A Giant Can of Pumpkin Goes a Long Way

When I was home for fall break, I found a 29 oz. can of pumpkin on sale for $1.50. That's a pretty good bargain for so much pumpkin. For the past two weeks I have been trying all those wonderful pumpkin recipes out there.

Before I get to the recipes, I want to thank Megan for doing the cookbook exchange with me.


Pumpkin Nut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting




As a good friend of made said when eating this cupcake, "I'm going to marry this!" She requested a dozen of these as her Christmas present. Glad to know she's easy to shop for. I got lots of compliments on how I decorated, but the idea wasn't mine. But I guess if they don't see the original post and picture, then they'll never know. All I did was cut the recipe in half and added walnuts. I suggest if you cut the cupcake recipe in half, also cut the frosting recipe in half. I didn't and there is leftover frosting in the freezer.

Cupcakes
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl.

2. In a second bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy; beat in eggs. Mix in the pumpkin. Stir in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk until the batter is smooth. Add in nuts.

3. Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pan cups. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes. Makes 24 cupcakes.

4. In a bowl, beat on medium speed the cream cheese and butter until creamy. With mixer on low speed, make 1/2 cup additions of sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Increase the speed of your mixer between each addition.

Source: Cupcakes: Bake Bake Bake; Frosting: Bake and Destroy


Pumpkin Oatmeal




Another oatmeal recipe, yay! This one is a healthier alternative when you crave pumpkin pie. The first time I made it, I had too much milk. The second time I made, I didn't have enough milk LOL Try to find a happy medium between 3/4 cup and 1/2 cup (for one bowl's worth).

1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup milk
1/8 cup canned pumpkin
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/16 teaspoon nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon ginger
1/8 cup brown sugar

Microwave oats and milk for 2 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar until blended.

Source: Recipe Zaar


Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce



Another "what the hell are you making?!" recipe. That's what my one roommate said with disgust when I was in the kitchen. I was being daring and decided to eat pumpkin for dinner. Don't let the pumpkin fool you because this sauce was great! I used cream cheese instead of heavy cream and left out the red bell pepper because I didn't have any.

1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup water
2 oz. cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup uncooked pasta

1. In a skillet, saute onion and garlic in butter until softened. Stir in pumpkin, broth, water, cream cheese, and nutmeg. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

2. While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until done.

3. Add pasta to sauce and cook over moderate heat, stirring and thinning with reserved water if needed, until pasta is well coated.

Source: Recipe Zaar


Pumpkin Pudding



It tastes better than it looks, I swear!! It tastes just like pumpkin pie without the pie crust. I really wished I had Cool Whip when I was eating it. I didn't make as much as the recipe called for because I had a small box of pudding and 5 oz. evaporated milk, so I used 1 cup pumpkin. If my picture doesn't make you crave it, check out the picture on Nestle's website.

1 pkg (5 1/10 oz) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
1 can (12 fl. oz) evaporated milk
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
Whipped topping (optional)

Beat pudding mix and milk according to package directions in large bowl. Refrigerate for 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; mix well. Spoon into dessert dishes. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or until ready to serve. Top with whipped topping, if desired.

Source: Nestle's Very Best Baking.


Pumpkin Raisin Muffins




Since I didn't have much pumpkin left, my choices were pumpkin muffins or pumpkin bread. Muffins are easier to share, plus I had Halloween paper liners I needed to use. I was debating on using white chocolate chips and raisins, and since I don't eat as healthy as I should, I went with raisins. I cut the recipe in half and used all-purpose flour entirely.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper cups.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in medium bowl. Combine eggs and sugar in large bowl. Add pumpkin and oil; mix well. Stir in flour mixture until moistened. Stir in morsels. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.

Source: Nestle's Very Best Baking

A Love I Can't Handle

I love trying new foods. I've eaten some pretty unusual things for the thrill - sushi, calamari, kangaroo, springbok. Habanero peppers aren't unusual, but they are new to me. I went to a local farmer's market (In my college town? I was surprised too) and saw habanero peppers for 25 cents.



I figured, hey I love spicy foods so I'll buy one. Yea, about that. Spicy food is great. My mouth may be on fire, but I'll still eat it. Or at least I thought. While looking for a way to use my pepper, I came across Basil Habanero Pesto. I used my [extremely loud] blender and combined the pesto with some angel hair. I knew habanero peppers were hot, but damn! I never drink a plain glass of milk but was soon forced with this amount of heat. I could only eat 3/4 of my pasta. The combination of flavors were amazing, so if you can handle the heat, give this pesto a try.

My cookbook is still up for grabs. Any takers?

Cookbook exchange, anyone?

I bought 12 more cookbooks from Ebay two weeks ago, 12 Pillsbury Bake-off books to be exact. I ended up with an extra copy of Bake-off #15, so I debated on what to do with it.



I apologize for the picture. The lighting in my apartment is absolutely horrible. It's a red book in fairly good use.


Sell it? Give it away? Donate it? As tempting as it was to sell it on Ebay, I decided to give it away, with a twist. Who wants to do a cookbook exchange? It's pretty simple. Find a cookbook in your collection that you don't want anymore, tell me, then I'll mail you mine if you mail me yours. Anybody who is interested, please email me at mooseymoosecc[at]hotmail[dot]com. If you live outside the US, talk to me and I'll see what my budget allows. As a bonus, we could even make recipes at the same time and compare. If you want to know what recipes are in, let me know and I can give a brief overview.

Just a side note: I have the right to refuse exchanging cookbooks if I already own it, I'll never use it (I do not own a slow cooker or a bread machine. I don't own an ice cream maker either, but I'm going to invest in one for next summer), or it has recipes where 75% of the ingredients cannot be bought in a regular supermarket (for budget reasons).

