Momma Dramas

Pumpkin Spice Cookies.. YAE FALL!

We LOVE fall and all of the great fun it brings.  The following recipe has been a hit in our house this year.  Drew (the non-veggie eater) even LOVES them!  After 3 batches we’ve tweaked this and that to give the original recipe a “Healthier Boost”.  Aside from how yummy they are, another bonus is your home will smell WONDERFUL while these are baking!  MMMM!

Drew's loves cooking and the cookies at the end ;-)

What a great helper.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

 Ingredients:

 1 cup whole wheat flour

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground all spice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup trans-fat free margarine, softened

1 cup brown sugar lightly packed

1/2 cup sugar in the raw (or granulated sugar)

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 Frosting Topping

 2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons 2% milk

1 tablespoon melted trans-fat free margarine

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

¼ teaspoon allspice (optional)

 

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, all spice, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2.In a separate bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of margarine, brown and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg whites, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to margarine mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients by hand with large mixing spoon until combined. Drop on cookie sheet using a tablespoon or tablespoon size cookie scoop; flatten slightly with back of fork.

3.Bake for 13 to 18 minutes in the preheated oven until just firm. Cool cookies, then frost cookies with glaze.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted margarine, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve a frosting consistancy or a drizzling consistency (whichever you prefer).

Drew: "MMMM, Momma made cookies and I eat them!"

Happy Havest and Happy Baking!  

   

 

Drew's Momma made Peach Cobbler... uh oh!

Remember the Organic Delicata Squash from the CSA?  

Yes, I once thought that they were for decorating but I found a much tastier use. ;-)

 

How about Organic Delicata Squash and Peach Cobbler?  =)

The squash was completely undetectable and the best part… Drew gobbled it up! =D

  

Now as I have never had peach cobbler or made it, I did get some help from Paula Deen's recipe and have to give her credit for the foundation of this recipe.

 

This is my version of Paula’s Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, sliced organic peaches
• 1 cup of baked and mashed organic delicata squash
• 1 cups granulated sugar, divided into two halves
• 1 cup brown sugar, divided into two halves
• 1/3 cup water
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups 2% milk
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• Ground organic cinnamon 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut delicate squash in half and bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 min. or until the squash is just tender.  Pull out to cool while you peel and cut up peaches.

Peel washed peaches and cut into slices (I used a potato peeler, which worked great but was told if you blanch the peaches for 1 minute the skin peels right off… I’ll try that next time).

The delicata squash should be cool enough to handle now.  Scrap the squash from the skin with a spoon (grapefruit spoon worked great).

Combine the 4 cups peeled peaches & 1 cup of mashed delicata squash to 1/2 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes (depending on size of your peaches). Remove from the heat and set aside.

Put the butter in a 3-quarter baking dish and place in oven to melt (this is Paula’s brilliance!).

Mix remaining ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 ½ all purpose flour, and 1 tsp baking soda in a medium size bowl.  Once dry ingredients are mixed add 1 ¼ 2% milk and 1 tbsp vanilla extract SLOWLY to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. DO NOT STIR. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon. Batter will rise to top during baking.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

Best served warm with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

 

 

If I can pull this off... anyone can! YUM!!

 

Rainy Day = "Play-in-Doh" ;-)

Rained out of our play date… what to do?  “Let’s make play-doh”, says Drew =D

 

Drew and I love to cook together and now that he is getting a bit older he can help even more with measuring and mixing.  Rainy days make a perfect opportunity to make fresh play doh, talk about measurements, ingredients, colors, and then PLAY (and work on the alphabet...ssshhh).

 

Drew cooling the play doh or “pay-doh”

Drew picked the colors, which was perfect because it gave us an opportunity to see how red and yellow make orange.  Then to watch as red and blue made purple… “Woe, cool mom!” 

 

The recipe is all over the internet, but I have included the half batch we use below.  We like to make a half batch so we can make at least two colors. 

