toasted pumpkin seeds

I usually toast the pumpkin seeds from our carved Jack-o-lanterns, but this year, I tried this recipe, which calls for boiling the seeds in salt before toasting. Added a nice lightly-salted flavor. I love the smell of the whole process- so fall.

pumpkin cheesecake

Made this pumpkin cheesecake last night (I got the link from Simply Serina- thanks!). I cheated and made up my own directions for part of it mostly because I don't yet own a springform pan, and started making it too late in the evening to acquire one. But it still turned out delicious. And since the pan I used was considerably smaller than a 9-inch springform, we have a bunch of the filling left over in the fridge-- enough to make a second small one in the next couple of days.
I didn't used to care for cheesecake, but now it's one of my favorite desserts- as well as anything with pumpkin. And it's much easier to make than I anticipated, so I'll be buying a springform pan or two to make them the proper way in the future.
This stevia sweetened pumpkin pudding is next on my bake list.

eating for fall

Autumn is probably my favorite for in-season recipes. We've been out-of town for a while and have just been negligent of both blogs lately, but I have a slew of fall-foods on our calendar. Last night, we enjoyed our first pumpkin soup of the season- one of my favorites- served with Parmesan cous-cous and broccoli with cheese sauce- and apple crisp for dessert. Tonight, we had gingered kale and tofu over brown rice and green salad with pears (both recipes from Simply in Season). That was one delicious meal.
I'm glad we don't live closer to Whole Foods. The kids and I went there today after the Toy Lending Library- also in shadyside, and that place is hard to get out of. We ended up going through the line twice. My list was only a quarter crossed off though, because they're so pricey on most things. I'm looking forward to a bigger garden next year.

Greek Kale Salad

From my CSA listserve... Many thanks to Tana Comer of Eaton's Creek Organics in Joelton, TN forsending us the following recipe. We love kale, but had never tried itlike this, and had a hard time imagining how it would taste. It'sgood! This would be a good recipe for people who haven't yet fallen inlove with kale. The strong flavors of the feta and olives, combinedwith the acid of the lemon juice, set the kale's flavor to thebackground. We recommend dressing this salad immediately before serving, as wefound the flavors to dull considerably after a few hours. *

2 bunches of kale, large stems discarded*
2 whole-wheat pita breads*
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/4 t. crushed red pepper
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut lengthwise into silvers
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (2/3 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a large pot of boiling water, cook kale leaves until just tender; 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under coldwater to cool. Transfer the kale to a clean kitchen towel and squeezedry. Fluff up the leaves, coarsely chop them and transfer to a largebowl. 2. Brush both sides of the pita breads with olive oil and bake forabout 8 minutes, or until crisp. Cut the pita into wedges. 3. In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup of olive oil with the lemonjuice and crushed red pepper and season with salt and pepper. Add the grape tomatoes, olives and crumbled feta to the kale and toss. Add thedressing and toss to coat. Serve the kale salad with the toasted pitawedges.

(Disclaimer--I haven't tried this yet myself, but I'm always looking for new ways to use kale. And I'm a sucker for anything involving olives!)

Curried tofu with pineapples

Jack ate all of his, with minor protest, and Abigail kept asking for "Mo'"- of everything. Not bad.

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 (15-ounce) package reduced-fat firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice, drained
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and sprinkle with salt. Cook 8 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add coconut milk and curry powder to pan, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add crushed red pepper, pineapple, and bell pepper; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tofu. Sprinkle with basil.

Exchanging Meals

Two things I have found common in Grand Rapids kitchens: "freezer meals" and "meal exchange meals". It seems very popular here to cook in larger batches and freeze the meals for later. Saves on the prep and clean up time as well as fewer groceries to buy at one time and potentially cheaper if you buy in bulk. I had no idea there were so many cookbooks on the subjet! (FYI, uncooked potatoes do not freeze well but almost everything else does!). I also recently joined a meal exchange group (mainly made-up of moms from my MOPS group) that incorporates freezer meals. Here's how it works:

On the first Tuesday of every month, the seven of us meet to review recipies, decide on next month's menus and swap frozen meals. We take notes on how our families received the most recent meals and whether or not we should bring back certain recipies. Each person then brings two or three recipe suggestions and we choose one for that person to make 7 batches of for the next meeting. We all bring our coolers to both hand out our meals from the last month and receive everyone else's.

Sometime that month, each of us independetly cooks 7 batches of our chosen recipie (one for each member), planning for approximately 4 servings in each batch. If meat is involved, we plan about 1 lb. per batch. We also include labels, thawing and serving instructions on each package. We freeze each batch in freezer bags before the meeting.

We then have seven good-sized meals to choose from during the month, and especially with toddler-appetites we usually have leftovers. This greatly reduces the time needed during the busy (and chaotic) before-dinner hour.

