Categories
Appetizers Pumpkin Uncategorized

Ruth Reichl’s Cheesy Bread in a Pumpkin

    Roast Pumpkin with Cheesy Bread Inside
    Roast Pumpkin with Cheesy Bread Inside

    Day 25 of 31 days of pumpkin and we return to the fondue concept and get it right, with a little help from Ruth Reichl, God Bless her. She was interviewed by Terry Gross for Fresh Air on NPR on October 14, 2009. I was deep into this pumpkin project and in the kitchen, in fact, when I heard Ruth Reichl start to describe this mouth-watering concoction. I immediately added it to the cue and now the day has finally come when I get to taste it and share my version of her recipe with you.

    If you want to hear the exact moment that Ruth describes this dish in her interview, advance to 9:13 when you click on the NPR audio link.

    She describes a recipe that appears in her new book, Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen and that recipe is reprinted on the Gourmet website. In my adaptation, I cut the recipe in half, used solely Gruyère, and used half-and-half instead of heavy cream as per Ruth Reichl’s description.

      Categories
      Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized Video How-to

      Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

        Mini Pumpin Cheesecake
        Mini Pumpin Cheesecake

        Day 24 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to a fun, easy video recipe provided by the Karo Company, the corn syrup makers. The clever trick here is baking the cheesecakes in muffin tins lined with paper and lined with gingersnap cookies. Mini-crusts for mini cheesecakes. Genius.

        I feel guilty using corn syrup since I read Michael Pollan’s books, but I wasn’t sure how to substitute my way out of it here. If you have an idea, please share it in the comments section. In the end, I figured one recipe a year can’t be all that bad. Right?

          Categories
          Breads Breakfast/Brunch Pumpkin Uncategorized

          Ultimate Pumpkin Bread

            Ultimate Pumpkin Bread
            Ultimate Pumpkin Bread

            Day 23 of 31 days of pumpkin and let me tell you, there are a lot of pumpkin bread recipes out there. This one is the best. I’m not lyin’. The difference between this one and some of the other good ones? It’s made with 100% real butter baby. Not canola oil, not vegetable oil. Butter. Melted. It’s got all the sugar and twice the fat, but if you’re going to eat a piece of Pumpkin Bread, why do it any other way?

            Since this recipe yields two loaves, I decided to throw 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into one of them. Love it. Until I tasted this Pumpkin Bread, I thought Starbucks® really had something. They got nothin’.

            Enjoy.

            Pumpkin Bread
            Pumpkin Bread
              Categories
              Pizza and Pasta Pumpkin Sauces Uncategorized Vegetarian

              Pumpkin Ricotta Gnocchi with Sage Cream Sauce

                Pumpkin Gnocchi
                Pumpkin Gnocchi

                Day 22 of 31 days of pumpkin and I am really moving out of my comfort zone now. I’ve never made gnocchi before, or any fresh pasta for that matter, but I was inspired by a beautiful cookbook I have, A16 Food + Wine, the cookbook for the restaurant A16 in the Marina district of San Francisco. It’s called A16 after the highway in Italy between Naples and Canosa. The book is a beautifully designed and photographed tome that I am just getting into, but when I spotted a recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi, I thought, “I could put pumpkin in that,” and that’s what I did. And it worked.

                Choosing the sauce to go with pumpkin gnocchi was a no-brainer: it has to be a sage cream sauce. Pumpkin and sage, they’re like Abbot and Costello, Brad and Angelina, Click and Clack (you know, the Tappit brothers).

                  Categories
                  Dessert Uncategorized

                  Pumpkin Spiced Cutout Cookies

                    Pumpkin Spiced Cutout Cookies
                    Pumpkin Spiced Cutout Cookies

                    Day 21 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to the venerable cutout cookie. These are so much fun to make with your kids. It’s like PlayDo you can really eat. These cookies are not overly sweet, which leaves room for you to utterly coat them with sugar, whether it be with India Tree Sparkling sugar, like I did, or a decadent icing. I just discovered that Amazon.com carries a full line of India Tree Sparkling Sugar, so I’m planning to stock up now for all of the cookie baking that’s going to happen in early December.

