All Pumpkin, All the Time

Last weekend, just like clockwork, my annual fall pumpkin craving began. Ever since I was in college, and discovered the delicious pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins at Lyman Orchards I have found myself wanting, needing, pumpkin products. I've been reduced to checking restaurant menus, stopping in Dunkin' Donuts to determine if the pumpkin muffins are back yet, but now, I am master of my own fate. I have a recipe for a delicious pumpkin cake. Which could be made into muffins or loaves if you like, but I do love a bundt. In fact, in the past week, I have baked not one, but two of these pumpkin spice bundt cakes. They're that good. Special bonus? They use up a whole can of pumpkin. Seriously, this is a big deal. So many pumpkin product recipes use a cup. What the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of the can, people?

PUMPKIN SPICE BUNDT CAKE
recipe slightly altered from the one J posted in the comments of last year's pumpkin disaster, Pumpkin Dreams Smashed

INGREDIENTS:
2 c. sugar
1 c. veg oil
3 eggs
1 16 oz can pumpkin
3 c. flour
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp bking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. bk powder
(1 c chopped walnuts if you want but why would you?)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs and pumpkin and mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add half the dry ingredients to the wet, mix until incorporated, then add the other half. Pour into a well greased bundt pan, bake at 350 for about 55 minutes or until a knife in the middle comes out clean. If you like, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Southern Cornbread

There are some things that I only love when they're Southern style. Since it's probably best not to get me started on the topic of iced tea, as I may begin to rant, we can stick to cornbread. Like many good Southern foods cornbread must be a bit sweet. It should also be nice and fluffy. Think...delicious smells wafting from the grill, plates filled with barbecue, people sipping down real iced tea. Bad cornbread however, creates an entirely different scene...squatting by a fire, using a stick to pry a dry mass out of a cast iron pan. In short, I want to feel like I'm at a party, not trying to survive the Oregon trail.

CORNBREAD
modified from the side of the Albers box by the lovely tikimama. I don't think I've ever seen Albers cornmeal, so I am doubly grateful to tikimama.

INGREDIENTS:
1 C flour
2/3 C sugar
1 C cornmeal
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 C milk
2 eggs beaten
1/3 C vegetable (or corn etc) oil
3 T melted butter

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Mix together the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Mix together the milk, the beaten eggs, the oil and the melted butter (let the butter cool a bit before you add it to the eggs please). I would guess that you should add the dry ingredients to the wet, but I did it the other way around with no ill consequences. Either way, mix until fully incorporated. You can make either corn muffins, or corn bread. Grease whatever pan you're using. For muffins, bake 18-20 minutes, for bread in an 9x9 pan, cook for 20-30 minutes. Make sure that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, but don't over bake. No one likes dry cornbread.

Sick Food

I am a relatively slender person. People sometime make comments about this, out of kindness, out of jealousy, out of wonder, out of spite. They express shock, awe, envy at the fact that I do not (generally speaking) need to exercise. And I cook! Yummy things! Desserts even! Oh, things do look so green in this here pasture. What most people don't know, is that this body is sponsored, much like a PBS show. Oh yes. Had I an appropriate place for a sign, I could in fact post:

This body has been brought to you by genetic luck and frequent low-grade nausea.

And if you haven't lived with nausea, then you may not know what a formidable force it can be. If you have, I'm sorry. Please have a ginger ale on me.

When I'm queasy, there's not a whole lot in my whole lovely repertoire of comfort foods that sounds appealing. If I'm only borderline ill, I can manage some pasta with butter and cheese. Or rice. But the thing I crave, more than almost anything else, is Thomas' English Muffins, with a small pat of butter. When I'm finally really on the mend (you know, when you've gone without real food for so long that you are ready to chew off your own arm, but are petrified of actually eating something because the consequences could be dire), I want a turkey burger, seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper, cooked through on an English Muffin bun. Just thinking about it makes me start to feel better.


So what about you? What is the food that cures what ails you?

Raspberry - Walnut Shortbread Bars

Everyone despairs when at the mercy of a repair or delivery person*. You are instructed, in no uncertain terms that you must remain in your home between certain specified hours, which are always representing an unfathomable window of time. Moreover, the moment the clock clicks over to the first minute of your designated window, you are seized with the urge to be anywhere but at home. You remember a million errands you have to run. The dog barks for a walk. You realize you have to shower, but can't, because you won't hear the phone, or doorbell, or you will hear the phone and doorbell and be forced to meet the repair/delivery person in nothing but a towel. It is not good. So here is my handy dandy plan for not going stir-crazy.

