Celebrating Good News

I got some great health news this morning, and texted everyone to let them know.  Within seconds, my phone was full of happy texts, including some from Susie recommending a celebration, and jokes from Mom that it was a baked Alaska kind of night (we've always joked about making baked Alaska because it's so difficult), and Kenzie telling me to get back into the kitchen!  I knew they were all joking, but I figured, why not throw a party tonight? It's not every day we have great health news in my house, after all.  Tonight was a night to party, and a night to make baked Alaska!

slicing into it!

So, if you don't know, baked Alaska is ice cream topped with meringue that gets baked in the oven.  Yes, you read that right: ice cream that gets baked!  And it doesn't melt!  The meringue acts as an insulator... I might have to teach about this when I get to heat energy.  It's pretty fancy schmancy, but it was a special occasion, so it was the first thing I started when I got home.  I made the bottom "cake" first.  I say "cake" because it has no flour (Kaz!); it is a spongy kind of cake made from lots of eggs, chocolate and sugar.  Then I took a plastic wrap-coated bowl and filled it with softened pistachio and cherry ice creams (apparently those are the flavors used in baked Alaska; who knew?) and froze it up, and worked on the meringue frosting.  The ice cream gets put on top of the cake, and the meringue gets spread over the entire thing.  Then into a 500-degree oven it goes for 3 minutes, until the meringue starts to brown.  It seems miraculous when you cut it open and the ice cream isn't melted!  This thing got absolutely rave reviews.  Betsy requested that any time I make it, we invite her over immediately.  There were lots of moans and compliments from the baked Alaska.  I may have even a spotted a certain mother of mine eating seconds! It was really not that hard to make - there are just a lot of steps - but it has wow factor!

All baked and browned!

Mom was my froster

raviolis!

I also made an appetizer that was kind of spur of the moment; I was worrying that I was taking too long to get dinner done, and I had recently pinned a recipe that I knew I had all the ingredients for, so I gave it a shot: oven toasted ravioli.  They were very easy and surprisingly delicious.  You just take frozen ravioli and defrost them, then dip them in egg and milk wash, and then bread crumbs and parmesan, and bake.  That's it!  I served them with some tomato sauce that I added some basil and oregano to, and everyone loved them.  Rachael said they were the best thing I've ever made, which is great since they were so easy.  I should say one reason why I think they were so great, though: Mark and I made our own bread crumbs!  We were out, and instead of going to buy some, I knew we had some old crusty bread and a brand spanking new food processor, so we gave it a try.  We sliced the bread and processed it, and it was turned into crumbs in no time.  Then, since the recipe called for Italian bread crumbs, I found a recipe that gave me the spices to mix in, and Mark whipped them up for me.  We had to bake them for 10 minutes, and then they were done!  I really think they made the raviolis even better, and I might never buy bread crumbs again.

photo credit: Susie!

Last but certainly not least, we made pizzas for dinner.  I made my usual dough, courtesy of Bobby Flay's recipe.  Mark was mostly in charge of the pizza making; he does a great job flipping the dough up in the air and everything.  I think our best pizza (we made four!) was with sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and fresh basil.  Mmmmmm!  Our pizzas got rave reviews.

I also heated up the remnants of my soup from the other night and it was a huge hit yet again.  I even got rid of a couple more bread bowls :)

All in all, I am totally exhausted from this party; I cooked for 4 hours after work to party it up with 12 of my favorite people, but it was totally worth it.  We had a lot to celebrate, a lot of great food to eat, and a lot of love going around :)

Recipes:
baked Alaska
oven toasted ravioli
Italian bread crumbs
pizza dough

Cheese Bread

I love bread, and I love cheese.  So if you put both together, it is absolutely incredible, in my eyes at least.  I've picked up a few loaves of cheddar bread baked at our local grocery store, and I have been on the lookout for a good recipe but hadn't seen anything.  And then came yesterday!  I had some surgery, which frankly had me far more afraid than normal people, but I am not that normal.  Anyway, my wonderfully attentive boyfriend pampered me all day once I got home; this included getting me Tylenol, tea, dinner, and - get ready for it  - my very own giant Cuisinart Premier Series 11-Cup Food Processor!  What better medicine for a girl than to hand her a brand spanking new food processor when she has been complaining about her 40-year-old one!  It was very sweet.  Of course, he then begged me to use it all day, but I was too sore.  Today I was feeling a lot better, and ready to bake some cheese bread!  The recipe book that came with the food processor had a recipe for cheese bread, and I was pretty excited to give it a shot with my new fancy schmancy machine!

