Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread

Dough

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup eggnog

 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups bread flour

Filling
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
3 Tbsp unsalted butter

Buttered Rum Glaze
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp eggnog
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon rum extract

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown 2 tablespoons of butter, letting it bubble up and turn a dark golden brown but being careful not to allow it burn (turn black) about 2-3 minutes. Once browned, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the eggnog.  Pour into your bread making bowl. Add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar and allow to proof about 10 minutes. Then add the pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Stir until combined then add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and just slightly sticky. If the dough is too moist, add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time.

Cover with a clean towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until doubled in size.

While dough is rising, brown another 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well.  Making sure sugar evenly absorbs the butter. Set aside. Next, grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flip out onto a clean floured surface and knead with hands for 1-2 minutes. Roll dough into a 20×12 inch rectangle.  Evenly sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar mixture and press into dough with palms of the hand. Cut the rectangle into 6 strips. Lay strips on top of each other and cut each strip into 6 even squares (cut in half then each half into thirds). Stack strips vertically into the loaf pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

In the meantime preheat an oven to 350 degrees. After rising in the pan bake for 30-40 minutes or until top is a very deep golden brown.

To prepare the glaze, heat the butter, eggnog, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to boil then immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rum and powdered sugar.  Drizzle over the bread.  Pull apart and enjoy!

If you choose to make your own puree, make sure you place it in cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer and let it sit for a couple of hours to get rid of the excess water, otherwise it will be too runny.

Adapted from http://www.newlyweds-blog.com/

Creamy Chicken Pesto

This dish was from my sister.  It is super easy and delicious.  My children did not complain once about eating this meal and really that is saying something.

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup prepared pesto

1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces

1 lb uncooked noodles

Cook noodles according to directions.  Meanwhile, while the noodles cook, cook the chicken in fry pan seasoning with salt and pepper.  Drain the noodles.  Return to pan and stir in soup, milk and pesto.  Add in the cooked chicken and there you have dinner.

Talk about an easy meal.  For the noodles use ones that can hold onto the sauce.  I used big macaroni noodles, but penne or the like would work just as well.

Just typing this makes me want to eat some.

Rose Jelly

One good thing about our current location is the abundance of wild roses.  I love the smell of wild rose and they are pretty to look at.  I've thought over the years about using the rose hips in something.  I knew you could or least thought I did because while shopping in the asian stores I would see rose water and such things.  They use roses to make those, don't they? 

This year was the year of trying.  After hours on the internet (to which my children with complain about) I found a jelly recipe I thought I would try and also a candy one.  The candy is delicious, but in my book a pain to make.  It was just awkward to scoop out the seeds and hairy things out of the rose hips.  Maybe you have bigger rose hips than me and it would be easy, but for me it was too time consuming to make.  After the scooping though the rest is a breeze.

The jelly I used on my breakfast this morning and yummm!  This was very easy to make and will be made again so long as I have access to roses.  Surprisingly the taste is not that of roses as one might think.  I've read that it is like hibiscus, but that is a taste I'm unfamiliar with.  The jelly and candy does of a familiar taste, but one I am unable to name at the moment.  Anyway, who really cares?  It's good and that's all you need to know.

2 quarts rose hips

1 1/2 quarts water

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 package SureJell pectin

1/4 teaspoon butter

3 1/2 cups sugar

6 (8-ounce) canning jars and fresh lids

1.  Rinse the rose hips thoroughly. Cut off the scraggly ends and discard.

2.  Place rose hips in a large pot. Add 1 1/2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook until rose hips are soft and mashable.

3.  Use a potato masher to mash up the rose hips into a rough purée. Set up a jelly bag, or a large very fine mesh strainer, or 4 layers of cheesecloth over a bowl or large pot. Transfer the rose hip mixture into the jelly bag/strainer/cheesecloth. Let strain into the bowl for at least an hour. Squeeze the jelly bag or cheesecloth to get more remaining juice out.

4.  Measure the juice. You will need 3 cups of juice for this recipe, so if you have less than 3 cups, add more water to the mixture (you can also add some boiling water to the jelly bag if you still have it set up, allowing more liquid to drain out).

5.  Place 3 cups of the rose hip juice in a large, wide pot. Add the lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil, dissolving all of the pectin. Add the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the butter. Bring to a hard boil (one that you can not reduce by stirring). The mixture will bubble up considerably. Boil for exactly one minute. Then remove from heat and pour off into prepared canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace from the rim.

6.  If any jelly falls on the rim as your pour it into the jars, wipe the rim with a damp paper towel. Place sterilized lids on jars and rings to secure.  To process, place the jars on a rack in a large, tall stock pot. Cover with an inch of water and bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat, remove the jars from the water, and let cool. As the jars cool you should hear a popping sound as the lids seal. The lids should seal; if not, store in the refrigerator.

linked to eatathomecooks.com

Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies

I saw this recipe at afewshortcuts.com and knew I needed to make them.  First of I thought of my sister Erin who has celiac disease, but really it was all about me and the chocolate.  I found I didn't need as many egg whites as the site used and I split the chocolate chip amount in half and added white chips.

2/3 cup dark cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3-4 egg whites (I used 3)

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*.  Whisk together sugar, cocoa and salt.  Whisk in egg whites and vanilla until just moistened.  The batter should be thick like fudge brownies.  Stir in chips.  Scoop by tablespoon onto greased baking pans.  Bake for 12-14 min until tops are glossy and cookie is slightly cracked.  Cool completely on sheet.

Pumpkin Soup and Graveyard Dessert

Traditions.  They are what make events memorable and holidays top the list of events.  I'm big on holidays.  Starting with the New Year, through Valentines and St. Patrick's, breezing through Easter and 4th of July, all the way through to Christmas.  For most holidays cookie making and decorating are traditions as well as decorations, but for Halloween there is also the dinner.  Once a year, much to Doug's dismay, I make Pumpkin Soup with Graveyard for dessert.  Not sure why I call it a soup, but I have since my mom made it for us, but it's more of a casserole of sorts.  The fun of this soup is that it is cooked in a pumpkin and when serving you scrape the cooked pumpkin in with the rest.

Fresh out of the oven

1 small pumpkin (about 7-8lbs)

1 chopped onion

1 lb hamburger

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cup cooked rice

8oz can sliced water chestnuts (optional) - I don't like them so I don't use them :)

Prepare pumpkin by washing the outside and scooping out the inside.  Save the seeds for roasting later.

Brown the hamburger, seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add onion and saute till meat is done and onion is soft.  Drain off extra grease if any.  Add everything else, but the pumpkin and simmer for 10 min.  Pour into pumpkin and bake on some sort of sheet or pan at 350* for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until pumpkin is cooked through.

Ready to serve before scraping pumpkin in.

I scraped the pumpkin before serving that way it was already done just be careful not to go through the outer skin.  You can have everyone scrape as they dish up if you want.

Then there was dessert...

1 package of Oreo cookies

3 Tbsp butter, melted

8oz cream cheese softened

7 oz marshmallow cream

12 oz cool whip

2 - 4oz packages chocolate pudding

3 1/2 cup milk - 2% or whole

Candies and cookies to decorate graveyard

In food processor make 2 rows of cookies into crumbs.  Mix in butter.  Pour into 9X13" baking pan and bake for 10min at 350*.  Cool completely.

When crust is cool; beat together cream cheese, marshmallow cream and 8oz of cool whip.  Carefully spread into pan.  In separate bowl make pudding with milk.  Let the pudding set up a little the pour on top of cream cheese.  Top with remaining cool whip.  Make crumbs out of remaining row of cookies and sprinkle on top of cool whip to make "dirt".  Now decorate.  The decorating is totally subjective and changes each year for me depending on what I have in my pantry.  Be creative and enjoy!

As a side note, I have made the pumpkin soup occasionally through the month of October and November just because Doug likes it.  However, I used frozen pumpkin or any squash and just stirred it in the pan with the rice and rest to heat it through.

Chocolate Caramel Apple Cookies

I saw a recipe for caramel apple cookies and wanted to try it out.  However, the recipe was very time consuming and not what I wanted to deal with.  So, I thought I could make my own recipe and after one tweaking got these bad boys.  And yes they are bad because it isn't easy to stop at one or two or even three.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp vanilla

1/4 tsp rum extract

2 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 8oz bag Heath toffee bits

1 cup diced apples - you want these bigger 1/4" to 3/8"

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and rum extract; mix well.  Scrape down sides if needed and add dry ingrediants.  Stir in toffee bits and apple pieces.  Place generous tablespoon on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 325*  for 12-15 min or until lightly golden around edges.  Cool for a min or two then remove from pan to cookie rack and finish cooling.

Note:  I left the peel on the apples but feel free to peel first if that is you desire.  Also use good baking apples so they hold their shape and don't turn to mush. 

Pumpkin Cornbread

What goes better with chili than cornbread?  Nothing in my book.  While searching around for pupmkin recipes I stumbled on this one at http://www.recipegirl.com/.  I made it, loved, and I'm pretty sure I didn't change anything from the original (which usually I do).  This is a sweet cornbread with butter and honey not required, but definately worth it if you do.  Yummmm!

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup cornmeal

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree (either canned or homemade)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup oil

1Tbsp molasses

Preheat oven to 400*.  Grease a 9" square pan.

In bowl beat eggs lightly.  Whisk in pupmkin, molasses and brown sugar.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Don't overmix it.  Pour into pan and bake for 30 min or until done.