Step #1 - An hour before the window commences, make sure you have showered and dressed.
Step #2 - Pick a favorite recipe and check for ingredients.
Step #3 - Run to the store for any ingredients you might be missing.
Step #4 - With 15-20 minutes left before you're ordered inside, walk the dog.
Step #5 - You are trapped. The repair/delivery person could arrive at any moment. (Won't of course, but could).
Step #6 - BAKE!!!

Baking is the perfect occupation for being stuck in the house. Think of how often you put something in the oven, and then think of something that needs doing outside the house. Well, don't worry! This time you know you're stuck! Your house smells delicious, and you will need something to eat as you become more and more agitated. Maybe the sugar will calm you.

If you don't know what to make, try my Nana's raspberry-walnut bars. They have a delicious buttery shortcake base, a sweet jam-y layer and a chewy, sugary top. Yum. The best thing is that you can really pick whatever jam you like, although I strongly recommend picking something higher quality. You can be flexible about the nuts too, I didn't have enough walnuts, so used a combination of walnuts and pecans. Still fabulous.

*In my case, the delivery turned out to be a surprise cake from my best friend! Entirely exciting and not at all anger inducing to wait for. Also, now I have a delicious array of treats to choose from.

RASPBERRY (or other) - WALNUT (or other nut) SHORTBREAD BARS
by my Nana

INGREDIENTS:

for the shortbread crust
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C butter

for the topping
1/3 C jam (I used Bonne Maman Four Fruits Preserves, which is a mix of cherry, strawberry, raspberry and currants)
2 eggs
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
2 T flour
1/8 t salt
1/8 t baking soda
1 C chopped walnuts (or pecans, or a mix of walnuts and pecans, or something else you want)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

For the shortbread crust -
Combine the flour, the 1/2 C sugar and cut in the butter until the mix is like fine meal (sort of sandy). Get a 9" square baking dish and grease it. Press the shortbread mix down into the bottom of the pan to make and even layer - pay special attention to the corners which sometimes don't get quite enough crust. Bake for 20 minutes or just unilt edges become lightly golden.

For the rest -
Spread the jam over the shortbread. Beat the eggs with brown sugar and vanilla until well blended. Stir in the flour mixed with the salt and baking soda. Add the walnuts. Spoon over the jam and spread lightly until completely covered. Return it to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is set (it will be kind of spongey, it will harden on cooling). Cool in pan and then cut into bars. Make sure you go around the edges with a sharp knife before you try to remove it from the pan.

Oven Fried Chicken

The thing is, there's not a whole lot more delicious than good home fried chicken. The crunch of the crispy crust, the mix of spices, the juicy succulent chicken. Oh dear, it's good. All you need is a foolproof recipe, and I've got one for you. I had never before fried a chicken. I hadn't even watched someone else fry a chicken. This worked perfectly, on the first try, and I have to say, was just as mouth-wateringly scrumptious cold the next day as it was hot when I served it. Labor Day's coming, maybe this is the year to do a good old southern feast instead of those hot dogs you'd planned on.

OVEN FRIED CHICKEN
method courtesy of Ina Garten

INGREDIENTS:
1 chicken - you can cut yours yourself, but I like to buy the 8 piece pack, all cut up for you.
2 cups buttermilk
2 t hot sauce
2-3 C flour
3 T Essence - you can probably buy this, but I make it myself and store it in a spice jar.
veggie oil (or canola oil, or whatever you've got on hand)

EQUIPMENT:
oil thermometer, meat thermometer, large heavy bottomed pot (I used my dutch oven), sheet pan (with a rim), metal baking rack (I use the same thing I use to cool my cookies on).

DIRECTIONS:
Look at your chicken pieces and trim off any nasty bits. In a large bowl, combine the buttermilk and hot sauce. Put the chicken into the buttermilk, turning each piece to make sure it's coated. Let the chicken rest in the buttermilk at least two hours, but overnight if you have the time.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. In a large dish mix the flour and essence until well mixed. Dip each piece of chicken in the flour mixture until it's thoroughly coated and there are no real wet spots. Pour the oil into your pot (the reason for a deeper pot is to avoid as much splattering of hot oil). You want it to be about 1" deep. Heat the oil to 360 F.

