Category: Food

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

We made some pumpkin pies yesterday – one of which is for Anya’s preschool “Feast”. I wanted a lightly sweetened, creamy, pumpkin pie. The recipe makes two *deep* dish pies (the Emile Henry ruffled pie plate)

Ingredients – Pie:

58 oz tinned pumpkin puree

36 oz whole milk, simmered down to half

4 oz cream

6 eggs

9 T Penzey’s pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

Incredients – Crust:

16 oz gingersnap cookies (make sure they are good gingersnaps)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 T flour

2 T sugar

Ingredients – Apple Caramel:

2 cups apple cider

Method: Preheat oven to 425.

Making the pie crust – run the ginger snaps through a food processor to make a sandy powder. Mix in the flour and sugar. Melt the butter and add to the crumbs. Make sure the mixture is moist enough to compress into a crust. If it isn’t add another tablespoon of butter. Press the mixture along the bottom and sides of the pie plates. Bake crust at 425 for five minutes, then set aside to cool while you mix the pumpkin filling.

Making the pie – Combine the milk, cream, and eggs and whip together. Whip in the spices and molasses. Fold this into the pumpkin puree. Gently transfer the pumpkin mixture into the cooled pie crusts. Bake for fifteen minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake for 50 minutes. Remove pies from oven and allow to cool for several hours (if you pierce the pie to test it, it is apt to crack … I made two pies so I was able to test one and have an un-cracked pie for the party).

Making the Apple Caramel – Put apple cider into a pan on high heat. Boil, stirring constantly, until it is almost all evaporated and very foamy. Remove from burner and let it sit a few minutes to cool. It will thicken as it cools.

Ramen Noodles

I found a recipe for alkaline noodles — well, Scott had been craving ramen noodles. And I cannot say I know where to get them. The Styrofoam bowls with paper covers that you peel back and add water … it’s been a while since I’ve been to CAM (Cleveland Asia Market), but I totally know where to get those. But a cheap pack of ramen noodles — I looked around at the grocery store and didn’t find any. I thought they were fairly ubiquitous no-money/no-time/no-cooking-skill items.

So I googled how to make ramen noodles – and it turns out real ramen noodles are alkaline noodles. I found a really good sounding recipe that uses rye flour, and then found a simpler one that I went with (since I didn’t have rye flour on hand). I rolled them out too thickly, but it’s a cool way to make something like an egg noodle without needing eggs.

Halloween Planning – Healthy Snacks

Anya’s preschool has a sign-up for Halloween party volunteers — and no one took “healthy snack”! We have a couple of lot of Halloween parties this year for which I’m coming up with non-candy but still Halloween-y treats … what’s one more?

So my current Halloween snack list is:

Friends Parties: tangerine pumpkins and witches’ broom pretzel/cheese snacks

Friends Parties: Scarecrow veggie platter

 

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Mmmmm!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups raisins
  • 4 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 8 Tbs. sugar
  • 8 Tbs. cinnamon
  • 2-1/4 tsp. yeast
  • 2 tsp.  sea salt
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1 large egg
  • 9 Tbs. unsalted butter
  • 3T cream

Method:

Soak raisins in warm water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Add 2T sugar to warm water and stir. Sprinkle yeast on top of water and let sit until yeast is frothy.

In a stand mixer with bread hook attachment, combine flour, 2T cinnamon, and salt. Mix to combine. Add milk, egg, 3T of butter, and water. Mix for about five minutes. Knead raisins in by hand to avoid crushing them.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the dough looks slightly puffy, about 60 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining 6 Tbs. each cinnamon and sugar. Melt 4 Tbs. of the butter.

Line a baking tray with a silicone baking mat. Divide the dough in half. Roll each piece out to 1/4 inch thick. Spread the melted butter on the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over both rectangles.
Roll each rectangle into a cylinder. Place on silicone baking mat, seam side down. Brush loaves with cream. Let rest at room temperature until the dough has risen, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
Heat the oven to 375°F. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes – loaves will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Place loaves on a rack to cool.

Apple Faces & Strawberry Lemonade

Today was Anya’s turn to bring a snack to preschool. She wanted to make apple faces like we made for Halloween last year, but the school has a strict no-nuts policy. Shorter ingredient list — just Fuji apples, fresh strawberries, and unsweetened carob chips. Omitting peanut butter made affixing the carob chips to the apples more challenging. I debated using tahini – apple and sesame goes well together. But that didn’t seem to mesh well with strawberries and carob … so I decided to make little holes to hold the carob chips.

