Pumpkin Eater

Posted on October 18, 2014 by chatty

This is what I was thinking, and then B.J. Novak posted this on Instagram:

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This seems to be an all-pumpkin edition of my favorite magazine

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Where, then, I decided I didn’t have to say it, I can just “heart” it. But, I just wanted to warn you, a few more pumpkin baked goods may be in our future…

Speaking of pumpkin, it is officially Pumpkin Spice Latte season. No doubt you’ve already heard the John Oliver rant about Pumpkin Spice. And why am I capitalizing Pumpkin Spice? The thing is, he’s kinda right. Every year I suddenly get totally excited for pumpkin spice lattes! Oooh! Ahhh! Every year, I order one which comes out to be some ridiculously expensive, like $5 or something. And every year I take that first sip and I’m like, Oh, this doesn’t taste as good as I remember it tasting. Yet, for some reason I can’t learn from my mistake? Maybe this is why SBUX only brings out this syrup for a limited time. They expect you to forget, until the hype starts up again and then Oh no, you got me again.

This year, though, I did remember and I went all crazy on the PSL. I ordered it with soy and suddenly it was saved. It was also 60 cents more, so, yeah, not doing that again (I drink Americanos. I’m not used to spending $5 on a drink. Unless it’s my free sbux reward, then I’ll do whatever I can to make it worth my while). But now, I’ve had my one PSL and I won’t need another one until next year. And this time I’m putting a tickler in my calendar to remind me, order it with soy.

But let’s get to where I’m really going with this … So far this season I’m on my third can of pumpkin puree. aawwww yeah! One can was dedicated to trying to perfect the pumpkin pie smoothie, which I’m still working on (Note to self: the “lite” coconut milk from PCC is nasty. Stick with Trader Joe’s). Today, as I was cruising through Insta I noticed a repost from paleomg that triggered something in me. So the kiddo and I took out our tools and got to work on Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars. You might have thought I gave up on paleo baking after those atrocious Raspberry Lemon Muffins (I am still shuddering). Well, the thing is, it’s hard to go wrong with pumpkin and chocolate. That, and I still had a little bit of almond flour I was looking to get rid of. So, pumpkin bars it is.

Really good. How do I know they’re good? 1) I’ve had about 5 of them. 2) Husband said, “hey, these are really good!” (I know!!) 3) The kiddo, whining because she kept chomping down on a loose tooth, continued to shove one in her mouth while whining and crying about the pain in her mouth. 3a) She LOST her First tooth in an Ooey Gooey bar, so these treats are going to be something I’ll remember for a while now.

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Ooey gooey chocolate chip pumpkin bars. @paleomg said to make them right now, so we did.

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Truth be told, these are actually not paleo. I used almond flour, but didn’t have tapioca flour, so instead used sweet white rice flour that I did have. Also, I used regular chocolate chips, not those fancy Enjoy Life ones. Are those changes part of why they are really tasty, and why I fully expect this family to polish off the batch by the end of the weekend? Possibly. I’ll live.

Pumpkin season

Posted on September 28, 2014 by chatty

So the third week of September happened and without any warning fall arrived. Just like that. A week of waiting for the bus in the rain at least ended in a weekend of sunny, but cooler weather. On the up side, pumpkin season! I’m no longer a pumpkin spice latte lover that I once was, but I couldn’t resist buying my first can of purée to whip up these treats.
First up, pumpkin spice smoothies, based on this recipe.

Instead of apple juice I used about a tbsp of honey, and garnished with walnuts, which I had on hand. This made 2 small servings, which were the perfect size for the kiddo and I. Two thumbs up.

Today it was pumpkin bread and mini-muffins. Based it on an Allrecipes recipe, but altered it so much I’m just going to rewrite it here:
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pumpkin
1/2 c brown sugar / 1/4 c white sugar / 1/4 coconut sugar
1/2 c applesauce
2 eggs

1/4 – 1/2 c lite coconut milk

Optional: walnuts, chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds

Preheat 375. Grease your tins. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Then the wet in a large bowl (not the coconut milk). When adding the dry with the wet, use the coconut milk if the batter gets dry.

