#51

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Having a cup of canned pumpkin left after making my pumpkin pancakes, I decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the first time.  I used the same recipe a colleague used and these turn out like cake-ies instead of cookies.

You can find the recipe here, but I also added ginger, nutmeg, all spice and ground cloves (which the recipe did not call for).  I never measure those, I just add a shake or two to the dry mix.

#49 & 50

Pumpkin Pancakes and Pumpkin Latte

Craving pancakes, I decided to make pumpkin pancakes.  From another post, you'll know that I don't have eggs on hand so I found another vegan pancake recipe.  These were really easy to make and made my kitchen smell like Thanksgiving.  

 

1 1/2 c. flour

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg & cloves

dash of allspice

in another bowl I mixed:

1 1/4 c. soymilk

a little more than 1/3 c. of canned pumpkin

1 tbsp oil

I poured the wet mixture into the dry mixture and boom! Pumpkin pancakes.  They are tasty and dense, I wish I had whipped cream to top them with, but were perfectly fine with just margarine.  This recipe came from food.com

The pumpkin latte was made with Starbucks Christmas espresso beans, soymilk with 2 tbsp of pumpkin mixed in and steamed and topped with some nutmeg and cloves.  It was okay, when I got to the end of my cup the pumpkin kind of settled.  I'll stick to making eggnog lattes from now on, I'm not big pumpkin latte fan.

#48

With the weather getting colder and me craving protein, I decided to try a new chili recipe.  In the past I made my mom's chili: black beans, kidney beans and stewed tomatoes.  What I made tonight had: 5 different canned beans (kidney, black, pinto, small red beans and cannellini), stewed tomatoes, vegetable broth, lentils and spices (chili, cumin, onion and garlic powder and cayenne).  Just as tasty as mom's, but more flavorful with the variety of beans and I did like what the lentils and spices added to a rather plain dish.  In fact, next time I'll make sure to add more spices and lentils.   

#47

Butternut Squash and Apple Casserole

Okay, is it b/c it's in a casserole dish that makes this a "casserole"? This dish is basically butternut squash and apple crisp, except the brown sugar crumb topping melted into syrup, perhaps next time I use oats and make it a true crisp.


I peeled, seeded and sliced butternut squash and apples.  Made a brown sugar crumb topping and sprinkled on the squash/apple mix in a sprayed casserole dish.  Baked at 350°, covered, for about an hour.

Too bad I didn't have ice cream to put on top when I served it.  It is tasty, the butternut squash does cut the sweetness by adding it's nuttiness to the dish.  This is one of those dishes where you say "hey, it's healthy, it has squash and apples in it" but that's just to make us feel better when the dish is loaded with sugar.  :)

#46

 Sour Apple Cotton Candy Martini

Watching TV in the wee hours on a weekend, I stumbled across some basic cable channel talk show where they were making martini's using cotton candy.  Having received some sour apple cotton candy at work, I decided to create my own cotton candy cocktail.

I rimmed my martini glass with the sour apple sugar before stuffing my glass with a lump of cotton candy.  I then made my appletini cocktail and poured it over the cotton candy.

The cotton candy melted almost instantly and was left with a tasty apple martini.  The best part was when I got to the bottom where all the cotton candy sugar settled. 

#45

Homemade Popcorn!

I have to thank Will for this one.  I had assumed one needed a home popcorn maker to make popcorn at home (like the one my mom has that we probably haven't used since we were kids), but nope.  Apparently, all one needs is oil, popcorn kernels and a pot.

2 tbps of canola oil + 1/4 c. popcorn kernels.  The video will show you have I made it, but I poured the oil in first and let it warm up before adding the kernels.  It took me less than 5 minutes from start to finish (with me eating it).  I added some salt to the pot at the end (once I turned off the heat) and poured 2 melted tbsp of margarine before putting the lid back on a giving it a shake.  Then I poured it in my container a scarfed this deliciousness down!

#44

Butternut Squash Soup

I used this recipe from the Foodnetwork website as a guide for the soup.  I skipped the whole olive oil and shallots, and stuck the cut and seeded butternut squash with olive oil rubbed on it in the oven at 350° for about 50 minutes, cut side down.  Once that was done, I used a quart of organic low-sodium vegetable broth and heated that with the cooled butternut squash.  I didn't have curry powder so I mixed up my own: ground cumin, red chili powder, nutmeg and cardamom powder.  I added the spices to the pot and simmer for 10 minutes or so.  Since I started this late, I poured the soup into containers and stuck them in the fridge until I was able to blend the soup (as the butternut squash was still somewhat chunky). 

I had the soup for dinner tonight and it's not that filling; I think I need to make some grilled cheese to fill myself up.