Around the Kitchen Table: THE GREAT PUMPKIN SEASON + 7-Book #Giveaway!

CLEO COYLE:  Do you remember that classic Peanuts movie, aired yearly for decades: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? Or maybe you have fond memories of carving a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween? For reasons like these, I always think of October as a time to celebrate the humble pumpkin...

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Enjoy this fun little trip down the Great Pumpkin memory lane,
courtesy of YouTube. If you don't see the video above,
click here to view it on YouTube.

🎃 October is also a great month for making pumpkin recipes. I recently shared my method for making PERFECT PUMPKIN PANCAKES with EASY BUTTER PECAN SYRUP... 

Click here or on the photo above for 
Cleo's Pumpkin Pancakes recipe

And this recipe for PUMPKIN SPICE SOUL CAKES is one of my favorites. It's my tasty twist on an old tradition...

Click here or on the photo above for Cleo's
PUMPKIN SPICE SOUL CAKES recipe

My husband and I will devour these Pumpkin Spice Soul Cakes warm for breakfast, like pumpkin muffin tops, smeared with butter or cream cheese. Or we'll sandwich them together for dessert to make "soul cake whoopie pies" using fillings like cream cheese frosting; marshmallow creme; and even vanilla buttercream flavored with pumpkin spice. 

What about you? Do you have a favorite pumpkin memory or recipe to share? If you’re not a pumpkin fan, do you have any other dishes that you enjoy cooking or baking at this time of year?

~ Cleo 

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Oh, I loved the Great Pumpkin, too, Cleo! Linus and his unfailing optimism is such a hopeful image for kids of all ages.  

I'm a big fan of pumpkin in just about anything, except my lattes! I love the Pumpkin Pie Spices in coffee (and so many other things). I created this recipe for Fresca in my Food Lovers' Village mysteries, and then when I created the Spice Shop mysteries, well, Pepper, the shop owner, claimed it for herself! But the pumpkin? I have better uses for it! These Pumpkin Drop Scones are easy-peasy and yummy-pummy! (I just made that up.) This Pumpkin Ginger Mousse is light and full of flavor, as if the pumpkin could float! 

Ginger and pumpkin are such a wonderful combo that we also love in this Ginger Pumpkin Apple Soup. I've apparently never shared the Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins we call Christmas Muffins but that are good all year round -- there's usually a stash in our freezer. I promise to take care of that soon! 

And watch for my Pumpkin Spice Cake with Warm Caramel sauce from Murder in the Graveyard coming this Tuesday! 

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LIBBY KLEIN: "I got a rock." My favorite line from the Great Pumpkin and a sentiment that comes up in my life from time to time but always makes me giggle. Occasional disappointment aside, I love pumpkin everything! Except maybe that pumpkin spice latte that everyone raves about. I want to like it, but it's just not my thing. These amazing coffee-house style pumpkin cheesecake muffins on the other hand, these are what my autumn dreams are made of.  You can find my gluten-free version here. I'm pretty sure the recipe is also in the back of my Halloween Mystery - Mischief Nights Are Murder. Tasty and Hilarious!

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KIM DAVIS: It's been years since I've watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and now I want to revisit the movie! I seem to have it on DVD somewhere in one of the closets, lol. Thanks for reminding me of a childhood classic, Cleo! 

I adore anything pumpkin and keep a dozen cans in my pantry year-round. Not only do I give some to my dog every day, but I add it to my occasional smoothie, mixing a combination of pumpkin, pear, and cinnamon as the base. During the holidays I make vegan pumpkin pies (no one can tell it's made with tofu, or at least they're too polite to say anything 😂) and make enough for breakfast the next morning if I haven't had time to make my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Another fall and holiday must is my Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cake, made in a Bundt pan. Once I started making this cake, I never found the need to try any other recipe since it became a family favorite.

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MADDIE DAY: My answer might be better suited for next month - that is, Thanksgiving recipes - but I really only want pumpkin in pie - or pumpkin carrot muffins.

I grew up with my mother using canned Libby's pumpkin to make two pies for the holiday. After growing and baking my own pumpkins, I have reverted to the contents of cans for my pies. And in those pies is the only place pumpkin spice belongs. I'm an adamant purist about this, with no apologies! Following my grandmother Ruth, I almost double the cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice in the recipe on the can.

(I also bake apple and pecan pie at Thanksgiving, but only one each.)