If you're new to frying, keep your eyes glued to that temperature, you'd like it to stay near 360, don't let it get too high or two low. Mine went up and down and up again, I was constantly adjusting my stove burner from high to low. When you add the chicken (only drop in a few pieces, DO NOT do all at once), the temperature will drop, so keep that in mind. Fry for three minutes on each side until it is a nice light golden brown. Then remove and place on the baking rack. Continue frying chicken in batches until it's all done.

Place your rack of chicken on its sheet pan and pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Ina says to cook until it's not pink inside, but I recommend using a meat thermometer instead so you don't wreck your beautiful chicken by checking on it.

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

My very first Hippo and Nigella post. I'll admit, I didn't select this recipe because it spoke to me more than the others. It was a very practical choice. First, it didn't require self-rising cake flour. Additionally, I had raspberries that needed using. They were good. Not great, not I can't wait until I make these again. Just good. I think they need more lemon. Maybe a lemon glaze? They're definitely worth experimenting with. And for the raspberry haters out there, you might consider blueberries instead. Also, this is the very first time I used my silcone baking cups. They are reusable, and they don't take half your muffin with them when you peel them off. What's not to like?

LEMON RASPBERRY MUFFINS
adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 C butter, melted and cooled
1 1/3 C all purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/3 C sugar
1/4 t salt
juice and zest of 2-3 lemons - Nigella only called for one. From her directions, it seems clear she's expecting you to have about a half cup of lemon juice. Maybe she just has better lemons than I do, but I had slightly less than a quarter cup of juice from one lemon. I used another lemon too and still didn't have a half cup of juice. I'd really make sure I was getting that half cup.
1/2 C milk
1 large egg
1 C ish of raspberries - You don't need to be precise with the berries, a smidge under or over will hurt no one.

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and zest. Right here, I had a problem. You need to make sure you wash your lemons well when you use the zest, because the skin is where all the pesticides and gross things you don't want to eat are concentrated, but also, it's where all the lemony flavor is. Make sure you dry your lemons thoroughly before zesting, and maybe even let your zest dry before adding it to the flour mixture, because otherwise, the zest bits will want to clump and no one wants one bite of all zest and a pan of muffins that are less lemony right? Okay. Combine your lemon juice and milk. The juice will curdle the milk, that's okay. Beat in the egg and the melted butter. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the raspberries. Raspberries are very delicate and will break if treated roughly. Unless you want your muffins to be all pink, go slowly and gently. Pour info muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool for 10-15 minutes. For those who want to experiment, and maybe confirm this as a dessert rather than breakfast product, you might consider a lemon glaze of 1/3 C sugar and 1/3 C lemon juice heated and stirred until clear. You would pour this over the muffins while still hot so they absorb the glaze.

Fall Preview

Summer is coming to a close, but sadly, no one has mentioned this to the weather, which seems to have something to prove after the slow start with those temperate days in June. This past week has been brutally hot on the East Coast with oppressive humidity. The kind of air that closes in on you, sits on your skin and slowly smothers you. The kind of summer day where you just want to shout Come On, Rain.

So it was pretty ridiculous dedicated of me to whip up something that required having the oven at 425 degrees in my unairconditioned kitchen. But the thing is, I had leftover ricotta that needed using up, and for whatever reason the only thing I could think to do was make calzones.
I know, I even have a recipe for Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. But once I got the calzone idea in my head, I couldn't let go. Luckily they were delicious, and I made enough to have leftovers tucked away in the freezer for when fall actually arrives.

SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE CALZONE
adapted from Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals 2

2 C ricotta cheese (I use part skim)
pinch nutmeg
black pepper
1/2 C Parmagiano Reggiano
1 package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
1 package frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted (you can use canned, drained if you can't find frozen)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large dough - pick up at your local pizza store, most will sell it to you even if they don't have a case showing that they do.
2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
tomato sauce for dipping.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Mix the ricotta, nutmeg and black pepper. Add the spinach to the ricotta and mix well. I never like how well the spinach is chopped, so I always run my knife through it a few times before I mix it in. No one likes stringy spinach pieces. Add the minced garlic. Chop your artichoke hearts so that their bite sized (maybe 1" chunks). Mix the artichokes into the ricotta and spinach.

