The Best Ever Pumpkin Muffins

Catherine,

So most of the recipes I've posted thus far have been blatantly someone else's or a combination of two recipes. This recipe, I feel, is more my own. Last year for a Christmas party, I sat down and combined all of my favorite things from about six (maybe more) different pumpkin bread recipes. These are the result. Now, I know you're trying to stay away from eggs (and this recipe has 4...) but maybe you can do some creative cooking of your own and find some decent substitutes? I've browsed some vegan blogs for just that purpose, and it seems that people have come up with all sorts of decent alternatives. This website seems to be pretty exhaustive in its suggestions. I think the key thing is to figure out just what role eggs are playing in your baking. It suggests bananas or pumpkin as a replacement in muffins and bread, so maybe you don't even need them here because there's so much pumpkin already? If you try out an alternative, I'm very curious as to the result. 

I made these muffins without the glaze and without chocolate chips. I just love the taste of pumpkin (or maybe all the spices...) that I don't like to cover it up. I also don't tend to love food that is overly sweet. On the other hand, I've made these with glaze and/or chocolate chips, and they're still unbelievably awesome: they make you want to see a dentist.

Love and stuff,
Kimberly 

Pumpkin Bread

Makes ~30 muffins or one huge loaf or 3 little loaves

2 c sugar 
½ c butter 
4 eggs 
15 oz can pumpkin 
½ c applesauce   
1 tsp. vanilla 
⅔ c water
3 ½ c flour 
2 tsp baking soda 
1 ½ tsp salt 
1 ½ tsp cinnamon 
1  tsp nutmeg 
½ tsp cloves  
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp allspice 
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans (or line 18 muffin cups).
2. In a mixer, cream together sugar and butter. Then mix in eggs, pumpkin puree, apple sauce, vanilla, and water until well blended. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves ginger, and allspice. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. (Stir in chocolate chips.)
4. Pour into the prepared pans. Bake loaves for about 50 minutes (16-18 minutes for muffins). Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Glaze muffins once cool.

Glaze

1 Tbs melted butter
1 dash milk
1 dash vanilla
1 c powdered sugar (or enough to make correct consistency --- just keep adding sugar till glaze isn't runny)

Beat it all together. Spread or drizzle onto cooked bread/muffins. 

Tips

-If you make one big loaf, it takes FOREVER to cook. We were late to the aforementioned Christmas party because it just wouldn't finish. I prefer to make cupcakes because they're much more predictable. And cleaning is minimized when you use cupcake liners!

- I haven't figured out the best way to store these. The tops get a little soggy when they're in a closed container. Maybe there's too much moisture in the batter? I just don't know. Maybe putting a stale piece of bread in the container will pull some of the moisture from the air? (This words really really well in reverse for cookies. If you have a tin of cookies that have gotten too hard/stale, throw in a piece of un-stale bread, and the cookies will steal moisture from it. You're left with a rock hard piece of bread and perfect cookies.)

Keeping It Simple: Black-Eyed Peas with Turkey Sausage

Hey Catherine, 

Grad school is taking up a fair bit of my time, so I've been trying to keep meals simple. For the past two weeks, one nicer meal has been made on Monday followed by our filler meals (roasted fish and veggies, usually) for the rest of the week. For my birthday, our brother got me a fantastic new cookbook: 6 Ingredient Solution by America's Test Kitchen. So far the two meals (an Italian meatloaf and enchilada casserole) I've made from it were pretty friggin' good. Their concept is simple: use fewer, more complex ingredients. That's not what they've said, but that's what I've decided. I'm waiting for colder weather to hit before I try out a butternut squash soup that's seasoned with (wait for it!)... a Chai tea bag. I'm still not over that clever idea and sorely want to see how it turns out. 

This Monday I decided to take simple a step farther with our cousins' (J&S) black-eyed pea recipe that they like to serve when the family gathers at the lake. Remember that recipe where I made a double batch of cornbread instead of a single and ended up freezing half? That frozen cornbread made it's debut too, and I must say, don't be afraid to freeze cornbread. I let it sit out on the counter to defrost and then microwaved it covered with a damp paper towel. Sure, it's not that fantastic fluffy cornbread with the crispy edges, but it works. Especially covered with honey. 