 

Play doh

½ cp flour

¼ cp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

½ cup of water

8 drops food color

1 tsp oil 

1. Mix first three ingredients in a small saucepan.
2. Over medium heat stir in water, color and oil.  (tip: I put all three of these into the ½ cup measuring cup so I only have one thing to pour into the dry ingredients and begin mixing.)
3. Keep stirring until a ball forms. 
   • Be careful not to over cook or play doh will be dry and crumbly.  If you under cook it will be moist and tacky. 

 

Once your play doh is cool it is time to PLAY!

Drew’s making letter cut outs… he thinks he is “playing” but now we are learning letters… sshhh don’t tell =P 

 

We cut the batch in half to freeze some for future use. 

 

Ready for the freezer

Note: When it comes out of the freezer it is not a perfect consistency until you work the play doh with the heels of your hands…. Just like you would dough you would eat.

 

HAVE A HAPPY IN "DOH" PLAY DAY!!

 

 

“What’s cookin’? I don’t know… WHAT IS THAT?” HA!

“What’s cookin’?   I don’t know… WHAT IS THAT?” HA!

 

Hhhm… “You eat these?  I thought you just set these out by the pumpkins in fall for color and variety in decorating.  Who KNEW?!” lol

 

Delicata Squash (Organic)

 

I love that our CSA it has me cookin’ things I barely can pronounce let alone ever set eyes on before.  It is a great ADVENTURE!  For example, I now have cooked Bok Choy in three separate recipes and we love it.  When I first saw it on our CSA pick up list my response was “Bok Choy? Isn’t that the sound a hen makes when it sneezes?… BOK-CHOY!”  Gesundheit! (hehe)

 

What is a CSA?  It stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it is a way for you and I to buy seasonal produce directly from local farmers.  Buying direct means you are getting fresher foods and you are supporting your local farmers/neighbors. 

 

Besides buying direct what is the benefit of a CSA?  I don’t know about you but I find organic produce in the local grocery store to be EXPENSIVE and in SAD SHAPE. 

It is important to me as a mom to minimize my family’s exposure to pesticides and herbicides.  Before the CSA I would find myself standing in the grocery store wanting organic produce but not willing to pay DOUBLE the price for sorry looking fruits and vegetables.  For us, the CSA is MUCH more economical to buy organic produce than our grocery stores are.  Ex. We are a family of three that cooks at home 6 days out of 7.  We purchased a half share from the local CSA, which we pick up once a week for 25 weeks.  The cost is about $17.00 a week for approximately 10lbs of ORGANIC produce.  I don’t know about you but I certainly cannot go to the grocery store and buy 10lbs of organic produce for $17.00.  I would be lucky to get four items for that. 

Pic of our CSA from this week

 

How did we find out about CSA?  We were a part of an organic produce mail order in MI, which we did and didn’t like.  When we moved here we looked into CSA originally but were overwhelmed with our choices out here in farmland.  So I asked the experts ;-)… I inquired with the local Mom’s group and was giving two options for local ORGANIC CSA’s in our area.  I can handle two choices much better than 30. 

 

Since then I have found two websites that I really like because they are informative and functional. The third listed is simply for those still on the fence about buying organic.   

 

The first will help you get a better understanding of what a CSA is and how to get involved.

 

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

 

The second is helpful to have if you are new to an area or travel a lot like we do but you want to still eat good healthy food.

 

http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home

 

This last link is if you are still on the fence about buying organic or just starting out. 

 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255

 

Now if I could just figure out how to cook these fresh okra so Drew will eat them =P

HAPPY ORGANIC EATING!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

To WHIZ or not to WHIZ....

Hangin’ around the house this weekend recovering from colds we decided to bring a bit of PA to us.  What better way to do that than to have a taste off… To WHIZ or not to WHIZ? 

 

Homemade Philly Cheese Steaks

The two cheese steak choices are Cheez Whiz or Provolone… both sandwiches have shaved rib-eye steak with sautéed white onion & fresh mushrooms (shiitake and button).