Pizza dough is easiest to work with at room temperature. Divide your dough into quarters and reshape each into a small ball. Work with one ball at a time. Roll out the ball into a circle about 8-10" in diameter. Don't let the dough get too thin, it may break. Cover half the dough with your ricotta mixture. Top that with your cheese. It should look like this:



Then fold over the top, and pinch along the sides to close it. I sort of fold over the bottom edge so it covers the top. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Garlicky Roast Beans

When I was a little girl, my father used to travel for business. Not all the time, but sometimes. When he went away, my mother would not cook. I don't blame her. She cooked amazing meals whenever he was home, she deserved the break. At night, Daddy would call to check in on us and he'd always ask me if we ate our vegetables. My mother would be standing across from me nodding yes, regardless of what we'd had for dinner. When we hung up, she'd say "tomato sauce is a vegetable" or "the broccoli in the chicken with broccoli counts." I grew up just like my mother. I eat my vegetables. I do. But my husband is the one always checking, always asking, always making sure that I eat them.

All this to say, oh my god, I would eat these beans EVERY night. Without someone checking up on me. I'm also pretty sure that this treatment can be applied to other vegetables and I intend to find out. They are salty and crispy and garlicky, just delicious. I made them with these beans, called romano beans, that I found at the farmer's market. In theory they're available through the end of September, which is good, because as soon as Ryan had tasted one, his main concern was where our next beans were coming from. I'm not exactly sure myself, but we'll find them, oh yes, we'll find them.


GARLICKY ROMANO BEANS
from The Boston Globe

Ingredients:
1 lb romano beans
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 springs thyme halved
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. I did mine in the toaster oven and only had it at about 425. Toss the beans with the garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil on a large sheet pan. Spread out in a single layer. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until browned, turn them over about halfway through.

The Hippo and Nigella

I am in love with this book. It is so incredibly full of delicious sounding recipes that I am tempted to start at the beginning and simply cook my way through it, skipping only Flora's Famous Zucchini Cake on page 18, because I detest zucchini. It could be my very own version of Julie and Julia, only it would be The Hippo and Nigella. I haven't actually made any thing from it yet (for many reasons including but not limited to, a lack of self-rising cake flour, a husband who had surgery on a bicep tendon and can only use one arm forcing me to devise more and more menus that do not require cutting, sheer summer induced laziness). Nigella is kind enough to provide several variations on each recipe to please those of us who always want to tinker with a perfectly well-tested recipe. Also, she is a delight to read. I've never seen any of her cooking programs, so this is my only Nigella exposure, but anyone who points out that her cake stuck to the pan a bit and you can just cover up any imperfections with extra confectioner's sugar is my kind of chef. Anyway. Go out. Get yourself a copy. Grab some self-rising cake flour and we'll meet back here. Okay?

For Catching Bears of Very Little Brain

These delicious honey chocolate crisps are possibly exactly what Winnie the Pooh would like if invited to tea. They are chewy, sweet without being too cloying and have just the right amount of chocolate. Elegant enough for adult parties, but simple enough to be a smackerel for any small person's tea party you might need to organize. But beware, you're likely to find you have to share, with friends, housemates, or small yellow bears.


CHOCOLATE HONEY CRISPS
from Donna Hay's Off the Shelf cookbook

INGREDIENTS:
For the cookies:
1 stick butter
1 cup honey
1 t baking soda
2 cups flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar (turn regular sugar into superfine by putting through your food processor)

For the topping:
1/3 C cream (I used heavy cream)
8 oz (approximately 1.5 C?) chocolate (Donna Hay says milk chocolate, I used semisweet chips, with 2 t sugar to sweeten it. I have no scale and using the chips needed a cup equivalent, I had more than enough topping).

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. On the stovetop, heat up the butter and honey - this goes a bit better if you've sliced your butter, it melts faster than if you drop a whole stick in. Don't let it get too hot. When it's all melted together, add the baking soda. It will make it all carmely colored and foamy. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine your flour and sugar. Mix well. When the butter/honey mixture is ready and slightly cooled, pour it into you flour and sugar. This can be done mixing by hand, but it is a pretty stiff dough, so you'll get some exercise. The dough should be smooth and shiny. Use a tablespoon to measure out small balls of the dough. Roll the balls between your hands to make them smooth. The smoother the ball, the rounder the finished cookie. Place them on lined cookie sheets - I tried both parchment paper and foil and the parchment was a million times easier to get the cookies off. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. This is a very, very chewy cookie, so don't overbake. Allow the cookies to cool while you mix up the chocolate topping. In a small saucepan over low heat, add the cream and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly. Place a teaspoon worth of chocolate in the center of each cookie.

My chocolate did not harden completely so these are not easy to store. Maybe it's just the heat. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to eat them quickly!