Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Happy Halloween! I know it's a little bit late, but I wanted to acknowledge the holiday, even if its purpose is a little questionable. Halloween is 1000 times better when you have a kid, I realized this year. It was so fun making all of our costumes so that we could all coordinate. I know that in two or three years he's going to want to do his own thing and it will be more difficult to all match, so this year was really fun!

If you couldn't tell, Evan was Han Solo, I was Princess Leia, and Alex was R2D2

One thing that really surprised me this year for Halloween is that the trick-or-treaters made their way around the neighborhood super early. We were completely cleaned out of candy before 5:30. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the northwest where it gets dark a touch earlier than here in Utah, but I remember always going trick-or-treating when it was dark out. I guess it's safer this way, or they get to go to more neighborhoods. But it made us feel a little awkward because we had to just shut our lights off and pretend we weren't home for a while.

But anyway, Halloween always reminds me of pumpkins and I love pumpkin pretty much anything! We busted out our first can way before October rolled around and there's no sign of getting bored of it yet. One of my favorite things to make is pumpkin bread, and here's my recipe:

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

(makes two regular or four mini loaves)

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pumpkin (I highly recommend Libby's)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup apple cider 

2 eggs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Mix pumpkin, sugar, cider, eggs, oil, and vanilla together and stir well. Add flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Divide into greased loaf pans. 

Bake 65 to 70 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to continue cooling. 

This is a perfect gift to give out to neighbors, especially if you make them in mini loaves. It's delicious served warm with butter. Or if you're like me and love hot chocolate, you can dip it in a warm, steamy cup!

Lisa

Single Serving Pies

This may be the most excited I've ever been about pie. There are some things you learn when you become a stay-at-home mom, and that is that making lunches for your husband is probably as boring as eating packed lunches.

I'm not a cold cuts kind of girl. I've always hated packed lunches from the time I started kindergarten to the end of my college career. Unfortunately my husband is exactly the same. He'll eat whatever I make him, but it is not very satisfying to make someone a lunch you know they won't enjoy.

Enter: single serving pies.

If there is one dessert my husband loves, it's apple pie. So these on-the-go pies are perfect for his lunches. You will need the half pint, wide mouth, short Mason jars for this recipe. It is important that you get the ones with the straight sides so they are easier to fill and eat.

You can use any pie crust recipe that you love, but here is one that is perfect every time. This recipe has been passed down at least three generations, if not more, and it produces a flaky, delicious crust that I dare you to try and beat.

Mom's Flakey Crust
(makes one standard size 2-crust pie)

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening
5 Tbs cold water

Combine the flour and salt. With a pastry cutter, incorporate the shortening into the dry ingredients until crumbly. Once all the flour and shortening are incorporated, add the cold water one tablespoon at a time. Mix lightly with a fork between each tablespoon. Do not overwork. Gather the crust into a ball and roll out on a floured surface.

For these pies, you can cut out the tops of the crust with the lid of the mason jar or you can use the crumble top recipe.

Crumble Topping
(makes about 6 single-serving pies)

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons of oats

Stir sugar, flour, and cinnamon together. Cut butter in with a fork or a pastry blender until incorporated. Add oats and mix together. Add two to three tablespoons of mixture to each pie top.


Apple Pie Filling
(makes 4 to 5 single serving pies)

2 to 2 1/2 cups of sliced and peeled apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch of cloves
1 tablespoon of butter chopped into 4 to 5 pieces

Add all ingredients except the butter in a bowl and stir. Coat evenly. Fill each crust with a little space remaining at the top. Add the pat of butter. Top with the top layer of crust or the crumble topping. Make sure to poke holes in the top layer of crust for vents if you aren't using the crumble topping.

Heat oven to 375 degrees and bake pies for 45 minutes or until the tops are browned.

You can eat these right away and use the baking instructions above, but I doubled the recipe and saved a lot to freeze. Don't cook the pie first if you are going to freeze it; just assemble it in the jar and screw the lid on tight! 

To bake after freezing, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the jar on a cookie sheet and remove the lid. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top is browned. So if you are packing this in your lunch, bake it far enough in advance that it is cool enough to travel in your lunch box. You can then eat it at room temperature or give it a little zap in the microwave before eating. 

This idea is also great for really any kind of pie, so the sky is the limit. Be creative and enjoy!

Lisa

Cheesecake–Mousse Lovechild

I'm already behind on my posting, and I'm horrified! I actually made this little recipe several days ago (and consumed all of it) but haven't been able to post until now. So here's to holding my breath that Baby Al won't wake up too soon.

Sometimes I daydream of food. Sometimes I even night-dream about it. Often my dreams don't pan out to anything tasty, but I was pretty pleased with the results of this dessert. The day I made it, I spent a considerable amount of time drooling over a picture of a no-bake cheesecake that I saw on the Inter-web. I usually don't like no-bake cheesecakes because they seem kind of phony to me. So I had a minor heart attack wondering if I was pregnant again, calmed myself down, and started mixing.

Here's the line up of ingredients (minus some butter and powdered sugar):

Looks pretty simple, right? It is! It took me about 10 minutes tops to make the whole thing. First, I made a graham cracker crumble. I blended about 5 crackers in a blender and mixed it with about 1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Then I mixed 4 ounces of cream cheese and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar together until they were all incorporated. I melted about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave blended it in with the cream cheese mixture. However, I found that it just wasn't enough chocolate, so I ended up with probably 2/3 cup of melted chocolate chips. 

You could probably just put in some cocoa powder instead since the rest of the ingredients are pretty sweet all by themselves. 

Then I folded in 1 1/2 cups of cool whip. I was careful not to mix it too much. 

 Finally, I layered graham cracker crumble and cream cheese mix a couple of times in some sundae dishes. I topped it with whipped cream and more graham crumbles. You can put it in the refrigerator to cool it more, but most the ingredients were cold to begin with and the cream cheese mix was already a good consistency, so there's no need to wait!

Here's the recipe:

Makes about 4 servings

Graham Crumble

5 graham crackers blended

2 Tbls melted butter

Cream Cheese Mix

4 oz. cream cheese softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2/3 cup melted chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup cool whip

Whipped cream for topping

Mix graham crumbs and melted butter together and set aside. 

Blend sugar and softened cream cheese together. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, heating in 15 second increments, stirring between. Add chocolate to cream cheese mixture until well blended. Fold in cool whip until it is mostly incorporated into chocolate. Some white streaks will remain. 

Layer graham crumbles and cream cheese mix until desired amount. Top with whipped cream and garnish with graham crumble. Enjoy!

Lisa