It’s a happy day in our house when mom bakes (mom being me). It’s not a secret that I don’t bake very often. I have guilt about it sometimes but honestly, I don’t feel the need to handle all that sugar and butter very often. And the flour gets messy. And I have to measure perfectly or the recipe gets all messed up. That’s the one that gets me big time. I’m not great at perfectly measuring and I’ve learned that’s pretty important when it comes to baking. It is what it is. We are all good at what we are good at, right? What I do love about when I bake something is that it makes everyone in my house truly happy. It makes me happy because I know they are happy – plus I know exactly what went into the baked goods they are eating. That’s a big bonus. Quick breads are actually one of my favorite things to bake. Quick breads and muffins. They are easy enough to put together and usually are full of fruit and good stuff like oats or whole grain flour. I wanted to play around with this recipe for Pumpkin Raspberry Bread I found on my friend Sandy’s blog and turn it into an oatmeal type pumpkin bread but I didn’t quite have all the ingredients I needed. I instead adapted from it slightly adding apples and cinnamon, some of my favorite fall ingredients. I think I have a good excuse to experiment some more and bake another one. That’s a good thing because this Apple Pumpkin Bread lasted about 24 hours in our house. It was delicious and put smiles on everyone’s face. And that my friends is always a good thing. Have a great weekend! Bake some pumpkin bread! (more…)

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Growing up, my family’s version of “macaroni and cheese” was quite different than the norm. I did not realize this until I was much older. Our go-to cheesy pasta dish always consisted of macaroni with just enough ricotta and lots of Parmesan cheese and I absolutely loved it. Simple Italian comfort food at its best. (Though it wasn’t too long before we discovered and began to love the stuff that came in the “blue box”. ) 🙂

Ricotta was almost always guaranteed to be found in my family’s fridge growing up. We added it to pasta dishes, and even had it as a snack in a small bowl with a little sprinkle of sugar on top. When I buy it now it’s usually to when I’m making baked ziti or lasagna and I often wonder why I don’t pick it up more often to enjoy in other recipes – like this one I created for the McCormick’s Go4Gourmet Challenge.

The Go4Gourmet Challenge challenges you to work with and create your very own recipe using 4 pre-selected seasonal ingredients along with whatever else plays to your tastebuds. I’m always faced with ingredient challenges like this in my very own kitchen when I play the “use it up” game – which happens pretty often – so this was right up my alley. My round of the Go4Gourmet Challenge was to create a recipe using the ingredients pumpkin, cinnamon, Mediterranean Sea Salt and Marcona almonds. I immediately knew I wanted to create a savory pasta dish of some kind and my childhood ricotta pasta dish came to mind and tied it all together.

I incorporated the pumpkin and spices into a creamy ricotta and Parmesan cheese mixture to add to whole grain pasta, topping it with a crunchy Marcona almond, panko and Parmesan crumble. I absolutely loved the crunchy bits of almonds in the topping! And of course we already know freshly grated Parmesan makes everything better…

This Pumpkin-Ricotta Pasta Bake is really nothing like my childhood “mac ‘n cheese”, nor is it even close to my kids’ favorite version of baked macaroni and cheese – my daughter made sure to let me know that. Instead, this pasta is a wonderfully flavorful and comforting seasonal dish that I could not stop myself from eating after it came out of the oven.  It’s unique, in a good way, and if you are a fan of savory pumpkin dishes like I am then I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

If you were asked to come up with a recipe using pumpkin, sea salt, cinnamon and Marcona almonds, what you make? Better yet, cook up your idea and submit it the Go4Gourmet Challenge here for a chance to win some an amazing assortment of spices and ingredients (each round) as well as a Grand Prize of a Gourmet pantry refresh worth $1000! Good luck and happy cooking!

(more…)

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I don’t know about you but I think I’m finally feeling normal again after eating like a little piggie last week over the holiday. It’s hard to resist what’s in front of you when you love food right? My problem isn’t always the ‘choices’ that I make…it’s how much of the choice (good or bad!) that I eat! Portion control has never been a strength of mine.

So this past Sunday, I declared this week to be ‘clean eating week’. When I talk about clean eating, I’m not talking about any type of diet per se…I’m talking about how I like to eat, which is as whole, natural and nutritious as possible. Basically, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, beans, water, and fish (or other lean proteins). It’s pretty straight forward really if you think about it, and nothing you haven’t heard before. After a few days of filling yourself up on the good stuff (and watching your portions of course), your body should be happy again. And yes, I’m resisting my coveted nightly glass of red wine this week…sigh.

I made this chili in my slow cooker a couple of weeks ago and thankfully froze a few portions in tupperware. Soup and chili can be such saviors when you’re really trying to watch what you eat. It’s a cinch to put together and you can pretty much cram as many veggies as you can tolerate in one batch. I loved this chili made with pumpkin, it was different and what made it even better for me was the dollop of Greek yogurt (or sour cream) at the end. It gave it the perfect creamy texture and flavor. My husband wasn’t such a fan of this chili, he couldn’t get over the pumpkin factor…and he also insisted on skipping the essential dollop of cream at the end…oh well, more for me in the freezer!

Hope you are having a great week!

