Pumpkin cake for the current me

I love pumpkin. Growing up I couldn't get enough of if, because it seemed that the only time we had anything pumpkin was between about mid-October and Christmas. Which, by the way, is historically the season to have pumpkin unless you canned it. Commercial canning and out of area growing made year-round pumpkin even more possible. Of course now what is labeled pumpkin may actually be a winter squash mix....but I digress.

After leaving home decades ago I found that pumpkin wasn't just for that tiny window and so started collecting pumpkin recipes. One of my favorites was a pumpkin cake that had orange juice and orange zest in it. It was heavenly and I made it often, even adapting it various ways. Time passes and for whatever reason, that recipe was replaced by others. But when invited to a dinner last evening, I decided it was a perfect time to bring that wonderful pumpkin cake as a dessert. So I dug out the recipe and rolled up my sleeves yesterday morning to make the cake.

HORRORS! I read the recipe and it called for a stick of butter in the cake AND a stick of butter for the frosting! Had I really eaten that? Yes I had, and loved every minute of if. Today though, I don't eat so much fat (or try not to) for various reasons. And I don't even try to fool myself into thinking I can do it occasionally. Of course I can, but I don't want to. So what to do?

My solution was to leave the butter in the frosting since I didn't have a good idea of what might substitute (sorry - fat free creme cheese doesn't do it). That left the batter. Often I've used apple sauce to replace a fat in baking. So this time I used some recently canned pear sauce (just like apple sauce only I think a milder flavor) and wondered what would happen. Yes, it's risky to try new things when you are bringing a dish to a dinner, but why not get feedback from people who you know enjoy and know food? So I dove in and made the recipe with the substitution.

At dinner I didn't say what had changed in the recipe, only let people know there had been a change and asking for their thoughts. Seriously, there were moans of "yum" "ooohh, this is so good" and the like. I actually thought they were putting me on so I tasted it. It was good - very moist and delicate and 50% less fat than the original recipe. I learned that I can use pear sauce just as well as apple sauce and not risk so much at all. And since I made the pear sauce with pears from a nearby friend, I knew it didn't have gobs of sugar or anything else in it either.

I've shared the recipe on the Recipes page of this blog. I apologize in advance because I don't know where the original one came from. But with this adaptation, I guess it becomes mine :-)

How could he not know?

Yesterday I went to the grocery and purchased what I considered to be basics. Vegetables (loose Cubanella peppers, green cabbage, bunched labeled radishes, and bagged and labeled Brussels sprouts), fruit (bananas, bagged and labeled red grapefruit and Gala apples) plus milk and a few other items. In the check out line I was brought up short by a couple of things.

The person at the register was a tall, pleasant young man, possibly in his 20s. Perhaps he was in school working part time, or perhaps this job was all that was available to him in these tough economic times. I don't know. What I do surmize by looking at him was that he was morbidly obese. Even with his height I would guess that he was at least 75 pounds over weight. His belly not only hung over his belt, but it literally rested on the edge of the conveyer belt moving my purchases to the bagging area. I wondered about his habits and health based on his appearance.

Then as he registered all my items - scanning bar codes on most, having to weigh others - I was shocked again by his lack of awareness of fresh produce. He queried me about what the following items were:

• green cabbage
• radishes (they had a label)
• Cubanella peppers 

What had happened here? I don't consider these items obscure - ok, the Cubanella peppers may not be as common as the other two, but he seemed to not even know they were peppers. Did he really not know what these items were? Had he grown up not having them as a regular part of his diet? Did he not ask about the other items because they were obviously labeled with bar codes easily read by the technology? 

This isn't the first time a checkout person asked questions about the items I purchased. Unfortunately that is all too common as the emphasis is on speed (scanning as much as possible as quickly as possible) trumps product knowledge. But it is the first time I've been asked by someone where the apparent deficit had such potentially large implications. Maybe mine were the only items in the produce section he didn't know. I hope so. 

On a good day...

A number of years ago, when I reached "a certain age" I found that the mirror wasn't always a friend. I would peek at myself and on a good day, I could see the past, and on a bad day, I could see the future. That has only become more true, with fewer "good" days mixed into those mirror peeks.

As someone who always loved the change of seasons, and still does, it occurred to me today that perhaps people head for warmer, sunnier climes as they age because of a similar phenomenon.  While once, the passing of seasons was exciting and exhilarating (like long-ago looks in the mirror rarely bore long-term bad news), with age each passing season seems to happen faster, like there aren't as many days in that season any more. Holding onto a single pleasant season might fool one into thinking time wasn't passing. With fewer years ahead of one than behind, rushing into the future doesn't hold the allure it once did.

That seems to me to be all the more reason to slow down. Not the slowing down of a declining body, but the slowing down of an appreciative soul. To fully take in the moment, whatever it is, rather than looking ahead to what might not turn out to be all that great anyway. Or it may be. But the point is, it isn't anything yet. Only now is now. Here. Real. Livable. Regardless of what the mirror says, now is worth living to the fullest. As a friend said a number of years ago "there are only so many summers." Very true. And only so many Springs, Falls and Winters. Each deserving their due.