin off when it cools and mash it. The actual pumpkin puree is done when most of the juice is squeezed out of the mashed mass.

I removed the seeds carefully and put them aside - my plan was to use them as snacks or salad toppings. Hmm, I thought, pumpkins are quite versatile fruits. I went on to squeeze the juice, and was surprised with just how much of it I got. Well, I reasoned, it would be such a waste to pour all this down the drain. There has to be something I can make with the juice. After little research I realized that there really was something - the juice! Apparently, pumpkin juice is very popular at Hogwarts - favored among the wizardly folk. I admit, this finding made the juice-making process even more fun.

I used all the juice I got and mixed it with freshly squeezed apple juice (apples were from grandpa's orchard, of course). A couple of pinches of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, plus a dollop of honey, and I had me a magical, aromatic, home made treat.

The puree is in the fridge and I keep on finding novel and creative ways to use it. These doughnuts are made with it and flavored with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and ginger. Come fall and all I can think of are exotic spices (well, exotic for my native cuisine). M. says: You think about exotic spices all the time. Somehow, they go perfectly well with yellowing leaves and rainy days. Now I am adding pumpkin to it all - a little piece of warmth given to me by grandpa.

I am grateful to him for sharing with us each year the product of his hard and devoted labor. He is always saying that there really is nothing else he could imagine doing with his harvest than giving it away. Men of his generation tend not to experiment with the common expressions of love - you don't get that many iloveyous, etc. But every once in a while there he is with bags full of delicious fruits and vegetables he has grown on his own. Consequently, his unique way of caring for me has become helplessly intertwined with my fall cooking experiences. I hope it always stays that way.