Happy Halloween! With pumpkins, squash and gourds everywhere and sidewalks littered with crunchy brown leaves, Autumn has reached its peak. Take advantage of the rest of the fall season with these autumnal tips and tricks from the COOK kitchen! Read on to fall in love with these pointers from our visiting chefs from our October classes.

Tip #1 Picture Perfect Pie

With October in the books Thanksgiving will be here before you know it! Impress your friends and family with a pie that has the most symmetrical crust they’ve ever seen.  Abby Dahan, Executive Pastry Chef at Parc came in to COOK last Sunday and gave our guests a holiday cheat sheet. While demonstrating how to make her hazelnut chocolate pie Abby used a microplane to trim down the uneven edges for a picture perfect pie.

Tip #2 Scraping Squash Seeds

Squash it to me! Becca O’Brien of Two Birds Catering and Canning put on a feast paying homage to gorgeous gourds. If you’ve ever cooked squash or carved a pumpkin you know how annoying scraping out the seeds can be. Well Becca has a nifty trick that requires something almost everyone has in their home, mason jar lids.  To quickly and cleanly remove the seeds from a squash, a mason jar insert like the one pictured above is perfect. Use various sized lids for different shaped squashes. And be sure to save the seeds as they make a great treat. To prepare the seeds Becca soaked and then drained them, then she boiled them for 10 minutes. After patting the seeds dry she seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 325.

Tip #3 Covered or Caramelized 

Ready to cook up those deseeded squashes?  Lucio Palazzo of Loco Pez gave our guests a taste of his Italian homeland with some Friuli inspired dishes. For one of his courses Lucio made seasonal hubbard squash gnocchi. To prevent caramelization on his squashes Lucio covered them with foil before popping them into the oven. Since he was pureeing the squash to incorporate into the gnocchi dough, Lucio didn’t need the skins to crisp. But if you want a nutty, browned sugar taste simply leave them uncovered.

Tip #4 Roasted & Rested

Speaking of oven roasting, what’s better than a roasted chicken with herbs on a cold autumn day? Scott Megill filled the COOK kitchen with homey chicken aromas during his recent class. Scott stressed the importance of resting your meat after roasting it. Resting will help retain the moisture so that the juices don’t spill out when you carve into it. For reference, Scott said a 3 pound whole roasted chicken should rest for about 15 – 20 minutes. Keep that in mind when you’re cooking your Thanksgiving turkey!

Tip #5 Frozen Fries

Potato harvesting season is almost over! So take advantage of those local farm fresh spuds while they’re still around. Justin Swain of Rex 1516 showed guests the trick to achieving crispier, fluffier fries. Partially bake your cut potatoes and then freeze them before frying. Freezing them will result in a better texture. Also it’s convenient to have homemade fries ready to go in your freezer at all times!