Butternut Squash Bread

I still have butternut squash left.  We stored it in the ‘root cellar’ aka BARN and it is still sweet and tasty.  But we are tired of eating the same ol’ same ol’ so I needed a new recipe to use up the squash.  There aren’t many recipes out there for butternut squash bread.  After looking at pumpkin breads and banana breads and zucchini breads I still had found nothing that would do.  So I made up my own.

3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup roasted butternut squash
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup (Splenda) optional
1/3 canola oil
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
2/3 cup rolled oats.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9′ x 5″ or an 8″ x 8″ square pan with cooking spray.

Bake the butternut squash at 350 until it is soft. Let it cool. Cut in half, remove seeds, and scrape the meat out of the shells. I partially mashed mine up so I would have some nice chunks in the breadbut you can puree it if you like.
Mix together the flours, baking soada, baking powder, cinnamon, hutmeg, allspice and salt in a large bowl. In another large bowl mix together the honey, oil, eggs, butternut squash, and egg white until they are well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the squash mix. Mix til just combined.

Pour batter into the pan. If using the 9′ x 5′ bake for 50 – 60 minutes. If using an 8″ x 8″ pan bake for 30 minutes or until the center is done and a knife comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

I added the Splenda to add a touch more sweetness. This is a nice little cake and bakes up quickly in a 8″ x 8″ pan for a nice snack.

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{WWDH} lemon curd cake

There are a lot of peppermint and chocolate dessert recipes/posts floating in the blogasphere this time of the year.  When it came my time to pick for this week’s Donna Hay selection I knew I would be chocolated out so I went for something a little lighter and more refreshing – LEMON!

This is an almond flour based cake with a really lemony curd filling.  Between the three layers!  Yes, we sliced this cake in thirds and then filled each space with lots of curd and then, because that wasn’t enough we topped it with more lemony flavor.

I would like to say this cake turned out nicely, but I found it to be rather dense (which is how the Hubs likes cake).  The curd, however, was perfect.  VERY Lemony (1/4 cups lemon juice in the recipe) and easy to make since it has whole eggs rather than just the yolks.

I will definitely make the curd again  – but maybe not the cake.

For make cakes visit Wednesdays with Donna Hay.  The recipe is from FLAVOURS  (page 50).

 

 

{#LetsLunch} Celebrating Octoberfest with Beer!

This month’s Lets Lunch comes to you from Germany. Octoberfest! An annual all out Beer Party held in Munich. It is the World’s largest VOLKFEST or “Public festival” where the beer is served in huge 1 litre steins carried 8 – 10 at a time by comely waitresses. By the way, that’s 8 – 10 in EACH HAND!!

What better way to celebrate Octoberfest if you cannot be there than to cook or bake with beer. Ok, I CAN think of better ways but this is the easiest!!

Beer recipes all around!!

When I was little we lived in England. We spent four years there and moved 5 times. The Military is really good at that! While there we discovered lots of great food, despite what people said British food can be delicious, one of which became one of my Dad’s favorites – Welsh Rarebit. Or is it Rabbit? Rarebit? Rabbit? No one really knows, or cares for that matter, what it’s called. It is a wonderful easy dish for snack or lunch or dinner. This is the recipe my Mom got from one of her English friends and I still use it 55 years later.

This is NOT just melted cheese, this is melted cheese mixed with beer, cayenne, paprika, and Worcestershire. MUCH better….

1 lb sharp natural Cheddar {Use the really good fresh cheddar not the shrink wrapped from the grocers. Other wise it will not blend with the other ingredients.}
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dry mustard {or 2 tsp prepared English mustard}
Dash Cayenne pepper
Dash Paprika
1/2 cup ale or beer
Buttered toast cut into triangles

Shred the cheese and set aside
Mist the Worcesertshire, mustard, cayenne, paprika and beer in a saucepan and place over low heat until beer is hot.
Add cheese and stir until melted. {Don’t let the mixture come to a boil}. Just keep it over low heat until all the cheese melts and blends with the rest of the ingredients. If it boils, the cheese solidifies and separates from the liquid.
Pour over toast triangles.