W and I have also switched to brown rice instead of white. It takes ~35 minutes to cook instead of 20, but it tastes better and is much better for you. By my reading, brown rice is magical stuff full of all of the things and white rice is crappy crap crap. That's my scientific outlook. But it fits into my new hope to incorporate more grains that are unrefined into our diets. Fewer tortillas, more wheat wraps. Wheat bread, not white. Same for rice. I even bought a "7 grain blend" at our local hippie-health food store (which has a large vitamin, supplement, and alternative medicine section that I glare at menacingly) to try for breakfast. More on that in another post, perhaps. 

Also served with dinner was leftover steamed brocolli (Monday) and sweet potato fries (Tuesday). I may have overly carbed Tuesday's meal, but I'm over it. In fact, I loved it. 


I hope school is going well, and it's almost your birthdaaaaaay! (Drink lots of water, okay? Two drinks. One water. Repeat. You'll thank me.)

Lurve,
Kimberly

P.S. I had my bedside lamp on my kitchen table, and my tripod and I stood on a chair for this shot. Nighttime shooting is not easiest. Or safest.

Black-Eyed Peas with Turkey Sausage

(when served over rice, about 6 servings)

8 oz black-eyed peas, dried
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 tsp pepper
dash of salt
1 tsp olive oil
1 lb smoked turkey sausage, sliced

1. Rinse peas, picking out any rocks or suspicious looking objects. Soak overnight in enough water to cover by 2 inches.
2. Drain and rinse peas. In a crock-pot, combine peas, 4 cups of water, onion, jalapeno, pepper, salt, and olive oil. Cook on low for 4-8 hours or until desired texture. (Probably could cook at high for 2-4 hours. Haven't tried it.)
3. If you're serving with brown rice, start cooking that according to package directions 40 minutes before you want to serve dinner. 
4. About 20 minutes before serving time, sautee sliced sausage on medium/medium-high until it has browned on both sides. Add to the crock-pot.
5. Serve peas over rice with a nice slab of cornbread. 

Tips

- If you're not using the turkey sausage, add more salt to your beans. There's a pretty large amount in the sausages, so you just have to balance appropriately.

- I know you're a baby when it comes to spicy food, but I think one seeded jalapeno will be fine for you.

- The package recommended amount of water for this amount of peas was 3 cups. Since I was letting mine cook longer in the crock-pot (because I was away at work), I added an extra cup to keep things from drying out. Reduce water for reduced cook times, but don't go below the recommended amount.

- Instead of a crock-pot, you can get your ingredients boiling in an oven safe pot, then keep the covered pot in the oven at 250 F. 

- This is definitely something you could make at Dad's house, partition into one serving sized plastic baggies, and then keep frozen in your dorm fridge. I can't imagine it not reheating well. 

Happy Birthday!

Kimberly,

I have finished your present! It'll be heading your way today. I had fun thinking of food and Julia Child for a couple of days. She was a talented and entertaining cook, like you are now. The quote is perfect for our hungry family. Originally, I was going to make a floral watercolor wreath, but I felt that food wreath is better for the quote. The style should look good next to your Harry Potter drawing in your new home. 

I hope that I can keep blogging during the school year, especially now that I have a better idea about my allergies. I miss your delicious cooking and goofy-ness.

Love,
Catherine

Chicken and Black Bean Chili with Cornbread

Catherine,

So W has been working out quite a bit, so I decided to make a healthy and protein loaded dinner. Per usual, I did some pretty silly things. The last time I made cornbread, I made an 8x8 pan, but this time I wanted the full 9x13. So obviously, I doubled the recipe. Without looking at how much it actually makes. As it turns out, last time I had halved the recipe. You see where this is going... In short, we have tons and tons of cornbread, way too much for two people. I used this recipe for homesteader cornbread and didn't change much. Now for the chicken and black bean chili I changed a few things. For instance, who uses garlic powder when there is real garlic somewhere in the world?! Silly people. I also cut out the chicken stock because I ran out of room in my 12" pan (that's 2" deep), and I added an adobo chili for extra pizzazz. 

