Wild Rice and Sausage Stuffed Pumpkin

Stuffed pumpkins rock!  I'm definitely one of those annoying people that look forward to everything-pumpkin in the fall.  I'd never stuffed a pumpkin until a few years ago and it's become one of my most favourite autumn dishes.

We have a recipe for a sweet Apple and Oats Stuffed Pumpkin, but we also enjoy doing savoury stuffed pumpkins, so I thought it was time to get a recipe up!  This stuffed pumpkin was so delicious.  While I chose wild rice and sausage, you can really put anything you like in one!  Change up the meat and use chicken or shredded beef.  Change up the grain and use barley or white rice.  Add nuts - try dried apricots instead of cranberries.  Try a theme - Mexican, Italian, Moroccan, Chinese...

How about The Hollowpoints - The Sickness.  -jen

WILD RICE AND SAUSAGE STUFFED PUMPKIN
Prep Time:  30 minutes
Bake Time:  60 minutes
Difficulty:  Easy to Medium
Serves:  about 6

• 1 pie pumpkin (like a Sugar Pumpkin or a Winter Luxury)
• 5 links maple sausage 
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil + 2 teaspoons, melted
• 1 small carrot, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 medium onion, diced (about 3/4 cups)
• 1 large stalks of celery, diced (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 small green pepper or poblano, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 apple, diced (like a Gala or Fuji) (about 1 cup)
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced (1 tbsp)
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced (1 tbsp)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (brown sugar would be a suitable substitute) + 1 teaspoon
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon salt  + 1/4 teaspoon
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper + a pinch
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder + 1/4 teaspoon
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage + 1/4 teaspoon
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1-2 cups cooked wild rice (recipe below)  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Like carving a jack-o-lantern, cut the top of your pumpkin off and scoop the inside and the base of the lid clean.  (Save your seeds and make Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds!)   Discard the insides, keep your lid!  Make sure you get all those stringy pieces out... it's worth the extra effort to make it totally scraped clean.  Set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook sausages through.  Set aside.  In same skillet with the remaining sausage fat, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and the carrots, cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then add the onion, celery, and green pepper.  Saute about 5 minutes, until vegetables become tender.  Add the apples, garlic, ginger, maple syrup, cranberries, salt, pepper, curry powder, sage, cinnamon, marjoram, and red pepper flake.  Cook another 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

Once cool, dice the sausages and add the sausage and the rice to the vegetable mixture.  Add 2 teaspoons of melted coconut oil, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/4 tsp salt, pinch of pepper, 1/4 tsp curry powder and 1/4 tsp of sage to the inside of the pumpkin, .  Using your hands, massage oil and seasonings all over the inside of the pumpkin, as well as on the bottom of the lid. 

Stuff the pumpkin completely full with the stuffing.  Place the lid back on the pumpkin and place on a sheet
pan.  Cook at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour.  A sharp knife should slide easily through the skin and the flesh if the pumpkin is cooked thoroughly.  Remove and let rest for 5 minutes.

Place on a serving tray.  Remove lid.  Slice wedges and serve.  Don't forget to slice the pumpkin meat off of the lid, too!

If you have leftover stuffing you can serve it on the table with your stuffed pumpkin for folks who want extra.  You can make an egg scramble out of it (which we did!) or use it as a side dish for your dinner the next evening.

WILD RICE
Cook Time:  45-60 minutes
Difficulty:  Easy
Makes:  about 2 cups

• 1/2 cup wild rice
• 2 cups chicken broth (or water)
• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage (optional)

In a large sauce pan, combine rice, broth and sage.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 45 minutes and check.  You'll want about half of the kernels to split open (they'll look lighter in colour)... could take up to 60 minutes.  If there's any remaining liquid, drain it off.  Fluff with a fork.

Note:  Wild rice will triple or quadruple once cooked.  1 cup may yield 3.5 - 4 cups.

Apple Hooch

Several years ago while spending Christmas in Phoenix, we'd tried a homemade alcoholic apple beverage that we all decided to call "hooch" for lack of knowing what it was or how it was made - it was just gifted to someone.  Everyone at the house loved it and we went home, determined to figure out something comparable!

So we came up with this recipe... and it's awesome!  I'm not really an alcohol drinker myself, but I can get behind this hooch!  Last year, we made a big batch and gifted them out.  This year, we've made a big batch already... and gone through 3 bottles ourselves, heheh.  I think we're going to have to do another batch up if we want to give any away.  Why we didn't get a recipe posted last year, I have no idea.

This would be a great treat to take to any houses you visit for the holidays!  Or to have for your company if you're hosting holidays.  Justin's family is expecting to visit us for Christmas this year and I have a feeling they will now be expecting apple hooch!  We better save a few bottles!

