Pumpkin Bread - from fresh pumpkins!

Instead of carving this year, we painted our pumpkins for Halloween. So instead of having a decaying mound of orange flesh, we had two lovely, plump pumpkins. I'd never cooked with fresh pumpkin before so I called my Granny for tips. She's used pumpkins to make pumpkin pie by peeling and boiling the meat. She suggested baking the pumpkins, skin-side up, on a baking tray. That's just what I did, at 375. We had two sizes of pumpkins - the smaller took one hour, the larger (jack-o-lantern size) took 1.5 hours until soft. Beware though - a LOT of pumpkin juice came out of these, over the baking sheet and into the bottom of the oven. Ah, time to see if that self-cleaning thing actually works!

After the pumpkin cooled I mashed it up. There was a lot - about 4 cups. One cup went into the pumpkin bread using a recipe Fanny Farmer recipe. It is hands-down the BEST pumpkin bread I've even eaten. My sister found the recipe a few years ago and now it's a family favorite. It's moist and flavorful without being too sweet.

I made three small loaves from one recipe. It hasn't lasted long! I believe there is just one small slice left...which I will make disappear very shortly...

Pumpkin Bread (adapted from a Fannie Farmer recipe)

1.5 cup flour

.5 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup pumpkin puree

.5 cup olive oil

2 eggs, beaten

.25 cup water

.25 tsp. nutmeg

.25 tsp. cinnamon

.25 tsp. allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Whisk.
3. Mix pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, .25 cup of water, and spices in a separate bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Fold in ingredients until just combined. Do not mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 loaf pan.
6. Bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Cool on a rack and enjoy!

twd: Sugar-Topped Spice Molasses Cookies

Sugar-Topped Spice Molasses Cookies taste just how they sound, but with a little surprise pinch of black pepper. It's not a taste I can pick out though. This TWD pick was made by Pamela of Cookies with Boys, who will have the recipe up sometime this month.

I halved the recipe (which made 24) and still got 2 dozen! These were rustic, set cookies on the outside, chewy and soft on the inside. Not being a big spiced cookie or molasses fan, I liked these much better than I thought I would. I love the texture - perfect for the cookie jar!

And for taking on a road trip. I packaged up some freshly baked cookies and pumpkin bread as a hostess gift for my sweet friend who is letting me stay with her a night while job interviewing and apartment hunting. Hopefully these will bring me some good luck.

twd: Cran-Apple Crisps

This month is a little different with the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd. Due to that food-filled holiday, Thanksgiving, we're allowed to post this month's recipes out of order.

I really, really wanted to make Katya's choice for this week - Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake. Doesn't that just sound divine? And I really, really love chestnuts. They've always been a bit of a mythical character to me. Yeah, they're in lots of songs about Christmas and roasting fires, but who has even seen (or eaten) one? One that's not pureed or otherwise rendered unrecognizable? So with a doubtful mind I listened to my sister's response one chilly November night last year in Shanghai to my question of "What's that?" It was directed at a street vendor's cart, where the vendor was roasting many brown ovals which he jiggled for noise and attention. It got mine. "Chestnuts." What?! Seriously? I immediately made a bee-line for the vendor and starred at the brown ovals while my sister bargained for a bag in Mandarin. I crunched open the shell with my teeth and found a cream, slightly nutty, and very interesting taste. It wasn't sweet or bitter, just slightly nutty and with that eluding taste that is quite addictive. Needless to say I finished the bag, and quite a few more on my trip.

But alas, I'm back in Georgia, and in a town with no Whole Foods or specialty stores. I hunted for chestnuts and chestnut cream, vowing to pay whatever it cost while crossing my fingers it wasn't too crazy expensive. But I couldn't find the darn things. So I skipped a week, and made the lovely Cran-Apple Crisps picked by Em.

Of course, I couldn't find all the ingredients for it either. The store here only carries frozen cranberries during Christmas, and we're not quite there yet. So I just omitted it, but kept the dried cranberries, and added a few chopped almonds.

