Pumpkin Pancakes

It has been seven years since I've experienced the cool crisp mornings and cool evenings that come with Indiana fall. It feels to me like this has been an unusually warm fall with many days still in the 80's, but the nights have been cool and we've had several cool days as well, so fall food has been calling to me. I got a huge pumpkin at the farmer's market last week and cooked it up. It actually turned out not to be that great for cooking as my huge pumpkin only yielded 4 cups of pumpkin puree, but it's still very tasty, so it's time for some pumpkin pancakes. This recipe is a repost from my family blog, but it's so yummy I thought it was worth reposting here. If you prefer not to use 100% whole wheat, you can substitute some white flour and cut the eggs and oil in half.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Griddle Cakes

1 3/4 Cups + 1 heaping Tablespoon whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoon Sucanat or brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 Cup milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
3/4 Cup pureed pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and stir into dry ingredients just until all is moist. Drop by spoonful onto hot griddle. Serve with butter, unsweetened whipped cream, chopped pecans, honey, peanut butter, or real maple syrup and enjoy!

Rustic No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

I'm pretty sure I've been making bread off and on since getting married. I started off using a recipe that was 2/3 white flour and 1/3 wheat. It was a delicious recipe, but as I've learned more about healthy eating, I've been trying to find a good recipe that uses 100% whole wheat flour. It's been a bit of a frustrating process. I had a recipe that we all liked, but it usually got crumbly if it wasn't used very quickly. Then another recipe was never consistent and often came out with huge holes in the middle. I tried my hand at sour dough for a while and while it was delicious bread, the time it took to care for my starter and then make the actual bread was just too much. I mean making bread in and of itself is a time commitment. If it weren't for the hefty price tag of over $3 a loaf (and that's cheap for good bread), I would just buy bread from a local bakery here, but I just can't justify that long term. And well, I just don't really like the bread off the shelf from the store. So, it was simply necessary for me to find a good recipe. And I did! Everyone has different desires for their bread. We like ours to be fairly dense and hearty, but not crumbling apart. This recipe is just that. It reminds me of those delicious whole grain baguettes you can get with your meal from Panera Bread. It's perfect for toast, sandwiches, and even makes great bread crumbs. And the best part, (aside from the taste) is that it requires no needing or double rising. It goes directly from being mixed to the bread pan with no rising needed in between. Delicious and fast. What more could you want?

Rustic No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

5 1/3 cups water
4 teaspoons honey
8 teaspoons yeast
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon honey
10 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons ground flax meal
1/4 cup millet (optional, but it gives it more of that rustic crunch)
2 Tablespoons oats

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Combine water, yeast, and 4 teaspoons honey and let sit until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is foamy. Stir remaining honey into yeast mixture and stir until dissolved. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine 5 cups flour with salt, flax, and millet. Pour in a little more than half the water mixture and mix until well combined. Alternate remaining water with remaining 5 cups of flour and mix well until dough is evenly mixed. The dough will be very wet and elastic like. Grease three 9x5 bread pans well and divide the bread dough between them. Let dough sit in a warm place until just more than doubled in size. Carefully place bread in the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes. I usually cover the loaves lightly with foil after 20 minutes to avoid over darkening. Bread is done when it has a hollow sound when tapped. Cool completely before storing.

Moroccan Curried Lentil Soup

One of my favorite things about living where we do is the weekly farmers market and the fresh vegetable stands. Since moving here, we have had raw milk cheese, fresh green beans and potatoes, to die for peaches, my favorite flat leaf kale (which is unavailable at any grocery store here), range fed chicken, and grass fed beef. I love eating healthy (not all the time of course) and I love the idea of purchasing most of our food from locally grown and raised sources. Both because I like the idea of supporting local farmers, and because most of them use little or no pesticides in their growing process. However, this is a very expensive way to eat and my frugal side just can't justify it. I do not want to have to have only the best and I don't want healthy eating to become an idol, so I'm looking for what that balance is. I haven't found it yet, but in the search, and in trying to justify spending $2.69 a pound for free range whole chicken, I have been looking for yummy but nourishing meat free meals to have several times throughout the month. I have this theory that it would be better for us to eat less meat and have that meat be good quality, than to eat meat at every meal. So, all that rambling to say that I discovered a delicious and frugal lentil soup recipe yesterday and thought I'd share it. It came from the Schwarzbein Principle Cookbook, but I did lot of tweaking, so I'm sharing my tweaked version. It's a little bit spicy with hints of fresh ginger and cilantro.

I didn't feel like a salad last night, so instead I chopped up some fresh spinach and stirred it into my soup. It was delicious!

Moroccan Curried Lentil Soup
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large red onion, diced
2 minced garlic cloves
2 stalks celery diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 zucchini diced
3-4 teaspoons cumin
3-4 teaspoons curry powder - this depends on the hotness of your curry and how spicy you want your soup
2 cups dry lentils
8 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced - this is a key flavor, so dried ginger just won't work
1 cup medium salsa
1/2 - 2/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 1/2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons salt (omit if using canned broth with salt in it)

In a large soup pot, heat butter until melted. Add onion, garlic, and celery and saute until softened. Add carrots, zucchini, cumin, curry powder, and salt and saute another five minutes. Add the lentils, chicken broth, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let cook over low to medium heat for 40 minutes or until lentils are tender. Add ginger, salsa, cilantro, and pepper. Stir to incorporate the flavors and then add lemon juice. Let stand 5 minutes and then taste and adjust seasonings as desired. This soup is delicious served with buttered whole wheat toast (recipe for that coming soon).