I just said to Justin, "What tunes do you want to use?"  He said the Buzzcocks, and then when I began looking something up, he goes, "Wait!  Have we used Tiger Army's "In The Orchard" yet?"  Haa!  Apropos.  -jen

APPLE HOOCH 

Cinnamon, allspice, cloves, star anise

Prep Time: 20 minutes plus cool down time 
Curing Time:  3 weeks 
Makes:  5.5- 750ml bottles (about a gallon and a quart)

• 2 large whole cinnamon sticks
• 1 star anise pod
• 8-10 allspice berries
• 5-7 whole cloves
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 gallon of fresh pressed apple cider
• 1 large bottle (750ml) Everclear, 151 proof 

Place whole spices in a large stock pot and warm over low heat until they perfume, 3-4 minutes.  Add apple cider and sugars; stir until dissolved.  Turn heat to high and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temp (a few hours).  When cool, add the Everclear and stir to combine.  Strain out the spices and pour into glass storage containers with tight-fitting lids.  Store in a cool, dry place for 3 weeks or longer.  (It gets smoother the longer you let it sit.)

Local Cider

Serve cold over ice (we keep the bottle in the fridge once we open one), or warm up and add a little Tuaca to it (vanilla brandy).  You could totally make it mulled (we find pre-made mulling spice in our co-op's bulk spice aisle).  Justin even speculated that it would be tasty in a sangria!  If you warm it up, don't "cook" it too long or you'll cook out the alcohol!

Note:  We did the conversion of alcohol content once the cider was added, and it comes to about 12%, which is comparable to most wines.  If you wanted less alcohol, you could substitute 80 proof vodka for the Everclear and you'd get a hooch that's about 6% alcohol, which is more like an ale.

 

 

Oatmeal Raisin Cake with Sparkling Cider Glaze

Cake isn't made very often in our house, but I'd been craving cake the last few days.  It came to a head while we were both being lazy at home and I decided I only had the energy to make one recipe - it was either cake or focaccia.  Cake won out.

I didn't know what kind of cake I wanted to make though.  I was in pajamas and didn't feel like getting dressed to go to the store for any ingredients.  I knew we had the basics for cake, but wasn't sure what else we had to do something "different".  Browsing through our 11th Edition Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (the one cook book everyone should have), I found a recipe for an oatmeal cake.  Never heard of an oatmeal cake before!

I made a few personal preference adjustments to the recipe and it came out great!  I initially wasn't going to make a frosting or a glaze for the cake - Justin and I generally don't care for either.  But I decided this needed just a little something, looked in the fridge, had some Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider and thought that would work just fine with cinnamon, raisin and oatmeal.  Admittedly, I didn't use all of the glaze... but I think most people seem to like their sweets, sweet. 

Cake was real moist.  Tastes like oatmeal!  Reminds me a little of a coffee cake.  This recipe is definitely a keeper for us.

I got a little ska action for this recipe.  Reel Big Fish, "Everyone Else Is An Asshole".  -jen

 OATMEAL RAISIN CAKE
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45-50 minutes
Serves:  12

• 1-1/4 cups boiling water
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 1 cup raisins

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over oats and let sit for 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer or stand mixer on high for 30 seconds.  Add sugars and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each.

Alternately add dry mixture and oatmeal, beating on low after each addition, just until combined.  Stir in raisins and pour into prepared pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes.  Remove sides from pan and cool an additional hour.  Drizzle with Apple Cider Glaze (see recipe below) and serve.  (Glaze will harden as it cools.)

SPARKLING CIDER GLAZE

• 1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons sparkling apple cider
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• zest of 1/2 a lemon

Whisk together all ingredients and drizzle over cooled cake.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

(Not my pic.)

We both grew up with cranberry sauce out of a can... and when we discovered how easy it is to make your own and customize it,  I don't think we could ever go back to the canned version.  Earlier in the year I discovered Pomanders, which are oranges studded with whole cloves and used as a room freshener.  We hung several of them up in our house, in closets, in the hallway, and they really made our house smell amazing... we both fell in love with the smell of oranges and cloves combined. So when I decided to make a cranberry sauce today, I decided to go heavy on the orange and also use cloves.  Sweet, tart, slightly spicy... it pretty much smells like the holidays.

Fresh rinsed ranberries

(Here's a how-to for making your own pomander.)

I've really been trying to cut back the sugar in recipes and I did so in this one as well.  Most cranberry sauce recipes you find will use up to a cup of sugar or honey.  With this one, I figured I've got the orange juice, the cranberry juice, the apple, the Triple Sec... plenty of sweet but a lot of tart.  If you're not big into tart, you might want to use 1 cup of sugar in the recipe.

And in the holiday spirit, I chose Jim Carroll singing "People Who Died".  (I apologize for the video showing Leo and Marky Mark.)  -jen

SPICED CRANBERRY SAUCE 
Difficulty:  Easy
Time:  20 minutes
Makes: 2 and 1/4 cups

Orange & Lemon Zest

• juice and zest of one orange (about 1/3 cup juice)
• juice and zest of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons juice)
• 1/2 cup cranberry juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup Triple Sec liqueur 
• 1 apple (your choice), diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring orange juice, lemon juice, cranberry juice and sugar to a boil.  Add rinsed cranberries and bring back to a boil (about 5 minutes).  Lower heat to a simmer and add citrus zests, Triple Sec, diced apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes (but not more than 15 minutes or it won't set).  Remove from heat and let set.  Serve at room temp or chilled - it's up to you.