Have Yourself a Merry Little December

I’m one of those people who start the holidays right when I wake up to the December 1st morning. Pandora is devoted to secular holiday music with songs sung by The Rat Pack, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and many others. The Christmas lights are shining brightly around our doorway, inviting good cheer to everyone who enters our home. This week is devoted to getting into the Yuletide spirit, putting the tree up and decorating, preparing for finals, and cooking up a plethora of winter based recipes.

Last Year's Tree

In the last month of the year 2012, I have been looking at past blog posts and life decisions fervently, awed by how much has changed and inspired by how far I’ve come. I’ve found my passions in food have surpassed my expectations and evolved into something leaning towards sustainable development, urban agriculture, the local and organic movements, gardening, and “know your farmer”. My fitness regimen in the form of rock climbing and yoga, although sometimes appearing lack in progress at times, has conditioned my body (and spirit) in ways I couldn’t have imagined when I first started.

And in December of last year, I couldn’t imagine being a successful graduate student, let alone being accepted to the graduate school program. My acceptance letter came last week, and already plans for the spring semester are being laid out to balance all the loves in my life. I’m currently working on time management week by week, only because the semester is almost over. But goodness, I’m an official S/CAR graduate student… Me. Accepted.

Holy cow.

So while I hum to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, I figured to honor my acceptance by making socca, a food I’d fallen in love with over a year ago but haven’t made another recipe since my "Happy Herbivore Tendencies" post. That’s way too long a break in between without socca, I say, and started thinking of a recipe to share. I wanted to use up the remaining pumpkin puree in the fridge, but I was also hankering for an old school peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Let’s just say my craving was more than satisfied, and that pumpkin works beautifully with peanut butter and banana.

Pumpkin Socca

120 g Garbanzo bean flour

180 ml Filtered water

5 ml Whey (optional)*

240 g Pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. Sea salt

30 g Butter (for a dairy free and vegan version, you could use coconut/olive oil)

In a small mixing bowl, stir the flour, water, and whey until thoroughly combined and let it sit overnight on the counter.

Add the pumpkin and sea salt while melting the butter on medium heat in a cast iron skillet; once beginning to brown, drizzle the excess fat into the batter.

Pour the batter into the skillet and treat it like you would a pancake, either flipping over or using the broiler to cook the other side.

Turn off the heat and transfer it onto a plate to cool slightly (the inside is delicious custard when hot and solidifies as it cools). 

Cut into quarters, bars, or squares to enjoy as you like and serve warm.

Makes 2 servings.

Socca is a great bread substitute to make sandwiches. For two peanut butter and banana soccawiches, slice the socca in half, smear 2 tbsp. peanut butter (or any nut butter of your choice) and slice one ripe banana thinly on one side of the socca. Fold the other side on top and cut the socca again so you have two – four sandwiches on a plate. Enjoy with a glass of milk (dairy free or otherwise).