Pumpkin Soup

I was going to make soup in a pumpkin yesterday - until I realized that all of our big pumpkins are doing Halloween decoration duty on the porch right now. I do have lots of smaller pumpkins, so I ended up trying out a recipe for pumpkin soup. Pumpkin/Acorn Squash Soup.

I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com...then I found another one there....then I read the reviews....then I ended up sort of combining the two recipes and making some changes of my own. So here goes:

Pumpkin Soup

1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage, browned and drained
6 cups chicken stock (I used Better than Bouillon)
4 cups pumpkin puree (I used a mix of pumpkin and acorn squash)
1/2 cup chopped onion (I sauteed these first, to soften them)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I used evaporated milk)
2-4 Tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste.

1. Heat stock, pumpkin, sauteed onions, thyme and garlic in a big pot. Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered.

2. Puree the soup in small batches (1 cup at a time!!!) using the blender.

3. Return to pan and add cooked sausage. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for another 30 minutes. Stir in cream.

Pretty simple, really. You could use canned pumpkin puree and it would be even easier. I think I will play around with the spices some next time I make it and try a spicier sausage. It came out a tad sweeter than I expected and tasted more like chicken soup than pumpkin - but that was okay with us. A great way to sneak vegetables onto the table.

Savoury Zuccinni Pancakes

Here is a super easy pancake recipe that is good and good for you. No picture now- we ate the evidence too quickly.

1-2 small zucchini (about 1/3 zucchini per pancake) shredded and drained.
2-3 lg eggs (proportions on these two is as you prefer- but zucchini should be the 2-1 fave here)
3 T chopped parsley or something green- I used dried cilantro-it was good-spinach would be good.
A little salt or season salt ( your choice).
A little black or white pepper-depending on who you're cooking for.
Finely chopped green onion ( or any other onion finely chopped).
( I can think of a lot other things I could add but I stopped here-this time)

Heat a good skillet with a little olive oil in it on medium, medium high. Pour batter out in pancake size dollops. Flatten a little and let cook until brown on the cooked side and pretty well cooked through. Flip and cook until brown on that side too.

At this point you can top it with a little parmesan cheese and eat it plain or top it with ranch dressing made with low fat sour cream (we chose this- it was great!)

Makes a great brunch, lunch , or even dinner.

Make A Mix

I've been making bread at least every other day. At least. In a effort to make it less of an effort, I decided to put together all the dry ingredients for our favorite bread. Now, when I have to make bread, I just pour the liquid ingredients in the bread machine, add the dry mix and top with yeast. After 2 1/2 hours in the bread machine the dough is ready to rise in pans for an hour, then bake at 350' for 30 minutes. Yes, 4 hours from start to finish, but the actual time I have to put in is about 10 minutes. Not too bad.

Soft and Delicious 2-hour Wheat Bread

Here is the bread recipe I promised Deb. I have made it many, many times and it is consistently good and soft ( not even I could mess it up). It makes about 4 loaves and freezes well. I used to make it entirely by hand, but a heavy duty mixer with a bread hook would probably speed things up a bit.

5 C warm water
2 T yeast
1/3 C honey
1/3 C potato flakes ( go food storage!)
1/3 C oil
2 eggs
1 T salt
4 C whole wheat flour
6-7 C Bread or All purpose Flour

Dissolve yeast per pkg instructions. Make a sponge using all ingredients ( preferably in order down to and including whole wheat flour and about 2 C other flour. Mix well. Let rest about 10 minutes. Add remaining flour gradually as needed to make a soft dough. Knead on floured surface. At this point the recipe says to cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double. I would usually put it in a large preheated* ceramic bowl, pour a little olive ( or other) oil in and turn 'til all is moistened with oil and let rise there, loosely covering with plastic wrap or tea towel. It just raises a little quicker that way. Punch down and then shape into 4 loaves: place in 4 greased bread pans. cover and let rise again until double.

Bake at 350' for 30-40 minutes. Put hot bread on a towel and thoroughly cover with towels for a nice soft crust. Be sure to have it completely cooled before freezing.

