Yummy jack o’ lantern macarons from
Williams Sonoma. Here’s the history of
macaroons and macarons. Photo courtesy
Williams-Sonoma.

We asked ourself: We know the history of Halloween, but not how the jack o’lantern got its name. So we researched it, and the History Channel provided the answer.
 
 
WHERE DID THE JACK O’LANTERN COME FROM?

Pumpkins carved into jack o’ lanterns are an Irish-American tradition. But for centuries before any Irish immigration, jack o’ lanterns were carved from beets, potatoes and turnips and placed in windows of homes in what is now Great Britain, to ward off evil spirits on Halloween.

The jack o’lantern is named after Stingy Jack, a fellow of Irish myth. He invited the Devil to have a drink with him, but was too cheap to pay even for his own drink.

So he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin, which Jack would use to buy their refreshments.

Jack was not only stingy; he was a cheat. Once the Devil had turned himself into a coin, Jack simply pocketed it. No drinks were had that evening, but Jack was one coin richer. Clever Jack had placed the coin next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form.

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under conditions including that, after Jack died, the Devil would not claim his soul.

When Jack died, however, God would not allow his disreputable soul into heaven. Jack then tried to get into hell. The Devil, who had previously committed not to claim Jack’s soul, would not let him in.

But the Devil was kind enough to send Jack off into the dark with a burning coal to light his way. To carry it, Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip. The spirit of “Jack of the Lantern,” subsequently shortened to “Jack O’Lantern” (and evolving to the lower case jack o’lantern) has been roaming the Earth ever since.

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lantern by carving scary faces into potatoes and turnips, and placing them in windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets were used.

The American jack o’lantern. Photo courtesy Burpee.

Immigrants brought the jack o’lantern tradition to the U.S., where they discovered that the native pumpkin made the biggest, scariest and best jack-o’-lanterns.

[1] Pumpkin lasagna made in a Dutch oven (photo © Williams Sonoma).

One of the tips to enjoy a rich, hearty dish like lasagna is to serve it in smaller portions as a first course. Our friend Ruth’s Italian-American mother always served a pasta course before the Thanksgiving turkey.

You can buy delicious pumpkin ravioli and serve it with any sauce—Alfredo, butter, olive oil, pumpkin or tomato. You can make pumpkin mac and cheese, and for more fun serve it in a hollowed-out baby pumpkin garnished with shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas).

You can add diced pumpkin (or its stand-ins, acorn or butternut squash) to cooked pasta, purée the pumpkin into a sauce (here’s a recipe) or both.

The first recipe is from Williams-Sonoma. You don’t need a lasagna pan because it’s made in a Dutch oven. Find more delicious recipes on the website.

Our second lasagna recipe is even easier, because it’s a ravioli lasagna: ravioli is used instead of lasagna noodles.

Ingredients For 8 To 10 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2. STIR together the ricotta, sage, 3 tablespoons of the parsley and all the garlic in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

3. TOSS the yellow squash and zucchini with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Transfer to the oven and roast until tender and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile…

4. WARM the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in an oval Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add the yellow squash and zucchini. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F.

5. SPREAD 1/2 cup pasta sauce in an even layer on the bottom of the Dutch oven. Arrange a single layer of lasagna noodles on top, tearing them as needed to fit. Spread 1/2 cup of the ricotta mixture on the noodles and scatter 1 cup of the vegetable mixture on top. Spread 1/2 cup pasta sauce over the vegetables and sprinkle 1 cup of the Fontina on top. Layer the noodles, ricotta, vegetables, sauce and fontina 3 more times, omitting the sauce and fontina on the last layer. Top with the remaining noodles, sauce and Fontina.

6. TRANSFER to the oven and bake until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted and browned, 45 to 50 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of parsley on top. Let the lasagna rest for 15 minutes before serving.
 

If you don’t make lasagna often, you may find yourself struggling with the lasagna noodles. Bless the person who first thought of this trick: use cooked ravioli instead of lasagna noodles. Alternatively, you can use penne or other tube pasta, but ravioli supplies added filling.

This recipe from Taste Of Home takes 25 minutes to prep and 40 minutes to bake.
 
Ingredients For 6-8 Servings

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400F. Cook the meat in a large skillet over medium heat until no longer pink; drain the fat.

2. LAYER in a greased 2-1/2-quart baking dish: a third of the spaghetti sauce, half of the ravioli and beef and 1/2 cup cheese; sprinkle with herbs. Repeat the layers. Top with the remaining sauce, cheese and herbs.

3. COVER and bake at 400°F for 40-45 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 6-8 servings. If you have leftover fresh herbs, sprinkle them over the cooked lasagna.