I used my small loaf pan, where I added walnuts and pumpkin seeds on top. Then with the rest of the batter I added a handful or more of semisweet chocolate chips.

The mini muffins took 15 minutes. The small loaf (no pic) took about 45 min.

Both got good ratings from the family. Really, you can’t go wrong with pumpkin spice.

Pumpkin pie chia pudding

Posted on March 24, 2014 by chatty

A few things to review here. First, here are my three fave paleo sites for food inspiration. All of these bloggers, I believe, also have print books out now as well.

PaleOMG. Funny posts. Lots of desserts. Very personal, fun to read.
NomNomPaleo. Asian flair, amazing photography, though can be intimidating (sous vide? Really?). These guys also have an app that is fun, easy to use with more great photography.
Elana’s Pantry. I get the feeling she’s been cooking paleo before paleo was “in”. It’s a family lifestyle by necessity, and there are so many traditional recipes catered to a gluten-free audience. Also lots of baked good here, too.

Okay. That is out of the way. On to part two. I am what you might call frugal. If I’m going to spend $2 on a can of coconut milk, you better believe I’m gonna use all of it, even if the first recipe I use it for call for just a 1/2 cup. But, you see, I’m frugal in a ridiculous way. Because in an effort to use up the rest of the coconut milk I needed for my not-quite quiche, I went out and bought a can of pumpkin and some new pumpkin pie spice (which, during the off season, is a bit more expensive). How smart am I?

Anyway, I got into my head that I should make a pumpkin custard. All three sites above have some great pumpkin dessert recipes, but in the end I cribbed from PaleOMG again, and created an interesting dessert, pumpkin-pie-chia-pudding. This is based on Juli’s Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.

3 Medjool dates, pitted
1 c full fat coconut milk
1/2 c canned pumpkin
3 tbsp chia seeds
Boiling water
Pumpkin pie spice (PPS)

In a ramekin place pour boiling water over the dates and let them sit and soften for at least 5 minutes. Once they are softened, mash them a little bit and throw them in a blender.
Add coconut milk and blend until smooth.
Add pumpkin and blend some more.
Sprinkle PPS to your heart’s and taste’s desire. I gave it a good 10 shakes or so, then blend again.
Pour into a container. Gradually fold in chia sends, one tbsp at a time, until well mixed.
Cover and chill in the fridge overnight. After the first two hours, take it out to stir and taste.

It’s like a whipped pumpkin pie dessert. Tasty.

Good news. I have finished my open can of coconut milk. Bad news, I have an open can of pumpkin I need to use. Sigh. I think some pumpkin recipes are in my future.

Brinner

Posted on January 4, 2014 by chatty

Over Christmas break I was nominated for Mom of the Year when I put a plate of salad in front of the kiddo and told her to pretend she was a bunny. Eat up! Surprisingly she ate the deli turkey and carrots. Not one of my better dinners. In my defense I didn’t expect her to eat much since we had gone to Five Guys earlier that day.
Not going to repeat that anytime soon. Today we stopped at Whole Foods nod picked up a yam, sausages (chicken, mild Italian & ginger/soy/pineapple) and a kid-picked yogurt. Husband had some pancake batter already in the fridge. You know where this is going … BRINNER!!

The ginger soy was interesting, not kid-approved. A curiosity experiment, wasn’t interested in the breakfast sausage option.
Even dessert was breakfast themed. I used the rest of the pumpkin purée to make pumpkin oatmeal muffin. As you might recall I had considered more pumpkin pancakes, but since we already had regular pancake batter ready, that seemed silly. So glad I changed my mind. This recipe, which I halved to account for the amount of purée I had, contains no oil, no butter. Out of the oven they were moist.

Hopefully they are still good tomorrow. If the husband has left us any.