What is cool about my processor is that it has a "dough" setting and a dough blade, so it can be used to make breads and do your kneading for you.  First I had to shred my own cheese; now you know I love shredding my own anyway for quality reasons, but it does take a long time.  Or, should I say, it did!  With the shredding attachment, I shredded half a block of cheddar in seconds.  It was pretty cool.  Then the dough got mixed right in the processor.  It rose beautifully, and it gets a nice airy texture because you roll the dough into a jelly roll shape before you put it in a loaf pan. 

I am quite happy with the final results.  There may be nothing better than warm cheese bread with sharp cheddar mixed inside!  I loved it.  I know that Nick will love it too because we share an affinity for cheese breads.  Probably Mom will hate it because it "has flavor" but that's okay because Nick and I will take care of it!

I'll post the recipe, even though it calls for the food processor to be used.  I am very sure you could make the bread without it and juse use a mixer, if you're not as lucky as I am with my new processor:) Love you, Marky!

Recipe:

cheese bread

from the Cuisinart Premier Series 11-Cup Food Processor Recipe Book

Ingredients:
1  1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water (105 - 115 degrees)
4 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese
4  1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in 1-inch pieces
1  1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fat free milk (I used 1%)
cooking spray

Directions:

1)  In a 2-cup measuring cup, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2) Insert medium shredding disc and shred cheese.  Leave work in bowl.  Remove shredding disc and insert dough blade.  Add flour, butter and salt; process to combine, about 20 seconds.

3)  Add milk to yeast mixture.  With machine running on dough speed, pour milk mixture through small feed tube as fast as the flour will absorb itand process until dough cleans the side of the work bowl.  Then process for 45 seconds to knead dough.  Place dough in a lightly floured plastic food storage bag and seal top.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

4) Spray one 9 x 5-inch loaf with cooking spray. Place dough on a lightly floured surface aand punch down.  Roll dough in a 9 x 5-inch rectangle  Beginning with the short end, roll up the dough jelly roll-fashion.  Pinch the seam and ends tightly to seal.  Place in greased loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap coated with vegetable cooking spray.  Let rise for 45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

5) Bake until top is well browned and loaf sounds hollow when tapped, about 35-40 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Keeping Busy

I am trying to keep myself busy today.  There is something on my mind that has me all worried and nervous, and I have been trying to keep myself thinking about other things. This made it a perfect day to cook and bake up a storm.  It definitely helped that we are in the middle of a hurricane and thus had the day off from work!  It meant I could spent literally the entire day in the kitchen.

 

I started off with lunch.  I was craving some real comfort food, and immediately decided I needed to make bread bowls.  Those were the easy decision, but then I had to figure out what to put inside them!  I decided to be healthy and check out the soups on the Skinny Taste blog.  I was thrilled when I found the macaroni and cheese soup with broccoli.  Kenzie and I have been talking about the soup that we got at the Big E back in September: we got bread bowls with cheddar and broccoli soup, which in and of itself does not sound amazing, but the soup was incredible, and we think mostly it was because of the noodles!  I've never had cheddar and broccoli soup with pasta in it, and it was amazing.  I have been looking for recipes like that and haven't seen anything.  I know I could just dump some pasta into a regular soup recipe, but I figured there was more to it than that.  Then I found this recipe today.  It's a cheddar and broccoli soup, but not blended -which I like.  I want some chunks in my soup!  And it has pasta!  And it's low fat!  So I was pumped.

The bread bowls, to begin with, are truly amazing.  They are pretty quick as far as yeast breads go, and quite easy.  They make a great, soft, velvety dough, and they rise up instead of outwards, which makes them come out of the oven looking like perfect little snowballs.  They are such a great way to serve soup on a dark, wet, hurricaney day!  I cannot recommend them enough.

