I hate you, Autumn. Why the hell are you already here in Chicago? Less than two weeks ago, the sun was shining, it was a warm 80 degree F (26 C), and illegal Mexican street cart vendors were out in full force. Now, it’s a cool 70 (21 C), the breeze is getting a little colder and damn it, the leaves are already changing colors and falling off the stupid trees. STAY ON, FREAKING LEAVES! I’ll super glue you back on if I have to, because the second you guys all leave the trees, then comes the snow. I lived in Australia for the past year and a half. I don’t do “snow” anymore. Even my CSA is shifting towards more autumnal produce. I got a spaghetti squash this week, and I tried to make a soup out of it. I say “tried” because it took me an hour to crack open the damn squash. When I finally made the soup,it tasted like Elmer’s Glue, and that was even after I added a half a pound of artisan bacon (I ate the other half pound after I tasted the soup). Autumn was clearly trying to screw me over. Autumn is a bitch. When I opened the squash, however, the seeds inside reminded me of the kind you find inside of a pumpkin. Suddenly, I was back in the 1980s, in the kitchen with my mom carving pumpkins. She would occasionally take the time to separate the seeds from the pumpkin guts, which were squishy and slimy and always smelled a little funny. I hated the separating part because it took concentration and patience, two things I sucked at (still do). But I went through with it in anticipation of the fruits of our labor. We would wash the seeds to get the last bit of guts off, and set them out to air dry on some old newspapers.
Once they were dry, a quick toss in some oil, salt and pepper was all they needed before she would throw them into a 350 degree F oven (176 C) for 10-15 minutes until you could smell them and they were just turning golden brown.
I used to love to eat them straight out the oven, all warm and crisp, slightly salty and really crunchy. Deliciousness in a tiny kernel package. Even though the squash soup sucked my will to live, I was gonna salvage those seeds, damn it! I was gonna prevent Autumn from screwing me over by making my own pepitas. I skipped the veggie oil my mom usually rocked for some olive oil, kosher salt and a heavy handful of freshly cracked black pepper. My version of pepitas were lighter and spicier, a grown-up version of my childhood snack.
The week before that, I came across the first of the season’s apple, locally grown Galas. I was heading up to a friend’s house in Wisconsin, and it was my job to make dessert for dinner that night. I found this recipe on the blog, Vanilla Garlic. Garrett always has really creative cupcake recipes, and I was really pleased with this one. It was pretty easy to make, and as always, I took some liberties with the recipe. The recipe called for cardamom and ginger, but I also added just a bit of cinnamon. The recipe didn’t specify ground ginger or grated fresh ginger, so I went with the fresh for some variety. Finally, Garrett used a salted caramel drizzle for his topping, but I wanted my cupcake a bit more rich, so I went with an old favorite: salted caramel frosting (you can find the recipe here). Basically a cream cheese frosting that is light on the cheese and heavy on salted caramel, but trust me, I would do very bad things for this frosting. Especially if was slathered on top of something chocolate. Really bad. Like sell a kidney bad.
Say it with me, folks. My name is Leena, and I have an addiction…
It might not be officially fall yet, but Chicago doesn’t give a shit. Chicago does what it wants. I like to think my pepitas and cupcakes were my own personal “sit and spin” to Chi-town. What a great idea–to combat the cold weather that scares the shit out of me because it leads to pain and colds and flus and chilly wind and snow, just make a crap ton of food to distract yourself, Leena. I’m gonna get so fat this winter. ~LTG!