To start out, you need something to prevent the apples from oxidizing after they are cut. Lots of choices – submerging them in plain water, ascorbic acid, citric acid, or honey and water. Just make sure the apples get treated after each cut.

Core each apple. I used a really sharp tournée knife and pared out little eyeball sockets. I used the same knife to pare out a mouth – cut a straight line for the top and a concave curve under the straight line. The curved point of the knife popped the slice out quite nicely.

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Then drop the carob chips, points down, into the socket. Voila, a tray full of apple faces.

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The “juice” I made is strawberry lemonade — almost two pints of strawberries, juice from half a dozen lemons, and eight cups of water. It is sweeter and more strawberry flavored than I usually make, but I wasn’t sure if *lemony* lemonade would be palatable to everyone. I put the strawberries, lemon juice, and two cups of water in the blender and blended until it no longer had chunks. Put four cups of water into the jug, then added the strawberry/lemon puree. Capped, shook, and tasted. Mmmmm! It’s better cold, so we brought a couple of ice packs along – Anya’s owl bag is insulated, so the jug should stay cold.

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Peanut Butter Oat Bites

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 t vanilla extract
1 T carob powder
2 cups unsweetened peanut butter

Method:

Toast oats in a pan. Powder 1/2 cup of the oats in a food processor.

Toast the shredded coconut in a pan.

Place the peanut butter in a bowl. Stir in the vanilla.

Slowly add the powdered toasted oats and stir to combine. Add the carob powder.

Add the shredded coconut and whole oats. Stir to combine.

Using a tablespoon (or something similar – small ice cream scoop, small melon baller), scoop out some of the mixture. Using your hands, roll it into a ball. Place the balls on a lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for several hours.

These are a little bit like cookie dough — not as sweet since there’s no sugar added. You can add a tablespoon or two of honey if you prefer a sweeter treat.

Beware: an un-monitored tiny person may imitate the rolling process when eating these. They’re a little crumbly and make a huge mess.

Pad Thai Recipe

The Pad Thai recipe that I’ve developed isn’t authentic, but it is a tasty version that avoids fish sauce, pickled radish, and dried shrimp (all of which are not generally stocked in our house).

Ingredients:
Sauce:
1/3 cup tamarind paste
1/3 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup tamari sauce
1/4 cup palm sugar

Veggies:
Shredded carrots
Shredded radish
Diced onion
Thinly sliced red peppers

Protein:
Tofu (frozen and thawed, pressed to drain)
Shrimp
Eggs

Other:
Rice noodles
Chopped peanuts
Bean sprouts
Lime
Sesame oil

Method:
Soak rice noodles in cold water while preparing the rest of the dish.

Combine the sauce ingredients in a pot and simmer over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Put a little sesame oil in a pan. Add the tofu & cook until crispy. Remove from pan.

Put a little sesame oil in a pan. Add the onion & saute until soft. Remove from pan.

Put a little sesame oil in a pan and cook the shrimp. Remove from pan & wipe out pan.

Slice lime into very thin circles.

Scramble the egg.

Make sure the rice noodles are soft – you should be able to wrap them around your finger without breaking.

Heat the pan over medium heat. Put a quarter of the sauce into the pan, stir in a quarter of the rice noodles to coat with the sauce. Cook for two or three minutes. The noodles should be *almost* completely cooked.

Stir in protein and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and add in veggies. Serve topped with peanuts, bean sprouts, and thinly sliced lime. Drizzle a little extra sauce over the dish.

Put another quarter of the sauce into the pan & repeat.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dip

We picked up a piece of peanut butter pie on our way back from New York this weekend. It was incredible — tangy, sweet, and peanut buttery. I found a recipe that sounds similar (ours had a chocolate cookie crust) on Epicurious. I can see making it again – and topping it with curled dark chocolate shavings.

We didn’t want Anya eating too much of it though. It was late, and even a little bit of sugar means half an hour of running in circles. She was still hungry, though … so I made a carob peanut butter dip for her that was pretty close to this pie. I took two tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt, added a tablespoon of real peanut butter (no additives, no sweeteners), and then added carob powder until it was sweet and chocolaty enough. Mixed it all together with a fork (it would be interesting to make more of it and whip it to achieve the same consistency as the pie). Served with sliced apples, it’s a quick not-too-sugary snack.

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Mmmmm!