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Celebrating my birthday this weekend with my family, I received a Le Creuset 5 QT Dutch oven (my first Le Creuset piece, hooray!) and a big pumpkin. Any suggestions on how I might use the two together or a fun Fall recipe to break in my new cookware? Osso buco? Something with butternut squash?

I'm planning on a tamale making gathering next weekend. Two questions:

-I don't have a steamer. Anyone know how to improvise one to steam massive amounts of tamales?

-I'm looking for ideas of snacks for while we're assembling the tamales.

Bought (another) 20 lbs of tomatoes yesterday! Double batch of chunky tomato soup is already made, more left for roasting etc!
Brought in all my chili peppers I planted in my friend's garden, I guess I will pickle most of them 'en escabeche'-I have lots of small Thai peppers, large cayenne peppers and a few jalapenos-they didn't do well. Any other ideas?
Garden celery will go into a celery soup of some kind.
In the last few weeks I've made 4 apple pies and 2 pumpkin pies. ..more pumpkin pies to come! Thanksgiving turkey last weekend! With turkey leftovers, made a turkey chili. Also made a turkey soup to which I added okra, lima beans, some tomato and brown rice.
Bought a whole lot of fresh cranberries last weekend, used about a quarter for cranberry sauce & threw about 3 bags (2 cups each) of cranberries into the freezer (along with Mom's roasted red peppers). We're on our 3rd dozen leeks of the season. Love this time of year!

Regarding a steamer:

My mom has a metal steamer ring/stand thingy which is placed at the bottom of a large pot (that is large enough to, somewhat precariously, lower the plate of food to be steamed).

The ring is prob 2 or 3-inches high, and 3 inches in diameter. You fill the pot with water just below the top of the ring. Get the water boiling, and then lower the plate into the pot and cover to steam.

Of course, I've been looking for a similar item but can't find any in kitchen stores. Maybe an Asian grocery store?

Recently, I used a metal lid of a jar to act as a steam ring - it wasn't ideal, but it did the trick. It's not as tall and thus you can't add as much water, so you need to watch out for boiling the pot dry.

anna, i've never tried this, but how about putting a cooling rack in a roasting pan and putting the pan over two burners? you might boost the rack a little higher with some cleaned-out empty tuna cans under the feet or some wads of tinfoil...

(do i watch too much alton brown or what?)

I had a lovely hazelnut cake experiment this weekend, but the frosting left something to be desired. Does anyone have tips for making a fluffy caramel frosting, or ideas on how to prevent it from becoming cement before I can make the cake look pretty? thanks.

My grocery store had beef bottom round roast on sale for cheap so I made two batches of beef vegetable soup in the crockpot this weekend! Easy lunches for work!

I just chunked up the meat, threw in celery, carrots, potato, onions, garlic, turnip, rutabaga and a package of onion soup mix, then covered it with water and let it cook all day. Sooo delicious.

Amber, that sounds so delicious. We are having a cool, rainy day where I live - perfect for yummy comfort food!

Oooh - I just had a slightly better idea for a steamer ring!

Open a can of tuna (or something slightly taller) on both sides. Voila! Steamer ring!

Steamer ring: Yes, alton is wonderful for improvisation!

Poke holes in any disposible metal tray/pie tin that will fit the pot/shape you're looking for, the kind you can get at the grocery story. Use things like cans with both ends removed and you'll be able to stack a couple high to get more tamales done at a time.

Make "Texas Caviar" for eatting while you're steaming...a version is linked in my name. Seems to be a lot of vinegar and oil in this recipe, and I've seen it with white beans also, and avocado. Basically, it's something you can make with what you've got and it'll still be great. Serve with tortilla chips.

Otherwise, for something more authentic, make guac with tomatillos added and serve with freshly made chips.

We made home made chicken stock again this weekend. This past year we started making our own, and it is so easy to do, don't know why I haven't done this in the past. The stock turned out dilish and is now chiling in our freezer. We really had no need for it yesterday but it was one of those gray gloomy days so we thought that would be a nice way to pass the time. I also made apple bars with a streusel topping, found the recipe in the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Great book if you haven't seen it yet.

My latest cooking adventure: pickling pearl onions. Only a very small batch, but another yummy pickle to try out in a couple of months.

Erin T--Yay le Creuset gifts! I got one earlier this year for my b-day too. Break it in with something that will take hours to make, so you can lift the wonderfully heavy lid to let the appetizing aromas escape.

Anna--My makeshift massive steamer is a circular cooling rack sitting in a wok. Did a duck in it at (Canadian) Thanksgiving. I dunno if tamales might slip through the gaps in the rack though.