So simple. So quick. So good.

I was going to stop there but then I ran across a recipe for Pumpkin Beer Bread and knew I had to try it and include it here.

It is made with Pumpkin Beer which just enhances the flavor of the pumpkin.
This recipe is enough for two loaves or one loaf and some muffins or one loaf and some mini loaves.

1 15oz can of pumpkin
1 2/3 cup sugar {I used 1 cup Splenda and 2/3 cup sugar}
1 bottle pumpkin beer
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup oil
4 eggs
4 cups flour {I used 1/2 AP and 1/2 Whole Wheat.}
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray two 9×5 loaf pans
In a mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugars, beer, oil, eggs and spices
In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add those slowly to the liquid ingredients.
Pour into 2 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove pans from oven. Let bread cool in pans completely before slicing. (Recipe is from Dessert before Dinner

What else is on the Lunch Menu?

Linda at Spice Box Travels brought soy beer brown sugar roast chicken
Betty Ann at Asian in Americabrought an appetizerPork Sisig
 

{EwE} corn and quinoa with sausage

I discovered quinoa a couple of years ago and now I always have a bag in the house, I often use it subbed for rice and sometimes pasta. It is so good and so good for you since it is high in protein and cooks us so easily.

I am always looking for new ways to fix it so when I saw this recipe I knew I would have to pick it this week for Eating with Ellie.

This dish is so colorful with the corn kernels, red bell pepper and grape tomatoes. And healthy since it is made with chicken or turkey sausage.

In less than 30 minutes I had a delicious, healthy lunch. Thanks, Ellie!

Check on our website for the other’s quinoa dishes and how they liked it.

Want to join us? We are cooking out of Ellie’s newest book – Weeknight Wonders. ALL the dishes take less than 30 minutes to make so they are perfect for those busy nights/days/weekends when you don’t have a lot of time.

 

{SRC} I am eating CHEAP!!

Third Monday in May.

Time for Secret Recipe Club again.

One of my favorite times of the month.

The end result – meeting a new foodie and cooking something or things from their collection of good things. I have found over the years that cooking just one thing is not a good way to learn about what makes a person tick. Or in the case of my ‘assignment’ this month – people. This month I was matched with Feast on the Cheap which is run by Mother and Daughter Duo Mary Ann and Mariel. Mary Ann is caterer and Mariel is writer with extraordinary culinary skills learned at her mother’s side. Between the two of them there is an awesome collection of great recipes.Not only that – the cost of every recipe is laid out for you with the ingredients. Thus the name “FEAST ON THE CHEAP”!! It was great to see how much each dish would cost.

I usually make three different treats. Usually a side and an entree and maybe a sweet treat. But it seems everything I went looking for something I was in need of something sweet. So here are two desserts – unusual for me – and a nice little quinoa dish.

I had a quart jar of pears in the pantry. We have a couple of trees so I put up pears every year. Finding this…

Cinnamon Pear Cake with Maple Brown Butter

was perfect. It is easy to make and yummy with the Maple Brown Butter Syrup and Pecans on top. Merial called for walnuts but we aren’t big fans and I always have lots of pecans in the freezer. Another change I made – I subbed out 1/2 of the AP flour for Whole Wheat. This is a grown up {what we used to call} Poke Cake. After the cake is cooked and cooled a bit holes are poked all over which lets the lovely syrup soak into the cake. Oh, Yeah!! Since I used my canned pears I skipped the “boil the pears, cinnamon, and water” part and just heated the pears and their juice with the cinnamon (and a little extra). Make this cake!!

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The next time I wandered through the site I found another sweet treat and since I was completely out of cake I deemed it absolutely necessary to make another. This time…

Butternut Bread

Our garden yielded a lot of butternut last year. We could not eat all of them or give all of them away. There is just so much butternut one can eat. So I had cooked up quite a few, scooped out the good part, and froze packages of butternut squash. Lucky me to have found this cake, also from Merial.