Then the soup!  This was pretty simple too, although you know me and being slow with chopping vegetables!  But today was a day I didn't mind taking my time, so it was a fun soup to make.  I doubled it to make sure that we would have plenty to eat even if we lost power - which thank god we didn't.  My only change was adding double the amount of pasta the recipe called for.  Mark bought me whole wheat shells that came in this fancy schmancy bag that was really not going to re-seal, so I figured I might as well toss them all in!  It made it a bit harder to fit a lot of soup into the bread bowls, but it was all okay in the end.  Both the bread bowls and the soup were well-received.  Mom told me my soup had a great flavor, and Kenzie said it helped her bronchitis feel better!  The soup does have a great flavor; I think it helped that I grated my own cheddar and Parmesan, but you know me: I am a cheese purist!  We still have a lot left for lunch tomorrow - and I did just find out that school is closed again, so we can eat it in the comfort of our own home :)

Then, finding myself with a long night ahead of me that desperately needed filling, I decided to make apple cider caramels.  I have blogged about these before, but they remain one of my family's favorite things that I have made.  Rachael specifically has been begging for them for the last couple weeks.  I knew I had all the ingredients, and I definitely had 3 hours to spare, so I made a batch.  It really does take a long time, because you have to bring the mixture up to 234 and then 248 degrees while leaving the stove on low.  Patience is a must for these babies!  But in the end, you have these soft brown pillows that burst with apple, cinnamon, and nutmeg flavor!  They are still cooling in the pan, but my mother and Rachael have already secretly sneaked into the kitchen and dug out spoonfulls for themselves!  I tell you, with these caramels, it is no easy feat to wait for them to cool, be cut into squares, and wrapped in wax paper :)  If you have a few hours to spare, you need to make these caramels.  They are not hard, and they don't require you to stand there stirring nonstop either; you kind of just need to babysit the bubbling goodness, and you definitely need a good candy thermometer.  Trust me: they're worth it in the end.

While I babysat my caramel, I also decided to use the pumpkin seeds from the carving that went on at my house Friday night.  I wasn't a part of the carving, but they knew enough to save the seeds for me!  I decided to try to make two different kinds, a sweet and a savory.  I found a recipe for candied pumpkin seeds that I did first.  It basically just calls for brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  They needed a lot more time than the recipe called for, and when I took them out finally, they did not look like the picture; they looked more caramelized than candied, and they hardened into one giant pumpkin seed brittle hunk that I had to crumble.  No one has tried them yet, but I don't think they turned out the way I had wanted.  Then I also made a batch of savory pumpkin seeds; this time I used a recipe that called for a secret ingredient: Worcestershire sauce.  Not to mention melted butter, salt and garlic powder.  I can honestly say that these are the best pumpkin seeds ever roasted at the Tucker house, and we do roast them every year.  The Worcestershire sauce really brings out the seeds' flavor, and they are so salty and flavorful.  These will be going fast.

Lots more cooking to come tomorrow... hopefully.

Recipes:
macaroni and cheese soup with broccoli
candied pumpkin seeds
toasted pumpkin seeds

Italian Bread Bowls
from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Makes 6-8 bread bowls

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
7 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Directions:

1) In a large bowl (or bowl of an electric mixer), dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2) Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture; beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at medium speed after each addition until a soft but not sticky dough is formed (you may not need to use all 7 cups, although I did). This bread bowl dough needs to be a bit firmer than a roll/bread dough so that the bread bowls rise up instead of out.

3) When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes (or let knead in an electric mixer). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

4) Punch dough down, and divide into 6-8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a round ball. Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal (or use silpat liners or parchment paper). If desired, slash the top surface of the bread bowl several times with a sharp knife or razor (I didn't). Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes.

5) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and baked through.

Apple Cider Caramels

from Blondie's Cakes and Things

Ingredients:

2 cup high-quality apple cider

1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream, divided

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup real butter, cubed

Directions:

1) Pour cider into a medium saucepan and boil on high for about 20 minutes or until the cider is reduced to 1/3 c. Keep an eye on it...it might try to run away. Set aside to cool.

2)  Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper, making sure to leave about 1" hanging over the edges for easy removal. Coat with a bit of vegetable oil or cooking spray and set aside.

3) In a small bowl, combine 2/3 c. cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and reduced apple cider. Set aside.

4) In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, 1/3 c. whipping cream + enough water to reach the 1/2 c. line on the measuring cup, and corn syrup. Cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Insert the candy thermometer and simmer until the syrup reaches 234 degrees.  This takes a long time - be patient and don't turn up your heat!  It is normal when the white mixture starts to take on a caramel color... since you are making caramels after all :)

5) Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the cream mixture. Add the cubed butter and stir until the cream and butter are fully incorporated. Return the pan to heat and re-insert the candy thermometer. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the temperature reaches 248 degrees.