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LESLIE KARST: My favorite pumpkin that I ever carved was this one of my Jack Russell terror--I mean, terrier--Ziggy. I had a photo of her playing rough, which I transformed into a pumpkin-carving template on my computer. Came out pretty scary, no?

 

As for recipes, one of my favorites is this one for Pumpkin Soup with Brown Butter and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. It's scrumptious!

 

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VICKI DELANY: I searched the MLK database so see if I’d ever posted a recipe with pumpkin and I came up empty. Which wasn’t a surprise as I can’t think of anything I make with pumpkin.  Even pumpkin pie isn’t my favourite. But I am very fond of squash and sweet potatoes and as it happens today, I’m making a huge batch of my Harvest Squash Soup.  It’s sort of a non-recipe, something I’ve made so many times I know to just throw in what I have in the way of vegetables straight from the farm stand – always butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.  I make it with a good amount of curry power and other spices to produce a flavourful soup that freezes very well to enjoy over the winter months.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Harvest Soup with

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potatoes From Vicki Delany

VMBURNS: Time for a confession. I don't like pumpkin. The only pumpkin recipe I have is for dog treats. My dogs aren't exactly food connoisseurs. Although, they have their likes and dislikes. My concern with the pumpkin dog biscuits was that IF they didn't like it, clean up would NOT be fun. Fortunately, my poodles LOVE pumpkin dog biscuits. So, when I want to spoil the poodles, that's what they get.

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I'm a late bloomer when it comes to pumpkin pie or anything pumpkin for that matter.  My parents never served pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving but I discovered it when my mother-in-law served a pumpkin chiffon pie.  Ever since, I've put pumpkin in lots of things including biscuits for my dog!  I particularly love pumpkin in muffins like these pumpkin streusel muffins.  These pumpkin snickerdoodle bars were also a hit.  I've never tried the ubiquitous pumpkin spice lattes but maybe this year!

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ANG POMPANO: When I was a kid, I lived by a truck farm. Every fall, the farmer would hitch a weathered wooden wagon to his noisy old Ford tractor, and all the neighborhood kids would pile in for the ride down the dirt road to the pumpkin patch. The wagon rattled and creaked with each bump, but we looked forward to that ride every year.

When we reached the field, we’d scatter through the scratchy vines, cutting the pumpkins loose with knives we were way too young to be using. We loaded the wagon until it was stacked high, then walked along behind the tractor as it pulled the heavy load back to the farmer’s roadside stand.

There, we sorted and stacked the pumpkins, and when the work was done, the farmer fed us and handed out cold sodas. There was nothing better.

Part of our harvest.

Today, I like pumpkin anything. Last year I tried making pumpkin butter, and it was easy and delicious—perfect on toast or really on anything you’d put a spread on. I plan to make it again soon and share the recipe, but for now, here’s my recipe for fried pumpkin flowers.

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MOLLY MACRAE: Leslie K, your pumpkin is great (and scary)! Ang, I love your pumpkin harvesting story, scratchy pumpkin vines, dangerous knives and all. My brothers and I looked forward to carving pumpkins every year—scooping out the guts, lighting the candles inside just before dark—so much fun! One of my favorite Halloween smells is candle-singed pumpkin. Here’s one of my favorite savory pumpkin recipes and a recipe that doesn’t use pumpkin but can look like a Jack-o’-lantern.

Coconut Curry Chickpeas
with Pumpkin and Lime

Red Lentil Soup with
North African Spices

 

GIVEAWAY!

To be entered in this week's drawing

for these terrific mysteries below,

join us in the comments.

    What about you? Do you have a favorite pumpkin memory or recipe to share? If you’re not a pumpkin fan, do you have any other dishes that you enjoy cooking or baking at this time of year? 

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conversation!

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so we can contact the winner!

This contest is now over.
Congrats to our winner:

Karen Hester!

📚 🎃 📚 

BULLETPROOF BARISTA 
by Cleo Coyle  

ESSENTIALS OF DEATH 
by Kim Davis  

MURDER AT CAPE COSTUMERS 
by Maddie Day 

ASSAULT & PEPPER
by Leslie Budewitz 

MISCHIEF NIGHTS ARE MURDER 
by Libby Klein 

ICING ON THE MURDER
by Valerie Burns 

BLOOD TIES AND DEADLY LIES
by Ang Pompano

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Oct. 9

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