Slow Cooker 3-Bean Pumpkin Chili

Ingredients:

• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 – 2 sweet yellow or orange pepper, chopped
• 3 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
• 3 cans beans of your choice (I used mayocoba, red and pinto beans, would be great with black beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 can pure pumpkin
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• good pinch salt and pepper
• Greek yogurt or sour cream, for serving

Directions:

1. Add garlic and olive oil to slow cooker and turn on high while you are chopping your vegetables. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and stir to combine. Place lid on tightly and cook for 4-5 hours or until heated through.
   Taste for salt and pepper before serving.
2. Serve chili with a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream for a creamy finish…highly recommend it!

Adapted from Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili from Real Mom Kitchen

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I wish I could tell you I made these beauties myself…instead I was the lucky recipient of them Friday night when my friend Heidi brought them over for dessert.  She found them on The Gourmand Mom via Foodbuzz.  They were amazing…like pumpkin pie in a cup!  I love everything pumpkin so these honestly made me a very happy girl.  Heidi thought they were a bit too much pumpkiny…so be warned if you aren’t a big pumpkin fan like myself, Larry and Sammy (who also enjoyed them!).  Thank you to The Gourmand Mom (and Heidi!) for sharing such an awesome treat!

I wanted to leave you with this little treat because I will be away for a few days…I’m heading back to Napa to hang out with my Bush’s Beans peeps!  How lucky am I?  Seriously, I just want to pinch myself…I am so grateful.  This time though, not only will I be spending time with the original group from previous trips, but I will be meeting and cooking alongside four other food bloggers and chefs!  I am seriously over the moon with excitement about this trip…I loved being in the CIA kitchens and “playing chef”…not to mention taking in the gorgeous scenery and tasting the local wines.

Wine country = total bliss…in my book.  🙂

(Disclosure:  Bush’s Beans invited me on this trip and is covering my costs to attend.)

I’ll share with you what we cooked up when I get back…in the meantime, go make yourself some dessert.

Pumpkin Gingersnap Parfaits

Yield: makes 4 parfaits

Ingredients:

• 1 15-ounce can Pure Pumpkin
• 4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp Ginger
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 12 Gingersnap Cookies

Directions:

1. Crush 8 of the gingersnap cookies. Beat together the pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar, and spices until evenly combined. In a separate bowl, beat together the heavy cream and sugar until thickened.
2. To assemble the parfaits, divide half of the pumpkin mixture into four cups. Sprinkle half of the gingersnap crumbs over the pumpkin. Spoon about half of the whipped cream over the gingersnaps in the four cups. Sprinkle with the remaining gingersnap crumbs. Spoon the remaining pumpkin over the gingersnap crumbs. Top with the remaining whipped cream. Garnish each parfait with a gingersnap cookie.

 

Recipe Courtesy of The Gourmand Mom

Enjoy the rest of your week!!

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Happy Monday to you! I’m surprisingly a Monday person…Mondays tend to be a good day for me. I have lots of energy on Mondays and am ready to start the week, mostly getting myself and the family organized, projects started and the house cleaned up….by Thursday though, it’s a totally different story. I really start to slow down on Thursdays…not a big fan of Thursdays, except for Thursday night TV…but now I am rambling aren’t I?

I did bake these muffins last Thursday though…some of our friends were moving out of state and we were going to be going over to say our good byes. I wanted to bring them something they could snack on during their big moving trip…I haven’t made these Pumpkin Muffins in a while and my son has been begging to bake some lately. This time I decided to add some mini chocolate chips into the batch, I’ve been seeing really great pumpkin-chocolate combinations in blog world lately and I’ve had a craving! They came out really yummy!

I decided not to “healthy them up” this time since we were planning to give most of them away (that sounds terrible doesn’t it?). I stuck to the original recipe for the most part which actually is Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Bread recipe (from her Lady and Sons cookbook). The changes I made were subbing applesauce for vegetable oil and the cooking time since they were mini muffins instead of bread loaves.

Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup applesauce (original recipe uses 1 cup vegetable oil)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Place liners into mini muffin pan and spray insides of liners with non stick spray.
2. Mix sugar and oil with mixer. Add eggs and blend. Add pumpkin and blend. Add water and blend. Combine remaining ingredients and add slowly. With a spoon or small ice cream scooper fill baking cups equally. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
3. These make a ton of mini muffins. You can also divide the batter into two loaf pans and bake for 1 hour for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.

adapted from Paula Deen, The Lady and Sons cookbook

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What did you all do with your extra hour on Sunday? We were up making pancakes! Pumpkin Pancakes! And they were good, real good…my kids gobbled them up. I wish I made a double batch so I could have thrown some in the freezer for later. I found this healthy whole wheat version of these pancakes on Pinch My Salt early Sunday morning. This was my first time visiting Nicole’s blog and I am so hooked!

I just love the color of these pancakes! If you would rather not use whole wheat flour, just substitute the white flour for it. I also sweetened ours up just a bit more with some agave nectar.

Healthy Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 C. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 C. cake flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t. ground ginger
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
• 1 C. buttermilk
• 1 C. canned pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 2 T. oil
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 T. dark brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first eight ingredients (whole wheat flour through nutmeg). In a separate bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients (buttermilk through brown sugar).
2. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and blend together with a wooden spoon until just combined. Lumps are ok, just make sure all the flour on the bottom of the bowl is mixed in. If batter seems too thick to pour, you can gently stir in a little more buttermilk.
3. Drop pancakes by ladleful onto a medium-hot griddle. Pancakes are ready to turn when the edges start to look a little dry and you can see small bubbles forming on the surface.

Recipe from Pinch My Salt

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