Pumpkin Bread

I've been cooking a lot with pumpkin lately to free up freezer space for the cooking pumpkins we bought this year. Just made some pumpkin bread, which is really moist. Just about any winter squash will work as well.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup cooked squash mashed
2/3 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sorghum or honey
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Optional: raising and nuts

Combine first 6 ingredients. Sift in remaining ingredients. 
Beat at medium speed 2 minutes.
Put into greased or parchment paper lined  9x5 inch loaf pan.
Bake at 350 F for about 65 minutes.
 

 

Butternut soup

 

This recipe does not use cream or milk in it, yet it still seems quite rich even though there is very little fat in it. We were naughty and added a dollop of sour cream, but it doesn't really need it. So far it's my favorite squash soup recipe. 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed

1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1 Gather all ingredients.

2 Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat, and cook onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash until lightly browned, about 5minutes. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables.

3 Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer until all vegetables are tender, about 40minutes.

4 Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to the pot, and mix in any remaining stock to reach desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

5 Serve hot and enjoy!

Pumpkin Shortbread Creamcheese bars

These pumpkin bars are excellent. I'd have a picture but we already ate them.  

Ingredients:
Base and Topping:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar - I substitute the 1/3 cup with brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, melted
2 large eggs

Filling:
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)
1 large egg
1 can 15 ounce pumpkin puree (I use 2 cups of cooked pumpkin)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
1.Preheat oven to 350 F

2.Make the dough:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Add melted butter and eggs. Beat for about a minute until crumbly dough forms.

3. Bake the base:
Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the dough for the top. Put the rest into a 9x13 baking pan. We line the pan with 
parchment paper for easy cleanup. Or you can grease the pan. Press the dough into the pan. 
Bake the base for 20 minutes.

4.Make the filling:
In a clean mixing bowl, add cream cheese, sugar and egg. Beat about 2 minutes until smooth. 
Add pumpkin, vanilla, nutmeg, salt and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and beat until well mixed. 

5. Assemble the bars"
Spread filling over the cooked base. Crumble the reserved dough over the filling. 
Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon over the top. 

6.Bake:
Bake until a knife comes out clean - about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature -
about two hours. Chill before cutting into bars. 

Cheesy Blue Cornbread

 

 Up until now, I had never been a fan of cornbread, finding it dry and crumbly, but this is different. 
This has to be the best cornbread recipe I have ever tasted. It is moist and not crumbly. It is also blue. I use blue cornmeal from Natural Grocers. Oddly enough, I tried it with yellow cornmeal and it was more crumbly. I'm not sure why blue cornmeal makes such a difference, but it does. 

Ingredients:

•  1 cup blue cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter milk (I use regular milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs lightly beaten 
• 5 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups corn kernels (one can drained) 
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• (optional) about 1/4 cup chopped peppers

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• Either butter an 8 inch square pan, or line it with parchment paper. 
• In a large bowl. stir the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
• Mix in the  milk, sour cream, eggs and melted butter. 
• Stir in the corn kernels and cheese. Add  chopped peppers if you choose. 
• Scrape batter into pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Test using a cake tester and see if it comes out clean. Let it cool a bit before cutting.  

Hummus

 Hummus

 ingredients:
3 cups cooked chickpeas (1 lb bag makes 7 cups)
1/2 cup smooth tahini
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon paprika

place everything in the blender or food processor and blend until smooth

Diane's Caramels

 

 This is my sister's caramel recipe. I have never found a better one.

She emphasizes that you HAVE to keep stirring while it is cooking or it will catch and ruin the entire batch.

Diane's Caramels


Ingredients
1 pound butter sliced into small pieces
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 can Borden's sweetened condensed milk
1/2 pound walnuts
2 or 3 drops vanilla

Melt butter and add other ingredients. Continue stirring.
Boil for 40 minutes or until brittle in cold water. DO NOT STOP STIRRING!
Take off stove and add nuts and vanilla.
Pour into buttered pan.
Let cool.
Cut into squares.
Cool until hard.
Put spatula under candy and turn over and crack where markings are.

