GFGF: Pumpkin

This week the veggie of the day for Good Friends Good Food is PUMPKIN. In my neck of the woods pumpkin means pie, muffins, or other sweet things. But, as usual, I chose a different route for my recipe this week.

Curried Pumpkin Soup.

1 can pumpkin puree

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3 Tbl fresh made curry powder ( I used a lot because I love the flavor and fragrance of curry. You may need less…or more)

1/2 cup coconut milk

Mix all ingredients in a medium sauce pan except the coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Top with toasted pumpkin seeds and a dollop of coconut cream before serving.

This recipe is super simple, super quick, and super tasty. (Recipe is adapted from Green and Keto.

And did I mention that it is KETO friendly?

More pumpkin recipes from GFGF: They all look delicious so go visit these ladies and try out their recipes.

Kayte

Ulrike

Nancy

Donna

Peggy

Ellen

Advertisement

 

{EwE} It’s Beginning to Look a lot like…

…Christmas! 

Such a fun time of year.  Lots of presents.  Lots of decorations.  Lots and lots and lots of baking!

So. Many. Calories.  Until you bake with Ellie.  She always has something for you for any occasion.  Including Christmas.  Like Pumpkin Pie!  

We always have pumpkin pie and pecan pie for Christmas.  It’s just a tradition.  But Ellie’s is about 1/2 the calories since it uses a Whole Wheat Crust, low fat {I used no fat} Evaporated milk, and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar instead of the usual 1 cup sugar.  

How does it taste?  It’s way too early to cut this pie so I saved just a smidge and baked a small ramekin.  It was GOOD!!  Just right on the sweet.

I think I will make her Angelic Ambrosia, too, (page 290) but it’s way too early to make it for now.  I’ll let you know how it is.

The recipe is on page 275 of Ellie’s Comfort Food Fix.

For more Christmas goodies ->   Eating with Ellie.

Have A Blessed One, Y’all!!

 

{CC#10} Pumpkin Cake

For some reason most of the cakes I make are layer cakes.  Lots of frosting between the levels.  Lots of frosting on top.  Lots of frosting around the sides.  But this time I decided to make a simple 9×13 cake.  Just lots of frosting on top.Pumpkin cake with a nice sweet cream cheese frosting.

I made a couple of subs.  Instead of the full 2 1/2 cups of AP flour I used 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and only 1 cup AP.  I also used 1/4 cup egg product instead of the egg white called for. I subbed in 1 cup Slendra and 1/2 tsp bulk stevia for part of the sugar.  TRYING to make it a little better for you….. And, of course, a little more cinnamon than the 2 tsp.

 

Cake recipe is page 197 of The Colorado Farmers’ Market Cookbook.  The Pumpkin Cake Recipe is from Burritt’s Produce.

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{IHCC} October Chef – Ellie Krieger

This month’s featured chef for I Heart Cooking Clubs was Ellie Krieger.  Over the last five years or so I have made a lot of Ellie Krieger’s recipes.  I started with Craving Ellie in my Belly.  By the time it was over I was with Eating with Ellie with three of my foodie friends.  IHCC  featured Ellie for 6 months from October 5th 2015 to April 3rd 2016.  That’s a lot of Ellie.  I don’t think I will ever get tired of cooking with Ellie.

I needed something quick and tasty the other night since I was completely out of sweet treats. Last fall Eating with Ellie made mini pumpkin ‘jar cakes’ and I missed out on it.  Every one said it was good so I wanted to try them.

The first one I made wasn’t sweet enough.  I didn’t want to up the calorie count {Ellie would be upset if I did!} so I added a tad of stevia to the next one.  Better!  The extra sweetness brought out the spices and pumpkin flavors.

Topped with a little whipped cream it was the perfect sweet treat.

The recipe is on page 291 of Ellie’s Weeknight Wonders.  {Or find it HERE}

For more Ellie – I Heart Cooking Clubs.

 

 

{CC#9} AB’s Pumpkin Bread

Today is the first day of FALL!!  That means we can now transition into pumpkin and spice, winter squash, sweet potatoes, warm casseroles, and hearty soups.  ‘Bout time!!!  I am really tired of hot weather but it lingers on here in the south.  Maybe the fragrance of fall flavors will make us feel better about that 100 degree Heat Index!

I started slow with a nice spicy Pumpkin Bread from Alton Brown’s Good Eats:  The Early Years.