Sarah--Made a batch of chicken stock once and found it annoying and troublesome to have to thaw the frozen portions before use. How do you use yours?

this weekend i went to an apple festival with my family, where we ate lots of good treats and brought home a ton of apples. we then went home and made the best apple dumplings i've ever eaten in my life! dare i say they were even better than the ones my grandma used to make? i think they were. i got the recipe off of allrecipes.com. the dough recipe was also from the site.

Anna-we've steamed tamales using an tiny metal steamer inside a huge pot & just piled on the tamales, it worked! Maybe get two going.
As far as snacks, I'd go for something that has nothing to do with what you're assembling --you'll all be 'taste-testing' at least one each afterwards right! So I'd go for finger foods like small sandwich triangles, mini quiches, iced tea, (maybe a salad of tomato, avocado & palm hearts). I'm sure your table will be 'tamal central', so something you can set up on the coffee table. Have fun, I'm sure the results will be delicious! What kind of tamales are you making?
p.s. I've always been in 'helper'capacity, not main tamal cook.

New Le Creuset. I'm jealous. :p Osso buco would be awesome. That's how I broke in my faux Le Creuset pot. Or maybe a nice hearty stew when the weather gets a bit chillier. If you wanted to use the pumpkin in your recipe, maybe a thick pumpkin soup?

Roasted a chicken last night and made broth w/ the remnanta...white bean and chicken chili (with CSA roasted poblano peppers) is on the menu tonight.

If I make stock and don't use it right away, I like to freeze it in ice cube trays then store in a freezer bag. Perfect for when you want a little stock to add to a sauce. For larger portions, jars in the freezer that get pulled out in the morning and thaw in the refrigerator in time for dinner.

MoM, I put my stock into sealed plastic sandwhich bags and then if I am on it as minipanda is I will take it out before work and stash it in the fridge. Otherwise I have a oh s*** moment when I get home and throw it on the counter and toss it in the pot partially frozen, but don't worry it takes no time at all for it to thaw, as I found out last night when I used some. The ice cube tray trick works like a charm as well, and I would be doing that except for the fact that I have no room to put the ice cube trays in my freezer.

Sarah & minipanda--
Thanks for your stock use stories. It can take 2 days for my tupperwares of stock to defrost, so either my fridge and freezer are too cold, or maybe my containers are too deep. Time to rethink my methods. Ice cubes....of course!

And that oh s*** moment, I have that a lot, forgetting to buy crucial ingredients while rushing at the grocery store.

I bought Concord grapes yesterday and last night I popped the skins off. The next step (the goal is Concord grape pie, probably around Thanksgiving) is too simmer the pulp, which allows the seeds to "detach" and can then be easily strained out. Finally, the de-seeded grape pulp is reunited with the skins and all frozen till I am ready for pie-baking.

Combining 2 of these threads - when you've forgotten to thaw the stock and it's dinner-time, use a steamer. We have a bamboo steamer, and as long as I keep an eye on it, I've had a lot of luck rapid-thawing baggies of stock.

Thanks everyone for the steamer improvisation suggestions. I think I can make something work.

I'm planning on making these kinds of tamales:
red chili pork
pork with mole
potato with red chili
black bean
roasted corn and goat cheese
maybe chicken with green chili sauce

Probably way too many kinds, but I'm excited.

Speaking of using stock. I never cooked with it before but alot of recipes I collect suggest using stock, however I either substitute it with something else or just don't add it at all.

But, I was home last Thursday and happen to catch Rachael Ray t.v. show and she was cooking one of her recipes Cajun Chili. She used chicken stock along with tomatoes. I never did the homemade chili yet but the recipes I have doesn't require adding stock, but Rachael's chili looked delish on t.v.

Has anyone used stock when making chili?

martine-- i use stock all the time. i don't know the rachael ray recipe, but you can make a good chili by combining browned and drained ground beef, chopped peppers (bell or poblano), drained diced canned tomatoes, and drained black and/or pinto beans. add enough stock to make it really soupy, then simmer it down for an hour or so until it's the right consistency and season to taste (usually cumin, cayenne, s&p, maybe a dash of cinnamon or cocoa if you're feeling exotic).

the stock just makes it richer.

Liz -- do you use chicken or beef stock in the chili?

Desk, MoM & all: Check out NY Times today for article&slide show on Mtl!
http://nytimes.com/travel/

Anna-have fun making tamales, they sound great!

Folks, I just looked here because I was making tamales and didn't have a steamer - the colander I had planned to use was too big for the stockpot. Thank you so much for all your ideas. I'm going to use a ring from one of my springform pans. Thanks again!
Vicky