Bakin’ with Pum’kin

Posted on January 1, 2014 by chatty

I, like the rest of the nation, went a little crazy with the pumpkin during baking season. It started with Thanksgiving and didn’t end until today (well, we’ll see. I may be making one final batch of pumpkin pancakes this weekend). On Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie. A week later, it was the always popular pumpkin roll for a pre-school parent meeting. After that it was pumpkin cookies for a holiday potluck. Then came mini-pumpkin pies for the office potluck. Then pumpkin-chocolate chip-walnut bread loaves as gift giveaways. Pumpkin pancakes.

And, today, trying to rid myself of the leftover pumpkin, some pumpkin mini-muffins.I made half the batch with the chips & walnuts, and the other half plain. I also kept them in the oven a tad too long. Usually I’m a “get-those-out-of-the-oven-early” kind of gal. You know, they’re still baking in the pan even when you take them out. But I adjusted the time incorrectly when I switched to mini muffins from regular muffins.

Throughout the season I went through two 15-oz cans and 28 oz cans (threw some of one of the 28-oouncers away because it was going on weeks in the fridge), and nearly an entire container of pumpkin pie spice. BTW, the inventor of pumpkin pie spice (as in, one jar combining the right amounts of cinnamon; cloves; nutmeg) is a freakin genius.

Finally, here is one quick tip that I’ll share. Chinese dumpling soup spoons are ideal for doling out quick-bread batter into muffin tins. They’re also good for pancakes. I have a pancake batter doler-outer, which I got as a gift a few years ago and is also cool, but the soup spoon requires less clean-up. Also, they’re good for, you know, soup and dumplings and stuff. I have a cheap melamine set, you can get them cheap at Asian grocery stores. Do it.

A long list of recipes:

Granny Kat’s Pumpkin Roll (you can find a similar recipe on any Libby-brand pumpkin puree can)
Perfect Pumpkin Pie (yes, I’m traditional and go with the label recipe) and based my mini pies on this recipe
Pumpkin Cookies (my preference is to go lighter on the sugar and thus I didn’t add the icing to mine. But I forget that is my preference. If I did these again I’d use the icing, and they’d go from meh to wowsas!)
Pumpkin Pancakes. Already discussed. The kid has asked for them again. Thus, the already scheduled date for Saturday.
Pumpkin Bread: My go-to recipe for pumpkin bread is from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. You know which one I’m talking about? The red and white checked book? With instructions on everything? I think the husband must have gotten ours as a gift from his mother. But, i still refer to it even for simple stuff like, ‘how long do I boil corn on the cob?’ ‘how long do i boil rice?’ and so on and so forth. I looked for a link to the recipe online, this one is pretty much it, though the book has a lot more tips and options.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Again, a little overcooked (my fault), but the kid tried and liked. It’s hard to go wrong when the ingredients include chocolate chips and pumpkin. Amiright?

Finally, I know earlier i said, no more grains. But that obviously didn’t happen today. Tomorrow, I’m sure. I’ve already pulled out the coconut flour from the pantry. It begins. Soon.

This year’s pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2010 by chatty

This one is like a Monet. Close up it’s hard to figure out what’s going on, but from a distance it’s a cute kitty. Love the patterns. So going that way from now on.

Happy Halloween - Meow!

Brunch at 8:30?

Posted on April 12, 2008 by chatty

When you are a rower, brunch at 8:30 doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Considering how many people are still sleeping at this time, I guess technically this was still breakfast. The rowing club held a get together this morning after practice. I made Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins. I wish the pics had turned out better. There was no natural light (this is what happens when you are baking muffins at 9:00 at night):

I used my new silicone muffin “tins” and they worked fabulously. I spritzed the tins with Pam and a few minutes after coming out of the oven the muffins nearly popped themselves out of the tin. Little to no manual labor was needed to get them cleaned (and I had done an impressive job getting batter all over those tins.). Highly recommended. I just wish I knew what to call them. They really aren’t tins anymore, now are they.

Man, I’ve made pumpkin stuff before, but adding chocolate chips brings it up a notch like you wouldn’t believe. It makes it all the more special, I tell you!

Most of the rowers also brought muffins and other carb-heavy, sweet treats:

Robyn’s Banana Muffins: