Happy Place, Happy Space
Bounty found its way into our home this week. We have a Fruit&VegFairyGodFather who regularly gifts us with produce which can’t be sold. This lovely came from him, although for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it wasn’t snatched up at the store.
This lovely pattern is very different from the orange I am familiar with. Anyone know what sort of pumpkin this is?
We are dreaming of all the lovely goodies we will make in the days ahead …
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Reading your Joyful Posts brings me to my happy place. I hope having them in one place makes it easier for you to find when you need a bit of happy therapy, too.
If you would like to join in, ping back to this post and I will include you next week.
- Amanda at HomeByTheSea‘s Sunday Morning by the Water: takes a serene walk
- Carol Ann Siciliano‘s Delights: delights in many outdoor activities this week, and shares bonding conversations with friends
- Deb’s World’s Taking Photos for Wordless Wednesday: shows us what she’s learnt in a photo editing course
- Laurie Graves‘s From Books to Wine to the Patio: enjoys a seat & company in various places through the week
- Little Piece’s of Me‘s Grateful Fridays: braves her 1st run since her toe injury – well done, Natalie!
- Natalie the Explorer‘s Visiting City Halls and Courthouses: brings us on a tour of civic buildings in Toronto
- She Writes‘ Sprouting Flower of Hope: allows vulnerability which springs hope
- Thistles and Kiwis’This Week’s Small Pleasures: rides a funicular cable car and walks through the Botanic Gardens
- Trent’s World‘s The Weekly Smile: dines in a restaurant for a meeting as a first step back towards normalcy
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This post is my contribution to Weekend Coffee Share hosted by NatalieTheExplorer.
Touring My Backyard 
It looks like a kabocha pumpkin. I’ve seen them in my local grocery store — I’ve never made anything out of it but I am up for a challenge.
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I don’t know if I would pick up a whole pumpkin to try – I typically buy smaller cut pieces of butternut & pumpkin, just for soup. But having the luxury of this whole beauty has challenged us to try more things!
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Like others say, it looks like a kabocha pumpkin Ju-Lyn. It has a deep yellow color with a dense, dry flesh. I’ve had it tempura style, sliced very thin; skinned, cubed and roasted in the oven; cooked in a spicy soup. Because of it’s flavor, it’s my favorite squash to eat.
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Ah! Many votes for kabocha!
I found it so easy to cut – unlike other pumpkins preceding. Up to now, my favourite squash is butternut – but now that I am quite well acquainted with kabocha, I might have changed my mind.
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Beautiful bounty, Ju-Lyn. Enjoy the kabocha pumpkin. Thank you for the mention and for linking up with #weekendcoffeeshare.
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We are enjoying the little lovely! We’ve frozen most of it (because it was so huge!) so we can slowly enjoy it more!
As always, most welcome in this space Natalie! and thank you for hosting us on the Weekend Share.
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Hi Ju-Lyn. We were gifted a cabbage once and I thought ‘cool’ I love boiled cabbage but then it arrived and, WOW! It must have had a diameter of 14 inches – a giant among the normal cabbages of the world and it was just my wife and I who now had the task of trying to fully consume this titian veggie. I’m sure there was a story that made your gift not sell. I would not have purchased a cabbage that was large enough to merit it’s own postal code, but what we were able to eat was wonderful and I’ll bet you will enjoy yours.
Next, I can share some new joy from my side of the pond. I changed the details a lot but I have a friend who lost his wife in a very unpleasant way and how he came through the challenge and then how (nope – don’t spoil the story. Oh, okay…) umm, well, his experience inspired me to write up a story inspired by him. It’s very short (for me) and I think it came out good enough to share.
Please see if this little piece of fiction makes you smile.
Thanks for sharing another collection of things to smile about.
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Thank you for your cabbage anecdote, and insight into why this beauty might not have been sold. That is a great deal of cabbage to go through – did you freeze a lot of it for future use?
Thank you for your story, Decisions Decisions. I will include it in next week’s collection.
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Hi Ju-Lyn, as I recall, we were pretty burned out on cabbage by the time we got to the last quarter of it that we just put the rest on the mulch pile. I couldn’t believe how big it was.
Thanks for queuing my story up for sharing. I hope your readers love it.
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I can imagine you were sick and tired of cabbage – I am thinking of all the things one could do, and I’m mostly thinking savouries.
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Wow, that pumpkin is gorgeous. What are you making?
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It is so pretty, I agree! So far we’ve made a pumpkin brownie cake, & some filling for a dumpling. Frozen the rest to slowly enjoy it!
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Pumpkin brownie cake sounds glorious! Where is this recipe? Asking for a friend. Hahaha
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We use the Fat Witch cookbook – here’s an online link to a version of it:
https://findyourcraving.com/craving/fat-witch-bakery-pumpkin-brownie/233
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Thank you! Will update once I am able to make it. Thank you for being my food friend.
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Pleasure is all mine! We can’t have enough FoodFriends!
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Yep, Aussies call it a Jap pumpkin. The variety we know came via the United States. Just Another Pumpkin or more culturally insensitive, Jap, short for Japanese pumpkin! A kabocha in Japanese.
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Ah yes! Of course I’ve heard of kabocha – I think I’ve just forgotten. I was too dazzled by this little pretty! Thanks Tracy!
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Info from my brains trust, Ju-Lyn. I’m not that smart.
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I’ve done a little googling – and you are spot on, Tracy!
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Thanks for the pingback, Ju-Lyn. I would say it is a Jap pumpkin or maybe a Kent variety? It would be great roasted or made up in a soup. Yum. How are you going to cook it?
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So far, we’ve made a tray of PumpkincakeCakeBrownies & pumpkin filling for dumplings. We have cubed the rest and frozen them for when other plans unfold!
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I found the pumpkins become a little watery after freezing. If you find that is the case, I guess you could reduce the liquid ingredients in any recipe a smidgeon??
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oooh, good tip! Thank you!
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I’ve browsed through google and while I’m not sure whether ours was a Kent or kobocha (it could very well be either!), I am certainly gawking at the number of pumpkin varieties out there!
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Hey Amanda – came across this link: apparently kobucha is also known as a Kent pumpkin.
https://alittlebityummy.com/what-is-japanese-pumpkin-and-is-it-low-fodmap/
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Haha!! And do all the varieties grow in Singapore?
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Not at all. Most of our pumpkins are imported!
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Pumpkins require a fair bit of land to grow, so I suspected that. Where do they come from?
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I think our pumpkins all come from your fair country!
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Aha! Good quality pumpkins then!
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Indeed!
Allow me to clarify – I believe there are squash from China as well, but we tend to buy the ones from Australia when we have the choice. This particular beauty was gifted, so I cannot guarantee its origin.
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It is an advantage to have the country of origin marked on the fruit. I look for that too. I find the garlic on offer from some places is a bit below par. But then you can never guarantee anything these days. We use to can all our beetroot here in Australia, now the factory sources canned beetroot from NZ which has lower restrictions than us, so some of that beetroot comes from China where nasty chemicals that we would never use are applied to the fruit and veges.
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Which is why we try as much as we can to check & buy our veggies (particularly the ones we eat raw or barely cooked) from certain places. It is scary when one thinks about what we are putting into our bodies!
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Be aware but not paranoid!
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It is, I’m afraid a tricky balance!
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