The Great Pumpkin!

I know it's fun for most to choose a pumpkin for their door step or to carve but this weekend I chose one so I could roast those seeds and eat that soup!

To roast seeds:

Remove from your pumpkin and pick all the pulp off. DO NOT RINSE! The little bit will bake off and helps the flavor stick.

Rinsing makes them slimey. Yuk. 

You can pat dry with paper towel or let sit out to dry for an hour.

Preheat oven to 275. Low and slow!

In a shallow roasting pan, spread seeds single layer. 

For seasoning:

1/4c butter melted

1tbsp Worchestershire sauce

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp salt

Dash of paprika

Dash of cumin

Pour over seeds and stir 

Roast 20 min and stir/ rotate pan.

Do this for 2 hours and check that they should be crunchy not chewy!

If they are, go extra 20 min until crunchy.

Cool before eating.

For Soup:

Cut up that pumpkin to large bite size pieces without skin (throw that to your squirrels!)

Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 45 mi. At 375. 

Hint: you can also just roast it and eat it like that if you're not making soup... It's delicious!

Meanwhile in a large pot, add 3tbsp butter and a drizzle of olive oil and sauté one whole diced onion 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger ( or 1/2 tsp ginger powder if you don't have that )and 3 stalks of celery until soft and slightly browning. Add carton of chicken stalk ( about 4 cups) and simmer until pumpkin ready. 

In a blender, carefully pour broth mix into blender and add pumpkin. 

Purée until smooth and return to pot but not back to boil. Add 1/4 c of light cream and stir thoroughly. 

Add salt and pepper to taste 

Serve.

I like to also put a dash of cayenne pepper to spice it up but you can experiment by adding it to just one bowl to taste in case others don't like spicy!

I'm Bacon you Pasta for Date Night!

My husband loves pasta of any kind so for date night, I wanted to give it a little twist for extra yum factor!

One pkg of spicy Italian sausage casing removed

4 strips of thick cut bacon diced

1 c diced white mushrooms

1 large can petite diced tomatoes I drained

1 small can tomato sauce

1/4 cup beef broth

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 cloves garlic sliced thin

1/4 tsp dried chilis 

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper to taste

In saucepan:

Add oil and lightly sauté garlic

Add sausage (crumbled ) and bacon, oregano, onion powder,chilis, salt and pepper.

Cook until brown and remove from pan.

Leave drippings in pan,add mushrooms and butter and cook until seared but not soft.

Return meat mixture to pan and add beef broth while scraping the bottom to loosen any stuck bits into the flavor.

Add tomatoes and sauce with balsamic

Simmer on low for about an hour as it cooks down and thickens.

Serve this over bow ties or your choice of short pasta. 

Remember , just drain your pasta and immediately return to pot to save some of that starchy water ...it helps the sauce stick to pasta!

Bon Appetite and always make time for date night!

One Banana? No Eggs? No Problem!

Sometimes I wanna bake but my pantry says "nope". 

Yesterday I saw one banana in my kitchen and thought "so what, I can just make a smaller banana bread!"

Then, as a started to create my recipe, I turned to grab an egg.....dun dun Dunn...

No eggs. Oops! Then I thought "well what about all the people with egg allergies? What do they get to enjoy?"

This recipe is for them and anyone else who only has one banana and wants banana bread Dang it!

Preheat 350

Spray bread pan with veg oil

In a large bowl, add

One large very ripe banana

1 c brown sugar

1 stick of butter or marg softened ( 1/2c)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Blend with hand mixer

Now.. To replace the egg:

Mix 1/4 c of applesauce 

(whatever you have on hand. I happened to have sauce I made from last weeks apple picking)

 with

1 tsp baking powder 

Add to banana mixture 

Next.. Do not over mix but add until wet and not lumpy or you'll have a heavy bread:

1/2 c milk

1.5 c flour 

1-2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of clove

Dash of salt

Pour into pan

Bake for 55 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 min before cutting.

This was a shot in the dark but my husband and daughter said it was delicious!

It was very moist and very easy and yes, even with only ONE banana.... Taste plenty of banana!