These caramels were were cooked to just below hard crack on the candy
thermometer. Adjust plus or minus to your preference.

Maple Pecan Shortbreads

I usually make these at Christmas time.

1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Some white sugar for rolling the cookies in

Beat butter, then beat in sugar until creamy. Mix in egg yolk, vanilla and maple extract and maple syrup. Finally, mix in flour and pecans.

Roll into small 1 inch balls, then rolls these in sugar. Place on cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2 inch with bottom end of a glass. The sugar keeps the cookie dough from sticking to the jar. Place into oven preheated to 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes until slightly brown.

Cranberry Orange Tartlets

This is a simple recipe that uses just a few ingredients: cranberries, an orange, sugar and pie crust. You can use it for many other types of fillings such as mincemeat or jam.

Ingredients:
1 orange
12 oz bag of cranberries
sugar to taste
enough pie crust for 3 9 inch pies

Preheat oven to 375

Finely cut up cranberries and the orange together. I use a food processor for this. Add sugar to taste, probably half a cup or more.
Cook for 5 minutes on high in the microwave or the equivalent on the stove top until it looks like jam or pie filling.

Cut circles out of pie crust and place in the bottom of tart tins. My tins have round bottoms that enable the tarts to easily slide out when done.

Spoon filling into the tars taking care not to fill to the top or it will bubble out when cooked. Cut circles out for the lids, slicing vents into the top to allow hot air to escape.

Cook for 20 minutes or until slightly brown.

This makes about two dozen tarts depending on your tart tins.

The Iris of 2016

The Iris are blooming in the yard. It's so nice to see some blooms this year since last year they got completely hailed out. These are Avalon Sunset, Champagne Elegance, Colette Thurillet and Excellency.

Avalon Sunset

Champagne Elegance

Colette Thurillet

Excellency

Gladys My Love, Going Home, High Master and Scottish Reel.

Gladys My Love,

Going Home

High Master

Scottish Reel

Stepping Out, Wench, World Premier and Circus Stripes.

Stepping Out

Wench

World Premier

Circus Stripes

 Hot Spiced Wine, Boysenberry Buttercup, Let's Boogie and Enchanted One.

Hot Spiced Wine

Boysenberry Buttercup

Let's Boogie

Enchanted One

Jesse's Song, Rare Treat, Rush Creek and Telepathy.

Jesse's Song

Rare Treat

Rush Creek

Telepathy

I lost the labels on the next two and finally a bright yellow seedling.

 

The Felted Gnome Journey

A few months ago I saw a video online on making gnomes by Sarafina. It was nice and simple, just a nose, ears, hat and lots of hair. I thought, that can't be too hard so I'll try it. But I can't ever do things exactly the same, so I added an entire face on this gnome, plus some simple arms and feet.

Next, I made one with a very simple armature for the arms and hands.

Earlier in April, our felting group met to make gnomes taught by one of the other members where I made this teeny tiny gnome. The teacher, Wendy, gave me some wonderful tiny Bluefaced Leicester locks for his beard.

And finally, I made a companion for this last tiny little gnome. This the work in progress.

And this is the completed product.

Happy Easter!

I've recently started needle felting. I've done a few things and this bunny and egg are the third and fourth things I've done so far. The bunny was made following a tutorial from Sarafina's website on basket bunnies. I also followed a tutorial on using hand carders to blend grey and brown fibers for his pelt.

I also decided to try my hand at felting a floral egg. There's a honey bee and grape hyacinth, crocus and wild purslane blooming on the egg.

Donovan Loves Being Vacuumed

My 14 year old orange tabby loves to be vacuumed. He's the only cat I've ever had that didn't run from it.

Snowy Day

The Denver area was predicted to get "buried" in snow last night. We got at least a foot. If the winds pick up like they are predicted to, the roads could get very messy.