This is supposed to be a quick bread but I changed it up just a tad and made ‘brownies’ with them. I poured the batter into a 11″ x 7″ pan and baked them for about 24 minutes. Merial made a Ginger Apple Butter for her bread but I chose not to use a ‘frosting’. But I did use some Sweet Potato Butter on some and they were wonderful!! Slicing these was a cinch since I had Mom’s special brownie pan (she loved gadgets like I do)

PRESTO!! 18 perfect snacks!!

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Okay, I just couldn’t make another sweet treat. I HAD to go along another path.
For Lunch:

Quinoa Salad with Sweet Bell Peppers, Dried Cranberries and Turkey Bacon

1 cup organic quinoa
2 cups water or chicken/vegetable stock
½ Teaspoon salt
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
¾ cup pecans, lightly toasted and chopped –
¾ cup dried cranberries
4 scallions (green onions), white and green parts thinly sliced
5 ozs. Montrachet or plain goat cheese (NOT Feta)
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled

For the dressing:
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 Teaspoon Turmeric or dry mustard
1 Teaspoon Cumin
3 Teaspoons honey
¾ cup olive oil
salt and pepper

If not using organic quinoa, rinse in a fine mesh strainer under cold, running water.

In a 1½ quart lidded saucepan, combine the quinoa, salt, and water or stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, cooking until all of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff the grain with a fork and set aside. Allow to cool to about room temperature.

In the mean time, prepare the remaining ingredients and dressing. Set the dressing aside.

Toss the peppers, cheese, nuts, cranberries, cucumber, onions, cilantro, and crumbled bacon with the quinoa. Season the Pilaf with salt and pepper. Add the dressing if serving all at once, combining well.

This was definitely a hit with me. The sweet cranberries and pecans mixed with the sweet pepper and green onions was a nice contrast. The tangy sweet dressing brought it all together. I made 1/2 of the recipe and it was plenty for two light lunches (with cake!). And so colorful which means lots of good things in the dish that are good for you.

So many recipes, so little time. I did make the Whole Wheat Parmesan Drop Biscuits. I couldn’t pass those up. Now I want to go back and try

Onion Rings
Mushroom/Ham Quiche
Crab-and-corn-soup
WW Pasta with Peppers and Shrooms

And that’s just my short list.

Visit with Mary Ann and Merial – you WON”T be sorry!!

And visit the rest of the Secret Recipe Club Members and see what they cooked/baked this month.

 

{ABC} Lemoniest Little Lemon Loaf

In January Avid Bakers Challenge moved from baking with King Arthur Flour to baking with Christina at Scientifically Sweet. Unfortunately I missed out on January (Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins) and February (Orange, Date & Almond Biscotti) so I knew I had to jump in for March. And it was a good decision.

This is a nice little loaf with plenty of lemon flavor. And although mine didn’t brown very well or rise very high it was a hit. I liked the texture the cornmeal added. More than cake, less than cornbread. It was just right.

You can find the recipe on Susan’s Page. The only change I made was to cut the sugar in 1/2 and sub in some Splenda and a little raw Stevia for the sweetness. Now I’m thinking – how good this would be with some Blueberries thrown in. Next time!!

You can see all the Lemon Loaves over at THE AVID BAKERS CHALLENGE.

Next month we are making Fudgy No Butter Brownies – I am definitely in for that one!!!

 

{Tea Time} Butternut Squash Cake

I am trying to figure out why this particular cooking group has existed for the last 3 years and I had never found it. I mean really! TEA TIME TREATS!! As much as I love Tea and Scones! Well, I have now and this is my first post for this group.

Yes, I would like some tea, thank you!