6) Remove from heat and pour the caramel into the prepared pan. Let the mixture cool completely at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Cut the caramels into 1/2" squares and wrap each caramel in wax paper. Store in an airtight container or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, but I can guarantee that they won't last that long. These things are delicious!

Triple Chocolate Brownies

This is a bit of a late update, since I actually made these brownies Thursday night.  But I have been craz busy; I made the brownies to bring to a friend's house Friday after work, and then yesterday had a wedding to go to, so now I am finally getting the chance to update on my chewy fudgy triple chocolate brownies!

My family said they were craving brownies, and I knew I wanted something to bring to my friends' on Friday, so I went to my favorite blog to find a good recipe.  I have already made brownies from scratch backin the winter for my cousin's birthday, and they were great, but I wanted to try another recipe just for fun!  I was intrigued when I saw this recipe calls for three different types of chocolates: semisweet, unsweeetened and cocoa powder.    I am not a huge chocolate person, but I figured, people who are seem to love it, so triple chocolate must be even better than just one kind!

Like my other recipe, I had to use a double boiler to melt down all my chocolates and my butter, but that is probably pretty normal for from-scratch brownies.  Other than that, they were fairly easy.  I always like recipes that say to stir with "a wooden spoon."  It makes the whole thing feel so rustic!  So my mixer got the night off. 

As for the brownies themselves, they were beautiful. They were fluffy and tall and the top turned into a great shiny brown sheet.  They were a big hit with the kids at the party Friday night.  They ate a bunch (both before and after dinner!)  And I, who am not a big chocolate person like I said, still managed to force down two (okay it wasn't forcing... these are good!)  Of course, nothing can ever please everyone, and Mom and Rach claimed they were "too dark chocolate," which I  am not totally sure what that means, but okay!  However, I would say that the best part about these was the smell of my house.  It smelled great while the brownies were baking, but then again everything baking smells good.  What was interesting was that the smell lasted a long time.  When I woke up the next morning, I thought for a minute that Rachael was baking something, until I realized that Rachael would never in a million years be baking anything, never mind at 6:45 in the morning.  It was pretty great!

Recipe:
chewy fudgy triple chocolate brownies

Lasagna Tuesday

I never would have thought that I would have a night where I made two lasagnas.  To think that a year ago, I thought that I hated lasagna.  Come to find out, I just hate ground beef.  The lasagna itself is a wonderful invention: noodles, cheese, and sauce!  The options are endless, and tonight is an example of that.

my lasagna with Mark's arugula caprese!

Remember how I roasted my own spaghetti squash the other night?  Today I decided it was time to make it work for me.  There are so many options for spaghetti squash, but I was intrigued by the recipe that turns it into a lasagna!  There are no noodles in this lasagna, obviously - the squash takes its place - but the rest is very lasagna-ish: ricotta, marinara sauce, and mozzarella and Parmesan cheese!  It was very fast to throw together since the squash was already roasted.  I just had to toss it all in a casserole dish: sauce, then squash, then cheeses, more sauce, and more cheeses!  It sounds really unhealthy but I got the recipe from Skinny Taste!  Only 358 calories per serving!  And it certainly does not taste healthy; Mark was moaning about eating a fattening casserole until I informed him that I got the recipe from a low-fat blog! :)  One change I made to the recipe was that it called for you to make 4 mini lasagnas; I just put it all in one dish.  That worked just fine.  The outcome is delicious; all the mushy sauce and cheeses mix together with the crunchy "noodles" of squash; it makes for a really fun texture!  Tucky - I thought you could probably eat this!  And even my mom and Mark liked this lasagna.  Mom kept giggling and saying the squash was "funny" but she loved it :)

Then, since I had my doubts that my family would eat squash lasagna (my doubts were shockingly wrong, but who could have expected that!?) I decided to make another lasagna.  When I scrolled through my blog to see if there was anything worth repeating, I stumbled upon the lotsa green lasagna.  I was reminded how I made it one night when it was just Mom and me, and we devoured almost the entire thing ourselves!  I knew it would be a good meal to make for Mom, me and Marky tonight.  It's a lasagna, but really only because you use lasagna noodles. Everything else is very different!  There are layers of cheese, but the cheeses are mostly cottage cheese, with some mozzarella, Parmesan and goat cheese.  There is a white sauce mixed with spinach, and sauteed carrots, scallions and broccoli. Doesn't sound like your everyday lasagna, now does it?  And this is soooo good.  The cheesy layers are the perfect companion with the tender vegetables, and anything with goat cheese is a must-eat.  Mom says this is one of her favorites, and Mark had seconds.  I highly recommend this lotsa green lasagna any time you want a healthy but decadent vegetarian casserole :)  102 calories per serving - it feels like cheating!

