If you like to create something new, how about pumpkin liqueur? You can make enough for your own household and as gifts for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Then, pumpkin up your holiday cocktails and desserts.

This recipe comes from The Martini Diva.

You’ll need these tools:

Ingredients

Preparation

1. REMOVE seeds and fibers and cut pumpkin into chunks (about 8″). Place flesh side down on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F for about half an hour or until the flesh is tender. The baking time will depend on the size of your pieces.

2. SCRAPE the cooked flesh from the shell and place into the infusion jar with the vodka. Reserve the vodka bottle to bottle your liqueur.

3. ADD the lemon zest, pumpkin pie spice and sugar. Seal jar and place in the fridge. Let this distill for a minimum of one week and up to two weeks. Shake the jar up whenever you open the fridge, or at least once a day. After the first week you can test the depth of flavor until you get the intensity of pumpkin flavor you want.

4. STRAIN the ingredients through a large sieve or metal strainer to remove the chunkier pieces.

5. LINE the metal strainer with coffee filters or cheesecloth and place over the over the filtering jar. Filter the infused pumpkin liqueur through the strainer in stages (do not overfill the strainer). After each portion of the liqueur filters through, toss out the sediment that has accumulated in the strainer. When all the solids are removed, you’re ready to bottle.

Use the retained vodka bottle for your own use. For gifting, purchase decorative bottles and add a label.

PREPARATION TIPS

Canned Pumpkin: You can substitute 32 ounces of canned pumpkin purée can for the fresh pumpkin, but you’ll lose some of the great flavor. Think of fresh-baked acorn or butternut squash versus frozen squash.

Color: If you want a really bright orange colored liqueur, Add a few drops of food coloring to the infusion jar. Use the proportion of 4 drops yellow to 1 drop red. Add it bit by bit, but don’t worry if you find yourself adding 12 drops of yellow and 4 drops of red food color.

Rum Option: You can use white rum instead of vodka, but the pumpkin flavor will be less pronounced. Vodka is a neutral spirit, but rum has flavor. Try both and see how you like them.

An individual Pumpkin Crème Brûlée. Photo
courtesy Spice Islands.

While pumpkin can (and should) be enjoyed year-round, Pumpkin Crème Brûlée is a delicious Halloween dessert or Thanksgiving dessert.

The recipe, for individual dishes of crème brûlée, is courtesy Spice Islands, which has been searching the world for the highest-quality, most flavorful herbs and spices since 1941.

Prep time is 35 minutes, bake time 40 to 45 minutes, chill time 2 hours.
RECIPE: PUMPKIN CRÈME BRÛLÉE

Ingredients For 8 Servings

Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 325°F.

2. SPLIT vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape vanilla bean. Place in heavy saucepan. Add cream, pumpkin and syrup and whisk together; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk egg yolks and pumpkin pie spice in a separate bowl.

3. ADD the hot pumpkin mixture slowly to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Add 1/4 cup pecans and 1 tablespoon crystallized ginger. Pour mixture into eight 6-ounce ramekins. Place ramekins in a hot water bath.

4. BAKE 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean. Transfer ramekins to a rack to cool completely. Chill, covered, until cold (at least 2 hours).

5. COMBINE sugar, 1 teaspoon crystallized ginger and 1 tablespoon pecans. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons evenly over each ramekin. Broil until topping is caramelized. Serve.

RECIPE: PUMPKIN PIE SPICE

Unless you use a lot of it and like the convenience, there’s no reason to buy pre-blended pumpkin pie spice. It’s easy to mix it from other spices you already have.

Ingredients For 2 Teaspoons

 
Blend together.
  

We have a new favorite crispy snack to enjoy with beer, wine and Martinis. We love them with soup, too. And for general crunching.

Harvest Snaps are a line of gluten-free snacks made largely from peas (70%) or lentils (65%). Both legumes are packed with nutrients: calcium, folate, iron, potassium and vitamin B, plus highs level of protein and dietary fiber.

Harvest Snaps have 50% less fat, lower sodium and more fiber than regular potato chips.

And they have more pizazz. Harvest Chips are deftly seasoned for a sizzle that goes well with a drink. Flavors include:

Lentil Snaps

 
If you “Like” the brand on Facebook, you’ll receive a buy-1-get-1-free coupon.

That’s agricultural poetry!

WHERE TO FIND HARVEST SNAPS

Harvest Snaps are available at the national’s top retailers:

Albertsons, Andronico’s, Basha’s, BJ’s, Bristol Farms, Costco, Dominick’s, HEB, Ingles, Kroger, Lucky, Publix, Raley’s, Ralphs, Safeway, SaveMart, 7Eleven, Smart&Final, Spartan Stores, Sprouts, Stop & Shop, Target, Von’s, Walmart, Wegnan’s and Whole Foods Market, among others.

If you need help finding them, here’s the store locator.

Retail buyers are notoriously tough; but all they needed to do was taste Harvest Snaps. They’re probably as hooked as we are.

Discover more at HarvestSnaps.com.

Our favorite packaged sweet snack, Bare Fruit apple chips has expanded the line to two new “flavored” chips. The lineup now includes

They’re as satisfying as candy—in fact, much more so, since they’re a guilt-free, all fruit and just 50 calories per bag. Each bag is the equivalent of eating an apple, so you also contribute to your recommended daily fruit and fiber servings.

Caramel Apple is perfect for Halloween; all varieties of these naturally sweet chips (no sugar added but a special baking process caramelizes the apple’s natural sugar) are great for:

Since October is National Pasta Month—and October 17th is National Pasta Day—today’s tip, from Care2.com, dispels those myths. (Here’s the entire article, which covers other cooking myths, as well).

Myth: Put Oil In Pasta Water So It Doesn’t Stick

Reality: If you remember grade school science class, oil and water don’t mix! When you add oil to pasta water, it floats on the top, away from the pasta. So how can it prevent the pasta from sticking together?

The tip was originally suggested by a vegetable oil company, to get people to use more oil. (A similar trick was devised by the shampoo company that originally advised women to lather, rinse, and then do it again! That’s just a waste of shampoo!)

Enamel stock pot from Tramontina.

But worse, the oil that gets onto the pasta when you drain it prevents the sauce from clinging.

There’s really only one benefit to adding oil to pasta water, says Care2: It will stop the water from boiling over if the pot is too short. If you use a stock pot to cook your pasta, all you’ll be doing is wasting oil.

The real key to keep pasta from sticking: Use the largest pot, with lots of water.

Reality: If you want the pasta to stick to the sauce—that’s the way it should be, people—don’t rinse it after you drain it. Rinsing removes all of the starch, which helps the sauce cling.*

Pasta pros also add a tablespoon of the pasta water to the sauce. The starch that has leached from the pasta into the water helps it cling to the pasta.

Tip: For the best pasta-sauce marriage, finish cooking the pasta and sauce together in a skillet. This gives the pasta the most opportunity to absorb the sauce.
 
*One exception to this myth is if you’re cooking the pasta for a cold pasta salad. A lower starch content may be desirable, so if you get instructed to rinse it, do it.

ONE LAST TIP

Be sure to add salt to the water. Some people never learned to do this, or omit it due to a desire to cut back on salt.

But unless you’re on a serious salt-free diet, salt gives the pasta (and rice, and potatoes) necessary flavor. Without salted water, the pasta is bland.

Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt to the rapidly boiling water.
 

HOW TO COOK THE PERFECT AL DENTE PASTA

MORE PASTA COOKING TIPS