                    The most important thing to keep in mind when trying to roll out and cut out the cookies, is that the dough has to be really cold. In a very short time, the dough warms up and becomes sticky and gooey. It’s impossible to work with when it gets like that, so just wrap it back up in plastic and put it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

                      Categories
                      Breads Breakfast/Brunch Pumpkin Uncategorized

                      Pumpkin Yeast Rolls

                        Pumpkin Yeast Rolls
                        Pumpkin Yeast Rolls

                        Day 20 of 31 days of pumpkin and I’m heading into new territory again. I’m really not a bread baker, but I wanted to do a recipe with yeast before the month was over so I hunted around and cherry picked different parts from several existing recipes to make my perfect Pumpkin Yeast Rolls. The result is a slightly sweet, light and airy roll with definite pumpkin flavor. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me now that I can confidently add bread baking to my repertoire. I know I’m late to the bread making party, but better late than never.

                        Place dough balls in muffin tin
                        Place dough balls in muffin tin

                          Categories
                          Appetizers Uncategorized

                          Cheese Fondue in a Pumpkin

                            Pumpkin Fondue
                            Pumpkin Fondue

                            Day 19 of 31 days of pumpkin and it’s time for more cheese. This time, let’s just have it straight up, shall we?

                            I’ll be honest. I had never made fondue before and this time was not exactly a 5 star success. But if you avoid my mistakes, yours will come out perfectly. The flavor of this fondue was great, but the consistency was not quite creamy enough. Can you tell in the photo? So, I’m going to spend time in this post explaining what can go wrong when making a fondue and how to avoid it.

                            Are you with me?

                            My tagline is “We risk disaster, so you don’t have to,” for a reason.

                              Categories
                              Casseroles Sides Uncategorized Vegetarian

                              Pumpkin & Garnet Yam Gratin

                                Pumpkin - Yam Gratin with Thyme & Gruyére
                                Pumpkin - Yam Gratin with Thyme & Gruyére

                                Day 18 of 31 days of pumpkin and I’ve decided to bring one of my favorite potato recipes into the world of pumpkin. The dish? Gratin Dauphinois or Potatoes Gratin. Thinly sliced potatoes baked in cream and Gruyére cheese. Surely pumpkin can adapt, but not on its own and so I’ve paired it with Garnet yams. One of my inspirations cooking this dish with pumpkins and yams comes from the fact that I always add a little nutmeg to dishes with melted Gruyére, like macaroni and cheese. It’s not a far jump from nutmeg to pumpkin, so I thought, maybe pumpkin and yams will stand up to the creamy cheesy sauce that is a gratin. I was right. This dish is great for confronting October’s chill.

                                Everything I know about Gratin Dauphinois, I learned from Jacques Pépin and his book, Chez Jacques Deluxe Edition: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook Awhile back, I did a blog post called, Gratin Dauphinois of Potatoes, Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) and Leeks. If you’re going to get serious about making Potatoes Gratin at home, it’s worth investing in a mandoline. I purchased a simple one for under $40 that I like, but it doesn’t do really fancy cuts like waffle cuts. It is available at Amazon.

                                  Categories
                                  Lamb Pumpkin Uncategorized

                                  Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Lamb Loin Chops

                                    Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Lamb Loin Chops with Mashed Yams
                                    Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Lamb Loin Chops with Mashed Yams

                                    Day 17 of 31 days of pumpkin. We’re on a roll, people. Yesterday, I made these spicy, savory pumpkin seeds and today we get to coat lamb chops with them and fry them up. I have a confession to make. While I coated lamb chops for me, I coated chicken breast strips for my children. They absolutely loved them. So coat and fry whatever you want. Lamb, chicken… I bet eggplant slices would be great fried this way too.

                                    One of the things that I like about doing these recipes every day is the fact that my kitchen tools are really getting a workout. I like that I’m finally making a dent in my cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and mace collection and that my small appliances are making it out on to the counter. Like this one, my Cuisinart mini-prep, which got a workout today chopping and grinding the roasted pumpkin seeds.

                                      Categories
                                      Appetizers Basics Pumpkin Uncategorized Video How-to

                                      Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

                                        Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
                                        Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

                                        Day 16 of 31 days of pumpkin and we arrive at the roasted pumpkin seed. I love how seasonal these are. I mean, on what other day of the year do you roast your own pumpkin seeds but on about October 29? This year, I’ve decided to coat my pumpkin seeds with savory spices, but believe me, pumpkin seeds are divine when roasted with just a little bit of olive oil and a LOT of salt.

                                        Getting the seeds out of the pumpkin wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. If you paw through them while you rinse them, the remaining pieces of pulp come right off.

                                        Rinsing the Seeds
                                        Rinsing the Seeds


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