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.