peter pumpkin open house

it is often difficult for me to explain what I do when I "work"... which isn't very often (here we go again)...
usually thrown into my explanation are key words like, "food", "nutrition", "wellness", and "special events".
I used to work at this facility 3 days a week, before married life, with the Wellness program.

here is a "special event" that I helped work in October. it's main focus is more on "fun" and "food" than "nutrition" (although whole grains were used in the baking of many of these goods). "fun" is an important part of "wellness" anyways!

this was made at paradise bakery and brought by a nurse on staff.

this is something really, really lovely that my friend, Cathy, makes and deserves to be the highlight dish for this post.
it's a pumpkin you see. but inside this pumpkin is....

...stew!
it is baked in that amazing looking pumpkin (and sweet skillet, but I digress). while serving, you are supposed to scoop out pumpkin with the stew as you wish - brilliant, lovely, and delicious!

pictured below are most of the other pumpkin goods that were served.
many people contributed

residents/wellness program members enjoying the food

a recipe book of many of the goods was available to those who wished-
-and I wished
(also made by Cathy)
this was the fourth annual peter pumpkin open house

pumpkin products

The following recipes I used "home pureed" pumpkin. All in all, the pumpkin puree tasted, to me, just like the normal canned stuff though it's appearance was a lighter orange.

#1. I tried this Pumpkin Rice Pudding at the 4th annual "Peter Pumpkin Open House" (might post on that subject later...), liked it, and thought I'd try it at home. Made it. Undercooked the rice (I think because I used brown instead of white and didn't allow for that change while cooking it) and might just have undercooked the whole shebang.
Here it is:
this is cooked. it doesn't look too cooked now, does it?

The pumpkin flavor was good but the dish was not so hot all around.

#2. I stink at making pancakes. It doesn't seem to difficult... but somehow they never really turn out well. Peter is the pancake expert at our house. For some reason this doesn't deter me from trying to make them. These were supposed to be pumpkin pancakes.
hmm, not looking so good.

these are pumpkin pancakes "mid-trash"I can make waffles.
I decided to try to salvage the batter and stick it in the waffle iron.

I knew I liked waffle irons.
These were tasty although I preferred them "cold". probably because while warm they reminded me of the gummy pancakes I had just tasted.

#3. Sweet Success! Whole wheat pumpkin bread. No oil, just applesauce. delicious. Made 4 loaves so far and my last 2 cups of pumpkin puree will likely be dedicated to 2 more.

here is the recipe, it's a winner:

WW Pumpkin Bread

3 c. brown sugar
4 eggs
2 c. pumpkin
1 c. applesauce
4 1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. nuts, chopped (optional)

Cream together brown sugar and eggs. Add pumpkin and applesauce and beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat well. Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Makes 2 loaves.

#4. Pumpkin Spice Latte in a crockpot.
No picture but it was good. Made it for a church small group Halloween party. I didn't use all the vanilla that was called for in the recipe (that is a ton!) but put in a whole (smallish) bottle of it when I roughly x4 or x5'd the recipe (so still quite a bit). One thing, I would have pureed my pumpkin a little more had I thought about the possibility of swallowing little pumpkin chunks every once in a while. (= still good, still good.

pulverizing a pumpkin

some big pumpkins at superstition ranch market, in mesa, were $.10/lbs.
this pumpkin was around $.95

bonus pirates of the caribbean sticker

with the goop

sans goop - thanks mostly to a handy grapefruit spoon

boiling pumpkin seeds for later toasting

olive oil and salt for seeds


roasting in the toaster oven while pumpkin is baking in the oven

roasted!

there used to be more on that pan... someone ate some

I was slightly concerned after ignoring the pumpkins for about 1.5 hours to open the oven to this

I think a roasting pan would be a better option than a baking sheet for oven cleanliness

the sunken pumpkins

flipped!

it scooped out of the sunken pumpkin surprisingly easily


the leftovers

the goods

directions for puree
directions for seeds

As I have 99.9% of the time (if not more) only used pumpkin from a can for my baked pumpkin goods it should be interesting to see how much of a taste difference there will be with "fresh" pumpkin.
That will probably require another post soon.

pasta sauce

cheese- - -check.
dough ingredients- - -check.
pasta sauce- - -negative.
google- - -check.
recipe found- - -check.
ingredients called for in said recipe - - -good enough.

this was easy - I used canned diced tomatoes (like they said not to in the recipe) and pulsed them a little in the vitamix for a more normal sauce consistency. I let it cook for a while on med/low to thicken (reduce). no lemons in the house for the zest - skip. used, I am guessing, 2-3x more red pepper flakes then called for and probably more tomatoes... It was good, easy, a little spicy, and went well with a fresh basil pizza. I'd make it again!

blender waffles

This is yummy

it's made from this

and a couple of these home laid beauties

and... milk, yogurt (for oil), baking powder, sugar, and salt.


makes 6-8 waffles:
1 C. milk
1 C. uncooked whole wheat kernels (calls for +1 T. but I usually forget)
2 eggs
4 T. oil (which I substitute... yogurt, sour cream or applesauce)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 T. honey or sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

put milk and wheat in blender. blend on highest speed for 4-5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend on low. bake in waffle iron until done.

these are good to eat right away or to freeze wrapped in saran for later consumption

crackers and corn tortillas

The crackers of the day - imitation wheat thins and saltines

Kathleen came over and brought her cracker making experience as well as daughter and taste tester, Claire.

Kathleen rolling the dough

sprinkling the (Kosher) salt

Claire likes them and she's cute so... they must be good



Then we went on to make some corn tortillas

can you trust Masa to be authentic when there is a picture of a Caucasian Quaker on the front of the bag?
that is the question

unfortunately, we did not test both bags of Masa and used this kind

non-appetizing raw tortilla balls

the "I don't have a tortilla press" rolling out process - between grocery bags. It works.
and this is a belly shot...

rolled and cooked

we even ate some for lunch (with other stuff)!

That was a fun time indeed.

buffalo sammies

I was thinking about making some BBQ chicken sandwiches. The thing is though, buffalo chicken sandwiches are... ummm... tastier. So I found this. I had around 7 hours till Pete usually leaves for work so there was just time enough (hopefully!). I began.

Frank's happens to be delicious. I've heard it is used by Jack in the Box for their new Mini Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches as well as rumors of it being the base for Native New Yorker's Hot Wings. If you like wing sauce, you might want to give it a try.

here we have chicken with some ingredients scattered about and around for a do-it-yourself kind of ranch salad dressing mix. I did not have a store-bought ranch mix on hand.

The chicken was ready in about 5 hours - I turned up the heat towards the 2nd half of the cooking time to try to ensure it being ready early enough.

After I started the chicken in the crockpot I was thinking how we'd have to go buy some rolls. this occurred to me after I had started making bread in our bread machine less than an hour before. Oh yeah... you can make rolls!

Here is the recipe. I split the flour pretty evenly whole wheat/white.

pre-risen dough

dough ready for it's second rising

voila! 2nd rising complete

pre-baked

ding!

post-baked

I didn't get a picture of the sandwiches put all together but they were really good. Really.

and while we're here let me introduce one of our newest kitchen utensils: Cleaver.

Welcome, Cleaver.
You might not get much use, but you look pretty neat just being around