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How do you define a relationship. In many ways it is your collection of memories about it. You know, like the time your Dad helped you write your name in the sand, or the time your grandmother shared cookies over a cup of tea. That kind of thing.

So, what are my memories of pumpkins?

I remember going to the pumpkin patch each year to pick out our jack-o-lantern pumpkins. My sister is disabled, so Dad would carry her on his back in a back-pack made for doing that. The air was usually brisk, and it seemed like the balls of orange went on forever. I would see one I thought would be good and turn it around, checking for deformities that would knock it out of the running. Then, when I had determined this was the pumpkin I wanted, my Dad would cut it from the vine. Once my sister and I had both chosen our pumpkins, we would head home, eagerly awaiting the October Rite of Passage.

Carving pumpkins was always fun. I love the way the gooey inside feel as they squish between my fingers. I’d pull, tug and scrape all the insides out and save as many seeds as I could to roast. Sometimes, a tiny fear would creep in — I watch way too many horror movies — and I’d think the pumpkin would take my hands off as I plunged them inside the gourd.

Then Halloween would come and we’d like candles inside. I loved to watch the flickering flame send shadows about the room.

Usually, by the next day the Jack-o-Lantern was starting to become a soggy mess. One Halloween we didn’t throw it away soon enough and had a huge puddle to whatever to clean up from the table.

Thanksgiving would roll around and therefore the annual ritual of the Thanksgiving meal followed by grandma’s pumpkin pie. She used the Libby’s recipe from the can. It tasted great!

Now, here I am experimenting with a myriad ways to bring pumpkin to the table. Not only for desert, pumpkin can be part of an appetizer, a side dish and even the main dish.

So, what are you pumpkin memories?

Anyway, I noticed that Jello has their pumpkin spice flavor out. Usually that’s reserved for Fall, especially around Thanksgiving.

So, I wonder is there a pumpkin holiday coming up that I don’t know about?

Never carry it by the stem, as this might damage the pumpkin around the stem and maybe even cause it to break off.

Once you pick it up, notice how it feels. A pumpkin that has a good, solid weight is more likely to be healthy all over. However, a pumpkin that appears oddly lightweight and hollow might just be rotting on the inside.

Then again, I found an article by Dan and Krista Stockman of the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., that found it to have quite a different flavor.

We bought Three Lakes Winery’s Wine of the Pumpkin for $2.99 on clearance at a grocery store…. The label said it was wine made from pie pumpkins: We knew it was strange, but we couldn’t resist, especially at that price.

We opened it a couple of weeks ago and realized why it was on clearance. It smelled like pumpkin guts. It also tasted like pumpkin guts….

Checking the label, it said to drink fresh, that it was not meant to age, and there was no telling how old it was. Hmmmm.

So now I’m terribly curious. What does this wine taste like? Did the Stockman’s bottle taste funky because it was too old? If you have the opportunity to try this wine, please post your experience as a comment to this post.

I tooled around Amazon and thought I’d highlight a few here.

Pumpkin Tiramisu from Italian Cooking & Living magazine.

I love Tiramisu and I can’t wait to try out this pumpkin variety at my next party!

The Szabos are the father and son team behind Funkins, a company that makes artificial pumpkins. “Funkins” are made out of polyurethane foam and designed to look as much like real pumpkins as possible. In fact, real pumpkins are used to make the molds.

“We try to duplicate the authenticity of the product with the paint,” Dennis Szabo told CBS4 Weekend Morning News, in Denver.

You can buy Funkins online and at various craft stores for between $5 and $20 depending on the size.

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/ cup butter or margarine, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup pumpkin pureé
1/3 cup half-and-half

Preheat oven to 400°F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and spices. Cut butter into mixture until it looks like small peas. Stir in nuts. In a glass measuring cup, combine pumpkin and half-and-half. Stir into flour mixture. Dough should be stiff. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead several times. If the dough is too wet to handle (which it often is), add more flour. But be careful not to add too much so that the biscuits end up coated with flour! Pat dough out until it is 1/2 inch thick. Cut out with 2-inch cutter or glass with 2-inch diameter opening. Place biscuits onto lightly greased baking sheet, about one inch apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 20 biscuits.