RECIPE SWAP: MANY RESIDENTS FROM THE REGION SHARE PUMPKIN RECIPES TO HELP ENJOY FALL

This week's Recipe Swap is loaded with delicious pumpkin recipes for you to enjoy this fall. I know this collection of recipes will not make it to my mother-in-law's recipe files. She is not a lover of pumpkin in any way, shape or form. It has been my experience that you either like pumpkin or you don't. Some foods you can disguise and "they will never know," but not pumpkin. So, for all of us who love pumpkin and find it delicious yearlong, here is our salute to the great pumpkin and ways it may be enjoyed.

Tracey Tripp of Cape Girardeau is not only my neighbor, but a friend. She is a wonderful cook and has shared recipes with us in the past, and all of them are keepers. You will enjoy a couple of her favorite fall-time recipes.

Appalachian Pumpkin Pie Squares

1 cup flour

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 (1 pound) can pumpkin

1 (13 ounce) can evaporated milk

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 to 3/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Combine flour, oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter. Mix with a fork or pastry blender until crumbly. Press into an ungreased 13-x-9-x-2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix pumpkin with milk. Combine eggs, 3/4-cup sugar, salt and spices. Add to pumpkin mixture. Beat well. Pour onto hot crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Combine pecans, 1/2-cup brown sugar, and butter. Sprinkle over pumpkin filling. Return to oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until filling is set. Cool before cutting into 2-inch squares.

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup oil

2 cups (1-1 pound can) pumpkin

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

Sift together all dry ingredients. Add oil, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla; beat well. Add raisins and nuts. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 350 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes.

A couple of weeks ago I made pumpkin bars and brought to work for the volunteers to enjoy. One of our food salesmen came in and he tried them and said his wife would love to have the recipe. What I think he meant was, he would like his wife to have the recipe so she could make them for him. Whatever the case, this recipe is for Terry and Linda Tallent of Jackson.

Pumpkin Squares

Preheat oven to 325 degrees for a glass baking pan, or 350 degrees for a metal baking pan.

In a bowl, sift or mix together well and set aside:

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

In a large mixing bowl beat together:

4 eggs

1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Gradually add the dry flour mixture to this pumpkin mixture. Mix until well blended. Spray a 9-x-13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until it springs back when lightly touched in the center. Cool completely before frosting with your favorite recipe of cream cheese frosting. Garnish with candy pumpkins, if desired.

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Betty Orr shares one of my favorite recipes for Pumpkin Roll. It is a delicious and pretty way to present a dessert for any occasion.

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Grease a cookie sheet, 11-x-17 inches with sides. Line with wax paper and grease the paper. Combine ingredients and mix till smooth. Pour into cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn into a tea towel that has been dusted with powdered sugar. Remove wax paper and roll with the tea towel into a jellyroll fashion. Cool.

Filling:

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Blend until smooth. Unroll the pumpkin roll and spread the filling over the cooled cake. Reroll the cake and refrigerate. To serve, slice to desired thickness.

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Karen Amly makes a Fall Harvest Cake filled with all of the aromatic spices that scream fall, apples and nuts. Very rich but very delicious.

Fall Harvest Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger, optional

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

2 cups flour, sifted

1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin

1 large apple, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup nuts, chopped

Icing:

1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour Bundt pan. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the first 10 ingredients. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in pumpkin. Stir in apples and nuts by hand. Pour into Bundt pan. Bake 70 minutes. Cool 20 to 25 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and cool. Spread with icing prepared by blending all ingredients until smooth. Store in refrigerator.

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Ann Bishop toasted pumpkin seeds, and they were a big success and she would like for you to try them.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups fresh pumpkin seeds

salted water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove fibers from seeds. Wash seeds and dry on paper towels. Soak overnight in salted water. Drain. Pour oil on hands and lightly rub seeds to coat. Sprinkle seeds on rimmed cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes shaking pan occasionally. Combine remaining ingredients. Sprinkle on seeds. Bake 5 to 10 minutes longer until crisp and golden brown.

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Bessie Johnson of Cape Girardeau is one of our regulars at the Senior Center. She enjoys baking and cooking as a hobby and she does a pretty good job of it. She recently made a pumpkin loaf that she baked in coffee cans that everyone enjoyed. I managed to worm the recipe out of her so you could enjoy it, too.

Pumpkin Loaf

4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Mix these ingredients well. The add and mix well:

2 cups pumpkin

2/3 cup water

Sift together:

3 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Add to first mixture. Fold in last ingredients that have been diced and dusted in flour:

2 cups pecans

1 pound dated

1/2 cup raisins

Grease and flour 4 1-pound coffee cans. Pour mixture in cans. Bake at 350 degrees for 75 minutes. Remove from cans to cool and slice to serve.

When levitating nuts or other ingredients in a cake to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the batter during cooking, warm them a little in the oven and toss them with flour, shaking off any excess flour, before mixing them into the batter.

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Feel adventurous and want to try something really different? What about Pumpkin Pickles? Joan Weeks who loves to pickle about anything shares this recipe and hopes you enjoy them. She recently told me she had made 19 different kinds of pickles this summer, not including all of the salsa and relishes she makes.

Pumpkin Pickles

1 6-pound pumpkin

5 pounds sugar

2 cups vinegar

2 tablespoons whole cloves

8 sticks cinnamon

Remove seeds and strings from pumpkin. Peel and cut into strips one half-inch thick by 1 1/2 inches long. Place pumpkin strips in large pot and add sugar. Cover and set aside overnight. Add vinegar and spices. Bring to a boil; stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 60 to 90 minutes or until pumpkin is transparent. Pour into hot sterilized jars, placing one cinnamon stick in each jar. Seal.

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One last pumpkin cake recipe is a Betty Gorff recipe sent in by a reader. This cake may be prepared in the microwave, baking only about 12 minutes.

Pumpkin Cake

3 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

3 eggs

2 cups pumpkin pulp

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, blending till smooth. Slowly add pumpkin and vanilla. In separate bowl sift remaining ingredients. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin, stirring till well blended. Pour at 350 degrees for 50 minutes on low rack of oven until cake pulls away from side of pan. Cool in pan. Frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serves 12. To prepare in the microwave, pour into greased microwave Bundt pan. Microwave 12 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before turning out.

What a great week for Recipe Swap. A great variety of pumpkin recipes from several different readers, good job! This should be an inspiration to many of you to send in your favorite recipes.

We will continue more fall favorites next week with Oven Caramel Corn, Sweet Potato Hot Rolls, Country Baked Beans, and several apple recipes. Each one of you have a great week and happy cooking.