This is my second meal to cook in the new house, and I'm slowly getting used to the new stove we have. It's gas, which means that things are hot almost instantly, but the oven gives off a ton of heat (and the drawer below the oven is a broiler, not storage space- almost made that mistake before W caught me). 

Anyway, I have chemistry stuff to read so I don't fail grad school before it even starts. 

Bon appétit!
Kimberly

Chicken and Black Bean Chili

1 Tbs. veggie oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2-3 chicken breasts, cubed
1 adobo chili, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs paprika
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, don't drain
1 15 oz can creamed corn
cilantro and shredded cheese, for garnish

1. Heat oil over medium high in a deep 12" skillet. Sauté bell pepper and onion and onion until soft. Add adobo chili and garlic and sauté until fragrant, 30-60 seconds. Add chicken and sauté until lightly browned. 
2. Add in seasonings and give a good stir. Add the beans, tomatoes, and corn. Simmer for 20 minutes, adding water if mixture gets too viscous. Serve with cilantro and cheese.

Homesteader Cornbread

for 9"x 13" pan

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 1/2 cups milk
2 cups flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup veggie oil

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Stir together cornmeal and milk. Let sit for 5 minutes while you measure out everything else.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat in cornmeal mix, eggs, and oil. Pour into greased 9" x 13" baking pan and bake 25-30 minutes.

Tips

- Adobo chilies are stocked in the Mexican section of the grocery store. I buy a can, use what I need, and freeze the rest in a plastic baggie. Otherwise, you end up throwing tons of it away. 

- If you want especially fluffy cornbread, use a mixer and beat the batter for 1 minute to incorporate air bubbles. 

Chocolate- Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Kimberly,

As you've made clear in previous posts, I am very lazy. I like to make good tasting things with little effort and time. Also, because of sophomore 20, I am trying to eat better. In order to still have desert, I have gotten a little creative. Last night I made chocolate-peanut butter frozen banana bites. Putting them in the freezer makes the banana have a ice cream texture. It's delicious.

To make these, all you need is:
2 bananas
about 4.3 oz. of chocolate (I used 74% dark chocolate)
about 2 scoops of creamy peanut butter
small handful of chopped nuts or coconut (I put almonds in a food processor)

I'm sure you could wing the recipe and be fine but I'll tell you what I did so other people can make these. First I cut up the bananas. I cut each one into about 8 pieces. I melted all the chocolate on the stove over low to medium heat and then stirred in the peanut butter. We only had crunchy peanut butter so I have to also put this in the food processor. This is the only valid reason to choose creamy peanut butter over crunchy. Have your topping ready in a small bowl and a pan laid out near your wonderful smelling mess. Now you can roll each piece of banana in the chocolate- peanut butter mix using your hands. It will get messy, but it's the best way to cover them and to have chocolate fingers for later. Put the piece on the tray and sprinkle with your nuts/ coconut. After you finish all the pieces, put them in the freezer. I ate one of the warm ones and it was delicious. However, it's worth waiting for the bananas to freeze over night. I brought these to work, and they were consumed immediately.

Can I please buy you a hand held mixer as an early birthday present? I've mixed by hand and I never want to do it again. Unless you are going for very toned arms, let me get it when you come down. I can't wait to see you!

Catherine

Cherry-Almond Vanilla Cupcakes

Catherine,

You've had these before, but our internet friends need to be taught about these wonderfully majestic cupcakes. (Thanks to other Catherine for giving me this recipe.) Honestly, I follow this recipe exactly. I don't buy buttermilk; I take their advice: add 2 tsp vinegar to measuring cup and fill it up to 3/4 cup with milk. Now you probably want to know how I managed to make this recipe more difficult than it had to be (it happens every time). So, I don't have a mixer. No hand mixer and no stand mixer, so I tried to mix everything with a whisk. Don't try to mix this stuff by hand because it's a pain. If you want to make them for R, just do it at Dad's house and use the good mixer. 

I made these for my lab-mates because tomorrow is my last day of my six month stint there. It's been a wonderful experience, and they deserved a treat (in the very least). After all, food is the easiest way to convey any positive emotion.

