Seeing everyone in the US of A has been blogging about Thanksgiving, I decided to put in my two cents by making pumpkin pie, which I believe is a staple during the holidays over there… The original plan was to make pumpkin brownies with a white chocolate frosting, but I didn’t have a brownie pan handy, and my first batch didn’t quite come together the way I planned (the fact that I forgot to add baking soda may very well have been the cause of that). So I tweaked my second batch slighty (i.e. added the baking soda) and made brownie-like pie. The only mistake I made this time was not leaving the pie in the oven slighty longer, because it was still a bit underdone in the middle. This is not a huge problem for pumpkin, it will be a bit moist but still delicious. Still, you might want to up the time in the oven a little.

So, you’ll need:

- 450 grams pumpkin,boiled and mashed. I’ve heard of places where they sell canned pumpkin (mythical, fantastic places, so it seems), so you could also use that.

- 4 eggs

- 180 ml. vegetable oil, I used sunflower oil

- 10 ml. vanilla extract

- 150 grams walnuts, chopped

- 250 grams all-purpose flour

- 200 grams sugar

- 5 grams cinnamon

- 2 grams powdered ginger

- 5 grams baking soda

- pinch of salt

For the frosting:

- 200 grams of white chocolate, hazelnuts optional

Preheat the oven, at 180 degrees C.

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, eggs, oil, walnuts and vanilla extract. Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt, and stir into the pumpkin mixture. Pour into a 22 cm. cake tin, and put in the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. If you’re not sure, just lower the temperature of the oven to about 170 degrees and let it sit for 10 minutes longer. In the meantime, melt some white chocolate au-bain-marie (meaning: put a small pan in a larger pan filled with water, add the chocolate to the small pan, heat the water, and it will melt without the risk of burning). I could only find white chocolate with hazelnuts, which was actually a great addition to the pie, but if you’re not fond of large nuts (pun intended) on top of your pie, use plain white chocolate. When the chocolate has melted, just pour it on top of the pie and distribute it evenly with the back of a spoon.

Ta-daa! That’s all there is to it for this delicious treat! And it’s pretty healty (or at least not very harmful): pumpkin only has about 13 calories per 100 grams, so there’s worse things you can snack on…

By the way, how do you like the photo? I finally bought a spanking new digital camera, and it’s awesome. Currently I’m experimenting with the settings, and I’ll try to upload new pictures onto my Flickr-account at least once a week!

I’ll get back to my semi-regular posting soon, I promise. For now, here’s an authentic meatball recipe from Joyce, who can normally be found tipping over small children here. Bon appetit!

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They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I don’t know about that, but I do know that all the men in my life go absolutely ga-ga over meatballs. Incidentally I’m hosting a special “make your own old-fashioned meatballs” clinic for my cousin and his friends tonight (my cousin has a lunchroom where the demand for meatballs is high, but until now, he didn’t have a good enough recipe at hand). So tonight it’s big juicy meatballs aplenty at my house, and I’m happy to share the wealth in recipe form with you now.

I’ve learned to cook from my mother and grandmothers, but most of their recipes have been altered or expanded by me over time. I wouldn’t dare say improved, but rather adjusted to my personal taste. Which just so happens to involve a lot of garlic…

For the meatballs you need half-and-half (pork and beef) minced meat. Some people prefer to use (less fatty) ground beef, but in my opinion meatballs are not about watching your calorie intake, but about rustic cooking and indulgence. Mix the mince with a good splash of olive oil, an egg, freshly and finely cut parsley and garlic, bread crumbs and lots (and I do mean lots) of salt and pepper. Roll them into nicely shaped balls (halfway between a golfball and a tennisball) and then add some fine bread crumbs (to which you’ve again added salt and pepper). The crumbs will make for a nice crust once you fry them in butter (with just a little bit of olive oil). Just sear them all the way round (sear, not blacken mind) and then put them on a light flame with the lid on (or a dinner plate if you’re using a frying pan). When they are cooked all the way through (about ten to fifteen minutes later), you can take them out of the pan to make the gravy. I usually like to add some assorted forest mushrooms and fresh herbs such as parsley and thyme, and cook them with some extra butter in the meat juices. Boil some water and add stock cubes to taste, pour the broth in the pan and reduce to a nice thick gravy. Dump your balls back in the pan et voilà, ye olde- fashioned meatballs!

So what do you eat with these delicious salty balls? The Dutch way to go is “stamppot”, a mixture of mashed potatoes with a vegetable of your choice, traditionally being either carrots, andive, sauerkraut or borecole (also known as curly kale), and (because everything tastes better with bacon in it) bacon bits. But spinach or bok choy works just as well.

If the aforementioned Dutch style doesn’t quite do it for you, there is an easy twist that will turn these rustic meatballs into Spanish albongidas in no time. Just add a little bit of freshly and finely cut red jalapeño peppers to the (far smaller: about the size of a large marble) meatballs and fry them in olive oil with some diced onions and garlic. When they are cooked through (the smaller, the faster they are done) take them out of the pan so you can make the sauce. Blitz a can of peeled tomatoes and put them in the pan, add hot (or chili) sauce to taste, and your delicious meatballs are now fancy schmancy Spanish tapas. Enjoy!