Recipes:
spaghetti squash lasagna

 Lotsa Green Lasagna
adapted from Meatless Mondays

Ingredients:
6-8 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 teaspoon olive oil
Cooking spray
1-1/4 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1-1/2 minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 oz chopped spinach
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup low fat goat cheese

 

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Boil lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box.

2. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan or skillet over high heat. Sauté carrots, scallions, garlic and broccoli in olive oil for about 5 minutes, or until tender, and set aside.

3. Combine mozzarella, goat and cottage cheeses in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

4. In a saucepan melt butter over medium heat, then whisk in flour. When thoroughly mixed, add milk and whisk until well blended. Turn heat up to high, cover and heat until boiling.

5. Uncover and stir constantly over high heat for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is thick.

6. When mixture is thick, take off heat and season with pepper and add 1/8 cup of Parmesan. Stir until smooth and mix in the spinach. Set aside 1/2 cup to use for the top layer of the lasagna.

7. Spray a 9 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of the spinach mixture on the bottom. Next, then lay 2-3 lasagna noodles over the spinach mixture (you may need to cut noodles to fit the pan).

8. Pour half the cheese mixture followed by half of the remaining spinach mixture over the noodle layer.

9. Spread half the carrot-scallion-broccoli mixture over that, then add another layer of noodles.

10. Pour rest of the cheese mixture followed by the rest of the remaining spinach mixture on top of the noodles.

11. Spread the rest of the carrot-scallion-broccoli mixture over that, then top with a layer of noodles.

12. Spread the reserved 1/2 cup of the spinach mixture over the noodles and sprinkle with 1/8 cup parmesan cheese.

13. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Squashes and Pumpkins

Today was a day of fall-ish things; we went to get pumpkins, stopping at two different places to get them. Kenzie and Nick bought enormous ones at Wildwood Farm, and I picked up four more sugar pumpkins to make more pumpkin puree.  Then we went to DD Farms to pick up a few more pumpkins, and I spotted a spaghetti squash, which got me pretty excited because I have wanted to try them out.  No pumpkin carving for me tonight - I had far too much to cook and bake!

First I dealt with my spaghetti squash.  Basically all I had to do was cut it in half, salt and pepper it, and bake it for an hour.  Then I took a fork and scraped out the insides.  It was actually really fun, because it was so cool to see the squash coming out in spaghetti-like strands!  I am not sure what to make with it yet, but I am excited to give it a try.  Do you have any great spaghetti squash recipes that I should know about?


looks like spaghetti... but it's squash!

Then since everyone else was carving their pumpkins, I tossed two of my sugar pumpkins in the mix and had them cut them for me.  I scraped them out and saved the seeds, and then I roasted the pumpkins to make another batch of my own puree.  I used the last of my last batch in the next recipe, and I really think it makes a difference to use real fresh pumpkin as oppsed to canned.  It's so easy to do that it seems ridiculous to use a can. And the difference in color is enough to prove that the canned stuff is just not good enough.  

We of course also saved all our pumpkin seeds from the billion pumpkins we carved.  They are currently in the oven after getting tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  They smell delicious!

 My baking of the day, as I said previously, used up the rest of my first batch of pumpkin puree.  I asked Kenzie to choose a recipe for me, and she chose pumpkin cream cheese muffins.  This sounded very similar to my inside-out carrot cake muffins, which I loved, so I gave them a try.  The cream cheese filling was an interesting experience; you mush together cream cheese and confectionary sugar, and then put it on plastic wrap and roll it into a long, thin log.  It has to be frozen for two hours.  I did not wait the full two hours, and it was quite obvious when I took it out of the oven and started to cut it into 24 discs to put one in each muffin.  It didn't slice at all; it just mooshed.  But it was okay, I just scraped it up and schlepped it into the muffin tins.  They were a bit more work than normal muffins, what with the muffin batter, the cream cheese filling, and the cinnamon-butter topping, but they seem to be worth it: they are a huge hit.  Gram said they were delicious, and one of my sisters - can't remember who - said it was my best.  Mark loved his, and Rachael was so eager to eat one that she ate it steaming out of the oven and burned her mouth! Beware: the cream cheese turns molten and will nearly kill you.  I tried to get my family to wait, but that did not go so well :)

