Pompoen!!

Harvest Time!! Fall fun! I love this time of year. In Holland, they don't normally celebrate Halloween. It's more of a yankee holiday. But in recent years, they've started to sell pumpkin affiliated ornaments and spooky paraphernalia. They've also started celebrating that most hallmark-y of hallmark holidays: Valentine's Day. Ah, Americanization of Western Europe one holiday at a time.  But back to Halloween. I love it. I was born on Halloween and have always had a special affinity for the pumpkin. Pompoen in dutch. The dutch have big heads. Literally very large heads. Me included. I used to be called pumpkin-head in school. Not funny. Okay, kinda funny. Anyway, I have a bit of a big head complex and an obssession with orange. (Orange is also an official Dutch color.) The photo above was taken at a dutch grocery store. It's sorta of a hybrid pumpkin gourd. I don't really think they're edible, but I like the way it looks.

I really should actually make something with pumpkin in it. I carved a pumpkin the other day and it had a soft spot and got super moldy within a day. So sad. Pumpkins are a bit labor intensive to deal with. More so than squash. You gotta get rid of all that stringy-ness and chop through it's hard exterior. It's really great though simply roasted with olive oil and salt and maybe a bit of cayenne. The seeds are also edible and nutrient-rich. Oh the beauty of the pumpkin.