Pumpkin, cont!

I forgot to mention yesterday that my batch of ice cream left me with half a can of unused pumpkin. Not wanting to waste it, I made it into lunch for today. . . pumpkin soup. Yep, by the time this winter is over my family is going be all pumpkined out. And this morning I woke up thinking about pumpkin cheesecake (yum!) and I haven't even made my pumpkin fudge yet this year. But I did happen to whip up a batch of regular fudge (rocky road, minus the rocky parts)... which I blame primarily on Jessica for having even mentioned it to me. Yes, it's like that. . . if I get the idea stuck in my head and I have all the ingrediants on hand to make it, then BAM! it's made. And because I keep a VERY well stocked pantry, I almost always have everything on hand to make whatever I want. In fact, I tend to get VERY irritated when I realize that I actually don't have something. I don't know if it's possible to become addicted to cooking, but pretty soon someone's gonna have to sign me up for C.A. (I won't tell you if I do though, cause it's supposed to be anonymous :-) Also, for those of you that are wondering if I just stay in my kitchen and cook all day, the answer is a definative "no." I do have a life, I have two kids remember, I'm taking 3 classes this semester. And just to prove my point, I only spent one hour in the kitchen at lunchtime, to make the soup and the fudge, and not even an hour at dinner time to make dinner (tacos, yes I make normal foods too!) Anyway, for those of you who like to try pumpkin in a savory way, I would recommend the soup, it's very warming. Of course, I'm a bit of a soup person myself. This picture really didn't do it justice.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 can (14 1/2 fluid ounces) chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 can (15 ounces)pureed Pumpkin
1 can (12 fluid ounces) evaporated Milk
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
MELT butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and sugar; cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until soft. Add broth, water, salt and pepper; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, evaporated milk and cinnamon. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

TRANSFER mixture to food processor or blender (in batches, if necessary); process until smooth. Return to saucepan. Serve warm.

Bippity Boppity Boo!

Hey, if Cinderella's fairy godmother could turn a pumpkin into a carriage, then I can pretty much turn a pumpkin into anything else. . . bread, pie, ice cream, ball, soup. You get the idea. Jessica had another wonderful and highly enjoyable pot luck/playgroup at her house today. Theme: Thanksgiving. My contribution: Homemade pumpkin ice cream & triple layer pumpkin spice pie. For those of you with an ice cream maker, I'm posting this recipe because if you like pumpkin ice cream, then this recipe is heavenly. Technically, it's more like a pumpkin gelato, which is all the better in my book!

1 c. canned pumpkin

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. whole milk

1 c. heavy cream

3/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp salt

dash nutmeg

In a bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

In medium saucepan, combine the rest of ingrediants with a whisk. Heat over medium low heat, stirring continuously, until until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leaves a clear trail when a finger is drawn through it, 4 to 6 minutes. DO NOT ALLOW THE MIXTURE TO BOIL! (I accidently let it happen twice because I wasn't paying attention and my cream curdled. That does NOT make for yummy ice cream.) Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Place the bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice water, stirring occasionally until cool. Whisk the pumpkin mixture into the custard. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.

Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Cover and allow to ripen, at least hours. Enjoy!

And here's pic of the pie that I made, which is a great alternative for those without an ice cream maker. The recipe can be found here http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/triple-layer-pumpkin-spice-pie-107943.aspx Hey, I don't ALWAYS make everything from scratch :-)

Pumpkin Carving

Well seeing as how it's only 10 days away from Halloween, we finally decided to carve some of those pumpkins hanging around the front of our house. We had 5 altogether, from the pumpkin pickings and what nots. I'm not entirely sure how the girls felt about the whole thing. Gabrielle thought the inside of the pumpkin was too slimy, and Leila just had a look on her face the whole time like "what the hell are you doing?" Anyway, at least now we have jack o lanterns. I thought Robert did a really good job!

Pumpkin Bread

Yesterday, Robert casually implied that he wanted pumpkin bread. Easy enough, I had all the ingrediants on hand, so I woke up this morning and whipped some up. One of the birthday gifts that Gabrielle received was a little baking set with a mini muffin pan, cake pan, bundt pan, loaf pan, and pie tart. She was super excited about the being able to bake something in them, so I decided to let her use them to make her own pumpkin bread. In the end, she actually made little pumpkin muffins, which her and Leila ate for breakfast, in addition to a little cake, a little bundt cake, and little loaf. She was so proud of her little creations. And she was so excited because she was like "I'm four now! So I get to bake things!"

My pumpkin loaf on the other hand, turned out very tasty but I was a little disappointed because I didn't do a very good job making a ribbon out of the cream cheese mixture and it turned more into a chunk of cream cheese in the middle of the slice of bread. Look, it looks like it's smiling at you!

After we got ourselves together, we went to the mall where the girls took birthday pictures and went to the Build A Bear store where they had received birthday coupons. I had thought they were just going to get some clothes for the bears they already had, but they ended up getting new bears instead. Correction, Gabrielle got a monkey and Leila got a kitty. (Gabrielle always corrects you if you call them bears.)

Fried Turkey!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Robert and I were watching Alton Brown's show, Good Eats, on the Food Network. We watch A LOT of Food Network, which is good because it inspires me, but bad because everything always looks so good and I always just want to make whatever they're making just so I can see how it tastes. Anyway, back to the subject, Alton Brown was talking about how to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving. Now, I know this may be hard to believe, but I've never had a fried turkey. I've had roasted turkey, smoked turkey, and even turducken (another blog), but never fried. His turkey looked so good that it made me want to try it. But I didn't really want to make an entire turkey, so I bought a package of turkey legs and a package of turkey breasts. Then I did like good ole' Alton said and soaked it in some homemade brine (water, salt, & brown sugar) and fried em up at 350 degrees. And man were they good. I was kind of worried cause we were just frying pieces, but it worked out great! And everybody loved it!

And to go with my turkey, I made this recipe I found for savory pumpkin balls, which is made from canned pumpkin, onions, garlic, and bread crumbs. I know it sounds weird, but they were actually really tasty, although hard to describe. Robert says they tasted like baked hush puppies. And since I had a some pumpkin left over, I made a little pumpkin casserole (think pumpkin pie without the crust) which Gabrielle described as "melting in your mouth." And to round it all up, we had some slices of beer bread on the side. And for those who don't know, it's just like the name says, bread made with beer. So good!