BOO!

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner Oct 19, 2006

With Hallowe’en just around the corner, I thought I’d offer up a couple of suggestions to improve on one of my pet peeves: Jack-o’-lanterns. Every year, thousands of people take the most beautiful edible pumpkins they can find and cut them open for decoration. Once Halloween is over, most simply throw them out. Why waste? Instead of tossing your jack-o-lantern, take your pumpkins inside the morning after Hallowe’en, cut them up to boil or bake, and cook ‘em!

There are hundreds of great recipes on the internet for pumpkin muffins, bread, cookies, soup, and (my favourite!) pumpkin pie. If you’d like to spice things up a little, try seasoning your baking with spices like cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cloves and nutmeg, which are known to help boost the immune system and fight off bacteria, viruses and colds. They also improve digestion and warm the body - which helps as the weather starts to get cold.

Essential oils are known to be 50 to 100 times as powerful as dried herbs (most of which are irradiated and heavily processed), so flavoring food with a drop of the essential oil of cinnamon, clove, ginger, or cinnamon’s sweet sister, cassia, can give food a special immune-boosting kick. In addition to the benefits of regular spices, essential oils are known to kill microbes and carry oxygen to cells.

Two caveats to using essential oils in food: (a) ONLY Therapeutic-grade essential oils are safe to ingest or to cook with - if you’re uncertain of the source of your essential oils, please don’t try eating them; and (b) remember that you’ll only need a very little to add flavor and a delicious aroma to your hallowe’en pumpkin pie!