This is surely not Charlie Browns pumpkin.

Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.                                 Jim Davis-American Actor 1915-1981

Charles Schultz and Charlie Browns Great Pumpkin...The holdays did not start at my house until this made its run on TV.

I highly support what Jim is suggesting...

 ...not litterally, but the read between the lines idea that 'diets' are a bunch of bologna. Diet, in its modern day common meaning, makes me think of grapefruits, bagels, and fat free potato chips...WHHHHAAATTT?  Grapefruit diets, High Carb diets, Low Fat diets, all give the true root of the word a bad wrap.  The unsung meaning of the word is far more possitive. Websters tells me diet is defined as 'The kinds of   food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats. 'Diet' is dirived via Latin from the Greek diaita or ‘a way of life.’  So let us take the die out of diet and start getting back to our roots.  Let us eat for health, vitality, strength, and wellness, not skinny jeans, tube tops, and thongs.

In Hawaii, Kabocha pumpkins are like our Calabash culture.

They come in all shapes and sizes and are rugged, resiliant guys who are about as easy going as the come.  You can literally plant one seed and have more pumpkins than you know what to do with in a matter of months.  They are a small multi-colored variety of squash that, is at first, intimidating to look at but has a sweet, satin like flesh, and when cooked the rough and tough skin is lovely to eat...no peeling required! They are good in stir fries, baked, sauteed, steamed or mashed.  One of the tastiest is soup and with the cold weather approaching, soups on!

A few words on ingredients,  Pick your battles folks.

A well stocked pantry does no soul any good if you do not know how to use what is in there.  And to be a good cook does not depend upon expensive gadgets, or fancy bottles of this or that. I would consider selling a child before giving up my Vita mixer but that is another story more appropriate for a parenting blog.  Like the last post about ketcup there ae a few 'specialty' items that I never go with out because of the special effect they have on food for little cost and zero effort on my part.  Nam Plah or fish sauce is one due to its umami magic...no clue what I am saying read the last post. Not only does this stuff taste great, but they have cute cartoon ginger men on the bottle!Another is high quality pickled ginger.  My favorite is by a company called The Ginger People and is easily found at our local health food stores.  It is tender organic ginger goodness wrapped in sweet and sour yumminess. YES, there is some sugar in it, but in proportion to whatever it is going into the effect would be very insignificant and the wow factor that it adds in making the food just that much more enjoyable, worth it in my humble opinion. Pick your battles folks!

Kabocha Pumpkin Ginger Soup

• 1 kabocha pumpkin
• 1 32 ozs container chicken stock or water
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped.
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Tbls fresh ground ginger
• 1 Tbls pickled ginger
• 1 tsp ground corriander
• 1 tsp each salt & pepper
• 1 Tbls nam plah
• coconut oil
• Garnish w/ chopped cilantro, chopped mac nuts, and a bit of coconut milk  Grilled shrimp or chicken would be good additions.

Scrub the skin of the pumpkin then cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut off the stem and bottom knot, then slice into 2 inch wedges.  In a large stock pot heat 3-4 Tabelspoons of coconut oil. Then add pumpkin wedges, letting them cook until carmelized on both sides adding extra coconut oil and scraping the bottom of the pan as need.  Once carmelized, add stock, coconut milk, onion, garlic, and gingers.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Once wedges are super soft turn off heat and blend until smooth using an imersion blender OR very carefully and in small batches transfer to a blender and process until silky smooth.  Stir in corriander, salt, pepper, and nam plah.  Additional salt and pepper if needed.