The Challenge was VEGETABLES in a Tea Time Treats – either sweet or savory. This time of the year we are harvesting winter squash so it was perfect way to use some Butternut Squash in These Mini Butternut Squash and Cranberry Cakes.

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup WW flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
2 cups pureed butternut squash
2 cups sugar and 1 cup Splenda {or 3 cups sugar}
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries

You can use all AP flour, or use all sugar, or leave out the cranberries, or add in some nuts. It’s a very versatile recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine sugar, eggs, butternut, and applesauce.
Add dry ingredients slowly to the wet and mix just until all the dry is ingredients.
Stir in cranberries.
Baking Times:

Mini loaves and muffins – 20 to 25 minutes
Large loaf – 1 hour

Yield: 2 full loaves or 8 mini loaves and 6 muffins.
After cakes/muffins have cooled drizzle with Cinnamon Glaze.

1 cup (4 ounces) glazing or confectioners’ sugar
1 – 1 1.2 tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

The mini loaves, sliced, are just right for a sweet tea with a good cuppa.

Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen of Lavander and Lovage and Janie of The Hedge Combers This month the hostess is Karen so visit her Tea Time Page for all the wonderful Vegetable Tea Time Treats.

 

{WWDH} blueberry and yogurt cake

Quick Breads. One pan. One bowl. No frosting. Quick. Easy.

All of these describe this week’s Donna Hay selection for Wednesdays with Donna Hay. Chosen by Chaya it was the perfect sweet treat for the post holiday dessert.

Greek yogurt, lots of blueberries, resulted in a moist loaf with sweet bites of blue. I used Splenda instead of the sugar and I didn’t notice any change in the texture or the taste. I also used low fat Greek {It is January afterall…..}. I sprinkled the loaf with a little powdered sugar.

The loaf is now gone. On to the next treat….

Check with

Chaya
Kayte
Gaye and
Sarah
for their blueberry cakes.

BTW you can find the recipe on Donna’s website.

 

{WWDH} banana, hazelnut and chocolate bread

AS far as I’m concerned, there is nothing better than a nice quick bread. I usually make banana nut because I always have at least 20 bananas breeding in the freezer. I was just about to make up a batch when Chaya posted her choice for this weeks Wednesday with Donna Hay. As luck would have it – it was a variation of Banana Nut Bread. GREAT choice, Chaya.

Bananas. Chocolate and Hazel…. wait, I don’t have (and really don’t like) hazelnuts. But I love and had plenty of PECANS in the freezer. So here we are with banana, PECAN and chocolate bread!!

The only real difference between this bread and the one I usually make is the addition of 1 cup (90g) chopped dark chocolate. Which of course I didn’t have enough of so I subbed the remainder with bittersweet chocolate shavings {thanks, Mom} and increased the sugar just a smidgeon. Perfect!!! The cake was good. And even after a week it is still moist. Yes, a WEEK!! I have had a cold and couldn’t taste ANYTHING so I saved about 4 sliices JUST FOR ME!! Definitely taste the chocolate in this one.

The recipe is from Donna’s Blog so yo can try it quite easily.

And while you are buzzing around the NET hop over to
Chaya’s blog
Kayte’s blog,
Gaye’s Blog, and
Sarah’s blog for their breads.

And if you want to join us we have a weekly recipe and post it on Wednesdays (DUH!!) No pressure, just leave one of us a comment!!

 

{SRC} Meeting Martinelli

Today is the first Monday in March (ALREADY!!??) which means its REVEAL DAY for the Secret Recipe Club. Each month the memebers are assisgned a blog to enjoy, cook from and drool over!! This week I had the pleasure of meeting Katherine of Katherine Martinelli. She describes herself as writer, photographer, wanderer. She is …”an internationally published food and travel writer and photographer who contributes regularly to publications on three continents. A native New Yorker, she currently calls Be’er Sheva, Israel home.” Her recipes look delicious, her photographs are outstanding, and she has a cookbook – Puff Pastry at Brunch so cooking from her blog was a joy! And as usual it was soooo hard to pick one. Three was hard, but that is what I had to finally stop with.

