Pork and pretzels.

Lewisburg.

Sharon's out of town, but here's proof for her that I'm still eating well:



Pork chop, low-temped in apple cider at 60°C, and seared for a good crust. A lovely pink inside, as a good pork chop should be. Pumpkin spätzle with sage. Mustard greens and chard with garlic and chilli. Butter-fried apples. A nice schwartzbier to accompany.

Meanwhile, I prepped an education example for tomorrow's baking class:



Pretzels and pretzel-shaped objects. The same batch, split in half. Those on the left enjoyed a bath in a sodium carbonate solution. On the right, a dip in plain water.

I'll bet you can guess which side smells of pretzel, and which of fresh bread.

Pumpkin cavatelli.

Lewisburg. Pumpkin season is here, and in full force. Given that repeated, heavy rains have done in much of the garden, I'm lucky that I have any at all, but eleven cheese pumpkins is still plenty. It would have been more, but only a few were harvestable after Irene, and anything still ripening by the time Lee arrived were on the way to rot.

Yes, we've already had pumpkin pie. I think some sort of soup is a strong contender for tonight. And last night, before I had to run off to teach class, we had pumpkin cavatelli:



Just pumpkin puree and flour, run through the cavatelli maker. The texture ended up a bit springy, not unlike udon, so I'll try them next with durum semolina. Sizable quantities of pumpkin gnocchi are also in our future, since they freeze - and cook from frozen - so well.

The pumpkin flavor and color were hard to miss; once boiled, their orange hue intensified. We tossed them with oyster mushrooms, garlic, and fresh sage, and I'm already looking forward to more.