The Other Woman Cooks

Who says fruits are just for sweets? This year's bumper crop has me searching for new ways to use the big orange berries (yup, they're berries).  While poking around our local Williams Sonoma store last week, I came across a jar of pumpkin braising sauce ... I have pumpkins, lotsa pumpkins. I read the ingredients and decided to give my own adaptation a try. I used a rosemary pear conserve canned last year (and a concoction I hadn't quite figured out what to do with) instead of applesauce but I am quite sure applesauce will yield just as yummy a result. Bake your pumpkin and prepare your potatoes ahead of time (nuke the potatoes for five or warm them in the oven for twenty minutes or so before suppertime). Prep time of about about twenty minutes is all you need and then relax while the slow cooker makes magic. CROCK POT PUMPKIN PORK ROAST 3 pound bone-in pork shoulder roast Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 small yellow onion,...

From the brandy pumpkin custard and hazelnut streusel to the chevre cream topping, this fancy version of pumpkin pie is full of surprises. It's a little labor intensive but the sweet, creamy and crunchy all at once flavor is worth the effort. I promise your taste buds will sing! BRANDY PUMPKIN STREUSEL TART Make one recipe of your favorite pie crust. Roll and fit into a 9 inch tart pan or pie tin. Set in refrigerator until other ingredients are ready to assemble the tart. Chevre Cream 1 pint heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons chevre (soft goat cheese) 1 teaspoon honey Just before serving whip heavy cream on high speed until fluffy. Using a whisk or electric mixer on low, add in chevre until well blended. Drizzle in the honey as you mix. Garnish each pie piece with a generous dollop on the side. Custard 2 cups pumpkin puree (canned or fresh) 3 large eggs 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon grou...

Even the oven challenged Pilgrims of 1621 enjoyed a sweet pumpkin recipe on that first Thanksgiving. They hallowed out pumpkin centers, filled them with milk, honey and spices, and roasted them whole in the hot ashes of the cook fire. Once settled into proper households, early American cooks created the New World tradition of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream. Poet and editor Sarah Josepha Hale is credited with convincing Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 -- it took her five presidents and 17 years to get it done. Where there's a will there's away. That goes for the most famous Thanksgiving pie of all too because no matter how much turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes you eat, there's always room for a good cup of coffee and a piece of pumpkin pie. Yummy! TRADITIONAL PUMPKIN PIE 2 cups pumpkin puree, fresh cooked or canned 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 2 large eggs Dash salt 1 can (14 fl. o...

It's Halloween and pumpkins are everywhere. So are big bowls of candy. This year we decided to have some individual packages of healthier treats for the younger ghouls and goblins who knock on our door for Halloween. Oh sure, we'll still have a big bowl of the usual teeth-rotting candy bars because dried cranberry and apple treats might get panned by the older Trick or Treaters. But I have a feeling that the parents of the really little ones, parents who worry about too much chocolate and sticky caramel, might like the idea of fruity snacks. Come Sunday morning, when that old pumpkin is ready for tossing, it'll be tossed into a 350 degrees F oven, baked about an hour or until its insides are tender enough to be scooped into a bowl for mashing. An easy pumpkin loaf is the perfect Sunday morning breakfast treat and will go well with a cup of cinnamon coffee. For my friends who know how bad I am at making coffee, it will come as no surprise that while the loaf is in the ov...

There are plenty of healthy reasons to love butternut squash. One cup of butternut squash contains nearly three times the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin A, which protects against breast cancer and age-related macular degeneration. Butternut squash has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects because of its high antioxidant content and it may also reduce the risk of inflammation known to be present in arthritis and asthma. That same cup of butternut squash provides 3 grams of fiber, 14% of the RDA of potassium which is important for bone health, 49% of the RDA for vitamin C, 14% of magnesium and 11% of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps your immune system, and with the cold and flu season about to start, isn't it a good idea to eat what keeps the sniffles away? It’s bright orange color signals that butternut squash is full of carotenoids. Carotenoids protect against heart disease and are said to help lower cholesterol. So as you drop those extra yolks into this ...