Recipes:
roasted spaghetti squash
pumpkin cream cheese mufins


homemade pumpkin puree
adapted from the Pioneer Woman

1)  Use two sugar pumpkins. Cut the pumpkins in half. With a spoon or a scoop, scrape out the seeds and pulp from the center.  Place all the seeds into a bowl (you can roast them later like we did!) Repeat until all the pumpkin pieces are largely free of seeds and pulp.

2) Place pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet and roast in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin is fork-tender. They should be nice and light golden brown when done.  It usually takes me longer, more like an hour.

3) Peel off the skin from the pumpkin pieces.  Throw in a few chunks of pumpkin into the food processor at a time.

4) Pulse the pumpkin until smooth. If it looks too dry, add in a few tablespoons of water during the pulsing to give it the needed moisture. (Note, if the puree is overly watery, you should strain it on cheesecloth or over a fine mesh strainer to get rid of some of the liquid.)

5) You can either use this immediately in whatever pumpkin recipe you’d like, or store it in the freezer for later use. To store in the freezer, spoon about 1 cupful of pumpkin into each plastic storage bag. Seal the bag with just a tiny bit of an opening remaining, then use your hands to flatten out the pumpkin inside the bag and push out the air. Store them in the freezer until you need them.

Amanda's Baby Shower!

Wednesday night, I did some baking for Amanda's baby shower at work.  She is pregnant with twins!  We had the party yesterday in the library after work.  We wanted to make sure that we had the shower early enough this tim around; our last "bout" with twins was Laura, who ended up giving birth during our shower for her!  We've learned to give early showers when there are twins involved!

One of my recipes was a repeat from last week; I made another batch of pumpkin oatmeal cookies.  They are just so good - and definitely even better with my own homemade pumpkin puree :)  It makes a ton of cookies, which was perfect to bring to a big party.  And Amanda had requested them.  Perfect.  To make it even better, my dream came true at the party: people asked for my recipe!  Laugh all you want, but I've been hoping for this to happen for years.  Usually Kenzie makes people ask me, which is really not the same thing, but this time the people who asked swear they really did want to make these cookies for Thanksgiving :)

The other thing I made was sort of a spur of the moment thing.  I had seen a recipe on my favorite blog for popcorn blogs.  They seemed so easy - make popcorn, make the same "sauce" that you do for rice krispie treats, and then pout it on the popcorn and make balls out of it.  And they were that easy!  The only problem was that I popped my own popcorn using bags of buttered popcorn, so I ended up with some unpopped kernels that I desperately tried to pick out once I poured the sticky marshmallow-butter mixture on top.  It was way too late by then, and some of the kernels stayed in there.  Be careful of that!  Mark did a great job forming the popcorn balls, and Mom was our sprinkler; we used pink and blue sprinkles, since Amanda is having a boy and a girl.  Then we put lollipop sticks that Mom had bought through them.  If I do say so myself, they looked pretty cute.  The recipe says it makes 8-10, but I wanted slightly smaller balls, so we got around 25 perfectly-sized popcorn balls.  Less than half of them went at the party (probably because my sister very loudly announced that she nearly broke a tooth on a kernel!) but I was happy this morning to see people walking down the hall holding them!  I left the extras in the office last night after the shower, and they all went today.  One woman even said, "I don't know who made these, but they were delicious!  This is my third one!"  So I was happy about that :)  I would recommend these for any holiday party; like the blog says, it would be really easy to decorate these for any occasion - just change up the colored sprinkles!  They are easy, cute, and pretty good too - salty, buttery, sugary and sweet all at once!

Recipes:
marshmallow popcorn balls

pumpkin oatmeal cookies
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
¾ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. grated nutmeg
Dash of allspice
½ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

2) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Whisk to blend.

3) In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Blend in the egg and vanilla. Beat in the pumpkin puree until well incorporated.

4) With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Beat in the oats until combined.

5) With a rubber spatula, fold in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries until evenly mixed.

6) Drop in small scoops (about 1½-2 tablespoons) onto prepared baking sheets, spaced 2-3 inches apart. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned, rotating the sheets halfway through baking. Allow to cool on the sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.