Food Matters: Pumpkin bread in a can; Spuntino cracker chips

A Local chip for Parties or elegant snacking

It's been just more than a year since Mark and Lisa Spedale closed Primizie Osteria on East 11th Street, but the couple continues to operate as Primizie, a catering company that also makes thick crispy cracker chips called Spuntino, which I'm seeing in more stores in the area. The chips are fried in sunflower and canola oils, so they aren't exactly low-fat, but they are vegan and the perfect accompaniment to tapenade, hummus, cheese or a charcuterie tray. You can find them at both Central Markets and both Whole Foods Markets and various H-E-Bs in Central Texas. primizieaustin.com

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Pumpkin bread baked in the coffee can

Baking cakes in coffee or soup cans is a domestic tradition that dates back a number of generations. Jodi Elliot, pastry chef and co-owner of Foreign & Domestic, 306 E. 53rd St., first learned how to bake from her grandmother, Velma Louise Grossman, who studied geology at the University of Texas before settling in Granbury.

Elliot, who went on to study at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., remembers Grossman, whom she called "MeMe," baking pumpkin bread with her in coffee cans, a recipe and technique that she uses to this day at the restaurant. But instead of coffee cans, Elliot uses smaller soup cans to make individual portions of pumpkin bread for their brunch service. This summer, she's been making zucchini bread in the cans, but now that cooler weather has returned, she's switching back to pumpkin bread. "I think food is about nostalgia and it's nice to reminisce about the past, especially your childhood," she says. "Making MeMe's pumpkin bread always brings me back to Thanksgiving and Christmas."

If you are worried about Bisphenol A, a chemical that is often used in the lining of tin cans, you can either line the inside with parchment paper or use a traditional or miniature loaf pans. Be sure to peel the labels off the cans and wash thoroughly before using, and if you are using smaller cans than the 1-pound coffee cans that Elliot calls for in the recipe, only fill the cans halfway with batter or else they will overflow.

Meme's Pumpkin Bread

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

21/2 cups canned pumpkin

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Mix oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, then add to dry mixture. Add pumpkin and pecans. Grease three 1-pound coffee cans and coat evenly with flour. Pour bread batter into cans, dividing batter evenly, and place upright on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour. Cool bread on wire rack.

- Jodi Elliot, Foreign & Domestic

Food Briefs

• The Raindrop Turkish House, 12400 Amherst Drive, is hosting the fourth annual Turkish Food & Crafts Fair from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday to celebrate the food, music and cultural heritage of Turkey. The event is free, but sales of Turkish foods including kabobs, doner sandwiches, salads, baklava, waffles and Turkish coffee, will benefit the reforestation efforts in Bastrop.

• The Austin Film Festival starts next week, and to kick off the event, the festival is presenting the ninth annual Film and Food event at the Driskill Hotel at 7 p.m. on Oct. 19. Restaurants, including Buenos Aires Café, Roaring Fork, Mulberry and Garrido's, will provide food, and proceeds go to the group's Young Filmmakers Program. Tickets ($90, $75 for AFF members) and info are at austinfilmfestival.com .

• Local pastry chefs and chocolatiers will show off their products at the fifth annual Austin Chocolate Festival this weekend at the Norris Conference Center, 2525 W. Anderson Lane. Tickets ($21.65, which includes 16 sample coupons) are available at austinchocolatefestival.com.

• Austinite Tiffany Harelik, who writes about the Austin trailer scene at trailerfooddiaries.blogspot.com and, with the help of C3 Presents, is putting on the second annual Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival at Auditorium Shores on Oct. 22, has written a cookbook filled with recipes from area food trucks, trailers and carts. Next week, we'll feature more about the book and the festival, but at 7 p.m. tonight , you can catch Harelik at a book signing at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.