Pumpkin Apple Soup

We got a pie pumpkin in our CSA share a few weeks ago.  I used it as decoration for awhile and then decided that I should make something out of it before it went bad.  When I asked the boys what we should make with the pie pumpkin I did not get the obvious answer.  Nick wanted Pumpkin Apple Soup and Jake wanted Pumpkin cookies.  I started with the soup because it has been a rainy cold week.

Ingredients:
2 cups finely chopped tart apple
1 small onion chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups pumpkin
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:
Saute the apples and onions in the butter until tender.  When tender add the flour and stir until blended.  Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Add the pumpkin, brown sugar and spices.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for 25 minutes.  Use a stick blender (or a regular blender) and bizz it up so that it is smooth. (If you are making this to be served later, this is where you stop and refridgerate.)

Just before serving add the apple juice, milk and salt & pepper. 

Makes about 2 quarts.

Nick loves this soup served with cheddar biscuits.  Yum.

Vanilla Extract

Pure Vanilla Extract is really expensive to buy.  For the amount of baking that I do it would cost me a fortune every year so I make my own.  It is so simple I can't believe that everyone doesn't do it!

All it takes is a bottle of vodka and 10 vanilla beans.

I split the vanilla beans down the centre so that the vodka can penetrate the fragrant seeds that are in the inside quicker.  Somebody told me that this will speed up the process but I don't know if it actually does.  (If you split the beans you will have little black floaties in the finished vanilla but that doesn't bother me.  I think that this shows that you used real vanilla.)

Pour an ounce out of the vodka bottle, add some orange juice and drink it.  You need to make room for the vanilla beans and you don't want to waste it.

Put the split vanilla beans into the vodka bottle. 

And you are done!

Put it on a shelf in a dark cupboard and shake it once a week or so.  In six week it will be ready to use.  The longer you let it sit the stronger it will be.  I always have one that I am using and one that is steeping in the cupboard.

The finished product!  I started this one about 6 months ago.

Questions & Answers (because I know you have them).

Q.  What size bottle of vodka did you use?

A,  This is a 750ml bottle.

Q.  Can you use a different sized bottle of vodka?

A.  Yes, I use this one because the bigger one doesn't fit on my pantry shelf.  The bigger the bottle you use the more beans you should use.

Q.  Does it have to be vodka?

A.  No.  My dad uses rum and it turns out great.

Q.  Where do you get the vanilla beans?

A.  I order them from Top Vanilla.com.  They have some good quality beans for a good price.

Fall Cooking

Summer is definately over now and it is time to move on from salads and fresh veggies onto soups, stews and baked goods.

Today was an extremely productive day in the kitchen!  I did tomato butter, granola, potato soup, ribs, breaded chicken breasts and apple crisp. 

The tomato butter will be frozen in small portions to be used with pork roasts or pork chops through out the winter. 

Granola is for breakfast, served with yogurt and a touch of honey. 

Potato soup is for lunches this week. 

Ribs are for supper and maybe one lunch this week.  (Not enough for lunches, Nick found the ones that were left over while I was typing and ate them as an after dinner snack.)

The chicken breast will be made into Chicken Parmesean Monday night for supper.  All I will have to do is warm them in the oven and add my home made pasta sauce and some cheese.

My kitchen smells awesome.

Here are a few of the recipes that I used today.

Tomato Butter
5 lbs of roma tomatos, skinned and chopped
3 cups of sugar
1 cup of vinegar
1 red onion finely chopped
a shake of ground cloves
a few shakes of ground cinnamon

Wash and de-stem the tomatoes.  Score an X in the skin at the bottom of the tomato.  Put on a large pot of water so that you can blanch the tomatoes.

While you are waiting for the water too boil put the vinegar, sugar, oil and spices in a large pot.  Stir to combine.

In batches put the tomatoes in the boiling water and leave them there for about a minute.  You will be able to see when the skin loosens on them and that is when you have to get them out of the water.

Take the skins off the tomatoes and roughly chop them. Add them into the pot with the other ingredients.  Put it on the stove and let it summer until it reduces by at least half.  It took about an hour and a half to two hours for that to happen today.

It was hard to get a good picture but you are looking for a thick pudding like texture.

I then put it in jars, labeled it and let it cool.  When it was cool I froze them.  (I could have canned them and made it shelf stable but really didn't feel like it.)



Sunflower Cupcakes

We had our year end garden potluck last week.  Which had me thinking - What should I contribute?  Then I decided on cupcakes decorated like sunflowers!

Rob made a batch of our favourite chocolate cupcakes. 