I quartered the recipe to make two single servings - quite easy quartering (thankfully I didn't stand around trying strenuously to figure some math in the kitchen). My family and I are spoiled by apple and crisp desserts. Blame it on my great-grandmother, who made lovely desserts and passed on her recipes. I made an apple crisp for friends one Thanksgiving when I was living in Ghana. It was almost gone before dinner was officially served and they never stopped begging me to make it again.

This crisp, well, I'd definitely make it again. The topping was great, perfect for single dishes, and the dried cranberries added a lovely tartness that contrasted perfectly with the sweetness of the apples and sugar. Definitely blue ribbon material.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!

I hope everyone has a delightfully frightful night with lots & lots of sweet treats!

Here, it's raining, and following family tradition, we made a big pot of homemade chili - vegetarian chili with Bulgar wheat, pinto beans, and lots of tomatoes. Yum!

When thinking of the menu earlier this week, I suggested having Frito's with the chili. There used to be an old, local pharmacy and food counter, Chandler's, that served 'real' vanilla Cokes and Frito's Chili Pie, chili served over a bed of Frito's chips. Like oyster crackers in clam chowder, it's a perfect combination!

twd: Rewind to Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake

April at Short + Rose picked Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte as this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. To check it out, head over to her lovely blog.

The reason you don't see it here is that Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte sounds like something my high school best friend would LOVE, and I would HATE. Maybe hate is too strong a word, but my stomach lunges at the name.

So instead, I'm hitting rewind and making a recipe chosen before I joined TWD. To decide, I looked for something seasonal. Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake hit it on the nail. It's essentially apple pie, with an incredibly good, sweet dough.

It's Halloween month so I wanted to make it a little festive.

Enter purple decorative sugar and wah lah, festive.

The Grit Split Pea Dal & Old-Time Grit Buns

This weekend was exhausting. It was fun with a trip to the pumpkin patch, decorating, and shopping. But one of those where you're more tired on Monday morning than Friday afternoon.

Comfort food was called for, and I had been thinking of Split Pea Dal all afternoon. Not just any, but the one my sister makes from The Grit Cookbook.

The Grit is a fabulous little vegetarian restaurant on the edge of downtown Athens, GA. It has great atmosphere, delicious food, great brunch, and beautiful cakes and desserts. Athens was the first place I lived that had a range of vegetarian-friendly eating places, and I loved it.

In order for it to be a real comfort meal, it had to have carbs. Thumbing through The Grit Cookbook, the Old-Time Grit Buns caught my eye. These are lovely, easy yeast rolls with regular flour, whole-wheat flour, and cornmeal. Even the cat couldn't get enough!

Bloody Brownie Eyes

Say hello to my little friend...and his bloody brownie eyeballs!

I've been searching online for Halloween food ideas. Some are very scary and not at all appetizing. A pumpkin puking something I'm supposed to dip a chip into does not appeal to me. I prefer much sillier fright factors.

I saw many eyes. Made of eggs, made of olives, made of bread. Why not brownies? Dipped in white chocolate, with chocolate chip irises and red food coloring veins? Move over Van Morrison, here comes Brown-Eyed Ghoul.

To the peanut butter and jelly kids song:

First you take the brownies and you roll them, you roll them, you roll them roll them roll them.

Then you take the balls and you dip them, you dip them, you dip them dip them dip them.

Singing, Bloody, Brownie eyeballs with veins! Bloody, Brownie eyeballs with veins!

These are super easy to make. Just bake your favorite brownie recipe and almost completely cool. Cut into squares and roll each square into a ball. Let these cool completely. You can even let them sit over night in a sealed container. When ready, dip the balls into melted white chocolate, leaving a circle on top free of chocolate. Let these cool completely before marking them with red food coloring. I used a skewer to dip in the coloring and then draw on the chocolate.
They can be scary all together - or really cute on a pumpkin head!