Day Four - Pumpkin Swirled Brownies

My intentions tonight were to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, but when I went to gather all the ingredients, I was out of butter.  I came up with an alternate plan that merged two recipes.  The end result was some pretty great Pumpkin Swirled Brownies. 

Basic Brownie Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup self-rising flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Pumpkin Swirl ingredients:

1/4 cup pureed pumpkin

3 ounces cream cheese

I mixed the oil, sugar & vanilla, then beat in the eggs one at a time.  In a separate bowl I mixed the flour & cocoa & then slowly added them to the wet mixture.  I poured half of this into a 9x9 greased pan.  Next I mixed the two pumpkin swirl ingredients together & dropped that mixture by spoonfuls on top & then the remaining brownie batter over that.  I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  I refrigerated them after baking.

Day 3 - Pumpkin Cheesecake!!

This pumpkin cheesecake destroyed my little hand mixer - but I think it was probably worth it!!  This is a great recipe!!

You can tell by the little white pieces of cream cheese that my mixer bit the dust...but it didn't effect the taste at all.  This was also the first time I had ever baked a real cheesecake of any kind.  I loved it!!  Recipe is below.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-cheesecake/detail.aspx

Day 2 of Pumpkinmania - Pumpkin Frittata

Today I used four cups of cooked pumpkin to make a pumpkin frittata for supper.  Here's a pic of the four cups - I do think pumpkin is a very pretty food.

The recipe also called for fresh spinach, which we still have growing in our garden.  It is absolutely beautiful at this time of year & it's such a great power food.  

The recipe that I used is posted below.  All in all, it was okay.  If I used this recipe again, I would add alot more flavor...probably with some freshly chopped basil.  I didn't get a frittata pic tonight, but might try to take some pics tomorrow of the leftovers. 

I really am enjoying this pumpkin marathon & the fact that we are using what we have & trying to be thankful for it - but a funny scriptural thought just hit me.  In the New Testament there is a story of a man who was faithful with a few things & because of that faithfulness he was given much more....I sure do hope God doesn't given us more pumpkins!!!  Of course, that would be funny.

The story is from Matthew 25 - and the summary verse for me is this - "Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share you master's happiness!"  

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-spinach-and-feta-frittata/detail.aspx

24 Days of Pumpkin Begins Now!

We have lots of pumpkins left over from this year's farmer's market. So, in  an effort to be truly thankful for all we have - we are embarking on a 24 day pumpkin eating marathon!!

We began today with pumpkin soup.  

I baked the pumpkins whole in the oven - six pie pumpkins at a time fit into my oven. 

They finished baking after about an hour & a half at 350 degrees. Next I sliced them down the center & started dividing out the pumpkin.  I scooped out the seeds & center pulp for the chickens.  Then I scooped out all the great pumpkin meat into a large mixing bowl.  I froze part of the pumpkin, cooked with some tonight and saved some for use later this week.  We even fed the leftover pumpkin shells to the cattle so nothing was wasted.

Creamy pumpkin soup was what I made tonight.

Here's the recipe I followed.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-pumpkin-soup/detail.aspx

As always I didn't follow the recipe fully, I left out the nutmeg simply because I didn't have any here.  But I added garlic during the simmering process and added a couple of tablespoons of whipped cream cheese at the end to the entire pot instead of everyone adding sour cream on their own.  It was such a hit that we didn't have enough for everyone to have all they wanted.  Next time I will make two batches of this at once.

Baked Cabbage!

Baked cabbage has become one of our family's favorite summer dishes. If you've tried grilled cabbage or cooked cabbage & don't like it then baked cabbage might be exactly the thing for you.  It tastes totally different with much more of a roasted flavor. There's actually some in our oven right now.

Here's what we do.  Coarsely chop up one large head of cabbage & one onion.  Toss with half stick melted butter & enough season salt to your taste.  Dump it all in a 9x13 cake pan, cover with aluminum foil & bake at 350 for an hour.   You can actually bake it longer if you like, the longer you bake it the more of a "browned" or roasted flavor that it takes on.  You can also chop up any other vegetable that you'd like to include - sometimes I include green pepper, banana pepper, summer squash, etc.

Our family will eat as much of this as I can bake....they love it.  Customers at the farmer's market often ask if I add bacon too.  I don't, simply because the flavor is amazing enough to stand on it's own without it.  But a friend adds polish sausage to hers & that is fabulous too.

Let me know if you try it!

Jamilyn's Birthday Dinner...out under the stars.

For Jamilyn's 17th birthday Tony came up with the great idea of having a four-course meal outdoors. It was not any cheaper than going out to eat & it took alot of planning to make sure I had dishes for everything, which made for a fun, eclectic table.

At the end of the night Jamilyn said that it had been her favorite birthday so far so it made it all worth it. I wouldn't have changed a thing.

For our appetizer we had portobello mushrooms stuffed with feta & spinach.  It was the first time I had ever made these & I wondered why?  They are easy to put together & I really should do it more often. Here's the recipe link:
http://www.rd.com/food/spinach-stuffed-portobello-mushrooms-recipe/

Next came mixed green salads with home-made strawberry vinaigrette dressing.  I also crumbled some goat cheese on top with some toasted pecans.  This was probably my favorite course.

The main course was a family favorite, a pasta dish that we affectionately call "Bowls of Heaven."  Here's the Pampered Chef link to that recipe:
http://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe_search/recipe.jsp?id=85206

Then for the final course, a very basic, easy sweet that Jamilyn loves!!  Butterfinger Dessert.  I made these in individual dessert dishes & they were adorable.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1813,155176-228198,00.html

I cooked 'til I couldn't cook anymore!

Today's farmer's market inspired me to the point that I came home & cooked until I was exhausted.  I started by marinating some deer for the grill & wrapping up some potatoes for baking.  While doing that I realized that I had some sweet potatoes left from a few months ago & I should bake one of those.  Then I looked at the huge candy onions sitting on my counter from today's market - with the sweet potatoes now beside them & remembered the "sassy sweet potato salad" that we fell in love with last fall.  

So, I started that process....chunking up the sweet potatoes & onions - opening up a can of pineapple tidbits & then tossing all of that with some balsamic vinegar & brown sugar.  Here's how that looked before roasting in the oven.

These never became "Sassy Sweet Potato Salad" because they were so wonderful just roasted straight out of the oven that we ate them up!  They were, in mine & Tony's opinion, the best thing on the plate.

I also took these eggs, from today's farmer's market:

And this basil, from a friend's garden (thanks Dana!):

...and made an amazing frittata.  I wasn't really planning on us eating that much of the frittata for supper, but I was thinking more about going ahead & baking it with the potatoes & then having it for breakfast in the morning, since we are all leaving early for the ballpark.  But, as they say about all best laid plans, they don't always work out - there's only about a quarter of the frittata left now.

Truth is, I loved every minute of cooking tonight.  Our son worked with me for quite awhile in the kitchen & that is always the greatest time!  I hope he grows up & cooks with his kids too...especially when the great summer vegetables start coming in.