The cake was moist and dense and full of cinnamon flavor.  It got better as the days went by and the flavors melded together.  YUM!

10 oz all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 oz  sugar {I subbed in Splenda for about 1/2  sugar and added a heaping tsp of  bulk Stevia}
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lb fresh pumpkin peelded, seeded, cut into chunks
4 oz toasted hulled pumpkin seeds

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely.

You can find basically the same recipe HERE.

 

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{SRC}The Sweetness of Savory

Do you have moments you savor? I do. A particular time with My Babies. A weekend away with The Man. Fishing with Dad. Yep! All important moments to keep in the memory for later.

Well, this month I found something else to savor. A new blog to read and cook from thanks to The Secret Recipe Club – Savory Moments.  This blog is run by Amy and covers

“My journey to learn more and more about food and cooking..”

And she has done a great job.  She has a wonderful collection of recipes that she is keeping for her family and her recipes focus on fresh, local, and healthy.  I was excited to find so many delicious recipes that were also easy to make:  Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole, Peanut butter cup bars, Creole chicken with cheddar and scallion grits,  and Tomato-basil soup are all saved for later.  So if I’m making those later, what did I make this time for SRC?

Lt’s start with breakfast.  Pancakes.  Pumpkin Pancakes.  With Maple syrup and toasted pecans  I love pancakes.  They are probably my favorite breakfast.  More than waffles.  More than eggs and bacon. m So when I saw these Pumpkin oatmeal pancakes {for two} I knew I had to try them.  It was the right thing to do.

They reminded me of pumpkin bread.  Full of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar.  I made just a couple of changes.  I increased the pumpkin to 3/4 cup rather than 1/2 and I added some cooked 7-Grain cereal to the mix.  I figured a little more fiber wouldn’t hurt  Then instead of toasted walnuts, I used toasted pecans.  I do enjoy pecans in or on my pancakes.  Perfect.  Amy said these were for two and I ended up with 8 medium sized pancakes.Perfect!  I think these would make good waffles as well.

 Next on the list I found several muffin recipes.   I love making muffins.  No frosting. No papers to peel off.  Just out of the oven and eat. Sweet?  Not Sweet?  How about some delicious healthy muffins?

Whole Wheat Muffins to be exact.  With a little brown sugar to bring out the sweetness of the bananas.  Amy suggested folding in some walnuts, cranberries, or chocolate chips but I opted for some big sweet blueberries instead.  Blueberries are so good for you so adding them to the whole wheat muffins makes them almost guilt free.  And delicious.

That’s what I made to have around for a snack.

For supper we had…

…Bacon Cheeseburger Pie.  This is not your usual hamburger pie.  Instead of adding some veggies and covering with mashed potatoes this pie is baked in a pie crust with all the ingredients of a bacon cheeseburger – thus the name!  There’s bacon, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and yellow mustard. And of course, lots of cheese.  Amy used  Yancey’s Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger cheese but I could not find that here in South Podunk so I followed her suggestion and used a sharp cheddar mixed with some crumbled bacon. YUM!!

I have the ingredients for her Cheddar Broccoli soup and the Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole waiting in the wings.  Looking forward to making them real soon.

Thanks for some great healthy recipes,  Amy.  I enjoyed my visit.  I’ll be back!

For more recipes from the Secret Recipe Club just follow the Frog.

 

{SRC} With a little bit…

..of luck…

you get assigned to a blog for Secret Recipe Club that has lots of simple, and tasty, recipes. And that is what happened this month when my Secret Assignment was A Little Bit of Everything which is written by Julie WAY up in the plains Nebraska. And I mean way way up because I am WAY down in the Deep South of Louisiana. She has been blogging since 2009 and has a collection of recipes to prove it.

As usual, and we are all in the same boat each month, it was hard to find JUST ONE recipe for SRC so I tried several. And they were all good. And all simple.

It has FINALLY turned cool here which means I could enjoy a nice bowl of oatmeal {I don’t like oatmeal, or soup, in the summer. Just too hot! I know, I’m weird.} and lucky for me Julie had a Pumpkin Oatmeal on the blog.

It is full of all those wonderful pumpkin pie spices, pecans, and maple syrup. It was just right. I wish I had made more than just 1/2 of the recipe.

There was also a recipe for Butterscotch Pumpkin Muffins

Talk about tasty. Ditto on the pumpkin spices and then add in the butterscotch chips and it was a definite winner.

