Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 23, 2016

Not raw oysters, ugh the have no taste.

Pumpkin pie doesn’t have any pumpkin in it.http://www.foodandwine.com/news/i-just-found-out-canned-pumpkin-isnt-pumpkin-all-and-my-whole-life-basically-lie

“Listen to me and you’ll agree/The bravest man in history/Wasn’t a soldier, or a doctor of law/But the first to devour an oyster raw.” Ballad I remember reading from “Wizard of Id”

More likely stewed pumpkin for dessert and roasted seeds for the trail. Roasted pumpkin seeds with a little salt are fab.

Arlo, you are right. The innards of both are icky.

We buy a pie pumpkin, roast it, puree the flesh, and make great-tasting pies. Much better than canned.

Cooked oysters are yummy. Raw oysters, well, I’d rather swallow my own loogie, at least I know where it’s been.

Some anthropologists speculate that it was a woman who first ate an oyster. Men were hunters, and women were gatherers, so it makes sense that women foraging close to shore would have tried the mollusk.

Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) ARE squashes (genus Cucurbita). There are also “pumpkin-like squashes” (species C. maxima and C. moschata). So if Libby’s swaps pumpkin-like for pumpkin, who cares?

Most brands of canned pumpkin are really butternut squash, but Libby’s I’m told is the one that reliably really is pumpkin.

I buy my own C. maxima and roast it (cut in half, remove innards, place cut side down on baking sheet, stick in oven set @350 until it dents when poked like potatoes) then all you have to do is mash it, remove any stingy bits, and viola! You know Exactly what you have.