I made a vanilla icing that I tinted yellow with a couple shakes of tumeric.  You don't need a lot of tumeric a little bit will do it.  The tinted icing will initially be a pale yellow colour but as it sits it will deepen.  If you plan ahead you can let it sit over night for a beautiful yellow colour.  I never plan that far ahead though.

I also made a chocolate icing.  I put it in a piping bag and used a star tip.  I put one chocolate dolop in the centre of each cupcake.  I then put the yellow in another piping bag and using the same tip, I did the circle around the chocolate one.

Easy peasy and they tasted pretty good.

This Moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

 

Pesto Chicken Sandwiches with a Twist

I am always looking for things to make lunches easier and now that I am back to taking a lunch to work with me I need easy things even more. 

When Rob and I were on Mackinac Island this summer (albeit briefly) I had a Pasty.  A Pasty is a pie crust filled with ground beef, rutabaga and potatoes.  The pie crust is folded over on itself and crimped and baked to make a  self contained sandwich.  The one I had was served hot smothered in gracvy but in the olden days men would take one (or two) on their lunch and eat them cold.  So that got me thinking, what else could I use for a filling?  This is what I came up with.

I used one batch of bread done in the breadmaker on the dough cycle.  I use this recipe for bread, buns, cheese sticks... you name it.

1 c water
2 t butter
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
3 c flour
1 1/2 t yeast
1 t salt
Place in machine in the order your machine asks for and cook on the regular cycle.  The bread has enough body to slice for sandwiches.

I then BBQ'd a couple chicken breasts and then chopped them into small pieces.  I mixed the chicken with 1/2 cup of homemade pesto.

I took 1/6th of the bread dough and made it into a thin circle/oval.  Place a scoop of chicken mixture on half the circle and top that with shredded cheese.  Fold the bread dough over to cover the chicken and crimp the edges so that nothing leaks out.  Place on a baking stone (or sheet) and do it again 5 more times. 

When they were all done I brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled them with Italian Seasoning and Parmesean cheese.  Place in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour.

They smell heavenly.  We had to try one just to make sure they were okay.  The were great.

They turned out kind of big.  Next time I might divide the dough into 8 instead of six.  For now I have just cut each into half, wrapped them in tin foil and put them in the freezer.  When we need something quick for lunch they are all ready to go.

Mmmm...Butter Tarts

What is the best Canadian invented recipe ever?  Butter tarts of course! 

Growing up whenever I went to visit my best friend Sheila's Grandmother she always had a butter tart for me.  (Even as teenagers when Sheila was diabetic and couldn't have the pure sugar treat Flo always made sure that I got a butter tart.) They were the best ever!  I don't have Flo's recipe but I think this one is pretty close. 

You can use any pie crust recipe that you like, I use the one from Food That Really Schmecks (awesome recipe book!) but I make it in the food processor.  In all honesty, I hate making pastry.  It is a pain in the butt, things never seem to go quite right for me.  I have gained a new found respect for people like Flo who used to bang off dozens of tarts at a time. 

The Butter Tart filling recipe is from my Aunt Geraldine.

1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
3 tbsp butter (room temp.)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins (soaked in hot water and drained)
2 eggs
pastry tart shells (approx 24)

Separate eggs and set the whites aside. To the yolks add all the other ingredients and mix well. Beat the egg whites until stiff, add to the yolk mixture carefully and fill the tart shells. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes or until pastry is brown and centres are bubbly. Cool and remove from pan.  Try and eat just one!

Note: Instead of corn syrup we use Lyle's Golden Syrup or Simple syrup. My mom has used honey but they are extremely sweet and don't recommend it.

This Moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 (I do have to say this picture was taken by Jake at his photography course at the East Street Station.)

 

Father's Day

It was a pretty busy day here at our house.  We started the day by going strawberry picking.  We ended up picking just over 10 lbs of strawberries! 

What do you do with that many strawberries? 

Make jam of course! 

17 cups of jam later...(much to Nick's relief we did save lots for dessert).  To make our jam I use a pectin called Pomona's Universal Pectin.  There is nothing "yucky" in it and it makes great jam.

After that, we went to our garden and picked radishes and onions and did a tonne of weeding.  No pictures of that, it was pretty boring.  By the time we finished that it was time to make a special supper for Rob for Father's Day.

Oven fried chicken, radish salad, green salad and pesto rice.  Mmmm. 

We have an abundance of radishes in our garden.  Really more than 4 people can eat plain so I sliced them super thin, added sliced green onions and made a vinegrette to toss them in.

