Jack-o-lantern pumpkin seed tips (and recipe)

I’ve worked for a pumpkin farm (Wickham Farms) for 10 years, and in that time I’ve cooked a lot of pumpkin seeds. The bad news: no matter how you cook them, Jack-o-Lantern seeds will be chewy and fibrous. Pie pumpkins and – even better – Delicata squash -- have seeds that aren’t quite as chewy. But if you want to roast your jack-o-lantern seeds next week, here are tips and a recipe to make the process easy and tasty.  

Tip 1: Water makes it easier to separate the seeds from the pulp. The orange goo that comes out of the pumpkin with the seeds needs to be removed before baking the seeds. The easiest way to do it: put your scooped-out pumpkin mess in a big bowl of water. The seeds will float, and you can skim them off with a slotted spoon or small sieve/ Some seeds will remain stuck to the pulp, but they come off more easily in the water.  

Tip 2: Drying the seeds on a paper towel is not a good idea. I’ve seen a tip that calls for spreading the seeds out on a paper towel and letting them dry overnight. When I tried this, the seeds stuck to the paper towels. I spent a few minutes trying to pick bits of paper towels off the seeds, then wound up tossing that bunch of seeds in the trash. Bad idea.  

Tip 3: Boiling/soaking the seeds: not sure. I've seen recipes that call for boiling seeds in salty water. I tried it twice and I’m not sure it makes a difference. I've also heard of soaking the seeds overnight in various solutions ranging from salty water to liquor. I haven’t tried those techniques yet but they are worth exploring.

Tip 4: Low and slow is the way to go. When I’ve tried high temperatures (like 400 degrees), the pumpkin seeds wound up tasting like burnt toast, even when they weren’t burnt. Cooking them in a 275 degree oven for a longer period of time results in better tasting seeds.

Here’s my latest working recipe for pumpkin seeds from Jack-o-Lanterns:

Cajun Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup seeds from 1 -2 large Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins
¼ cup of salt (if you boil the seeds)
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

Preheat oven to 200°F.

Cut open your pumpkins and scoop out the insides. Put the whole mess in a large bowl of water. Skim the seeds floating in the water with a small sieve or slotted spoon. Separate the rest of the seeds from the stringy orange stuff. Discard the orange stuff.

(Optional – not sure if needed:) In a saucepan, add the seeds to 4 cups of water. Add ¼ cup of salt. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

Spray a couple of baking sheets with cooking spray, and spread the seeds on the pans. Bake at 200 degrees for about an hour, until dry.

 In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon canola oil, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire and 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning. Pour over seeds and stir to combine.

Bake at 275 for another hour.

Note: this post also appears on my blog for the Flavors of Rochester website.

Anniversary Cake

I was in a predicament, one that wasn’t uncommon for me.

I had come up with a great idea, but set my plans in motion too late.

My in-laws were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and planned a small gathering of immediate family to celebrate it. I wanted to surprise them with a cake -- something pretty and tiered and wedding-ish.

I went into my local bakery on a Friday -- the celebration was on Saturday -- and was told that I didn't give them enough turn-around time to make such a cake.

Uh-oh.

My only hope: Wegmans. I went to the bakery at the Penfield Wegmans and started telling the girl behind the counter my situation.

"Do you need an anniversary cake?" she interrupted (the bakery was busy).

"Yes, but it's my in-law's 50th, so I wanted something nicer than a sheet cake," I stammered.

"We can do a tiered ultimate," she said. I told her that the group was just nine people, and she said that she could do a small one for $17. She could have it ready by the next day, so I went with it.

She asked me their names and marked the sheet with "Happy 50th Anniversary Rosie and John.” I couldn't imagine how all of that would look on a tiered cake, but went with that, too.

I left the store with low expectations, kicking myself for not ordering the cake sooner.

I picked up the cake the next day, and was utterly amazed at my $17 cake. It was adorned with roses and rosebuds like a miniature wedding cake. The words were not written on the cake, but on a white chocolate heart set in the top like wedding cake topper.

My in-laws were delighted with their cake, and even better, it was delicious. It was moist and not sicky sweet like most grocery store vanilla cakes. It was heavy on the icing, but that's what happens when you add on all those flowers.

Whew! I love it when a plan -- even a last-minute one -- comes together.

This post also appears on my blog for Flavors of Rochester.

SOS for Yummy Turnip Recipes

Why can't I make a turnip (left) taste as good as a beet (right)?

At Wickham Farms, where I work, I regularly talk to our CSA members to get feedback about their experience with the program. A comment I hear often is that members enjoy getting lots of different veggies, because it has expanded their culinary repertoires.

That has been my experience with CSA programs as well -- because of my CSA memberships, I’ve come to enjoy beets, leeks, kale, various winter squash and Daikon radishes, which I hadn't cooked in the past. (In the past, I belonged to the Porter Farms CSA.)

The trick, of course, is knowing how to cook these items, and it’s part of my job to help our CSA members in this area. Each week, I cook a recipe that incorporates our CSA veggies for sampling. I favor recipes that are uncomplicated and incorporate unusual items. This week, for example, the recipe was a cole slaw that included Daikon radishes and kohlrabi.

I have just one Achilles heel in this position -- turnips. I just haven’t found that special recipe that’s made me say “yum.” Last week, I tried this recipe for roasted root vegetables with an apple cider glaze. I used beets and turnips, and the beets turned out great, but the turnips just didn’t do it for me.

I thought I’d turn to my friends in cyberspace for help. Do you have any tips for cooking turnips? What’s your favorite turnip recipe?

This also was published in my blog on Flavors of Rochester.

Leaf & Bean is more than tea & coffee.

Although its name emphasizes beverages, Leaf & Bean Coffee Co. also serves some good eats.

