Living in Florida, one of the ways I fake fall – or perhaps try to fool Mother Nature into sending us temperatures below 80 degrees – is to make a lot of pumpkin recipes during the last quarter of the year.
There are two primary reasons pumpkin appeals to me, other than loving the flavor—
One, it’s such a quintessentially American food. Admittedly, archeologists trace the first pumpkins to Oaxaca, Mexico, a good 7,000 before the Mayflower landed, but we Yankees were the first ones to make pies out of ‘em, dammit, so I’m claiming pumpkin for the Pilgrims.
Two, pumpkin’s always been a huge crowd-pleaser in my family. Even when the kids were little, they loved all things pumpkin, and it’s still a favorite. As toddlers, they happily tumbled downstairs in the morning for pumpkin pancakes. And just last night, my 20-something daughter, her girlfriend, and cousin licked their bowls of pumpkin bisque clean while watching Halloween horror movies in the family room.
I’ve been making both of these recipes for over a quarter decade, and today I’m happy to share them with you, my Strawberry Kitchen pumpkin patch pals.
Part 2: Curried Pumpkin Soup with Cheddar
