As I mentioned in the last post, Boo and I went to Jenny's on Tuesday. We cracked lots of walnuts (European or English walnuts) with Jitka and Boo even did some cracking (although he mainly played with Jitka's son who is the same age). He used a nut cracker that works well with children's hands - you can see it in the picture below, it's upside down, but it's a little cup that holds the nut...Boo's four if that helps you gauge for the children in your life. Walnut shells are sharp, so keep that in mind. Boo was fine, but I sliced my finger...it's sort of like a paper cut.
It really is true how much better fresh food is. These walnuts are lighter in color, more buttery in texture, and lighter in flavor (ie. bitterness) than store bought. Jitka has been gathering the walnuts daily to keep on top of it and before the hulls get all mushy and black. If you have any great uses for walnut shells, please let me know. I know that there are many industrial uses (they're put in tire rubber and work great instead of studded tires...we had them when we lived in a more icy/snowy location), but I don't know of any home use. Oh, and we tried using the walnuts on the small scratches on Jenny's table, it really does work well to camoflauge the scratches!
We also made pie from a pumpkin. I rarely take my camera with me while visiting friends because I either forget to take pictures, or the camera just gets in the way for me. I did remember to get a few shots of pie making however, The recipe we used was strayed from a bit. I like to roast my squash, it seems to intensify the flavor (think of the difference between boiled veg and roasted). I got this trick from my mother; she makes mashed butternut squash (like mashed potatoes) this way. So, to do this, cut your squash in half, take out the seeds/strings (Save the seeds to roast. I have never done this, but I assume that butternut squash seeds would roast the same as pumpkin.). Cut the squash into eight or ten pieces and put them in a roasting pan (or casserole dish) skin side down with a little water in the bottom to keep the bottoms from burning. We roasted the pumpkin at 400 (it probably could have been higher, but I just wanted to be safe not to burn the top part of the pumpkin), uncovered for an hour and a half. Check your squash after an hour, however. Then just scoop out the pulp after it cools enough to the touch:
See the little bit of water in the pan? Oh, and to feed two birds with one seed, roast the seeds on the top rack at the same time...just remember that they take much less time and need to be checked often. I don't know how long ours took. They turned out really good with a bit of canola oil and salt on them before going in the oven.
We used a food mill to "mash" the pulp. This doesn't work so well with squash. Jenny and I both found food mills this summer at thrift stores and they are great hand tools. We have noticed that they don't process some things well that have skins (grapes for jam) or are fiberous (squash). They process apples really well. Jenny said that she hasn't tried potatoes and I thought that they might get gummy from the rotation of the tool. I have heard that a ricer works well with potatoes. If you've tried them with a food mill with success, again, please let me know!
Since the food mill didn't process the fiberous pulp too well, we could have measured the pulp after doing our best, added the other ingredients and then blend it in the blender, but it turned out fine for us...we didn't mind the texture. If you do this, make sure to measure after the pulp goes through the food mill for a more accurate measure, otherwise there is a lot of air space.
Anyway, no other pictures of the pie...we did make it crust-less however, a great trick. Also, my friend Codi has been making this same recipe with whole wheat crust and honey instead of sugar with great results!
Happy Thursday!