My friend and I recently paid a visit to the Chili establishment, and we were lucky enough to hit it on a day when seafood bisque was the soup of the day. The flavorful bisque was just the right consistency – not too thick – and had plenty of nice chunks of seafood. I also enjoyed the chicken salad, which had the tasty additions of cranberries and walnuts.

It’s nearly impossible to pass up the beautiful array of baked goods – cookies, cupcakes, cakes, pastries and more – without succumbing to sweet temptation. We decided on a couple of cupcakes. My friend enjoyed her Oreo cupcake. I asked a staff member if the carrot cake contained raisins, because I don’t care for raisins in baked goods. She said no, but I had a hunch that she didn’t know. Grrr… I was right. After I picked out the raisins, the cake was moist and delicious, and the cream cheese frosting was the perfect balance between sweet and tangy.

I was told the baked goods are not made in-house, but are baked by a local bakery. They are definitely a cut above those served at most coffee shop chains.

Leaf & Bean is tucked into a strip mall in Chili, but would fit right into the Park Avenue strip. The décor is eclectic, the seating comfortable and the music retro 90s (at least it was when I was there). It's an enjoyable place for a meal or even a cup of Joe.

Note: this post also appears in my blog on the Flavors of Rochester website.

A Favorite Food Destination - Cleveland

My family recently spent some time in one of our favorite cities to visit -- Cleveland. Yes, Cleveland! The city has much to offer people who enjoy food. Here are a few of our recommendations.

Market House at the West Side Market

The West Side Market has an open-air building with vendors selling reasonably priced produce, but the highlight is the market’s grand indoor market house. A yellow brick building built in 1912, it is home to more than 100 diverse vendors. Go hungry! For breakfast, I chose a freshly made crepe with Nutella and bananas; my husband found a pastry called a snugal; and a son picked a cannoli. We wised up this time and took a cooler so that we could bring back some unusual meat items – homemade buffalo chicken sausage, fresh Polish sausage (my husband’s favorite) and lamb gyro meat. I also made a stop at Urban Herbs, which sells hard-to-find spices and grains.

Across the street from the market, the Penzey’s Spices store is a fun place to shop. Their products are displayed in jars so you can give everything a whiff. We went home with cinnamon and extra-hot red pepper flakes in bulk bags, which provide a significant savings over buying spices at the grocery store. We also succumbed to the lure of mint hot chocolate mix.

Lola Bistro is located on East 4th Street,
a brick paved street lined with restaurants.

Michael Symon, best known as an Iron Chef on the Food Network, owns several restaurants in Cleveland. My older son and I are fans of his flagship restaurant -- Lola Bistro. The portions are smallish and the prices are high, but meals we’ve had there are among the best we’ve eaten. Next time we go, I’ll try to reserve a seat at the chef’s table, where you can watch the kitchen in action. I’d also like to try one of Symon’s less pricey restaurants, Lolita in particular.

Cleveland is less than a five-hour drive away – our family highly recommends the city for both food and fun!

Can your tomatoes safely -- take a class.

One of the most memorable pieces I’ve read in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle was about a woman who had contracted botulism. The upshot of the article was that the woman was fully awake and aware, but she was unable to move or communicate. The scene I remember most: a nurse thought that the patient was a country music fan, and played it nonstop. The trouble was, the patient didn’t care for country music, and had no way of telling her nurse. I could imagine myself in that scenario, only it would be one of my sons playing me his Weird Al Yankovic recordings to cheer me up — a horrific scenario!

The woman contracted botulism from fish, but another way you can contact botulism is from food that hasn’t been canned properly. That’s why a few years ago, I took a tomato canning class with Judy Price, who is the New York State Home Canning Expert for the Cornell Cooperative Extension. I recently spoke to her for an article on tomatoes that will run in an upcoming Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

“Botulism in tomatoes is extremely rare,” Judy said,“but I worry about people using Aunt Nellie’s recipes or Great Grandma’s recipes. Our tomatoes today aren’t the tomatoes they had.”

She added that people tend to want to add peppers, onions and other vegetables that reduces the acidity of what’s in the can, which increases the risk of bacteria.

Judy is teaching a class on canning tomatoes tomorrow and I highly recommend it. The deadline for registering was yesterday but I’m told they still have room, and will accept registrations today. In addition, Wegmans is having one-hour tomato classes at their cooking school in their Pittsford store. I have taken a knife skills class at their cooking school and learned a lot; I’m thinking about going to the Wegmans canning class to brush up on what Judy taught me.

Here’s information for the canning classes:


Judy Price’s Hands-On Canning Workshop For Beginners
Saturday July 28, 10am – 1pm at Artisan Church 1235 Clinton Ave. South, Rochester, NY 14620

Judy Price, Cornell Cooperative Extension Food Preservation Expert, will teach you how to can tomatoes in a boiling water canner. You will learn to make (and take home) 1 pint of shelf stable canned tomatoes so that you become comfortable with hot water bath canning. You will also take home an information packet with instructions and recipes that will allow you to make other tomato products (BBQ, chili Sauce, crushed tomatoes and more). Workshop Fee: $33.00

Register Here: http://beginnercanning.eventbrite.com/
Registration Deadline was July 26 — they have said they will accept registrations today.


Wegmans Canning 101: Preserving the Season’s Best–Tomatoes

Chef Mark will be demonstrating the basics of canning, showing you how to create lots of great canned items with tomatoes, and sharing samples.

Thursday, August 16 from 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Tuesday, August 28 from 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Wegmans Menu Cooking School at Pittsford — Upstairs in the Menu Development Kitchen, 3195 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618. Call for reservations at (585) 249-0278. The cost is $5.

Note: this piece also ran in my blog on the Flavors of Rochester website.