*fill the ceramic bowl with very hot water after making the sponge. Drain and dry before putting bread dough in to rise.

Dutch Bread II

I gave Sherri's Dutch Crunch Bread recipe a whirl. I have to admit to some skepticism. There was nothing magic in the ingredients....so......

Before putting in the oven- is this what it's supposed to look like?

After baking for 30 minutes.

I was still skeptical. Sure, it looked good, but that's not why we make bread. It's got to taste good and have great texture.

Verdict:
Surprisingly good. I will definitely try this again. I'm not totally in love with the crunchy topping - so I might try it without - but the rest reminded me of kaiser rolls (which I love). The crunchy topping was a little too crunchy for me - but that may have been because my home ground rice flour was coarser than store bought.

I will make these into rolls next time instead of loaves. I might try adding crushed garlic, rosemary, thyme and basil (the seasonings in my Garlic Herb Bread).

Thank you Sherri!

Wheat bread Wednesday

After yesterday's fairly successful foray into making wheat bread I decided to give it another try today...I searched for wheat bread recipes on Google and found a winner. This. Bread. Is. Awesome.

I found it on cdkitchen. com - and thanks to a few rave reviews and helpful hints from reviewers, I decided to give it a go. I changed a few of the original ingredients and amounts(sorry, I'm not putting instant coffee into bread).

Outback Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bushman Bread (Bread Machine)

1/2 cup water
1 cup evaporated milk (or combine liquids to 1 1/2 cups water and add 1/4 cup powdered milk)
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses
2 1/4 cup bread flour
2 1/4 cup wheat flour
4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
cornmeal for dusting

Place all ingredients into the bread machine and process on dough setting. I opened it up after a few minutes and scraped down the sides. Let rise for 1 hour (I just let the dough cycle run its course). I then turned the bread machine back on to let it knead for a minute.

Remove from pan and divide into 8 portion. Form portions into tubular shaped loaves. Place on two cookie sheets (I have silicone mats that I use on my cookie sheets). Spray lightly with Pam, then sprinkle cornmeal on loaves. Cover and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 350' for 25-30 minutes. Be prepared for some pretty awesome aromas emanating from your oven. Makes 8 small loaves (about the equivalent of 3 dinner rolls each).

Verdict:

Nathan: 8.8 out of 10. A solid B+. "It looks like Artisan bread".
Alex: 8.5.
Danny: 11. Yes, 11.
Steve: 9.5
Me: I'm going with Steve on this one - 9.5. I didn't even have to make honey butter - you could taste the honey in it. The loaves were easy to cut - Danny was able to cut fairly thin slices with a steak knife. Dense texture without being heavy. This is a great, slightly sweet, wheat bread. Next week: I'm going to try and adapt my garlic-herb bread. Mmmm.

Wonder Bread

Okay, okay, it's not "Wonder Bread"...but it wasn't half bad either.

We tried out our wheat grinder last night for FHE - it works just fine - especially with kids turning the handle. I used a recipe from my bread machine cookbook:

Multigrain Bread

(it says it makes a large loaf - but I made 3 small loaves)

1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/3 cup bread flour
1 1/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup 7-grain cereal
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons yeast

After it had gone through the "dough" cycle on the bread machine I turned it back on to knead again for a few minutes - then divided it into 3 and put into greased (Pam) loaf pans. After it rose for 1 1/2 hours (longer than I planned - I was late getting back from physical therapy) I cooked it at 375' for 30 minutes. We tried it out while it was warm - with honey butter...mmmm.

Verdict (out of 10 with 10 being the best):

Steve: he gave it an 8...after raving about it. I think his lowish score might be a ploy to get me to try it again.
Nathan: 7. It was good.
Alex: 7.5.
Danny: 10. He also gave the honey butter a 10.
Me: I think 7 or 8 would be fair. I found the 7 grain cereal to be a little crunchier than I really wanted - it was a little too coarse. I would like to try this recipe again, but use some 10 grain cereal that I picked up - it has a finer texture. Besides, if 7 grain is good, 10 should be better, right?