Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Hi and welcome to day 4 #PumpkinWeek hosted by Terri of  Love and Confections . We are celebrating our love of the season with a whole week of pumpkin goodies, leading up to National Pumpkin Day. 17 Food Bloggers have come together to share over 65 recipes with you. In addition to homemade pumpkin puree, pie, and cookies, we are also sharing savory pumpkin dishes like hummus, chili and pumpkin corn chowder. Come back every day for #PumpkinWeek recipes. You can also find these great recipes and more on  Love and Confections' #PumpkinWeek Pinterest Board ! Day four of #PumpkinWeek is upon us and I wanted to share an eternal favorite: spiced pumpkin butter. Are you asking "Why the Danish flag? Is pumpkin butter Danish?" One of my favorite memories surrounding making pumpkin butter was with my best friend from Denmark when she was here visiting for a few months during the holidays and we thought they would make nice, shippable presents to her friends and family back...

When I picked up almost fifty Roma tomatoes from Belle (Thanks, Randy!) yesterday, Dylan asked if we could make our own ketchup. I was thinking some fresh sugo , but we started with ketchup. You have to keep your kitchen elves happy, right? Otherwise they might go on strike...and then you'd have to peel all of the tomatoes by yourself! And I only used half of them to make the ketchup, so I'll make the sugo tomorrow. Step One: Peel the tomatoes. It's easier than you think. Bring water to a boil and submerge your tomatoes - whole - into the water. Let sit for two minutes.     Quickly plunge the tomatoes into ice water. They can sit in there for as long as you like. Now you can score the skin and easily peel the skin off! Piece of cake.   Step Two: Cube the tomatoes.   Step Three: Making the ketchup... 3 cloves garlic, minced splash of olive oil 30 tomatoes, peeled and cubed 7 T peach balsamic vinegar 4 T raw organic honey ...

Bolstered by his Pickled Green Tomato Adventure , Dylan plunged head-long into creating his very own pear jam. I reminded him of our Pear-Vanilla Bean Jam , our Pear-Rhubarb-Rosemary Conserve , and told him we could do a version of our Apple Butter ...with pears. But, in true foodie fashion, the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf decided to do his own thing. Actually, he wanted to do a Pear-Curry Jam. I steered him away from that for the night. Maybe when a smaller batch is at stake! Here's what he made... 10 pears (liberated - with permission, I hope! - from the neighbor's yard) 2 C organic granulated sugar 1 C water juice from 1 lime 1 T ginger syrup 1 star anise 1 green cardamom pod, crushed dash of ground cloves dash of ground cardamom 2 dashes of ground nutmeg 2 dashes of ground cinnamon 1 t pure vanilla extract Place all of the ingredients - except the juice from the lime and the ginger syrup - in a large flat-bottom pan. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and sim...