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News and Views:
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Halloween:
Not Just for Little Ghouls and Boys
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 In the beginning, Halloween was Samhain (pronounced so-vain or so-wain), an ancient Celtic festival that marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of a new agricultural year. The Celts believed that the boundary between the living and the dead became more transparent at this time, and their celebrations included many rituals of divination, incantation, and other spooky things. Although the Christian Church in the early Middle Ages succeeded in renaming Samhain as the Eve of All Hallows Day (thus, Hallowe’en), they were unable to pry people away from the fun, thrills, and scariness of Samhain.
Every time we bob for apples (a marriage divination for the Celts and the Romans — the first to bite into a floating apple will be the first to marry), light a bonfire (in honor of the disappearing Sun), or wear a mask (as protection from the spirits of the dead), we are reenacting the ancient ways. And you thought Halloween was just about candy!
The pumpkin enters the story because it’s the harvest time, and perhaps because its form resembles the human head (especially those we suspect of being hollow) and lends itself to being carved into a masklike face. For a giant pumpkin’s worth of information on this beautiful vegetable, go to www.pumpkinnook.com.
This year, when you buy or harvest pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, get an extra one (about a five-pounder) for the cook, and try this dramatic presentation of an easy pumpkin soup. The recipe is adapted from James Peterson’s Splendid Soups (Bantam Books, 1993), an inspiring cookbook for all seasons.
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Roast Pumpkin Soup
1 pumpkin, about 5 pounds
1 quart chicken, turkey, or vegetable broth
2 cups heavy cream
1 thick round loaf of French bread, sliced 1/2" thick
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried
1-1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese (about 8 ounces)
salt and pepper
Cut the top off the pumpkin and scrape out the seeds as though making a jack-o-lantern. Combine the broth and cream in a bowl. Toast several slices of bread. Place a slice of bread in the bottom of the pumpkin, sprinkle with some of the thyme and the cheese, and ladle on enough of the broth mixture to cover the bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat, toasting bread as needed, until the pumpkin is about 3/4 full. (The filling will expand as it cooks, so don’t fill the pumpkin to the top.) Replace the lid.
Heat the oven to 350°F. Place the filled pumpkin on a baking sheet in case any of the liquid oozes out, and bake for 2 hours. Carefully carry the pumpkin to the table (it will be tender and fragile). Remove the lid. With a large metal spoon, carefully scrape the cooked pumpkin pulp into the rest of the ingredients (trying not to puncture the shell) and ladle the soup into hot bowls. Makes about 8 servings. Any leftovers can be scraped or poured into a casserole dish and reheated the next day, sprinkled with more cheese. |
Are
You a Chowhound?
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Have you vowed to "ingest nothing undelicious"? Do you believe that "foodies" are mere toadies to culinary fashion, while you take an honest delight in unheralded and politically incorrect cookery? Would you drive miles out of your way for the perfect piccalilli, the most elegant empanada? If so, join the pack at www.chowhound.com, a lively and iconoclastic Web site and forum for the most opinionated eaters in the world.
Chowhound.com was started in 1997 by Jim Leff (all right, he’s a restaurant critic) and Bob Okumura. Leff, who calls himself Alpha Dog (get it?), shares his delight in discovering "secret deliciousness" in the greater New York City area. Although his "gotcha" approach to eating can be a bit over the top, his appreciation for authentic and creative cooking is refreshing.
The message boards on chowhound.com direct dogged eaters to the little gems of restaurants that we all know about and hope other people won’t discover lest the place get ruined. (Chowhounds are always sure that their favorite haunt is about to go to hell in a handbasket, or be turned into a Taco Bell, the same idea.) This classic tension — if you publicize a fabulous hole-in-the-wall restaurant, will popularity change it? — gives the site its urgency and appeal.
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How to Become More Frugal
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| Here in New England, cleanliness may be next to godliness, but frugality is ahead of them all. Perhaps the most frugal person in American history was the remarkable Mrs. Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) of Massachusetts. Her 1828 book, The American Frugal Housewife; Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy, was a no-nonsense manual whose mantra was the Yankee saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." To Mrs. Child, appalled at what she saw as the extravagance of her day, frugality was its own reward. "I have attempted to teach how money can be saved, not how it can be
enjoyed," she wrote.
For instance, to settle coffee grounds (after the pot was boiled over an open fire), Mrs. Child advised using a piece of skin from salted fish rather than wasting an egg (the more common way of clarifying coffee). Proof that she was not a regular coffee drinker herself is her final word on the subject of coffee: "The best economy is to go without."
My all-time favorite tip from Mrs. Child is her cure for chapped lips: ear wax. ("It is one of those cures which are very likely to be laughed at," she admitted.)
Well, it may be that you can still afford Chapstick, but you’d like to find a few ways to economize around the house. Here are just a couple of ideas. Please send other suggestions to speery@digitalhearth.com, and we will be happy to post them on our site.
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Tips:
- To store onions, first find those old panty hose you’ve been saving even though they have runs or tears. Drop an onion into a leg and tie a tight knot above it; repeat until all the onions are stored. Hang in a cool, dry place. When you need an onion, cut off the lowest one, leaving the knot above it intact. The air circulating around the onions will keep them from spoiling.
- If you want to make a lot of applesauce, go to an orchard and ask if you can pick up "drops" at a good price. Often the apples that fall off the tree on their own are still in fine shape, and you can always cut out a bruise or blemish when you cut up the apples for sauce.
- To make cut flowers last longer, add one of the following to a quart of water in a vase:
– 2 tablespoons of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar
– A can of Sprite, 7-Up, or other citrus-flavored carbonated drink (not diet)
– 2 drops of household bleach and a teaspoonful of sugar
– 1 aspirin
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