1 3/4 cup flour, sifted
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Create a well in the middle of the mixture.
In another bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin and butter. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Pour into the well of the dry ingredients. Fold together just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not ove rmix.
Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Spoon batter evenly into muffin tins.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Place on a rack to cool.

Oh, yeah, and then I drizzled some with caramel. MAYBE a little over the top, but hey….

We eat a lot of ice cream year round. Or at least The Hubs does. So I had to make Julie’s Cake Batter Ice Cream.

Okay, it wasn’t completely her recipe. I have fallen in love with the No Churn ice cream so I used her amount of cake batter {3/4 cup} in the no churn. What a great Idea!!! You can have your cake and ice cream at the same time. Add some sprinkles and it’s a party in a bowl!!

So here it is the weekend before the reveal and I still have about 10 items on my list from Julie’s recipes:

Breakfast Pies
Butternut Risotto
Taco Bake

Which just happen to be the next three on my list. I cannot put my whole list so you bettr just jump on over to A Little Bit of Everything and check them out your self. AND, when you click on her lists they come up in PINTEREST!! Now why didn’t I think of that?

And for the rest of the SRC delights you can find them by clicking below:

 

{#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
 

{WWDH} pasta with pumpkin and sage brown butter

This week’s dish from Donna Hay is wonderful. Sage browned in butter than mixed with pasta and roasted pumpkin. I have come to love sage and brown butter. It is nutty and warming. The pumpkin adds a touch of sweetness to the mix.

If you need something quick and warming this is a great side dish for just about anything.

The recipe is my choice this week from Donna’s off the shelf page 18.
See what the other cooks in Wednesdays with Donna Hay thought of this pasta dish.

 

{SRC} Cooking from West to East

There are a lot of us who were raised in one place and ended up in another. We never forget the foods of our early years. We add to it from the new places we live. We change. We adapt. Our tastes change but never our love of our ‘native’ foods. This is the case for Julie who is The Texan New Yorker. She was my ‘assignment’ for January with the Secret Recipe Club.

Julie proclaims herself as a Formerly Picky Eater. But after deciding she wanted to eat healthier she learned to cook. She was ‘reared’, as we say in the South, in Dallas then moved to the East coast . He recipes are a great combination of Texas and New York and all the adaptations in between.

I have found over the years that just picking ONE recipe from hundreds is IMPOSSIBLE. I count myself lucky if I can whittle it down to 20 or so that I HAVE to make.

So, Julie, here is what I HAD to make from your wonderful Texas to New York recipes.

It was a little chilly in December and January so a nice thick soup was very comforting. In this case Julie’s Broccoli Cheese Soup

Can I tell you how delicious this was? Full of cheddar cheese and broccoli. I made it directly from her recipe except I sprinkled some additional cheese and some raw broccoli on top.

And what is soup if you cannot have it with some kind of bread. A grilled cheese sandwich is my usual go to with soup but with all the cheese in the soup I needed something to accent the flavor not dilute it. BISCUITS!!

Buttermilk Biscuits to be exact!

Perfect to dip into the nice thick soup. I am thinking that the Bacon Cheddar Chipotle Biscuits would also be good with this. Those biscuits are definitely influenced by her years in TEXAS!!

After Christmas I ended up with a couple of pieces of Pumpkin Pie. I knew I couldn’t just toss them, I didn’t need to eat them (so full!!!) and I didn’t want to freeze them. A conundrum! Solved by JUlie with her…

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

which I will call a smoothing because somehow that sounds healthier. This is so easy and definitely competes with the pie shakes at Sonic. Think of the all the possibilities if you have ice cream and left over pie – any kind of pie.

1 piece of pumpkin pie, homemade or store-bought
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 a pint of vanilla ice cream
Whipped cream, for serving

Combine all ingredients, except whipped cream, in your blender. Puree until smooth. Pour into glasses and garnish with a generous dollop of whipped cream and some of the pie crust crumbs left in the pie plate.

Makes 2 small smoothies or 1 large smoothie.
How dangerous is THAT!! And how simple.

Now, about those other recipes I have pinned. So much goodness, so little time.

It’s not called the Secret Recipe Club because we have to blog in secret – How 1984 would that be? – but because until the big reveal date our assignment is a secret. Then we can share what we have cooked form our ‘assignment’ and let the world know about all the deliciousness we found. If you want to join in you can find all the information you need by visiting the site. Way too much fun and kitchen adventures to be had.

You can check out all the fun we had this time by visiting below:

An InLinkz Link-up