Tuesday at the Table

Six of us stood around the kitchen, foo-foo drinks in hand, waiting for our main course to finish cooking. I thought to myself how nice it was to be in that kitchen, with those people, in that moment. It was because my friend and I had long wanted to spend an afternoon cooking together. Followed by eating, of course. We have alot of the same cookbooks, and love to talk recipes and other foodie stuff. Plus we just don't connect that often. So we'd met up early in the afternoon and shopped for ingredients, and had basically been prepping and cooking for several hours. We were just beginning to enjoy the fruit of our labors. By this time, hubby had joined us and shaken up some cold drinks, at which point her family had come running. We were all critiquing and dipping into the "Pumpkin" Cheese Fondue we'd made, all the while catching up and watching the timer. Good times. The Table is sometimes not a table at all, but a kitchen, where old friends gather, conversation flows, and tasty food is consumed. Even so, it's a very good thing.

Pumpkin Fondue
adapted from Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook, 
by Becky Selengut, Jennifer Sayers Bajget, & James Darcy

1 sugar pumpkin, about 3 to 4#
2 Tb. unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
pinch fresh ground nutmeg
2 Tb. flour
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage
2 cups grated aged white Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
loaf of crusty bread

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Pierce the top of the pumpkin with a knife 3 or 4 times and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Remove the top a quarter of the way down the pumpkin to form a lid. Scoop out the seeds and fibers and set aside. Increase oven temp to 375.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan and saute onion for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until softened. Add white wine and bring to a simmer. Finally, add nutmeg, flour, sage, and cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Pour into the pumpkin, cover with its lid and bake for 20 minutes, until the mixture is hot. Remove from oven and stir in sour cream. Adjust salt and pepper, if needed, and serve with skewers of crusty bread for dipping.