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup of blueberry basil vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp of sugar
pinch of salt

I love that we live in an area that we can eat so much that is grown locally.  The greens for the salad and the flavoured vinegars are from Mulberry Hill Farm, which is the CSA that we get fresh veggies and eggs from every week.  The pesto was made by us last summer with basil that we grew in our own garden and then we used garlic from Mulberry Hill Farm.

After supper it was down to the beach for us.  We love going there and walking the board walk and pier or just people watching.

Happy Father's Day Rob!

And not to leave out my Father.  Happy Father's Day Dad!

Birthday Cakes!

Late spring and early summer are the busiest birthday times for us.  All four of us have our birthdays in this time and then we throw in a few extended family members and friends into the mix.  It makes for a lot of cake eating so we try to make everyone different.  Here are the ones that I have made so far this year.

Nick's Birthday

For Nick's birthday he wanted a Star Wars cake.  So I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and put little Star Wars Lego action figures on top.  He and his friends were quite amazed that the Star Wars plane was "flying" over the cake.  (In reality is was sitting on some straws that were cut 1/2 inch higher than the cake.)

Rob's Birthday

It was too hot to bake so he got the ice cream pie.  I posted how I made it last week.

Jake's Birthday

Jake wanted a plain vanilla cake with caramel icing.  It looked a little boring so I made some buttercream icing and added a few shakes of tumeric to change the colour to a beautiful yellow colour and wrote Happy Birthday on it.  I love how nice the yellow turned out and you can not taste the little amount of tumeric that was used.

Caramel Icing

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup milk

2 to 2-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

For icing, in a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Do not stir. Cook for 3-6 minutes or until bubbles form in center of mixture and syrup turns amber. Remove from the heat; transfer to a small bowl. Cool to room temperature. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated my Dad's birthday at our house with the whole family this year.  I made him a Black Forest Cherry cake.  (This is the recipe that I used - Black Forest Cherry Cake)  I have to say it was one of the best tasting cakes I have made.  I will definately make this one again!

this moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

 

this moment

From Soulemama {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Ice Cream Pie

It is hot here.  Too hot to turn the oven on and bake a cake for Rob's birthday so I made him an ice cream pie.  Chocolate peanut butter pie with a cookie crust to be exact.  It didn't take many ingredients and was pretty easy to make.

I started with a box of Late July Vanilla Bean with Green Tea sandwich cookies (they are better than Oreos in my book).  I whirled them in the food processor with a couple tablespoons of melted butter.  I pressed that into a pie plate and put in the freezer to set.

In the Kitchen Aid bowl I mixed softened chocolate ice cream with cut up peanut butter cups.  I then poured that into the prepared cookie crust.  I then put it in the freezer for a couple hours to firm up.  Later I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave and put it in a plastic sandwich bag.  I cut the corner off the baggie and drizzled the melted chocolate on top of the pie.

Done!  I put it back in the freezer until after supper.  It was great!  Everyone loved it.

The Way We Eat

Why do we eat an all natural diet?  Because that is the healthiest way to eat.  Artificial colours, flavours and preservatives are made from petroleum and the human body was not designed to process petroleum.  Petroleum causes some peoples bodies to do some pretty wacky things.  About 4 years ago we realized that J's body could not handle anything artificial - it makes him crazy.  He couldn't sit still, couldn't colour within the lines, couldn't behave and couldn't concentrate.  We didn't know what to do too help him and we didn't have a doctor and then I found the website for the Feingold Association and it changed our lives. 

Feingold advocates a petroleum free diet and eliminating high salicylate foods from your diet for a short time to see if any food intolerances. (They publish a book that lists things that are free of those petroleum based products.  In Canada it is not a huge book but it is definately a big help when you are starting on this food journey.) 

Within weeks J's behaviour was incredibly different, he could sit and read by himself, he could follow directions and best of all his terrible eczema cleared up totally.  As we slowly added the high salicylates we found out that J couldn't handle oranges - they made him bounce off the walls.  Since that time we have also eliminated Corn Syrup.

So we had found a better way to eat, now we just had to find the food.  There is not a lot of prepared food that is all natural so we make our own.  From english muffins to marshmallows we make it all.

The sad part is that the way we eat shouldn't be the "crazy" way to eat.  We are eating real food, the way people ate 100 years ago. Why are we considered different because we don't give the boys Cheez Whiz or Cool Whip?  They are not real foods.  My kids are not deprived because they don't eat petroleum products.  They get real cheese and real whipped cream.  They eat a pretty darn good assortment of food if you ask me.