Pumpkin Cake Pops

My sister is actually the baker of the family.  It is a well-known fact.  People even joke that we would have the best restaurant if I cooked the food and Jen baked the dessert.  So when birthdays come around, my sister is always creating these awesome-tasting and awesome-looking cakes.  So when my sister's birthday came around this year and my mom wasn't in town to help me, I was a little worried.  I really wasn't even sure what angle I was going to take.  My inspiration came pretty easy after having a 10 minutes conversation with Jen about all things we love about pumpkin season.  We were talking about making pumpkin gnocchi, that time I made pumpkin chili, pumpkin ravioli.  So I quickly decided to make some kind of pumpkin dessert.  After thinking about it more, I decided to do a pumpkin cake dessert bar.

Using fresh roasted pumpkin, I made two different types of cake pops: pumpkin cake and pumpkin brownies.  I then had a couple different dips: caramel sauce, cheesecake pudding, and pumpkin-spiced icing.  I also had different toppings: crushed toffee, crushed cinnamon graham crackers, and sprinkles.

When baking, I need to use a recipe as a guide or else cakes turn out flat, gritty, or in some other way far from perfect.  So the pumpkin cake recipe is based on a Food Network recipe, with some minor alterations.  The pumpkin brownies were easy.  I used boxed brownie mix and substituted half of the oil for pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Cake Pops

What you'll need:
For the Pumpkin cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup nonfat milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, see previous recipe for roasting fresh pumpkin)

For the icing:
- 8oz cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

To make the cake:
1.  Preheat oven to 375*.  Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice with a whisk.  Set aside.

2.  In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar and mix with an electric mixer.  Mix in milk, then oil, then the pumpkin puree.

3.  Add the dry mix to the pumpkin mixture using a wooden spoon.

4.  Spray a 9x13 baking pan and pour cake batter into it.  Bake 25 - 28 minutes.  Cool cake in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a cooling rack.

5.  Mix together all the ingredients for the icing in a bowl using an electric mixer.

To make the cake pops:
1.  Using pumpkin cake or pumpkin brownie, place cake in a bowl.  Using a fork, break apart cake until it is all small crumbs. Add about 3/4 cup icing to the cake crumbs and mix together.

2.  Spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray.  Use your hands to mix the cake and icing completely and to form into 1" spheres.  If the cake falls apart, it needs a little more icing to hold it together.  Place cake pops on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place in freezer for one hour.  Take out of the freeze and put cake pop sticks in each one.

3.  Cover with icing and roll in crushed graham crackers.  Or make a caramel sauce to dip in and then roll in crushed toffee.  You could also melt Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kiss to dip in, or crush the kisses and use as a topping.

Roasting Pumpkin

Canned pumpkin puree is available year-round, but when fall is here it's good to use fresh pumpkins.  You can really taste the difference!  Plus, roasting a pumpkin makes your home smell so delicious!  It's very easy to do, too.

First, pick up a sweet pie pumpkin.  Sometimes they're just called a pie pumpkin.  They look like miniature versions of carving pumpkins.  Preheat the oven to 425*F.

Cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise.

Scoop out the seeds and all the stringy stuff.  Keep this if you wish to roast the seeds.

Place each half of the pumpkin with the hard skin side up on a rimmed baking sheet.  Fill a cup with water.  Put the baking sheet and pumpkin in the oven.  Before closing the door, pour water into the rimmed baking sheet.  Pour enough to cover the bottom.  Bake 20 - 30 minutes, until the skin is browning and easily pressed in.  If you plan to puree the pumpkin, roast at least 25 minutes.  If you plan to cut up the pumpkin, roast closer to 18 to 20 minutes.

Take the pumpkin out of the oven and let cool.  Use a fork to puncture the skin and lift the skin off.  Alternatively, you can flip the pumpkin half over and scrape the pumpkin off of the skin.  When you have all the pumpkin, put it in a food processor and puree.

Pork Salad with Thyme-Cranberry Dressing

Pork goes really well with the sweetness of cranberries, and also goes well with the savory taste of thyme.  This salad has more sweet components that most salads, but it is balanced with some savory and sour aspects.

For this recipe, I use pork tenderloin.  This is a lean cut of meat as long as you cut off the fat surrounding the tenderloin.  The pork is sliced very thinly and cooked over the stove.  this particular time I made this recipe, I just cooked it in a little bit of olive oil over the stove.  Other times I have first dipped the pork in a seasoned flour mixture.  The seasoned flour has pepper and fresh thyme in it. The flour coating gives the pork a slightly different flavor.  Pork tenderloin is a strongly flavored meat, and I think the flour coating helps tone that down just a little.  Both ways it tastes good, so the option is up to you.

The salad dressing is atypical because it is cooked over the stove.  Simmering the dressing for a while lets the dressing reduce and thicken.  It also allows time for the flavors to develop.

Pork Salad with Thyme-Cranberry Dressing

What you'll need:
- 8oz pork tenderloin, trimmed
- 1/2 firm pear, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots
- 3 1/2 cups salad greens


What to do:
1.  Slice pork in 1/4" slices.  Set aside.

2.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan.  Cook shallots until transluscent.  Add in wine and simmer 3 minutes.  Add in dried cranberries and thyme and keep at a low simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, until thickened.

3.  Heat a skillet over medium, high heat.  Add 1 tbsp olive oil.  When hot, add pork slices and cook 2 minutes each side.

4.  Using 2 plates or salad bowls, plate salad greens and sprinkle with 1/2 tbsp olive oil on each salad.  Top with cooked meat, sliced pear, and salad dressing.