 
*Vegetarians can substitute TVP, textured vegetable protein.
  

[1] Carrot tartare at 11 Madison Park, served in custom-designed platters (photo © Trip Advisor).
[2] Simple but elegant carrot tartare at Restaurant Niven | The Netherlands (photo © The Little Things)

Carrot tartare is turning up at the finest venues around the world. We recently had it as part of the 13-course tasting menu at 11 Madison Park in New York City. A walk away, it is served at the equally fashionable NoMad.

We found other preparations as far apart as New Zealand and The Netherlands.

Carrots may be humble but they have their own holiday: April 4th is National Carrot Day.
 
 
CUSTOMIZED MIX-INS AT THE TABLE

At 11 Madison Park, the dish is culinary theatre. A shiny meat grinder is brought tableside. Beautiful farmers market carrots are ground as if they were sirloin.

The shreds of carrot are then plated and served to each person with condiments, set into a custom wood platter. At 11 Madison Park, it’s all about the mix-ins, customized as you like. The assortment of condiments can vary.

 
As with steak tartare, there’s a side of toast, here in the form of toasted whole grain bread. You can see the whole process here on YouTube.
 
But you don’t need a meat grinder or a specially designed platter to hold the carrots and mix-ins. You can present the dish ready to eat.

Here’s a recipe that arrives ready to eat. Great thanks go to Denise Kortlever, a Dutch cookbook author and creator of the website The Littlest Things, for obtaining the recipe. You must see her website; we want to eat everything on it!

Her carrot tartare recipe comes from Niven Kunz of Restaurant Niven in The Netherlands. A young, Michelin star chef, his philosophy is “80/20”: 80% vegetables and 20% meat or fish. (His book of that title is not yet available in English.)

You can make it in just 10 minutes. It can be served as a first course, or plated with an entrée protein.

We also have a recipe for Beet Tartare.

Serving Size: 4 Appetizer Servings

 
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*It’s best to use organic eggs. If you’re concerned about salmonella, use SafeEggs pasteurized eggs or this technique to pasteurize eggs at home.

†Don’t like anchovies? Substitute 2-3 tablespoons of a tiny dice of Granny Smith or other tart apple.
_________________
 
Preparation

1. GRATE the carrots coarsely on a box grater, Microplane or shredding disk of a food processor.

2. BLEND with the other ingredients into a smooth tartare. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. PLATE with a cooking ring (a.k.a. egg ring, English muffin ring or pancake ring). Place the cooking ring on a plate, fill with the tartare and press down with the back of a cooking spoon. Garnish with a green leaf.

[4] At Harvest On Hudson, local goat cheese is mixed into the carrot tartare. It’s garnished with arugula pesto and red beet vinaigrette (photo © Harvest On Hudson).

WHAT IS TARTARE?

Steak tartare, or tartar steak, is a meat dish** that got its name from the legend that the ever-invading Tartars†† did not have time to cook their meat, so ate it raw as they traveled on horseback.

Steak tartare is made from finely chopped or minced raw beef or horse meat, plus seasonings. With its growing popularity over the last 30 or so years, other recipes have adopted the name. Salmon tartare, tomato tartare and tuna tartar are examples.

_____________________________
**The typical steak tartare recipe comprises ground raw beef mixed with onions, capers, Worcestershire sauce and a raw egg, served with toast points. A French variation, tartare aller-retour, is tartare patty lightly seared on one side. Steak tartare is often served with frites (French fries). In Belgium, the dish is known as filet américain. American? What happened to the Tartars?

††The Tartars, also spelled Tatars, are an ethnic group from Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Most Tatars live in the Russian Federation. To Americans, the most famous of the Tartars is Genghis Khan, whose troops invaded Europe in the 13th century. The most famous Tartar-American is the actor Charles Bronson.

Here’s a fun Halloween treat that makes a nutritious apple even more attractive than a piece of candy.

All you need are apples, gauze and candy eyes. Here’s how Marci Coombs did it.

You can set the apples out in a glass bowl, use them as place settings, or wrap them in cellophane bags as gifts or party favors.

Mom was a great baker as well as cook, and she’d have loved the new Land O’Lakes European Style Butter, now available in select markets across the country (check out Kroger, Safeway, Super Target and Walmart). The suggested retail price is $3.79 for a half-pound package of two individually wrapped sticks, in both salted and unsalted varieties.

We have long used Plugrá, an American brand made in the European style, and Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, which, as an import, is even pricier ($4.98 for a half-pound at our specialty food store). Both have 82% milkfat. We love the extra flavor they give to pastries, pie crusts and laminated dough, such as croissants; in fact, you can definitely taste the difference in a buttery croissant. Heavenly!