See you soon and bon appétit!

Healthy Fish and Chips and How to Roast Stuff

Catherine,

You know when you feel lazy and you don't want to cook and you don't want to spend money and you don't want to clean AND (you picky pain) you want healthy food? My answer to this complicated conundrum: roasted vegetables! Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, wash your favorite fresh veggie of the moment (drain), chop, throw on the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, throw on some salt and pepper, toss it all, and bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes. Your veggies will come out cooked, but not mushy; and your pan will come out clean (throw that foil away and put that sucker up!). I've tried this with squash and zucchini, green beans, and broccoli, all to great success. Watch out though, because the "leaves" on the "tree" of broccoli do get a little crunchy, but I'm okay with that.  Another healthy option: roasted fish! We bought this big bag of frozen tilapia (you can probably find it at Sam's for cheap), and you can do anything with it. Pick a seasoning (or two or five or Google ideas), foil a baking sheet, dry fish off, rub fish all over with a bit olive oil, put on pan, and sprinkle on the seasonings. Bake at 400 F for about 10-12 minutes. Now for the... COMBO MOVE. Start your roasted veggies and 10 minutes into the roasting, pull them out of the oven and put the fish down next to them. Pop it all back into the oven for 10ish more minutes. Now celebrate! You have fast, healthy food with virtually no clean up.

But, Catherine, this post isn't actually about roasted fish and veggies. It's about fish and chips. I used a combination of this Panko crusted tilapia recipe and this potato wedges recipe. I cut the tilapia recipe down to two servings and kept the potatoes plainer than suggested because my fish had lots of seasoning. I also didn't have Old Bay seasoning, so I used a generic Cajun mix in its place. The fish isn't fried, it's roasted along side the potatoes and Panko crumbs are used to add the crispy texture. Panko is a light and crisp Japanese bread crumb that goes equally well with chicken or vegetables (a certain Uncle of ours on the coast uses it often). Below is my method of madness... (Word of warning: I just wildly sprinkle a lot of seasonings on when I cook, so use your best judgement. Just remember, you can add more seasoning later, but it's hard to take it off.)

(Sorry, no picture. We ate it all.)

Panko-Crusted Tilapia and Potato Wedges

2 or 3 russet potatoes, each scrubbed and cut into 12 wedges
some olive oil
salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
2 tilapia fillets, fully defrosted
1 Tbs butter
5 drops lemon juice
1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
scant 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
dash or two of garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Place cut potato wedges in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, add salt, pepper, and paprika, and toss to coat.
3. Spread potato wedges out on the baking sheet (leaving some free space on one end of sheet) skin down and cook for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt butter in a bowl and add lemon juice. In a separate bowl, combine Panko, Cajun seasoning, and garlic powder.
5. After the potatoes have cooked 20 minutes, pull them out of the oven. Dry tilapia off, dip in butter mixture and then the dredge in bread crumbs. Place on baking sheet next to the potatoes, cover with excess bread crumb mixture, then bake for 10-12 minutes. Fish is done when it flakes when you pull at an edge with a fork.

Tips

- Pull any frozen meat or fish out of the freezer then night before you cook and place it in the refrigerator. This is the safest way to defrost anything that might spoil easily. Leaving meat or fish out on the counter or in a bath of warm water encourages bacterial growth.

- You can make your potato wedges look/taste fancier by tossing them with dried parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. Similarly, serve your fish with lemon wedges or slices for some added fancy.

- The cooking time for the potatoes is variable on how thickly you cut the wedges. My wedges didn't come out super crispy. Next time I'll cook them for 30 minutes before adding fish to the baking sheet.

- Feed this to dad.

- I sauteed some spinach on the stove-top to go with this. That's also super easy to do. Heat up olive oil in a pan over medium-high. Once hot, add a huge pile of spinach and stir constantly until the leaves are wilted. Feel free to sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic salt, or whatever suits your fancy.

Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna

Catherine,

Do you remember that super awesome lasagna we had in Montana? Well, I gave it a go today. I can never make something exactly to the recipe; I end up accidentally omitting an ingredient, adding extra ingredients, or swapping one out for another. This was no different today.