Fall has Arrived!

If you live in the northern Virginia area,  then you are well aware of the drastic change in weather over the past week or 2.  We had such a hot summer.  Almost everyday temperature reached above 95 degrees.  It was usually above 85 degrees when driving to work at 7:30am.  It left little flexibility to exercise if you wanted to be outside in cooler temperatures.  Soup was always out of the question.  It was just too hot.

 

After a summer of pumping up the AC and never wanting to open my windows in the house, I haven’t closed them for the past 10 or more days.  The daytime temperature is 70-85 degrees.  It is even sometimes pretty chilly in the morning!  It is finally officially fall!

It’s time to say goodbye to fresh, local zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, asparagus, and sweet onions; no more local peaches, plums, or nectarines. Of course they will still be at the grocery store, but it never as good as fresh from the farmer's market. It’s now time to enjoy all the wonderful fall fruits and vegetables: apples, pears, pomegranates, figs, late-season berries, pumpkin, leeks, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, broccoli and cauliflower.

I am ever so excited for fall! I can’t wait to go to a pumpkin patch, to go pick apples, and, of course, cook my favorite fall recipes: green bean casserole, potato leek soup, roasted cauliflower, cream of broccoli soup, apple pie, butternut squash risotto, and basically anything that has pumpkin in it!

If you love fall, but you aren’t sure where to start, Food Network has a monthly checklist of activities, crafts and recipes.  I will also be posting all the wonderful fall recipes I can think of.

Mushroom Gnocchi

This dish on its own is not a full meal.  Gnocchi is a potato dumpling, so it is a very starchy food.  To get a food balance, I recommend trying to keep the 1/2 plate method in mind.  This involves making half of your played filled with non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 of the plate is starch, 1/4 of the plate is lean protein.

So to form a health, balanced plate you can add some chicken to the dish and have a side salad.  Or cook up some green beans and serve with baked fish.

This is a pretty healthy cream sauce recipe because it is made mostly with skim milk.  Because it is so much lower in fat, you have to make sure it doesn't get too hot.  I kept the flame low, kept stirring, and occasionally added more milk. Adding cold milk intermittently helps keep the temperature down.  It needs to simmer for a while in order to reduce and thicken.

Mushroom Gnocchi

What you'll need:
- 1/2 package gnocchi
- 1 cup chopped mushrooms, such as baby portobellas
- 1/3 cup chopped white onion
- 1/2 tbsp buttery spread
- 1/2 tbsp flour
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper

What to do:
1.  Heat water for gnocchi.  Cook according to package directions.

2.  Heat medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and cook  about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add onion and cook 3 minutes.  Add butter and stir, cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add flour and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes to allow the flour to cook.

3.  Add cream and 1/4 cup of skim milk and stir.  Keep heat low and make sure the liquid does not come to a boil.  Add the rest of the milk 1/4 at a time every 5 minutes.  Continue stirring.

4.  After gnocchi is cooked, add to the sauce and stir.  Recipe makes 2 servings.

5 Ways with Rotisserie Chicken

Buying a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store can make meal preparation really easy.  You buy a whole cooked chicken, then take apart the pieces you want.  It is important to remember that some parts of the chicken are healthier than others.  The skin is going to be the least healthy part.  The skin itself contains a lot of saturated fat.  It is also where the butter and salt get laid on before the chicken is cooked.  So I always peel off the skin.  The dark meat is higher in fat than the white meat.  So when you are deciding which meat to use for which recipe, use the higher fat meat with a lower fat recipes.  

So here are some ideas on how to use the chicken meat:

Use  thigh meat for a Chicken Taco Salad

Make a salad of greens, strips of red and green bell peppers, onion.  Top with salsa, a small sprinkle of Mexican cheese, a spoonful of plain Greek yogurt, and plash of hot sauce.  Throw on the pulled chicken meat and you've got a super fast dinner.  If you don't like uncooked peppers and onions, saute them for about 5 minutes in a little canola oil and sprinkle with pepper and paprika.

Use breast meat for a Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

In a bowl, mix together 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion, 1 1/2 cups chopped romaine, 3 tbsp plain non-fat Greek yogurt, 3 tbsp Caesar dressing, 1 tbsp grated parmesan, pulled meat of one chicken breast, 1/4 tsp pepper.  Stir so that the dressing coats everything.  Toast a bun or roll, or use pita bread.  Recipe makes 2 sandwiches

Use thigh meat for a Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad

Make a salad of romaine and spinach.  Top with chopped green bell pepper, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced onion, a few walnuts, and chicken meat.  Make a dressing of 1 part Dijon mustard, 2 parts olive oil, 2 parts balsamic vinegar, plus a pinch of salt and pepper.

Use breast meat for a Greek Chicken Salad Sandwich

In a food processor, chop 1 smal cucumber and 2 peeled garlic cloves.  Then in a bowl, mix together shredded chicken, the chopped cucumber, 1/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp crumbled feta, 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion, 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tsp dried dill.  Toast a bun or roll, or use pita bread.  Recipe makes 2 sandwiches.

Use breast or tenderloin meat for a quick BBQ Chicken Pizza

Use a small spoonful of BBQ sauce to mix with the shredded chicken meat.  Spread a small amount of BBQ sauce over the inside of each half of a sandwich thin ( such as Arnold Breads), then top with thinly sliced red onion, a few thin slices of green bell pepper, and the chicken.  Sprinkle 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese on each sandwich half.  Set a toaster oven to 'Broil' on low, or a 'Pizza' setting and cook for 8 - 10 minutes.