A Little Brussels Sprout Bragging

I just have to brag a little on my son. He LOVES brussels sprouts. For months the only cooked veggies he would eat were broccoli, green beans, and spinach if I hid it in eggs. Then one day, I decided to try roasting brussels sprouts for Matt and myself for dinner, thinking he wouldn't even touch them. I made him green beans. When he saw those sprouts, he wanted to try them (unusual for him with veggies) and ended up eating most of what I had made for us. Now when I pull them out of the freezer, he gets all excited and says "brunsel sprits!!" I have recently discovered roasted veggies and let me tell you, they will change your life. Hehehe! So, here's how I make my sprouts:

18-20 baby brussels sprouts straight out of the freezer.
2-3 teaspoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

I like my veggies in smaller pieces, so I let the sprouts sit out a few minutes until they are soft enough to cut in half. Then I throw them in a bowl with olive oil and salt and pepper and mix it well. Heat the oven to 450 and put your sprouts in a greased glass baking dish. Cook them for 30-40 minutes or until they are brown and slightly crispy and caramelized around the edges. I usually stir them after 15 minutes and again after 30. I don't have pictures, but take my word on it, these are yummy. And you can do the same thing with broccoli too.

Sky High Whey Biscuits

Well, I'm a little slow in getting this posted, but it's finally here. After I made my yummy Greek style yogurt, I had a quart of whey leftover and needed something to do with it. So, I've been using it for biscuits and we've been loving them. The whey gives the biscuits just a little bit of a tang that makes me think of sour dough. Not nearly as strong as a good sour dough and not with the fermentation that occurs in sour dough, but still very yummy. Growing up, we called these sky high biscuits. I've since varied the recipe to include 100% whole wheat and they are our very favorite biscuit. With the added whey, I think we like them even more.

Sky High Whey Biscuits

3c whole wheat flour ( 2c unbleached, 1 c whole wheat if preferred)

4 1/2 t. baking powder

2 T sucanat (or sugar)

1/2 t salt

3/4 t cream of tartar

3/4c +2 T butter (omit extra 2T butter if using part white flour)

1 egg beaten

1c + 2 T whey (omit extra 2T whey if using part white flour)

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sucanat, salt, and cream of tartar. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles very course cornmeal. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg and whey. Pour into flour mixture and kneed just until it forms a dough. Do not over handle or the biscuits will be tough. Roll to 1 inch thickness and cut out with a biscuit cutter. Or, if you prefer to simplify, roll the dough out and cut it into squares with a pizza cutter. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet so that they are touching each other. Bake at 450 for 12 - 15 minutes.

Father's Day Deliciousness

I love having an excuse to come up with a gourmet meal and Father's Day was a perfect one. We had salmon with veggie slaw and followed it up with this yummy and amazing dessert. I can't claim the recipe because I pretty much followed it exactly, but if you enjoy chocolate and espresso, you will love this! I did substitute Sucanat for white sugar in the ice cream and I think it gave it a more caramely flavor which was delicious, but not necessary if you only have white sugar on hand. You can find the recipe here. The only recommendation I have is to use smaller ramekins and make more cakes. These were extremely rich and neither of us were able to finish ours.

Thick and Creamy Yogurt

I can't remember exactly when I first started making yogurt. I remember getting tired of paying more than $2 for a quart of yogurt that lasted us less than a week. I looked into yogurt makers, but really didn't want yet another kitchen appliance taking up space in my already full cabinets. So, I did a little research and discovered that yogurt making is ridiculously easy. I confess that since our move, I had not gotten back into making it, but last week, I finally got sick of paying so much and made my own. This time I decided to try straining it though, to make it a bit more like that yummy creamy Greek yogurt that my frugal self will not even consider buying. Since I've only sampled Greek yogurt at the store and can't bring myself to buy it, I don't have anything to compare this to, but we really like it. Especially with a swirl of vanilla extract and a sprinkling of a new nutty granola I've been making.

Thick and Creamy Yogurt

1 - 2 quarts milk
2 T plain yogurt with no added fruit or sweeteners
a large double boiler, or two pans that will give you the same effect
a digital read food thermometer
a cooler large enough to hold 1-2 quarts of yogurt surrounded by water
a sink full of ice water
wide mouth canning jars
cheesecloth or other similar material (I use an old super thin pillow case that I cut in half and it works great)
strainer

Begin by placing your milk in a double boiler and bringing the temperature to 180 degrees. Remove the pan that's holding your milk and place it in the sink full of ice water until the temperature falls to 115 degrees. Remove from the ice water and whisk in 2 T yogurt until thoroughly mixed in. Pour into wide mouth canning jars and place the lids on. Fill your cooler with enough hot water to come up to the edge of the glass part of your jar. Water temperature should start off around 118-120 degrees, but absolutely no hotter or it will kill your yogurt culture. Place your jars into the water and put the lid on the cooler. Set your timer for 5-6 hours depending on how sour you want your yogurt. After 5-6 hours, you can remove your jars and refrigerate. That's it! SO easy.

But, if you want your yogurt to be thick and creamy, after it has been allowed to culture for 5-6 hours, pour it into a cheesecloth lined strainer. Make sure you keep the strainer over a bowl because what's straining out is the whey and it can be used to make some super yummy biscuits. (recipe to come) Allow the yogurt to strain about 45 minutes, stirring once to allow the whey to strain well. Scrape the yogurt out of the cheesecloth and back into your jar, stir it up, and refrigerate. Enjoy with your favorite toppings!