Ingredients:

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 300º F.
2. Rinse meat and pat dry. Heat a little bit of vegetable oil in a dutch oven (or oven-safe saucepan) over medium heat.
3. Brown the meat on both sides, then add onion, apple, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, and vinegar. Add chicken stock to cover.
4. Cover the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and place in the oven.
5. Cook until meat is very, very tender, about 1½ hours.
6. To serve, spoon delicious apple-and-onion sauce over pork chops, possibly alongside buttered egg noodles and steamed green beans.

There were no jack-o-lanterns at my house this year, but making pumpkin puree and winning the carving contest are not mutually exclusive activities. Bear in mind, however, that the jack-o-lantern-type squashes make less-delicious puree than do the eating-type pumpkins. This year, I grew New England Sugar Pies for this very purpose.

If you do carve your pumpkins before you bake them, just wait to open them up until Halloween Day, thus depriving them the opportunity to mold while hanging out and looking ghoulish (or goofy) on your stoop. To prepare your pumpkin for baking, split it in half and remove the guts and seeds. Place halves cut-side down in a rimmed baking dish and pour about ½ inch of water into the pan. Cover the lot with aluminum foil and place it into a 325º-oven. Bake pumpkins until the flesh is tender; this will take more or less time depending on the size of your squashes. Check after twenty minutes. When the pumpkins are “fork tender,” remove the pan from the oven and the pumpkins from the pan. Allow them to cool until you can handle them comfortably.

Scrape flesh from rind and retire the rind to your compost bin, stock pot, or chicken feeder (along with the guts). Run the flesh through a food mill or puree in an electric food processor. Finally — and quite importantly — drain excess water out of the puree. This can be accomplished in a number of ways depending on the equipment available to you: cheesecloth, chinois, a pan over medium heat. I put my puree in a very fine mesh jelly bag, placed the bag in a large colander set over a larger bowl, and returned throughout the afternoon to give it a good squeeze. I was surprised — nay, downright amazed — by how much water came out of the puree.

I’m sorry to report that I failed both in taking pictures of my Sugar Pies and and weighing them before I turned them into usable puree. All I can tell you is that two medium-sized homegrown pie pumpkins yielded three cups of puree and two days’ worth of snackable roasted seeds. The seeds, if you don’t already know, should be rinsed of any clingy pumpkin innards, patted dry, sprinkled with salt, and toasted in the oven until they are lightly browned. I hear that some people use oils and spices also, but I think plain and simple is fine.

If you haven’t settled on how you will use your fresh pumpkin puree, you may hold it in the refrigerator for about a week, or stash it in the freezer for longer-term storage.

Stay tuned for more pumpkin-centric recipes. Meanwhile, check out my pumpkin cranberry muffins — they’ll rock your world.

NEW! Pumpkin Scones!!