I don't have anything to intro with. I had pumpkin puree in the freezer from last fall when we got a ton of sugar pumpkins from a friend. I knew I'd be home today. I felt like making muffins. They were awesome. There's not much else to say.
It's St. Patrick's Day... and there's really nothing Irish about these muffins. I mean, I'm sure they have pumpkins and muffins in Ireland, so they could be Irish. But that wasn't really my intention or anything. I'm just going to use it as an excuse for an Irish tune. Justin had Dropkick Murphys' "Good Rats" on today, so that's what I'm using. -jen
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups.
In a small bowl, combine all topping ingredients, mix and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, pecans, raisins, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, salt and orange zest. Mix to combine.
In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together just until dry ingredients are moist. (Do not over-mix.)
Spoon evenly into paper cups. Sprinkle with topping and bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden brown and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes.
My friend Jonathan was talking about how he'd been sprinkling some cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla into his coffee grounds. It made me want to make up a chai spice for my own coffee. When I made it, it smelled so amazing, I knew I wanted to make cookies with it (and if you haven't noticed, I'm not big into baking.) Leaning towards a chai-spiced sugar cookie initially, I changed my mind when I saw my canister of oats. These cookies came out so chewy and awesome. Though there are 2 teaspoons of chai spice in it, the finished product is not overwhelmed by the spice. In fact, if you really wanted a spiced cookie, I'd go with 3 teaspoons instead of the 2 in the recipe!
I have no specific reason for choosing this video except that I love the Street Dogs. And this is their video for "Punk Rock & Roll". -jen
CHAI OATMEAL COOKIES Prep Time: 10 minutes plus 30 minutes to refrigerate Difficulty: Easy Makes: about 18 cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
2/3 cups dark brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons Chai Masala (see recipe below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, egg and almond extract with an electric or stand mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, Chai Masala, and salt. Add dry mix into wet mix until combined. Fold in oats, raisins and pecans.
Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Scoop dough into rough balls about 1-1/2" diameter. Lay 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 11-13 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
CHAI MASALA Prep Time: 5 minutes Makes: 1/3 cup (15 teaspoons)
4 teaspoons ground cardamom
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground all spice
Whisk all ingredients together. Store in air-tight container. I'm still discovering the uses for it, but it smells amazing! I've put it in my coffee grounds pre-brewing. The oatmeal cookies were great! I've sprinkled some in a milkshake. We have a ton of apples and I'm thinking about using it to make a spicy chai apple crumble.
You might be wondering what the hell a Choner Bar is, besides an incredibly delicious, chewy dessert. Well, it's my understanding that stoners get the munchies. And I've been told that when stoners get the munchies, they don't want to drive anywhere, so they start digging through their cupboards, making outrageous concoctions with what they have on hand! So a hypothetical stoner might hypothetically have all these ingredients in the pantry and make a hypothetical chewy stoner bar out of them. But we wouldn't want to title our bars Chewy Stoner Bars! That could come with some negative implications, and it's hypothetical, after all... so we shortened it to Choner Bars. Who are we to pretend like we know the culinary cravings of stoners just because we live in Humboldt County?! Please... as if!
I chose The Clash's "Rock the Casbah" simply because someone was talking
about Adam Ant today, and I was explaining my first crushes... which
included Joe Strummer, specifically from this video. So it was just rollin' through my head today. -jen
1 cup chopped nuts of choice (I used 1/2 Hazel nut, 1/2 roasted peanuts)
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
2/3 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously coat a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar and softened butter in a mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until creamed together. Add vanilla, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; mix in. While continuing to mix, add eggs, one at a time. Then slowly beat in the 2 cups of flour. Fold in coconut, oats, nuts, chocolate chips and raisins.
Press dough evenly into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.
I'm a guy who loves game meat. My former father-in-law and myself used to raise chickens and rabbits for meat. We had coveys of quail that nested and fed in his backyard. Wild turkey roosted in the trees down by the river where the deer also bedded down during the heat of the day. Wild pig rooted on the hillsides up the ridge. Needless to say that I've had my fair share of game meat. Pig roasts were common for weddings or graduations and when folks took a deer or a bear, there was often a cookout that followed.
A few months back, I'd picked up a couple of whole, trimmed rabbits from a local butcher who carries them and I finally decided to pull one out and do something with it. It's been getting colder here of late and a nice hearty stew seemed like the perfect thing to do with a rabbit. I figured the slow cooker would be a perfect way to break down the meat off the bones and impart a good savory flavor to the meat as Jen isn't too fond of the "gamey" taste of many wild meats. Personally, I like it. It also helped me clean up a few leftover veggies I had sitting around and I made up some barley to serve it over. A great old-timey comfort dish. Jen said it reminded her of some sort of hunter's stew so that's what I decided to call it.
Note: If you have an aversion to eating Bambi, Thumper, or any other cute, cuddly woodland creatures, poultry may be substituted for rabbit but your cooking times will be much shorter. Probably no more than 6 hours or so.
