Monthly Archives: September 2010

Fall Favorite: Pumpkin Bars

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Posted by on in Kitchen
Image courtesy of Food Network

Pumpkin will be the death of me.  You might have noticed I’ve gone a little crazed over the thought, smell, and taste of pumpkin at the start of September.  I promise you it will subside.  Like all great things in life, with deprivation comes excitement–and that is the seasonal food cycle stage I am in.  Last year I was in search of a new and delicious recipe for pumpkin bars and I stumbled across this dangerous dessert.  Who did I turn to for this recipe…Paula Deen.  Now Paula is not one of my favorites, and though I do like butter I don’t have the same relationship with it as she does.  I figured if there were one recipe of Paula’s I could attempt it would be pumpkin bars. As long as pumpkin bars are moist and light rather than dense and thick I can get behind it…and eat it.  Let me tell you something, this recipe does not disappoint.  Though I’d like to hog it all to myself I feel I need to share and let others enjoy the simple pleasures of life–which if you really think about it is always food.  No? Is that just me? Well, even so, I recommend this recipe for all to enjoy and taste the changing of the seasons!

Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-oz can pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing
8-oz package cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until light and fluffy.  Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.  Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth.  Spread the batter into a greased 13 x 10 baking pan.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool completely before frosting.    
Icing—
Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with a mixer until smooth.  Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined.  Stir in the vanilla and mix again.  Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.    

Fall Favorite: Homemade Applesauce

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Posted by on in Kitchen

Homemade applesauce is oh so amazing.  This seasonal dish is one that I’ve grown to love.  Actually, I only started making homemade applesauce in the last 4-5 years after my sister explained to me how simple it was to make.  Ever since then, I’ve looked forward to the changing season when I can fill my house with the aroma of apples, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Are you salivating as much as I am?

The recipe is very simple and can be doubled or even tripled if it’s to your liking!  I core, peel & dice 8 apples and put them in a saucepan with 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4-1 cup water, and 1/2 sugar (I usually split the difference and use half cane sugar and brown sugar).  After that you put it on medium heat for about 20 minutes, let cool and then mash into the consistency of your liking.

After you’ve completed, devour as much as you can until you have a food baby.  The other great bonus about apples is that they have the power to curb your appetite so once you’ve consumed your applesauce you will succumb to the will of your food baby and back away from any other fall delicacies that you have tempting you around the house–be it candy corn, pumpkin spice bars, or pumpkin cheesecake.  Well maybe not that last once because I have a special place in my heart for pumpkin cheesecake.

Alright, you have your marching orders.  Now go out and enjoy some of fall’s bounty!

Pinky & the Brain

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Posted by on in Pinky

Pinky & the Brain–what a great cartoon.  Pinky the cat is another story.  See this? This is my cat Pinky.  Though she may not be as crazy as the animated mouse Pinky, she does do things like this (–>) on a regular basis.  I know what you’re thinking…I just took this photo and captured her mid-crawl…well you’re wrong because this is how she decides to sit sometimes.  I’ve made reference to my cat enough times in previous posts that I felt I had to dedicate one to her so you could have a true perspective of her personality and allow you the opportunity to see what I deal with everyday.  Away we go!

1. When I first got my cat I decided it would be a good idea to try and “train” her.  I know it’s a feat for most people to train a cat but here’s the thing…I did train her, except now she’s so smart she’ll ignore me when she wants to.  I trained her to come when I whistle…though that behavior is only instilled because I give her a treat afterward.  In true diva fashion she has exceptions to this rule-anytime she feels we might be moving, within 2 hours of feeding, and largely anytime she’s in the way and she knows it.     

2. She’s a repeat offender of lamp murder.  In case you didn’t read my description of lamp murder in a previous blog post I’ll give you the cliff’s notes version of it.  Lamp murder is when an animal (or a person) tries to knock over the bedside lamp each morning in order to get themselves or a third party up and at ‘em. She has successfully murdered my bedside table lamp–so much so that I had to get a new one because it was a little dinged from her knocking it on the floor so many times.

3.  She loves to lick plastic and sit in it.  This is a picture of her sitting in one of my tupperware containers in the kitchen.  It took her approximately 5 seconds from the time I opened the cupboard to when I turned around and found her in there, I swear.  After James moved in we had a number of plastic tubs of his stuff piled up in my bedroom.  On more than one occasion we awoke to Pinky licking the plastic–that’s how loud she was.  Her licking fetish is just plain weird.

4.  She loves kitty toothpaste as much as treats.I believe this quirk started as advice from my vet.  He suggested I use kitty toothpaste and brush her teeth to make sure they stay clean.  As far as brushing goes, she hates it.  Her main perogative is to just lick it out of the tube.  Funny enough she even has a preference in flavor: malt. 