 

Obviously, this was Brett’s adventure as I would NEVER be able to consciously buy “jarred cheese product” whose ingredients are 28 deep with cheese being the LAST ingredient… OH MY! LOL!

 

Now as things typically go, I thought for sure that I was inevitably going to like the Cheez Whiz version better because it was the naughtier of the two choices.   Thankfully, Brett and I instead stayed true to our natures… He shall WHIZ while I shall NOT.  HA! 

 

Drew also held true to his nature… “Eeew, I not eat that… that’s fine (whimper)” …sometimes you're just not ready to WHIZ. =P

 

How about you… do you Whiz?  

 

Test Kitchen

During hurricane Irene our test kitchen was open.   We had overly ripe bananas and you know how I hate to throw away food, so banana bread was on the menu.  I can NEVER leave a recipe alone, which is why I call my kitchen a “test kitchen”.  OK, if I am being “real” I call it a test kitchen because I can write off my blunders under the “test kitchen” umbrella and I have A LOT!  For the recipe below I took what I liked from two recipes: Jessica Seinfeld’s Banana Bread (Deceptively Delicious) and Allrecipe.com’s Pineapple Banana Bread submitted by Mary Watkins. 

 

This is what I came up with:

 

Banana Yam Applesauce Bread

What? Don’t knock it till you try it =P    Why yam?  Drew will not eat vegetables and so I hide them in EVERYTHING!  Also, yams are full of vitamins, they are sweet so less sugar is needed, and I didn’t have any pineapple.  =D   Why Applesauce?  I didn’t have enough banana. HA! This is a real kitchen people and clearly not stocked by the Food Network.  =)

 

It was time to bake so I grabbed Brett and off I went.  It’s always better for me to be supervised when baking is involved because I inevitably forget pivotal ingredients like eggs or the leavening agents.   Besides this is another opportunity for Brett to shake his head at me so he is game.  For example, while baking I like to mention all the things “you’re not” supposed to do WHILE I AM DOING IT….  ex. “You should not measure the cinnamon over your bowl of dry ingredients.”  My foods teacher would NOT be pleased with me.  She used to throw raw eggs at us if we were stupid… NO JOKE!  (LOL)   I think maybe that is why I am such a nervous nelly in the kitchen.  What? I gotta blame someone!  “Blame” is the new “take responsibility”, you know, like 40 is the new 30!  ;-) (kidding)  

 

Anyway here is the recipe…

 

Dry ingredients:

3 cups of unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp. sea salt

¾ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. baking powder (non-aluminum preferred)

1 tsp. cinnamon (I use organic but it doesn’t effect taste either way)

1 cup walnuts

1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips (Hershey because we’re in PA)

*I never sift but instead mix the dry together with a wisk.  This is due to laziness not because I think I am smarter than actual bakers. ;-)

in a second bowl wet ingredients:

4 large egg whites (from chickens with some freedom a.k.a free range)

¾ canola oil (I’d like to use a different oil in baking not a fan of canola… suggestions?)

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (Our vanilla is homemade… made from vanilla bean and vodka…. it ‘s not completely ready so it is really mostly vodka with Vanilla flavor… but whatev!)

1 cup mashed overly rip bananas

1 cup yam puree (no time to puree & don't have yams? Substitute with applesauce or more mashed banana or crushed pineapple (drained))

¾ cup organic applesauce

*beat eggs, oil and vanilla.  Add all other wet ingredients and combine with mixer.  

*Combine dry ingredients with the wet by stirring in the dry slowly with a spoon until combined.

 

As I mentioned I usually forget the leavening agents, which must stem from my unconscious desire to be a mason because my bread comes out as bricks!  This batch however………. Came out great thus me sharing the recipe.  Heehee.

Bake at 350 degrees.  If you’re making two large loafs bake for 50 to 60 minutes (test with toothpick).  If you’re making mini loafs, this batch will make 5 mini loafs baked for 25-35 min.  If you are like me and cram all of the batter into 4 mini loafs because that is what your pan holds then increase the mini loaf time to 40 to 50 min (test with a toothpick). 

Happy Baking =)