Pumpkin

Vivian does not know this but we are HUGE, COLOSSAL, and TREMENDOUS fans of her lovely local tV show "the chef's life". The show is fascinating, cozy, and honest. Meals after meals, Katy and I would sit down on the ground floor, eating our food and watch each episode where she took us by the hands and show how food was planted, cared, cooked, and served to the table. I mean I love this show! Not only did it inspire me to cook, but also drive me crazy with this desire to be closer to the food I'm cooking. Now, I am dying to work in the farm. Anywhere that would only get me closer to food, lovely source of life. Anyway, this December break, Katy and I are spending our short vacation here back at the house, 5 hours a long way from Bangkok. Far enough to give us opportunity to really see fresh fruit and vegetable here and there, everywhere, and with less energy used in transport them over to the big mango of Thailand. Not that it is the first time we see such good, green, and fresh produces. We had lived here 17 years of our life, except that those years passed with us being so blind about these goodies all around.

Now that I am back with the so called veggie-fruity spirit, I get overwhelmingly excited every time I see good produces! Really. We were walking at the market the other day and that was when our eyes met and I felt totally in love. These sweet, lovely, giant chilies were just eyeing at me and trying to grabbed my attention from the basket where they lied still, nice and peaceful. I could still see the dew enveloping all over each and everyone of them. It was a magical moment. I have seen two greedy Italians, Gennaro and , big food stars I am a big fan of, cooked these exact same chilies on their show into a tasty looking frittata. In my mind, it felt like I had just met my long lost cousins even though it was the first time we met. Ever. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I have watched that video over a thousand times, and have created a personal relationship with these guys unknowingly. And within a minute that we met, I thought about millions of ways in cooking these babies, making them into heavenly, earthy dish.

And yeah, to make a long story short, I decided that during this time of us staying home, I'd take as much advantage as I possibly can to cook with one ingredients at a time and make each and everyone of them shine like a drop of water after a long walk on a distant desert. And guess what, nothing is more perfect than pumpkin at this time of the year! It's everywhere. It's festive. And it's affordable. Anyone can get it. And almost anywhere. Plus, how could you possibly spend Christmas without having one or two dishes made from pumpkin? No! That is, indeed, a nightmare. So I am being intelligent and cook Katy a meal for two from three main simple ingredients. In our household, we LOVE LOVE LOVE our pumpkin to be roasted. With a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of oil, and you are good to go! The roasted pumpkin taste are sweet, melt in your mouth, and got this smooth texture that potato can not even replicate. So common now, go to the market, get into the kitchen,and let the magic happen the same way a pumpkin turn into carriage in the fairy tale. You can thank me later- Candice.

Roasted Seasoned Pumpkin and Green Beans + Oven Baked Fried Chickens

What you need :

Pumpkin, cut into long slices, no need to peel them.(as many as your heart desires)

Green beans, as many as you'd love!

2 chicken drumsticks.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 whole egg, beat well.

And tons of seasonings.

Okay, so first start, prepare your pumpkin slices. In a bowl, throw the pumpkins in there and splash a little vegetable oil and toss them around to make sure the oil coat the pumpkin. This will help them not to be dry and also help the seasonings to stick even better. Now season it with salt and black/white peppers.

Seasoning called in this recipe can be anything you have on hand, really, use your favorite ones and use a lot of them. But for the pumpkin, I prefer you use mild seasoning. Salt and pepper are preferable here since we just want our pumpkin flavor to shine. Now toss them around and pop them in the preheated oven along with whole garlic cloves, as many as you'd like. at 350'F for 30-40 minutes.

For the green beans, do the same thing with oil, salt and pepper. 10 minutes before you take the pumpkin out, throw the green beans on top.To test, use the knife to see if the flesh are really soft, but not too mushy.

Now for the chicken Katy and I tried to be a little healthy during a break from mom's juicy and hearty meal, so I made oven baked fried chicken. Marinate the drumsticks with seasonings. I used lime juice, paprika, salt, pepper, and oyster sauce. Ideally, you should do this stage before hand. Cause you need to let them sit around in that seasonings for at least 30 minutes. Once that process done, toss them on the flour seasoned with salt and paprika, then to the egg mixture, and back to the flour mixture again for a good tasty skin. Pop them in the oven at the same heat for 25-30 minutes. Check by cutting the side of the chicken to see if there are some blood left.

Plate them however way you like and enjoy! We didn't put anymore sauce since everything already has a lot of favors going on from a tons of seasoning I threw in. But for all the sauce or ketchup lovers out there, go ahead and sprinkle those damn tasty things on top and enjoy!