Potential drawbacks: not everyone likes the same food, obviously. The nature of the group does expect that people will be open to trying new things. But we do have some general guidelines including no seafood, beans, or certain vegetables. Thankfully, no one involved has allergies. Also, I think we tend to eat healthier than many of the families involved--but that's where the recipe choice discussion at the meeting comes in. I'm learning to politely steer others away from choosing recipies with processed foods, but I'm one of the newest members so I'm also still learning the groove of the group. So we're still trying things out to see if this will be a long-term option for our family. Now does anyone have any good freezer meal suggestions?

Breads from the past

I'm cleaning out my other blog-- here was a recipe post I found, and I thought it belonged here instead of there, for when I'm searching them out in the future.

We've been in a bread-making craze lately. Here are three really yummy recipes we made in the bread machine in the past two days (all for 1 1/2 lb loaves on basic white cycle).

Ginger Pumpkin Bread

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 TBSP margerine or butter, cut up
3 cups bread flour
1 TBSP brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 TBSP fnely chopped crystallized ginger


Oatmeal Applesauce Bread

3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice (we used cider)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 TBSP margerine or butter
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup regular or quick cooking rolled oats
1 TBSP brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp apple pie spice (we just used some cinnamon and nutmeg)
1 tsp active dry yeast


Poppy Seed Tea Bread (I realized at 10pm, while I was adding ingredients that we were out of poppy seeds, but it was still very good without)

2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup dairy sour cream
1 egg
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 TBSP poppy seed
1 TBSP finely shredded lemon peel
3/4 tsp salt1 tsp active dry yeast

(Yellow) Bruschetta

We now have handfuls of tomatoes turning ripe every day, and seeing as I am the only one in this house who can appreciate the savory fruit, I've been making lots of bruschetta. I LOVE it. This year's gardening (my first attempt) was very half-hearted, disorganized and in a lot of cases last-minute, but I don't like reading how-tos on gardening. I've learned a lot just by seeing a doing (or not doing), and next year's garden will be bigger and more well-thought out.
Back to this year's: I was surprised to find that ALL of my tomatoes are yellow. I remember planting some yellow ones (for any real gardeners out there, I have not a clue what the name of them is-- they looked good), but I also remember planting some cherries and some other red varieties. Some of the tomato plants withered, due to a number of reasons, before I could transplant them outside, and I had moved them around so many times with such a disorganized (non-existant?) method of labeling, that I really had no clue what would show up. Surprise! They all appear to be the same variety of yellow, and they're all extrememly delicious. So, yes. My bruschetta is yellow.


I never measure, but here's an approximation:

4 ripe medium sized yellow tomatoes, diced
1+ tablespoons minced garlic
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 loaf Italian bread or french baguette

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, garlic, basil, oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste, set aside.

Slice the bread in 1/4" thick slices, and place on a baking sheet. Toast the bread on each side until golden brown. Top with the tomato mixture. Or serve family style with the tomatoes in one bowl and the bread in another and everyone can just help themselves (I'll be the only one helping myself in this family).

Spaghetti Pie

While I was stalking Suzy Homemaker, I also found a recipe for Spaghetti Pie that looked promising, with this group of "fagetti" lovers. I gave it a whirl tonight, and the reviews were good. This was an easy dish to sneak in some extra veggies too.

INGREDIENTS -
1 pkg. (12 oz.) vermicelli
3 tbsp. butter
1/3 c. Parmesan
2 eggs, beaten
-------------
1/2 c. low-fat sour cream
1 c. mozzarella cheese (split in half)
--------------
1 1/2 lb. ground meat
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/4 c. bell pepper, chopped
1 can (12 oz.) stewed tomato
1 (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic salt

DIRECTIONS -
**Cook vermicelli according to directions. Stir butter and Parmesan into hot vermicelli. Add eggs and stir well. Spoon into casserole dish which has been sprayed.

**Brown beef with onion and bell pepper. Drain. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste and seasonings.

**Spread sour cream evenly over pie shell. Sprinkle with half of the Mozzarella cheese.

**Spread on Beef mixture. Top with any veggies you may want such as mushrooms, olives.

**Sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella Cheese.

**Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Serves 8 or more.

Classic banana cake

I sniped this recipe directly from My Suzy Homemaker. I skipped the caramel topping with nuts- it's sweet enough (though adding nuts to the cake itself would have been a good idea, had I thought of it at the time). Super moist and yummy!

Classic Banana Cake
Adapted from a recipe by Ellen Einstein in "Baking From My Home to Yours"
INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 stick (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cup sugar (I used half brown sugar)
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large egg, at room temperature
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

DIRECTIONS
**Preheat oven to 350 degrees

**Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

**Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy.

**Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the egg, beating for about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas.

** Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients (don't be disturbed if the batter curdles), all the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture.

** Using a spatula scrap into a generously buttered 9- to 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan, and bake the cake for 65 to 75 minutes, checking it at the 30-minute mark and covering it loosely with a foil tent if it's browning too quickly. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding.