Happy Halloween!!!

Would you like some "worm pasta" for lunch today?

Or perhaps you would prefer to snack on some monster mouths??

Not that we like gross foods, but we do like to have some fun in the kitchen, and today we did have monster mouths for breakfast and worm pasta for lunch. And as weird (or gross) they may sound, they were delicious!
For the mouths it is as simple as can get, apple slices + almond butter (or pb) + mini marshmallows, quite a fun and delicious bite! (and with the exception of the marshmallows in there, also quite a nutritious snack. Nut butter + apples make a balanced snack with protein, fats and good carbs, plus all the goodness apples/fruits has to offer).
The pasta was homemade bucatini, the spaghetti-like one that has a whole in the middle and looks like a straw, and it was freshly made by the husband. It was fun making the pasta, and eating it too!
We added a bit of pumpkin puree to the pasta dough and it made the pasta incredibly delicious. You can actually taste the pumpkin, but it makes the dough soft and with a wonderful texture.
Then, being Halloween along with my obsession with pumpkin lately, we had to have a pumpkin sauce!
I made mine inspired on HEAB's pumpkin goat cheese sauce, and it turned out into a delicious Creamy Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Pasta Sauce!! I didn't follow the recipe posted by Heather, basically just got the idea from the combo of pumpkin and goat cheese, so I am posting here the way I did.
It could not be more simple or easy to make, and it was so good, I scraped every single bit of the sauce with a spatula before washing that pan. Oh, and adding a shaving of Parmesan cheese on top made this even better.
Hope you all have a great and safe Halloween! Matheus is beyond excited and can barely wait to go out tonight. At least now he has a belly full of nutritious food so a bite or two of candy won't hurt.
Happy trick or treating!
Ana

Creamy Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Pasta Sauce

2 small shallots, chopped
4 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
ground nutmeg (I never measure this, just grind a bit on top of the sauce)
1/8 tsp ground (rubbed) sage
1 to 2 oz goat cheese (again, I didn't measure, just took a blob and added to the sauce, I believe I used about 1 oz).
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Saute garlic and shallots in a pan until soft. Add pumpkin puree, broth, cinnamon (it might sound weird the cinnamon in here, but I promise, it taste good!), nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, add goat cheese and mix to incorporate. Add your favorite shape of cooked pasta to sauce and toss, serve with grated Parmesan cheese.
(We used bucattini, but I think penne pasta would be awesome with this sauce!)

Pumpkin Oat Bran

How can you not start your day in a good mood with such a bowl like the one above for breakfast?
I am a firm believer that eating breakfast is essential to start your metabolism in the morning (after hours of fasting overnight) and get you going through your day.
With that in mind I always try to make our breakfast nutritious and delicious, and with a kid in the house sometimes the fun factor enters in the mix and we are sure to have a great start in the morning.
For the bowl pictured above I cooked 1/2 cup of oat bran with 1/2 cup water, 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin, about 1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon, a dash of ground clove (or sub 1/2 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice) and sweetener to taste (I make mine unsweetened, but Matheus likes his with either honey or maple syrup). Put everything into the pan and cook on medium until oat bran is cooked and you achieved the desired thickness.
I like it more loose than most people, not a fan of thick and gummy oats or oat bran. I like it a bit on the wet side, and since it thicken as it sits, I always take it of the stove before it gets to the consistency I like.
Ultra easy to make, plus oat bran cooks so fast that in less than 10 minutes you have a nice and warm bowl of steamy goodness! Top with a tablespoon of almond butter and you have a totally nutritious breakfast to start your day. (Coconut butter is also amazing with oats and oat bran! I am slightly obsessed with this combo lately...)
And if you are like us, you will strategically place that almond butter right in the center of your bowl, then add a couple of raisin eyes, a chocolate chip mouth and your masterpiece is complete: Mrs. Pumpkin Oat Bran is in the house! (And boy those chocolate chips were delicious in there, melted chocolate goodness!)
The same ingredients are just as good with oatmeal in place of the oat bran. It may take a couple more minutes to cook, but so worth it.
I love oats in all forms!
Ana

More muffins, with some experimentation!

Hey everyone! Man, this going back to school thing has been a lot more work than I thought it would be... I guess I was really out of rhythm with all this, because the school + family thing doesn't scary me much - I have done it already before.

School talk aside, remember the amazingly delicious Almond Butter Banana Muffins? Well, I really loved that recipe and have been having some fun in the kitchen by experimenting with it, so I came to report a couple of variations I tried.

First, I tried the same recipe but using Peanut Butter, and we found out that the peanut butter really competes with the banana flavors. While we could quite not taste the almond butter on the original recipe, the peanut butter flavor really came through in this variation. I still used bananas and everything the same, but one bite and you could easily tell there was PB in there - as opposed to the muffins made with almond butter that left Matheus and the Husband guessing what the "secret ingredient" was. The final verdict was that the we liked much more and preferred the muffins made with almond butter!

Another experiment I made was transforming the flavor and using Pumpkin in place of the bananas to create Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins! This ones turned out really good and we all liked it. It was moist and with the same deliciously fluffy texture that the original banana recipe had. Only thing I did was use pumpkin instead of bananas and omit nuts, only adding chocolate chips; also added a bit of water as I thought the wet ingredient mixture was a little too thick, feel free to add a little more water if needed.
We liked these muffins, but in terms of Pumpkin Muffins the Vegan Pumpkin Muffins are still our favorite one. Matheus and I even baked a batch of them today as he wanted these particular pumpkin muffins for breakfast, it really is the best!

Now, back to this recipe that I have been tweaking around, even though we liked and ate all of the muffins, the very favorite of these were the original Heather's Almond Butter Banana Muffins, they were the absolute winner and I am sure will be repeated many times in my kitchen as I just can't get over the awesome flavor and texture these muffins have.
Really, if you want to try some great banana muffins then try this recipe, it is really good!
And here is the pumpkin variation I tried. If you guys try any of these variations let me know, I am curious to see if more people will like these so much as I did!
Enjoy!
Ana










Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond butter (I would NOT use PB on this one...)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oat flour (simply process oats in your blender or food processor until it becomes flour if you don't have this)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour - I am going to try that next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you use salted nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray muffin tins.
In a bowl stir together water, pumpkin puree, almond butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes.

Yields 10 muffins

Pumpkin Pasta!

I bet you are wondering what I have been making with all that amazing pumpkin I got, right? Well, with work and school out of the way and two weeks of winter break ahead of us I am back to post all recipes I have been making and saving pics on the last few months. My goal is to post something everyday, and hey, you can come back and bug me until I do!
I also have some interesting and unusual product reviews I want to post.
But first, onto the recipe of the pasta pictured above. It is an easy and delicious pasta combination that fitted the bill perfectly with the mounds of pumpkin puree we had on hand.
It is actually and older Rachel Ray recipe that I had made before and was repeated a few times. Easy and tasty, truly worth of trying!
The original recipe had hot sauce added to it but I didn't think that it would go with the pumpkin and the spices used in this recipe, so I omitted that - with great success I might add, I cannot imagine this with hot sauce, really.
Don't be intimidated by that pinch of cinnamon in the recipe, it will add a touch of warmness that will complement the pumpkin beautifully, even though you won't taste it or know it was there.
Also, note that I forgot to add the sage before I took the picture, but don't forget to add it there (even though you can make it without it), because sage + pumpkin is a wonderful combo too!
So, here goes my adaptation of Pumpkin Pasta, hope you all enjoy and I will come back with more!
And how's getting ready for Christmas going? I need to wrap presents, and think about the food, can you believe I haven't done that yet? Well, still got plenty of time!
Ana










Pumpkin Pasta

1 pound of penne pasta
1 tablespoon Olive oil (more if needed)
2 shallots or half onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups puree)
1/2 cup heavy cream
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Pepper
Salt
Fresh sage leaves (about 4 of them), chopped
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water until all dente.
While pasta cook saute garlic and onions (or shallots) in olive oil until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth and pumpkin and whisk together to incorporate. Add the cinnamon and the heavy cream, mix together and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low and let it cook for a few minutes to thicken the sauce to your desired consistency, add the chopped sage and the cooked penne. Toss all together and serve with lots of grated Parmesan on top!

A recipe you must try and get ready for pumpkin recipes!

One of my dearest friends here from the US gave us a huge pumpkin the other day. An organic, healthy and plump gigantic pumpkin that she grows on her backyard (she has lots of space for growing stuff!). She first said it was a big guy she had on the back of her car, but I never expected it to be as huge as it really was. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself:

The big baby sitting on my kitchen chair












Told ya! It was truly ginormous, as Matheus said when he first saw it!
Took me a while to tackle it, open and get the whole thing roasted and pureed for storage, but it was worth every second and effort spent. The pumpkin was amazingly delicious, the flesh was bright orange and sweet. Look at this beauty on the inside, is it pretty or what?













When I first brought it to the house we all got super excited not just because it was so fun to have a pumpkin that size but also because we LOVE pumpkin around here! And I mean really love it!
Ideas could not stop coming out of our mouths, pumpkin muffins was the first request, followed by pumpkin pie and for me it meant lots of my winter favorite: pumpkin soup!
From the humongous orange friend I got 10 cups of deliciousness in form of puree that I stashed right into the freezer plus about 8 more cups that I left in the fridge and started using right away.
I first made some of the frequently requested by the boys Pumpkin Muffins, next was my favorite Pumpkin Leek Soup, followed by a Savory Pumpkin Pie (which I didn't take pics but you can find the recipe in Portuguese here, and be warned, it is the best and easiest "Torta de Abobora" you will ever come across, I have made it many times here and we love it, Thanks Lica! Torta de Abobora da Eliana), and this weekend we had some of the most tasty Pumpkin Pies we ever made.
Seriously, this pumpkin is so tasty that every single item I made with it was amazing, oh and the puree warmed up with salt, pepper, and butter.... oh my, it was di-vi-ne!
But all the talk about the pumpkin brings me to the recipe I want to post today, and this truly is a "must try recipe". I saw Ina Garten make this on TV and immediately said to myself "have to try that", it looked and sounded so delicious, and how could roasted butternut squash + greens + cider vinaigrette not sound wonderfull?
The Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette is AMAZING! (pardon my shouting, but this is just too good....) It is fall on a plate, in salad form!
The best part of this? The Cider Vinaigrette. If you don't want to make everything then don't worry, but definitely try this vinaigrette at some point, it is to die for, it is the quintessential "fall-ish" vinaigrette, so delicious, and extremely flavorful.
The sweetness of the reduced apple cider is balanced beautifully by the acidity of the vinegar, the onioness of the shallots and the bite of the dijon mustard. Salt, pepper, and olive oil just round all the flavors out tying them together in one wonderful salad dressing. Believe me, you won't be sorry if you try this.
But so much for talking, let me post this recipe here so you can make it too!
Note that I made this salad multiple times already and the picture on the top of this post was actually made with roasted acorn squash, which was equally delicious as when I made with butternut or the pumpkin I got from my friend, which is the picture bellow:

This was the salad made with the bright orange pumpkin. On this one though the Parmesan was sprinkled on the spinach and it just disappeared when I drizzled the warm dressing, plus I didn't have the walnuts when I made this one.









However, if you do have walnuts at home make sure you use them, the salad was definitely tastier with those crunchy roasted walnut bits in contrast to the slightly wilted leaves, the warm dressing and the soft squash chunks... yum, just writing about it makes my mouth water!

I have been having fun at the kitchen making lots of pumpkin recipes and there are some that are just too good to be kept only for us and I must share, so be prepared for some more pumpkin goodness to show up here soon. Oh if you see a girl with a slightly orange skin walking around NC... there's a good chance it is me, I am afraid I will soon be looking like a walking carrot with the copious amount of wonderful beta-carotene I have been eating lately!
Ana

Here is my version of the salad, if you want to see the original one, click here

Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette
(adapted by an Ina Garten's recipe)

1 butternut or acorn squash, peeled and diced
Salt, pepper and olive oil to roast the squash
1/3 cup toasted walnut pieces
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff!)
4 cups baby spinach leaves, or arugula, or a mix of the two
1 cup apple cider - or apple juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to season the dressing

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Place squash on a sheet pan lined with foil (easy clean up!), season with salt, pepper and a good dose of olive oil (it adds amazing flavor and prevent stickiness), toss all together, spread the squash cubes in one layer and roast for about 20 minutes, turning them around the 10 minutes mark to make sure they cook and brown evenly.
While the squash roast combine the apple cider, shallots, and the cider vinegar in a small pan, bring to a boil and cook until the cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in the mustard and olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste.
(My observation: after tasting refrain from eating the vinaigrette by teaspoons... it taste that good!)
Place the spinach (or arugula) in a big plate or salad bowl, add the walnuts and Parmesan, drizzle the vinaigrette over the leaves, place the roasted squash on top of everything and serve. (you can also put the squash to the bowl with everything else then add the vinaigrette and toss it all together, I like to keep the squash on top as mine were soft and delicate, an oh so good...)

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

At this time of the year we just cannot resist the many pumpkins we see around us. They are everywhere, decorating houses, in front of yards, grocery stores, and its many varieties just make the farmers market shine in an various tones of orange glow.
Every place you look a pumpkin pops out, and luckily we love this fruit a lot, so enjoying its flavors is definitely a pleasure for us!
We already made pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and even a chicken in creamy sauce that I served inside a whole roasted pumpkin (very popular in Brazil, this dish is usually made with shrimp, but when you have chicken, it is chicken that you use!). But this year the star of the season for us were the Vegan Pumpkin Muffins, they were simply THE BEST! And yes, they do deserve the capital letters!
We liked it so much that I have made this recipe 4 times already, in little more than a month, and keep getting requests for it again.
The Husband declared it to be one of the best muffins yet, and Matheus just loved the pumpkin and chocolate in it. I loved the yummy pumpkin flavor, the texture, and the fact that it is completely whole grain.
Really, what is not to like about this one?! Plus it is vegan, which means there are no raw eggs and we can lick the bowl as much as we please - which Matheus and I love to do together! And this batter is goooood! :o)
I got this amazing recipe from the book "Vegan Lunch Box", which has been a wonderful source for me and Matheus to make creative and delicious lunches for him to take to school. The author also has a super nice website with the same name, vegan lunch box, that is absolutely worth checking out. (By the way, it is from her website that I got the idea for the cool "mummy calzone" I showed in the Halloween post bellow).
Bellow I am posting my adaptation for the recipe in the book. I reduced the sugar a bit (plenty sweet this way, 1 1/3 cups sugar was waaaay too much for us) and didn't add pecans as the recipe asked for.
Also, based on an idea I saw in the blog baking bites, we used chocolate covered raisins in place of the chocolate chips, it added a surprisingly "tchans" to the muffins and Matheus (raisin lover) enjoyed it a lot. I still do prefer chocolate chips, but made it with the raisins twice as the boys seemed to really like that.
If you find pumpkin + chocolate a weird combination (and some do) give it a try, you may be surprised by how yummy it is. Believe me, it is really good!
These muffins are truly worthy trying, they ARE delicious! It is amazing how moist and flavorful they are, and with all the nutrition in them... yummm, I might make them again this week!!
Ana










Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
(adapted from the book Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer Mccann)

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or home cooked)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
2 TB ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup vegan chocolate (or carob) chips

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a nonstick muffin tin well with nonstick spray, set aside.
Put pumpkin, water, canola oil, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Reserve.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and cinnamon. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the chocolate (or carob) chips.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tested inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then lift each muffin from the tin and let cool on a wire rack.

Cake recipes to come…

First of all, a little late Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! And Thanks for those who stopped by to wish us a happy holyday as well, you all are the reason I love this blogsphere!
It’s been a while since my last post, however I haven’t abandoned the kitchen, especially with the Thanksgiving and all the cooking and yummy food it involves.
This year we went to one of our best friends house, and we did have a great time there! I wish I had taken pictures of everybody and the delicious feast we had, but surely enough I did the favor of forgetting my camera… oh well, it happens to all of us!
We contributed with three dishes, a simple mixed leaf salad topped with apple slices and dried cranberries, cranberry compote, and a sweet potato casserole! All were very good and got me many compliments. The one my friend likes the most is the cranberry compote, and although I cannot show you pictures, I can certainly share the recipe here, just let me know!
Well, enough of that Thanksgiving talk, as I believe most people here in the US had its share of it, right?!
So, moving forward to the nice cake picture above. Well, I think it looks nice, but I have to tell you that it tasted even better than it looked!
Really, it was a very nice cake. Extremely moist and not as dense as I was expecting it to be, especially with the “pound cake” presented in the recipe title.
As I said, the cake part was delicious, full of yummy fall flavors and as moist as it could be, good, really good! And lets not forget the glaze, which as a great exception, I loved too!
I am not a fan of glazes, frostings, powdered sugar stuff on top of my cake, and you know, this cake might not even need a glaze at all, but this one was so good that I was glad I included it too, plus it did made the cake look prettier!
The glaze was simply made with buttermilk, sugar, cornstarch, and a tad of butter, which definitely made it taste smooth. It was sweet for my taste, but that is how glazes are supposed to be, right?
I really liked the tang provided by the buttermilk and it complemented the cake flavors really well, even more so because the cake was not overly sweet, so it was a very happy combination in between the two. And as a fellow baker who tried this recipe mentioned in the CLBB, this glaze was almost drinkable by itself! Yes, I found it to be that good, and will certainly use it in other recipes as well!
All in all, we had a nice week and a happy Thanksgiving!
And for the title of the post, it is just as it says; be prepared to see a few more cake recipes posted around here in the days to come. Our microwave broke and while we don’t replace it the husband doesn’t have a quick way to reheat his beloved muffins, so I have been baking muffins and cakes almost daily for breakfast, and we are eating it as snack too. They are healthy cakes, of course, and I have a couple recipes and pictures that accumulated to share here with you!
So, please come back, and in the meantime try this pumpkin cake, it was a delicious surprise to all of us, and to some friends that I took the cake to share with on a breakfast gathering. Everyone really enjoyed this one!
Ana

Pumpkin Pound Cake with Buttermilk Glaze (Adapted from Cooking Light, Dec. 2006)
15 ounces pureed pumpkin
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour (13 ½ ounces)
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon cloves)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk

Glaze:
1/3 cup buttermilk
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
While you get your ingredients ready, put pumpkin puree in a fine sieve and lay it on top of a bowl to drain excess liquid.
With a mixer cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended. Add the drained pumpkin and vanilla and mix well. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, incorporate those ingredients and then alternately add the flour and the buttermilk, mix well until well blended.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, remove and let cool over a rack.
For the glaze, combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook it over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and drizzle over cake.

Editing to add: for the pumpkin pie spice, according to foodsubs you can make your own by combining "4 parts cinnamon + 2 parts ginger + 1 part allspice + 1 part nutmeg, all ground OR equal parts cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and cloves, all ground."

Pumpkin Bread

I roasted another small pumpkin today and got about 6 cups of pumpkin puree from it. Yumm!
Matheus asked for pumpkin soup, which we happily had for lunch and used about 2 cups of puree. Another cup was used in the recipe below, and the rest are already in the freezer, although they won’t stay there too long, as we are definitely in a pumpkin mood and I already have plans for them!
The recipe I am posting today and so easy, but very yummy! I adapted a recipe for Pumpkin Bread and came out with this one. Simple ingredients, and it is basically the same recipe I use for banana bread, just using pumpkin in its place.
I still want to get it a little bit spicier, but it is just a matter of adjusting the amounts and maybe even adding something else in there the next time I make it. I will probably be making this recipe one more time soon, so if I get better results I will certainly report back!
You can add chocolate chips, dried fruits, and even nuts to this bread. Chocolate goes surprisingly well with the pumpkin flavors, and another great combination are dried cranberries and walnuts; I think they really add another dimension of flavors and textures to the finished product!
Today I actually baked my cake (yes, I do think it had a cake texture, and still don’t see this or the banana breads as being actual breads… they are really cake to me!) into some mini panettone molds that I recently got from the Internet. Aren’t they cute??
I bought them to make panettone for the holidays (for ourselves and to give out to the dearest friends!), and couldn’t wait longer to see how something baked in them would look like. And I have to say that I really liked the looks of the pumpkin bread in it, and the molds do have a certain “holidayish” feel, don’t they?!
Enjoy!
Ana

Pumpkin Bread

3/4-cup brown sugar
1-cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A pinch of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
In a bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, yogurt, vanilla, and egg. Add flours, cinnamon baking soda, and salt to the bowl, and mix just until moist.
Pour batter into 1 greased loaf pan (8x4inches). Bake at 350° for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from pan after about 10 minutes and let cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Oat Bran Muffins

Just a quick post… since we are still on the pumpkin subject, I decided to come here and report that I have tried the previously posted “Apple Oat Bran Muffins” with Pumpkin, and it is absolutely delicious too!!
I tried a couple of pumpkin recipes already and I think this might be my favorite so far! (besides the pumpkin muffin I posted last year) Matheus and my husband liked it too! Here is the Pumpkin version. Enjoy!!
Ana

Pumpkin-Oat Bran Muffins
1 1/2 cups oat bran
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of ground cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed pumpkin, cooked
1/2 cup milk (I used buttermilk)
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (oat bran through salt) and stir well. In another bowl, mix together pumpkin and next three ingredients; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spoon into greased muffin pans. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Note: I got 9 muffins out of this batter.

Pumpkin Soup!

Matheus and I have been in a “pumpkin kick” lately, we made pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins (twice already!), and yesterday was Pumpkin Soup!
I usually make winter squash soup using either butternut or acorn squashes during the winter, not just because it is my absolutely favorite soup, but also because it is really easy to make, and Matheus like it too.
However, I have seen a couple soup recipes with the combination of either pumpkin or butternut squash and leeks, and both sounded so good that got me curious enough to go ahead and try it. And I am glad I did!
I don’t cook much with leeks, as it is not that affordable here where I live. However, I do love the flavor that the leeks impart to food, it is a mellow and sweet onion flavor, not strong, not overpowering, it is a smooth flavor that I truly enjoy, especially on soup bases. So, once in a while I splurge and buy some leeks to make recipes that really sound good.
In this soup I was amazed with how much the leeks went well with the pumpkin flavor, it was so good! And the combination of white pepper and nutmeg were just perfect with this soup, I really loved those flavors here! Thyme is an herb that goes really well with winter squashes in general, but you have to be cautious because it can sometimes be overpowering (I actually used half the amount asked in the recipe, because I have a strong thyme growing in my backyard).
This soup is super simple to make and the end result was really delicious! Smooth and creamy, tasty and rich, what else could you ask in a warm bowl of soup?
I have to say that I didn’t even added the half-and-half, and it was so great this way that I will probably not use it when I make it again. I used a little more pumpkin than the recipe stated (I wasn’t going to keep a tiny amount of pumpkin puree leftover, right?!), and I guess that the extra pumpkin made up for the richness lost with the omitted half-half. Oh, and I used olive oil instead of butter, and maybe not even 2 tablespoons of it.
I had the leftovers today for lunch and am already looking forward to making some more of this soup! And I don’t know if it is because he really likes the fall season, and pumpkins, and Halloween, but Matheus simply loved the soup too! When you hear a “Thank you mommy for making this yummy pumpkin soup”, then you know it is a keeper recipe and that it will certainly be made again, soon!
Ana

Cucina's Pumpkin Leek Soup (CLBB, posted by Darla - Dgeevanson)

4 Tablespoons butter
2 large leeks, white part only, cleaned and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 cups pumpkin puree
4 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth - not vegetarian then)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 cups half and half
Garnish - dollops of sour cream, grated Monterey jack cheese, chives

In a large saucepan, heat burner and sauté the leeks for 8-10 minutes on low heat, stirring often. Leeks should be soft and lightly golden. Add the thyme, nutmeg, salt, white peper, pumpkin puree, chicken broth and brown sugar. Stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Add half and half and simmer another 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie

As soon as Matheus saw the mounds of fall pumpkins in front of the market last week, he started to beg me to buy one for him (and he wanted the huge one!) in order to make pumpkin pie.
We were definitely going to buy some pumpkins, but I wanted to wait a little more, you know, it is not even October yet… Plus I wanted to get the pumpkins at the farmers market, as there are a variety of them and they look very nice there too.
Trying to explain all that to a 4-year old didn’t actually worked well, and Matheus started to ask me every day when we were going to buy our pumpkin to make some pie. So, in order to keep my sanity, I finally gave in and we both headed to the kitchen to make the so desired dessert.
Now, I have got to say: it was so worth it! Pumpkin pie is soooo easy to make, and so delicious, that there was no reason to wait until we “feel like fall”. Matheus was definitely right, it was time for pumpkin pie, and we really enjoyed ours over the weekend!
I opted to make a cookie crust instead of the more traditional pie dough, but it is just a matter of personal preference. I am not a big fan of piecrust (except for apple pies!), but do enjoy the traditional cookie-crumb crust used for pies and cheesecakes alike, so I decided to use that instead. For this crust I used a cookie called Vanilla Snaps, which I recently discovered and liked a lot, but the regular graham cracker will work perfectly here. And, for those who like ginger, I bet ginger snaps would work really well here too.
I didn’t follow an exact recipe, but sort of made mine based on other recipes I have previously seen, and since it was a basic traditional pie filling, it worked very well. The filling was very creamy, and nicely complemented by my yummy cookie crust!
As I said, this was so easy to make that Matheus went ahead and mixed up the filing all by himself; my only help was opening the can of evaporated milk to him.
I don’t even need to mention that he was very proud of his pie, and was more than happy when eating his share. It was definitely time for Pumpkins around here!!
Ana

Note: If, like me, you also don’t care for the crust and feel like the filling is the best part, then check out my pumpkin custard recipe, it is really good!

Pumpkin Pie with cookie-crumb crust

About 2 cups cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 eggs (I used 4 egg whites)
½ cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (you can use pumpkin pie spices)
1 can evaporated milk
1 (15oz) can unsweetened pumpkin (or 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree)

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Mix cookie crumbs and melted butter together in a bowl. Press mixture into bottom and sides of a pie plate and bake for 5 minutes. Let cool.
In another bowl combine the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Pour into pre-baked piecrust and bake at 325 for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until center of pie is almost set. Let cool and serve!

“Squashy” day!

At $0.38 a pound I could not contain myself today when saw such squash sale at the grocery store, and so I bought home a spaghetti, an acorn, and a butternut squash! Yum! However, it wasn’t so difficult to decide which one to make first, as I was craving the flavors of butternut, my favorite squash of all! I like pumpkins and all of the others, but no winter squash is as creamy and delicious as the butternut. It has a firm and bright orange flesh, which turns into perfection once roasted or cooked. Hence its name, it is really buttery and creamy, deliciously loaded with vitamins, healthy and good for you!
So today I made roasted butternut squash. I was thinking about making soup but the squash was so delicious that we ended up eating it just pureed, oh my, talk about creaminess!
Whenever I think about pumpkin I remember my grandmother and when she used to make her “pumpkin compotes” (Doce de Abobora). She would clean up big pumpkins and chunk them, then cook the squash in a large iron pot with cinnamon, cloves, and enough sugar to make it a delectable sweet concoction. The compote itself was really sweet, but every single one in the family simply loved that one, even the non-pumpkin eaters. And for me besides the compote there was also the pumpkin seeds, which she would roast in a skillet, sprinkle some salt and call it a snack. What a nice and crunchy snack it was! I loved the pumpkin compote and those little seeds even more, plus it was fun to watch her shake the skillet swirling all the seeds around, and as they got toasted they would start to pop, cracking and bursting out of the pan, nutrition and entertainment at the same time!
I remember all this from my early years and to this day there is no way I will open a pumpkin (and any sort of squash for that matter) and not separate the seeds for a toasty snack. And I guess some of our tastes may pass to our kids through our genes, because every single time I make pumpkin/squash the first thing Matheus asks is “mommy, did you make those pumpkin seeds?” Once he tried the seed he also fell in love with it. Today I toasted the butternut seeds and I actually like them better than the pumpkin ones, they are smaller and get even crunchier! I toast them in the skillet, as my grandmother did, with a little bit of olive oil and salt to taste; I also add a little bit ground pepper, garlic salt and paprika, so they get spicy and flavorful. As I was toasting the seeds today it came to me that you might even be able to make them sweet, by adding sugar and cinnamon to it. However, I had so much sugar yesterday that the salty ones were perfect for today!
And as I said it was a “squashy” day, because besides the butternut I woke up early and used some leftover pumpkin to bake pumpkin muffins for breakfast this morning. I have seen lots of pumpkin recipes lately and ended up creating my own. It came out so good that I could not even believe it I made them myself! The muffins rose nicely, were moist and tender, with a hint of cinnamon and a not at all overpowering pumpkin flavor, just sweet enough for a warm breakfast treat. Very good, and I liked it a lot!
I will post the recipe here, it was so easy and simple to make that you may also enjoy it yourself. Today I only added cinnamon, but believe that ground cloves would do wonders to the pumpkin flavors on this one (pumpkin pie spice might work even better). I definitely need to buy some ground cloves on my next stop at the grocery store.
Well, that is it for today, happy pumpkin eating for you all too!

Ana

Roasted Butternut Squash puree









Toasted seeds

Pumpkin Muffins
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon canola oil
dash salt, optional

Preheat oven to 375 F. Sift together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl mix pumpkin, brown sugar, milk, yogurt, egg, and oil until blended. Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated. Pour batter into 9 greased muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.

So, have you already had Chuchu?

You may know it by chayote or mirliton, depending upon where you live. But for me this mildly flavored squash will always be called “chuchu”! It is definitely not a popular vegetable in the US, but extremely common where I came from, Brazil.
I always liked chuchu and always will. However, not everybody likes it as I do. Chuchu is not a very flavorful squash, it may even be a little bit bland with a slightly sweetness to it, especially when eaten raw, and its flavor and texture changes completely once cooked. I guess not many people is aware of this vegetable, and unfortunately I don’t get to eat it as much as I would like, as the price around here is not that friendly. Last week though I saw it at the grocery store for $0.69/lb and more than quickly filled up a bag with 4 yummy chuchus! I even find it weird to buy chuchu since my grandmother had it growing like crazy in her backyard and we would always get some every weekend when we visited her, all year long. Now, every time we go back to visit my family my mom makes chuchu for me!
The way I like to eat it is by simply cooking it with some sautéed garlic and onions and a little bit of chicken broth. Once cooked it is tender and succulent, but sturdy enough to hold its shape. And talking about shape, I added a whole chuchu to my picture today so you could see how it actually looks like (in case you don’t know it already, obviously). It is shaped like a pear and sometimes has a prickly skin, it has sort of a seed inside which I always take off but have once heard that it is edible too. And even though there may be a hundred recipes that use chuchu I will probably always eat it the simplest way, so I can taste it by itself and bring back memories that no other vegetable will ever do. It is funny how we get to miss the simplest stuff once we cannot have it often, and when it is there all the time we sadly take if for granted.
Lunch today was nothing special: rice, beans, grilled chicken, tomato salad, and the best part: chuchu. And I ate my chuchu as if it was some sort of caviar! Yum!

Changing gears from lunch to dessert… Fall is here to stay, and with it comes all the goodness of bright orange pumpkins! Do I need to say I have been dying to make something with pumpkin this past few days?! Well, today I finally got to it and made some “Pumpkin Custards”, from the book Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites. So easy to make and so good, with definitely a “fallish” flavor to it! It is basically the filling of pumpkin pie baked in individual ramekins. Deee-li-cious!
I used brown sugar, omitted the ginger (not a big fan), and did not add nutmeg to mine because I don’t like it with sweet stuff (love it with savory though, especially in white sauce or mashed potatoes, but this is another subject…), and I think that if I had ground cloves I would add a little bit to the custards, as I think cinnamon and cloves makes perfect pairing with all things pumpkin sweet!
Here goes the recipe for you all. And I have leftover pumpkin so watch for some more pumpkin goodies this coming week! (Guess what… pumpkin muffins anyone?!!)

Ana

Pumpkin Custard
(Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites)

2 cups cooked pumpkin (16-ounce can)
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk (12-ounce can)
2 eggs
3 egg whites
3/4 cup maple syrup or brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350F.
Prepare eight 6-ounce baking custard cups or ramekins, with a light coating of cooking spray. Arrange the cups in a shallow, flat-bottomed baking pan.
Whril all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the custard into the baking cups. Pour boiling water into the baking pan to about a 2-inch depth. Bake for about 45 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cups from the hot water and cool at room temperature, then refrigerate.
Serve chilled, garnished with fresh apple slices if desired.