The Evolution of the Dark Chocolate Zucchini Brownie

I've been in search of a good dark chocolate brownie recipe and at the same time, I've been searching for more ways to use up all the summer squash that comes this time of year. So, when I found a well reviewed zucchini brownie recipe, I thought I'd had it made. But I didn't care for the original recipe so I experimented a bit. My favorite version is at the bottom of this post.

The recipe I started out with can be found here.
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched. To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

I made this recipe the first time without any changes except skipping the icing. Also, I used the Special Dark cocoa powder. I found the brownies to be very good but quite cakey so I set about modifying the recipe for a more fudgey brownie. I researched what makes brownies more cakey versus more fudgey and found that reducing egg, flour and baking soda should do it. So, I went about it the scientific way and changed one thing at a time. First I reduced the baking soda to 1/2 teaspoon. This definitely made the brownies less cakey, but they were still pretty cakey IMO. Next, I reduced the flour to 1 1/2 cups. They helped a LOT towards making the brownies more fudgey. Still not as fudgey as some I've had in the past. Next, I reduced the baking soda to just a scant 1/4 teaspoon. Next, I added more cocoa powder, bringing the amount up to 3/4 cup. Now these brownies are pretty fudgey! So, the ingredients for my current recipe is:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Finally, I jazzed them up a bit by adding a cream cheese swirl. Wow! These are currently my favorite brownies! For the cream cheese swirl:
Cream Cheese Layer:

• 8 ounces (227 grams) full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

Beat all the ingredients for the brownies together, minus the ingredients for the cream cheese swirl. After putting the brownie batter in the pan, beat the ingredients for the cream cheese swirl together until smooth and spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie mixture. Draw a knife through it repeatedly to swirl it. Then bake as usual.

Ice Plant is Blooming and the Bees are Out

Today is a lovely day. The sun is shining and the temperature is in the upper sixties. Just two weeks ago the temperature was minus 10, so I was surprised to see anything growing, never mind blooming. But there are at least three varieties of ice plant blooming and the bees have found them.

Extracting Honey

Honey Extraction

This past Sunday, August 10, 2014, we took our frames of honey from our backyard beehives to be extracted down at Dakota Bees in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. We'd removed the frames from the supers the day before and stored them in the back of car so the bees couldn't get to them and take the honey back to their hives.
Taking the supers and honey frames off the hives was pretty exciting in itself as the bees don't really like their hard earned winter food supply being taken from them. We smoked the bees a little to calm them down and used Bee Quick to chase them down out of the supers and into the lower deep boxes. It worked sort of well, but would've worked better if the weather had been warmer and sunnier. As it was, we got 3 supers and 25 frames full of honey off of the hives. Most of this came off the two older hives. We didn't get much of anything off the 3 hives that are new this year, but we didn't expect to.

Frame Before Uncapping

Frame After Uncapping

We headed over to Dakota Bees in the morning with our frames. Greg showed us how to use a heat gun to uncap the honey cells on the frames. This worked very well for most of the frames, the heat quickly popping the tops of the caps off of the honey. The heat gun doesn't heat up the honey, but heats the air gap under the cell cap, popping it off. For the few cells it didn't work on, we used a honey pick to open up the cells.

12 Frame Extractor

Extractor and Honey Bucket

Next, we loaded up the large extractor with the frames and spun the honey out of the cells. The extractor is basically a large centrifuge, pulling the honey out of the cells with centrifugal force and then letting it drip down the walls of the extractor and out the spigot at the bottom, where it then goes into our honey bucket.

Bucket of Honey!

Chris took a video of this process. After we got all our honey extracted, we headed home to put the honey into jars for permanent storage. We washed a bunch of brand new pint jars and some half pints (they mail easier than full pints) and filled them up from the brand new 5 gallon pail with a honey gate on it. Filling the jars by ladelling it out would have been much messier. Now we have enough honey to last us a very long time.

Bucket with Honey Gate

Honey!