The lasagna I made is a combination of this lasagna recipe and this roasted red pepper recipe. First, what I screwed up and a tip. I forgot to put an egg in my cottage cheese layer. You really shouldn't skip this because it's the binder for the layer; I don't think the accidental omission changed the taste much - just the  cutability. Secondly, I didn't screw up the noodles per se, but I left them in the cooking water after they reached "al dente". They became a sticky mess, and I managed to lightly scald my fingers trying to separate them. Mom has a method to fix this (that I forgot about until I was elbow deep in noodles): add an extra half cup of red sauce so that the noodles can rehydrate while the dish bakes. This works quite well and eliminates a pot to clean, achy fingers, and the frustration of having a noodle beat you at your own game.  Secondly, we had two types of "Italian blends" of shredded cheese. The recipe calls just for Romano, mozzarella, and Parmesan, but who cares. Also, I didn't really measure the cheese super well while layering... I just sprinkled some and kept going.

I divided up separate times that you'll use an ingredient in the list because I have a tendency to throw everything in without looking at when I should do it....

Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna

1 red bell pepper
1/2 tsp olive oil
12 lasagna noodles
2 Tbs olive oil
8 oz container sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 c onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed, peeled, and minced
2 c fresh spinach, roughly chopped
3 c cottage cheese (equals one 24 oz container)
2/3 c Parmesan, grated
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried basil (I used 20 leaves of fresh basil, chopped)
1 egg
3 c mozzarella, shredded
3 c pasta sauce (this is without the extra half cup if you want to use dry noodles)
1 c Parmesan, grated


1) Preheat oven to 500 F.

2) Line baking sheet with foil. Wash bell pepper, dry, stab once with a fork, and cover in olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes, turning once half way through.

3) Remove pepper from oven and seal the foil into a pouch and let sit for 30 minutes. Then peel off charred skin, cut in half, remove seeds and stem, then roughly chop. Set aside.

4) Lower oven temperature to 350 F.

5) Option one: cook noodles according to package directions until al dente. Option two: Don't cook noodles, but don't forget to add an extra 1/2 cup sauce when layering the lasagna.

6) Heat olive oil in 10-12 inch pan over medium high heat. Once the skillet is hot, throw in the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cook until onion and mushroom have softened. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat. Stir in roasted red pepper. Drain any excess liquid.

7) Combine cottage cheese, Parmesan, salt, oregano, pepper, basil, and egg in a bowl. Stir in sauteed vegetables and stir well.

8) Layer into a greased 9 x 11 in Pyrex pan: (some red sauce first if you're not boiling the noodles) 4 noodles, 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup mozzarella, 1/3 cup Parmesan, and 1 cup pasta sauce (+ 1/3 cup if doing the no boil method). Repeat twice. Sprinkle any leftover Parmesan on top.

9) Cover pan with foil (seal really really well if you're doing no boil method) and bake 60 minutes. (I like to have foil under the pan in case anything boils out.) Take foil off and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted. Let sit 15 minutes before serving.

Tips

It's rather important to wait until your sauteing oil is hot before adding the vegetables. If it's not, they'll just absorb the oil and won't saute up nicely. Meat also cooks up better in oil if you wait until it's hot. Actually, all things cook better in hot oil, so be patient and let it happen.

I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese because it's cheaper. That's another Mom trick for ya.

"2 cups spinach, roughly chopped" was measured by semi-packing spinach into the measuring cup. Next time I'll use 4 cups for sure because it wilts down to such a small amount (and I actually like the taste of spinach). Also, I used curly spinach and removed the main stem....

When cutting herbs, like basil, there's a nice technique to make your life easier. Instead of painfully describing the process to you,  here's a quick video.

Next time, I'll probably add 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes for an added kick.

(Update: Supposedly, the add-an-extra-1/2 cup-pasta-sauce method wasn't the best? Needs some tweaking...)

A bit of background.

I moved out of state for graduate school, and younger sister stayed behind to do college stuff. So naturally, (for the first time ever?) we actually miss each other. What you'll find here is an exchange of food-stuff and craft-stuff: the things that keep us sane and our bellies happy.