Here in the south we don’t have much cold weather but when it is cold I love to make soup. Any kind of soup. So one of the recipes was easy.

Chicken and Corn Chowder

While Gumbo is my first soup to make every winter I am always willing to try something new. Usually something full of goodies, thick, and flavorful. Can you see all the goodies in this one – chicken, potatoes, BACON, celery, carrots???

1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
5 tablespoons flour
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 medium potatoes, chopped (about 2 cups)
2 cups whole milk
½ cup cream
1 3/4 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 cups corn kernels (frozen, canned, or fresh)
1/4 teaspoon dried ground thyme
Salt and pepper
Chopped chives, for garnish

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.
Add the onion, carrot, celery, Bell pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Add 3 tablespoons of the flour and stir until fully incorporated.
Stir in the broth and potatoes, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pot.
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the corn, milk, and cream and allow to simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the chicken and thyme and cook until chicken is heated through.
Put the remaining 2 tablespoons flour in a small bowl and add a ladle full of broth. Whisk together to form a slurry and add back into the chowder. Stir to combine.
Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately and top with chopped chives, if desired.

This soup was sooo good. Comfort food at its best. While Katherine did not put bacon in her version (which was in the original) I added it back in. The only change I would make next time would be to used cream corn rather than whole kernels. I think it would add more tender corn and creamyness. But this was deliclious.

Especially when I made her Garlic Bread Buttermilk Biscuits to go with it.

Yes, I said Garlic Bread and Biscuit at the same time. Made with chopped garlic and garlic powder there is plenty of flavor in these. These are different from any biscuit I have ever made. Instead of making a dough and rolling it out and cutting biscuits these are made from a batter poured into a pan and sliced after baking.

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
13/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 400F.
Spray an 8- by 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Melt the butter and stir in the garlic, garlic powder and dried oregano.
Pour the garlic and herb butter into the prepared baking dish.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add the buttermilk and mix until you get a smooth, thick batter.
Spoon the batter on top of the garlic butter. Smooth as much as possible with a spatula so it’s evenly distributed.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Place a plate upside down on top of the baking pan, then flip so the bread comes out with the buttery part on top.
Slice and serve.

Oh! My! All that buttery goodness. All that garlic taste. Oh! My! I love biscuits but don’t always have time when I am thinking of supper. With these I don’t have to take lots of time because they aren’t rolled and cut.

And then Katherine started coming up with variations she wants to try and now, if we meet, she will be my BFF! You have to visit this post to see what I am talking about!!

After the soup and biscuits we really needed (well, wanted) something sweet to end the day. Fortunately there are lots of sweets to choose from. And since I am retired with no children at home I have lots of time so of course I HAD to choose one of the more time consuming desserts.

Rakott Palacsinta aka Layered Crepe Cake.

It is a long process so I will let you look at her recipe and process pics instead. Making crepes. Filling crepes. Stacking crepes. Covering crepes with ganache.

If you look at her picture and then at mine you an see I need more practice with this one. but it was fun to try. And good, too. I made 1/2 of the total recipe (because we didn’t NEED a whole cake to tempt us) and ended up with 10 6″ crepes which I cut in half and stacked. I used strawberry preserves and ground chocolate/sugar between the crepes. Chocolate and strawberry is always a good combination. My problems came because while baking the fillings melted out from between the crepe layers and the crepes got tough. I will have to ask Katherine how to fix that problem. But it was still sweet and tasty.

I have several of Katherine’s recipes Pinned and have more I want to try – Wine braised chicken with saffron cream, Garlicky Shrimp Pasta, and her Cinnamon Bun Cake just to name a few. You really should visit Katherine, browse her RECIPES, and enjoy her photographs.

And if you want to join in the fun visit The Secret Recipe Club and sign up. You won’t be sorry! I mean, really, look at all the great dishes for March (Link below).