Professional bakers who make artisan products have long used European-style butter, purchased in bulk. American consumers could find Kerrygold and Plugrá in some specialty food stores; and to a lesser extent, the 86% fat European-style butters from Straus Family Creamery of California and Vermont Creamery.

But now, with Land O’ Lakes’ national distribution, European-style butter is available to most people—just in time for the holiday baking frenzy. It also enhances butter-based sauces.

Note, though, that Land O’ Lakes’ and Kerrygold’s 82% butter still give the advantage to the 86% varieties from Straus Family Creamery and Vermont Creamery, if you want to pay for the best.

Beyond baking and cooking, you can use European-style butter as a bread spread on artisan bread. As an indulgence for bread and butter lovers, there’s nothing better than Vermont Creamery’s Cultured Butter Blended with Sea Salt & Maple spread on a slice of fine baguette.

TOP PHOTO: The new butter in town is even richer and creamier than regular butter. BOTTOM PHOTO: Yum: Linguine and lobster in a butter sauce. The recipe is below. Photos courtesy Land O’ Lakes.

European-style butter, also called cultured butter, is slow churned for a longer time to give it an extra-creamy texture, lower moisture content and higher milkfat (butterfat) content. In the case of Land O’ Lakes, the brand’s conventional 80% milkfat is increased to 82%.

In the U.S., butter with more than 82% milkfat is considered European-style. While European-style super premium butters comprise only about 1% of the entire U.S. market volume, the category is growing.

Churning for a longer time decreases the moisture content and increases the fat content. It allows more flavor to develop in the cream. Butter with less fat contains more water, which can act as an unwelcome binding agent, gluing down layers of dough to create a tougher pastry. More fat, less moisture is better for baking, especially for crusts, flaky pastries and laminated dough like croissants. It also adds more flavor and texture to sauces.

Why isn’t all American butter made in the richer European-style? It’s more expensive to take the time to churn out the moisture to create a higher-fat butter. The USDA says that butter must have a minimum of 80% milkfat, so that’s what most brands provide.

For more information, visit LandOLakes.com.

European-style butter is just one type of butter. See our butter glossary for the different types of butter.
 
RECIPE: GOOEY BUTTER SHORTBREAD

Nothing shows off the quality of butter better than shortbread. This recipe from Land O’ Lakes makes shortbreadeven richer, with a buttery topping. Prep time is 10 minutes, total time is 2 hours.

Ingredients For 24 Pieces

For The Crust

 
For The Topping

Preparation

1. HEAT the oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

2. COMBINE all the crust ingredients in a bowl and beat at medium speed just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press the dough evenly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

3. MAKE the topping: Combine the water, corn syrup and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside. Place the tablespoons butter, sugar and salt in bowl and beat until well combined. Add the egg and beat until well mixed. Add the flour alternately with the corn syrup mixture, beating until well mixed after each addition.

4. SPREAD the topping evenly over the shortbread crust. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely. Remove from the pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Here’s another yummy recipe from Land O’ Lakes. It’s National Pasta Month, so treat yourself. Prep time is 10 minutes, total time is 25 minutes.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. MELT the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat until sizzling. Add the leek and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and Pernod; cook 1 minute or until there is bubbling around the edges.

2. ADD the lobster pieces; cook 3-4 minutes or until the lobster turns pink. Remove the lobster from sauce and cover to keep warm. Continue cooking the sauce another 4-5 minutes until the sauce is reduced to about 3/4 cup.

3. STIR in the cream and salt. Add the pasta; toss lightly to coat. Cook 1-2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Place the pasta onto a serving dish; top with the lobster. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.
 
*If you don’t have Pernod, you can substitute absinthe or Herbsaint. Don’t substitute anise liqueur in this recipe—it’s too sweet for a savory dish. However, you can make a close-enough substitute with anise: Combine 1 tablespoon of anise seeds, ideally toasted in a dry pan for a 2 minutes, with 1 cup of vodka in an airtight jar. Let it infuse for a week in a dark place. If you don’t have the time, simmer the seeds in the vodka for 20 minutes strain them out.
 
THE HISTORY OF BUTTER

Where would we be without butter? Here’s the history of butter, which dates back to 2,000 years before Christ in the written record.
 
ABOUT LAND O’ LAKES

Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a dairy cooperative based in Minnesota, focusing on the dairy industry. The third largest co-op in the U.S., it is one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the country, and handles 12 billion pounds of milk annually.

In addition to milk and butter products, it also markets Alpine Lace cheese and Kozy Shack pudding, among other products.