Pumpkin Panna Cotta – a No-Bake, Foolproof Dessert

By Joy Liao

Brisk, fall weather never fails to put me in the holiday spirit. I love the crisp air, colorful foliage, bundling up in heavy sweaters, and of course, Thanksgiving.

Every year, my mom and I host Thanksgiving dinner. A few weeks ago, my mom asked me to put together a menu for our annual feast. Cooking for 20+ people will not be easy, but I’m up for the challenge!

This year, I’ve decided to go with Pumpkin Panna Cotta for dessert instead of traditional pumpkin pie. It’s a delicious fail-proof choice that requires no baking.

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Easy Ravioli – the Secret is Wonton Wrappers

By Sandy Hu

Here’s a ravioli that even cooking newbies can make because it uses wonton wrappers instead of handmade ravioli dough. You cook up a simple pumpkin-walnut filling, spoon a tablespoon between two layers of wonton wrappers, and, using your fingertip, seal with water.

Cook up your plump pillows of dough in a pot of salted boiling water for two minutes and serve with a brown butter and walnut sauce. It’s that easy.

If you keep a package of wonton wrappers and a bagful of walnuts in your freezer, and a can of pumpkin in your pantry, this dish can be your go-to meal, anytime.

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Pumpkin-Orange Smoothies

By Andrew Hunter

Halloween is the symbolic start of the holiday season in the Hunter household. For Marilyn and me, it’s a transitional time at the table too. Steaks and chops are on the grill less often with more roasts braised for hours on Sundays to eat the rest of the week; and our shopping trips yield fewer summer fruits and veggies and more squashes, roots and gourds.

Pumpkins this year will get carved, roasted, grilled and puréed. We like to buy small orange pumpkin, cut off the stem end, then cut in quarters, clean away the stringy and seedy insides, rub with oil, salt and pepper, and roast until soft and tender. With these chunks of soft pumpkin, we can do a bunch of things from dicing for pasta, to puréeing for soups and mashing into potatoes for an autumnal side.

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Talkin’ Pumpkin (and not the Carving Kind....)

By Lori Powell

Not too long ago, I shared my story about the pumpkins growing wild in my backyard. I promised I would tell you how I cook them.

Well, the pumpkins did grow but they would not have won any national pumpkin prize for size. That was A-Okay by me.

It was a first-time thrill to have kind of raised my own. (To tell the truth, they grew by themselves. I was just an observer.)

I so enjoy squash of all kinds and now is the time cook with them, with the first chill of autumn in the air. So reluctantly, I picked my orange globes and none too soon, since I noticed the vines were shriveled and dying, I think due to all of the monsoons this summer.

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The Giving Pumpkin

By Marilyn Hunter

Once there was a pumpkin…a bright orange pumpkin with dimples, scratches and shine. She loved the two curious little boys who had plucked her from the pumpkin patch. Everyday the boys would come and play with her; pick her up by the stem and gently place her back on the hearth.

They would draw silly faces on her, pretend she was guarding a fortress filled with smaller gourds, and move her to shady spot when the sun shined bright in the room. And one day, near Halloween’s eve, they helped carve her into a spooky Jack O’ Lantern.

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