The End of Zucchini Season

As we progress into the autumn weather, we are coming to the end of summer squash season. This saddens me because I never realized how much I love zucchini. I bought some zucchini and yellow squash at my home town's farmer market when I was home for fall break. I'm just getting around to posting about them now.

I've never made homemade soup before. Ever. Sure, I help my parents make homemade chicken noodle soup, but they did most of the work. I always see pictures and recipes of delicious soup, but I never had a reason to make them. I used to eat ramen noodle all the time, even in the summer. I knew they were high in sodium, but I didn't care. Then for whatever reason when I was studying abroad in Ireland, I became more health-conscious. I never had to worry about buying groceries or cooking for myself. I had the dining halls on campus. Although buying canned soup and ramen noodles are cheaper and more convenient, I think spending the extra money on produce and making fresh soup is worth the health benefits. Plus I know what goes into my soup versus whatever the manufactuer puts in. I'm glad my family never uses our blender because I took it with me to my apartment. So far, I've used it twice and I don't think my roommates have touched it. I hate using it because it's so loud LOL I don't know what encouraged me to make this soup. I think it was because I was searching for zucchini recipes on Recipe Zaar and I came across Zuke Soup. I am not a huge fan of super creamy stuff (which is probably why I don't use milk in my coffee, just sugar), so I thought it tasted better before I added the milk (yes I taste test as I go along). Other than that, I thought it was amazing. I didn't realize until afterwards I was supposed to peel the zucchini haha I apologize for the low quality picture, but I was eating leftovers the next day when I realized I didn't take a picture. It was just that good.


Zuke Soup




I didn't change anything except made it into two servings. I would advise tasting before adding the milk to see if you should add it. Recipe from Recipe Zaar.


Zucchini Curry




I just want to show off one my favorite cookbooks. Ever. I think it's because I absolutely adore squash, and this book dedicates 140 pages to it. I wanted a dinner using my summer squashes. Since I bought curry powder, I decided to make zucchini curry. I added in carrots, yellow pepper, and broccoli. You can use my chicken curry recipe and sub in the vegetables and vegetable broth.

I found a copy of the cookbook on Ebay. It's called "Garden Way's Zucchini Cookbook and Other Squash" by Nancy C. Ralston and Marynor Jordan.

Since the end of summer squash for the year is near, I bought some winter squash. I bought a butternut, an acorn, and a sweet dumpling squash. I'll keep you updated with that.

Sugar High Friday - My First Time

Challenges are awesome to enter because they give you another excuse to bake (or cook). For this month's Sugar High Friday, I had to bend the rules a tiny bit. You see, the theme is drunken apples. Given that I'm only 20, I can't go out and buy any alcohol. My parents don't keep any alcohol in the house, and they weren't going to buy me a bottle just for this challenge (damn it). I decided to use the next best thing - rum extract. I ended up baking this cake at home during my fall break two weekends ago after I went to a local apple festival. I was going to sub the vanilla extract for rum extract, but my mom is very picky and isn't crazy about rum. No worries; I used it in the glaze. Since my mom didn't want the rum extract, I made a little bit of glaze for about two pieces of cake. Let's just say the extract is really strong for such a little bit of glaze. I think if you made an actual bowl of glaze, the milk and sugar would balance out the strongness of the rum. I suggest only adding 1/8 tsp and then add more for taste.

Also, I learned an interesting fact while baking this. I thought the title was Apple Streudel Cake, not Apple Streusel Cake. The streusel is the crumb topping usually baked on top of baked goods. In this case, it's in the middle. A streudel (or strudel) similar to a pocket pastry.


Apple Streusel Cake




Streusel
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped apples (I used Golden Delicious)
1 cup nuts
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter, melted

Cake
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

Glaze
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1/8 tsp. rum extract (add more if needed)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bundt pan. In a bowl, combine brown sugar, apples, nuts, 1/4 cup flour, and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter.

2. In another bowl, combine 2 cups flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a third bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk.

3. Spoon half of the batter mixture into pan. Spread all of streusel on top. Top with remaining batter. Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm.

4. For the glaze, stir all ingredients together. Add more sugar if it's too runny; add more milk if it's too thick.



Source: Creative Cook's Kitchen handout, Cakes and Pies group 1 card 3




When I'm home from school, I have a little sous chef. Unfortunately, he was a little occupied when I was baking.

Sometimes Being Stubborn Pays Off

Ever had a food that although you enjoy the taste, for whatever reason your stomach rejects it? For the longest time, oatmeal and my stomach have never gotten along. I used to eat those instant oatmeal packs from Quaker Oats, mainly the fruit and cream kind. Shortly afterwards, my stomach churns. All these years later, I buy quick oats to use in cookies. I was looking online for other ways to use oats, and I came across a bunch of homemade oatmeal recipes. One called for peanut butter. I'm a huge fan of peanut butter, and for whatever crazy reason, I decided to give oatmeal one more chance. I made it, ate it, and waited...and waited...and waited. Then I went to work. Still nothing. My stomach seems to like this oatmeal, and what a comfort food it was. Nice, hot peanut butter with a spoonful of brown sugar mixed in with the oats. This makes me wonder if instant oatmeal has some kind of artificial ingredient that shouldn't be in natural oatmeal. I'll need to look at the ingredient list next time I'm at the store. In the meantime, go make some oatmeal and enjoy its warm comfort. The best part? It's the perfect snack for small budgets.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal




1/2 cup water
1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1 tsp packed brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter

Microwave oats and water for 1-2 minutes or until oats are soft. Stir in sugar and peanut butter until blended. Makes 1 bowl.

Source: Jif Peanut Butter