5. She jumps into open cupboards on a routine basis.  See here?  One of them is a kitchen cabinet while the other is a shelf in the closet.  Both times it was a matter of me turning my back for a second only to hear things falling behind me.  Of course when I turn around I see the Pinky sitting there…as if she’s done nothing wrong.

6. She sings.  Correction…she sings at 5:30am every morning.  Her routine is to sing, get fed, eat, go to sleep.  And under no circumstance are we to disturb her when she sleeps–coincidentally during the time we have to be up and at ‘em to get ready for work.  I tell ya, this cat…

7. And lastly (yes I know this isn’t a full top 10 list) no matter how full my linen shelf is, Pinky will find a way to get on it and subsequently push things off.  On average, I can expect to come home 2 times a week and see towels askew on the floor from her kneading them off.  Doesn’t matter if its summer, fall, or winter… if there are towels and blankets to get white fur all over, she’ll be there.

For all her quirks I still love my cat; she’s funny and has a lot of character.  Though I’m not a crazy cat person who has to tell everyone about my animal, I just like to share stories about Pinky because at times it’s as if she’s the most intelligent and manipulative animal you could imagine–and about 83% of the time I find it thoroughly entertaining.  Where’s a cat whisperer when you need one… 

Chicken Tikka Whatuh?

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Posted by on in Kitchen

Have you ever reached that point in cooking when you’re tired of all the usual dishes and wanting to experiment to a level you previously weren’t comfortable with?  That’s where I was about a year ago, until I made chicken tikka masala.  Chicken Tikka Masala….words so sweet I can almost taste this Indian dish on my lips!  In the last year I can honestly say I’ve gotten braver in my cooking and baking–meaning I try to make recipes I once thought impossible. Indian food is one of them.  I’ve made several different curry recipes and this one rises to the top. This recipe is adapted from a posting on AllRecipes.com but as with most things, I like to change it and make it more to my taste.

One of the funniest things that James and I clash about is our food differences.  I was once considered a picky eater in my family and I think I’ve changed quite dramatically.  I do have to credit my sister and brother-in-law with advancing my palette.  They were the ones that first opened my horizon with regard to what foods I enjoy and was willing to try.  James has done the same for me with seafood.  Mussels, swordfish, lobster, crab, scallops–all fish that I didn’t previously eat and now I love them all. Enough about me, let’s pick on James. With James, it’s not that he’s fussy, it’s just that he doesn’t like foods I like.  Just to name a few: tuna, squash, chocolate, sugar, excessive butter, etc.  We’re both Norwegian but you wouldn’t guess it if you put us in a room with Scandinavian desserts (for you Iowa folks out there I intend to bring him to our Scandinavian Days festival in the near future to overdose him with our heritage).  I used to do my best to make food we both like, but after constantly asking him to cook with me and getting a blank stare in return I’ve decided (in the words of Eric Cartman from South Park) “I do what I want!”  Though this isn’t a Scandinavian dish, it does happen to be one that we both enjoy and make at least once a month. So, without further adieu, here’s the journey of how we I make this delicious dish…

Chicken Tikka Masala
serve with rice and naan
1 cup yogurt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 boneless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces

1 Tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

First thing’s first, get ready to set aside 90 minutes for this meal–though you aren’t actively prepping that entire time.  In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and salt.  Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Here’s James cutting up the chicken for me.  Look how good he is at this…don’t you think he should keep cooking with me and see what else he can do?!?!

There is one trick I’ve learned regarding ginger that I thought I’d share in this post.  I love fresh ginger, I love it in tea oh so much, but despite my love for it I never seem to use it all before it goes bad.  One thing you can do with ginger is to peel it immediately and then store it in the freezer in a safe container until you need to use it again. After you freeze it you can just get out your microplane zester and go to town!  If you’re so inclined, you can also download Martha Stewart’s freezer labels to make sure you’re using the food in due time.  After you’re done twiddling your thumbs for 60 minutes we can move onto the next step.


Preheat a stove top to medium-high heat.  At this point you want to lightly oil your grill pan (unless you have a fabulous Viking stovetop with a grill grate included-then you should use that).  What you’re looking to do here is grill the saucy chicken until the juices run clear, about 5-6 minutes on each side depending on how large/small your chicken pieces are.

While you’re working your magic with the chicken, melt the butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.  Sauté garlic for approximately 1 minute.  Season with cumin, paprika, and salt.

Stir in tomato sauce and cream.  Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.  Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro. Then eat this delicious dish until you have a food baby.

Gadget Promo Time!  The garlic saver is a magnificent invention that I fully endorse.  It absorbs humidity and keeps your garlic fresh for longer–something that I find very helpful. Is there anything worse in the world than gone-bad-garlic?  Have I convinced you?  Do you feel the urgency and the need for the garlic saver?  If you do you should head over to patinastores.com and buy one and surf their website for other kitchen gadgets you will suddenly find a need for.