October 30, 2011: Dinner in a Pumpkin Recipe

I’m in Mesa visiting my grandson and his family this weekend while they host a Halloween party. As their occasional “resident chef” I wanted to make something that would be truly memorable. I found this recipe online and with a few little Candy tweaks, found it to be the perfect dish for a potluck party. It would also be a great presentation for a Thanksgiving dinner. Try it and let me know what you think!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 large pumpkin (measure your oven if you want to double this recipe and use a really big pumpkin), top cut straight off and seeds scooped out

2 T. brown sugar

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 ½ lb. ground beef

1 lb. bulk pork sausage

1 yellow onion, finely minced (optional)

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 cans beef stock

1 package long grain and wild rice (such as Uncle Ben’s)

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 small cans mushrooms stems and pieces (optional)

2 cans French cut green beans

Mix together brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice; rub on inside of pumpkin.

Cook meat over medium heat in large skillet, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in chicken stock and rice. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until rice is done.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix remaining ingredients with meat/rice mixture. Spoon into prepared pumpkin, replace top. Place pumpkin on a baking sheet and bake at least 2 hours, until pumpkin is tender. To serve, scoop out filling along with pieces of pumpkin.

October 11, 2011: Streusel Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Are you starting to think about your Thanksgiving dinner menu yet? It might be early for some of you, but I start planning weeks in advance for my favorite holiday of the year! Of course it’s my favorite because I enjoy cooking and Thanksgiving is a great excuse to spend two solid days in the kitchen preparing yummy food my family loves eating.

Since I had lots of pumpkin after canning three large ones at the beginning of this year, I decided to try a new recipe with some of my pureed pumpkin stash. This one came out quite nice, but did take a long time to bake. Will this be the pumpkin pie that makes it onto my Thanksgiving table this year? Hmm…I’ve got a few more recipes to try out before making the final decision.

Streusel Pumpkin Pie - I used white sugar in the streusel topping because I ran out of brown; that's why the topping is very light colored here.

Streusel Pumpkin Pie

One pie crust (find my pie crust recipe here).

Filling:

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

¼ t. allspice

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 t. grated orange rind

2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one small can pumpkin)

1 can evaporated milk

Note: You can also use 2 t. pumpkin pie spice in place of the other spices listed.

Blind bake the pie crust in a 9” pie pan as directed in my pie crust recipe.

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk well. Pour into prepared pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with topping:

Topping:

4 ounces (1/2 stick) butter

½ cup flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

½ t. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Mix with a fork until crumbly. After sprinkling topping on pie, return to oven and bake another 15 – 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean. Note: The recipe called for only 15 final minutes of baking but it took a full 30 minutes for my pie to be fully cooked.

October 4, 2011: Apple Bars Recipe

As I mentioned, October is National Apple Month and right now there are lots of varieties available at the grocery store. I’m doing my best to focus on the all the types of food that October is known for (cookies, pasta, desserts, bologna – in addition to apples) so let’s start with a simple recipe sure to please everyone in your family. These bars are a great after school snack or casual get-together fare.

Make sure you use a sweet apple for this recipe - I used gala apples. Since there's no sugar directly on the apple slices, a Granny Smith or other type of tart apple wouldn't work well.

Apple Bars

½ cup butter, softened (or butter flavored Crisco)

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

1 ½ cups granola cereal (any variety - your choice)

1 cup flour

½ t. baking powder

¼ t. salt

¾ t. pumpkin pie spice (or equal amounts cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)

1 large or 2 small apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly (about 1 ½ cups)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Mix together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Blend just until mixture is crumbly. Reserve one cup.

Press remaining dough into bottom of greased 8 x 8” square pan with your fingers. Top with apple slices. Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls evenly across top of the apple slices.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 9 – 12 bars 

Note: it’s easy to double the recipe to feed more people; just use a 13 x 9” pan.

September 16, 2011: Peach Butter Recipe

Recently my friend Kathy scored several boxes of peaches straight from Colorado. These were freshly picked, perfectly ripe, huge, beautiful and juicy peaches that you could never find at the grocery store. Of course I had to get some but I’m not a big fresh fruit eater. I made a peach cake, then decided to can the rest of them using a new recipe for peach butter.

I’ve shared with you the exact measurements I used but if you have more or less peaches, you can adjust the recipe accordingly.

Peach Butter

7 extra large peaches

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Pinch of salt

1 ½ t. pumpkin pie spice

Peel, pit and slice the peaches. Place them in a large saucepan and heat over medium low. Cook until the peaches are softened (this could take more than half an hour, depending on how ripe the peaches are). Let cool slightly and press through a sieve.

Place the peach juice (you should have 4 cups of it) back in the saucepan. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat until reduced to a very thick paste. To determine if the butter is ready, spoon a small amount on a plate. If no liquid separates from the butter, it is ready to put into jars. Note: cooking down the peach juice could take longer than two hours.

When peach butter is ready, ladle into sterilized jars to within ¼ inch of top. Wipe off rims. Top jars with sterilized seals and rings. Store in refrigerator. The peach butter will keep for several months as long as it stays cold.

OR if you have a lot of peach butter, you might want to process it in a hot water bath. If so, use new seals when closing the jars. Place them in a large pot of gently boiling water; make sure the lids are covered by an inch of water. Boil jars for 10 minutes (below 1,000 feet above sea level) to 25 minutes (above 6,000 feet over sea level).

Makes 4 half pint jars.

September 5, 2011: Pennsylvania Dutch Crumb Cake

My pastor and his family are going through a difficult time right now, with a treasured family member in the hospital and not doing well. They’ve got all their family here, of course, and my friend Kathy and I decided to try to make things just a bit easier for them by providing meals. I volunteered to make a coffee cake – easy to grab and munch and it feeds a lot of people. This is a spicy crumb cake that is perfect with a hot cup of coffee.

I found this recipe in an American Profile weekly magazine and didn’t have to change much of anything; I just tweaked it slightly. It was adapted with permission from Greg Patent’s A Baker’s Odyssey.

Pennsylvania Dutch Crumb Cake

Crumb Base:

4 cups flour

½ t. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 t. ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until the consistency of fine meal. Add sugars and cinnamon and mix well.

Topping and Cake:

6 T. butter, melted

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

½ t. nutmeg

1 t. baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

2 t. vanilla extract

Place 4 cups of the crumb base in a medium sized bowl. Add melted butter; stir just until blended.

Add remaining ingredients to the rest of the crumb base and beat until smooth.

Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan (use the wrappers from the butter or nonstick cooking spray). Spread cake batter in bottom of pan. Using your fingers, crumble the topping over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool. Dust top of cake with powdered sugar, if desired.