A little Jawbreaker "West Bay Invitational" seemed apropos as I would gladly have invited everyone to the West Bay, or Humboldt since I then wouldn't have to drive, to a kick-ass party where I would serve much cerveza and plenty of rabbit stew. With kick-ass live music of course. - justin
Hunter's Stew
Time: 8-9 hours
Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: Easy
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup shallots, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp Chinese Five Spice
1 tsp Herbs De Provence
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 cup very dry sherry
1 whole 3lb rabbit, trimmed (paws, head, fur, skin, tail, and innards all removed)
1/2 cup wild rice
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup fresh scallions, chopped
1/3 cup of raisins
Thickening the Broth
Liquid from the slow cooker
1 cup chicken stock
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
Get your oil, shallots, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, kosher and seasoned salts, black and cayenne peppers, Chinese Five Spice, Herbs de Provence, basil, 2 cups chicken stock, water, and dry sherry in the slow cooker and set it to low for 8 hours. Every 2 hours, turn the rabbit if the liquid doesn't cover the entire animal (we have a 7 qt slow cooker so my liquid left half my rabbit exposed). After 6 hours stir in the rice, red wine, scallions and raisins. After 7 hours, remove the rabbit and pull the meat from the bones. Most of the meat is located in the hind legs but don't forget the back straps, the shoulders, and the breasts hold a good bit of meat as well. I find the easiest way is to pull as much meat off with a fork as possible and use your hands for the rest, once the meat has cooled a little, that is.
Add the pulled meat back to the slow cooker for the last hour. When the 8 hours is up, place the butter in a skillet over medium high heat and melt. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes or until the roux is a light brown color. Strain the liquid from the slow cooker into the skillet, add the last cup of chicken stock and whisk quickly until thickened. Add the thickened sauce/gravy back to the veggies and meat in the slow cooker and serve over rice or barley.
A few days ago, we helped at a spaghetti dinner cancer benefit and at the end of the night, they sent us home with three giant loaves of french bread that were left over. We used one loaf just for bruschetta, but by the second day, we were sitting on two loaves of stale bread. It was bread pudding or stuffing... and since I actually had all the other ingredients at home (from the previously posted baked pumpkin recipe), I decided to go with bread pudding. I really had wanted to use whiskey in it, but hadn't realized that Justin had finished the Jameson, so I used what we had - rum. And it was great!
We're also trying to remember to give you guys some additional information such as cook time, prep time, serving size, and difficulty level. Thought it might help.
Samiam is just who was playing while I was baking. "Full On". -jen
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously coat 2-qt baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Combine cubed bread, apples, raisins, and pecans and place into baking dish (may come up over the edges a little, but that's okay.)
In a large saucepan, combine milk, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, rum, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Over a medium-high heat, bring just to a simmer, then turn off heat. Temper eggs by ladling about 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, beating constantly so they don't turn into scrambled eggs. Then pour egg mixture into milk mixture and whisk. Take wet ingredients and carefully pour over the bread mix in the baking dish. Using a spatula, gently press the bread down into the liquid so it's all saturated. Let sit for 10-20 minutes to absorb the liquid. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes.
Right before Halloween, Justin and I headed to the pumpkin patch to get our carving pumpkins... it's something I have to do every year. While we were there, we grabbed some acorn squash, butternut squash, carnival squash, and a few sugar pie pumpkins. We had ideas for them... until the lady who was running the show told us how good they were stuffed with apples and raisins. Well, we did a little research, and then like usual, we winged it. It came out so awesome! I felt like it was a dessert, though it wasn't overly sweet (which is how we like our desserts). My sister in law topped it off with whipped cream to add a little kick to it. Justin thought it was a perfectly good meal and had no need to be labeled "dessert". Next one I make, I think I'm going to add some oats to it to give the stuffing even more body. Either way you eat it... it's going to be awesome!
Here were this year's pumpkins - mine is evil, Justin's is the cyclops.
And so, even though it's past Halloween, we're going to lay down some Misfits' "Halloween". -jen
APPLE AND OATS STUFFED PUMPKIN
1 small sugar pie pumpkin (2-3 pounds)
2 medium Granny Smith apples, chopped
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons amaretto liqueur (or whiskey, or brandy, or rum - it's all good)
2 tablespoons butter, cubed small
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut the top off of your pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and string insides, discarding. Mix all of the remaining ingredients except the butter. Pack firmly into the pumpkin until about half way. Sprinkle with half of the cubed butter. Pack the remaining filling into the pumpkin and top with the remaining butter.
Place the lid back on top of the pumpkin. Place on a baking sheet or in a pie pan and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours, until pumpkin insides are tender.
Slice the pumpkin into quarters and serve topped with the stuffing. Depending on the size of your pumpkin, you may have leftover filling that wouldn't fit inside. I suggest saving it and mixing it in with some oatmeal for breakfast the next morning!
