Pumpkin Streusel Bread

Despite the name of my blog, I'm just not a big baker; however, it isn't fall unless you're baking (and eating!) pumpkin-something. I made this bread this afternoon and it filled the house with the most glorious aroma ever. My mouth is watering just remembering the smell! Other than the canned pumpkin and possibly the applesauce, you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry - unless you're a dweeb like me who ran out of sugar, had a baby sleeping, neighbors who weren't home and finally had to call my dad to bring me 1 1/2 c sugar. Anyhoo, the bread is wonderfully moist and flavorful. If so inclined, you can easily tailor it to your specific tastes - add chopped apples, raisins, nuts in the batter, etc.

Pumpkin Streusel Bread

adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 c cinnamon applesauce

2/3 c water

4 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 c brown sugar

1 1/2 c white sugar

3 1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground nutmeg

1/2 t ground cloves

1/4 t allspice

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c flour

1 t cinnamon

1/2 chopped nuts

2 T softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pans.

In a mixer, combine pumpkin, oil, applesauce, water, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and white sugar. Blend well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and next four spices. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet mixture. Mix until just combined.

To make streusel topping, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and chopped nuts. With a fork, mix in softened butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour batter into two or three 7' x 3' loaf pans. Sprinkle evenly with streusel topping. Bake in preheated oven 60 to 80 minutes. [The cooking time varies so much because it depends on if you make two ginormous loaves (like I did and it took 80 minutes) or three regular sized loaves. You could always make muffins or mini-loaves too and adjust the cooking time accordingly.]

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Sloppy Lasagna

I saw this recipe on another cooking blog that I really like (www.tasteandtellblog.com) and thought it would be perfect for the cooler weather we're finally getting here in Texas. It's a Rachael Ray 30 minute meals recipe but since I don't enjoy running around the kitchen like a chicken with my head cut off, I didn't attempt to make it in 30 minutes. Okay, I lied. I did try, failed miserably, had a glass of wine and told myself that cooking is supposed to be relaxing and not an Olympic sport. So I finished the recipe in about 45-50 minutes and I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I thought it was pretty good, but it could be better with a few changes, I think.

So next time I make this (it is much easier and faster than traditional lasagna, so I will make it again), I plan on making the following changes:

1.) I'll cook some finely chopped veggies - onion, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, whatever I have on hand really - before cooking the meat. I like to try to add as many veggies as I can to make sure we get our daily recommended number of vegetable servings.

2.) I'll cook the meat and then DRAIN the fat off. I didn't realize until it was too late that the recipe never says to drain the fat. Gross!

3.) To the sauce, I'll add a can/jar of tomato sauce in with the diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Andrew and I both felt that the lasagna had plenty of bechamel sauce but not enough red sauce. This was especially true when I reheated the leftovers the next day - they were still good but on the dry side.

Another thing to make note of - this recipe makes scads so unless you're having 6 or more people for dinner or want tons of leftovers, I'd cut the recipe in half. Here is the link to the Sloppy Lasagna recipe. Enjoy!

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Asian Bacon and Pork "Pops"

Here is another great recipe inspired by FN's magazine. We eat a lot of Italian and Mexican food, so I was excited to make something with an Asian flair. And the lemongrass skewers made it seem just a little bit gourmet!

Asian Bacon and Pork "Pops"

adapted by Erin from The Food Network Magazine

1/2 lb bacon, trimmed of excess fat

1 lb ground pork

1 t sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1/4 c loosely packed fresh cilantro

1 to 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 lime, zested

1 1/2 T low-sodium soy sauce

lemongrass

store-bought sweet chili sauce, for dipping

Preheat broiler. In a food processor, combine, bacon, pork, sesame oil, garlic, cilantro, ginger, lime zest, and soy sauce. Pulse to finely chop and combine well. Pause to scrape down sides as needed. (By using a food processor, the meat mixture is very fine and somewhat crumbly. If you want it to be chunkier, you can finely chop everything by hand. With a baby, I didn't have time to do that!)

Mold the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs. Thread a skewer about halfway through the meatball and press the meat mixture down the skewer to form a torpedo-shaped meat patty.

Place the pops onto a foil covered baking sheet and broil 3-5 minutes per side or until golden browned. Serve with store-bought sweet chili sauce for dipping.

*If you're using lemongrass, trim the stalks into 4-inch pieces. If the stalks are thick, you can slice them lengthwise to create more skewers. My lemongrass skewers got a little singed while broiling. As an experiment, I used some wooden skewers (that I had soaked in water for about an hour) since lemongrass can get expensive when you need so much of it. The wooden skewers caught on fire in the first few minutes, and I had remove them from the oven. So don't use wooden skewers! Next time if I feel like the lemongrass is too expensive, I'll probably just roll them into meatballs and forego the skewers altogether.

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Green Chile and Chicken Chimichangas

Every month I look forward to getting the Food Network magazine and seeing what new recipes look good. And every month I am not disappointed! This recipe was delicious and it really did taste like something you would order at a good Tex-Mex restaurant. Andrew thought it was so good that he tweeted about it!

I tweaked the recipe a bit to better fit the tastes of my family. I substituted refried black beans for the refried beans, omitted the jalapeno, and I halved the recipe. If you want to make chimichangas, I'd recommend buying the larger size tortillas because I had a problem getting the regular tortillas to stay folded. And don't forget to make the Mexi-Sauce to top the chimichangas - the ingredients and directions for the sauce are at the bottom of the recipe. Here is the link to the original: Almost Famous Chimichangas

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Stuffed Pizza Rolls

This is one of our favorite comfort foods! We have spent many nights eating these while watching a movie and drinking wine. While these take a little more time to prepare than a pizza would, I just love these bite-size nibbles and think they're worth the extra effort. I've made them ahead of time (like during nap time) and then I popped them in the oven when Andrew got home from work.

You can stuff the pizza bites with any pizza toppings but we prefer good ole pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. We always use ranch dressing for our dipping sauce but marinara is good too. http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/06/stuffed-pizza-rolls.html

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Fried Mozzarella Sticks

What else can I say except YUMMY! And they really are easy to make so you'll never need to buy the frozen ones again. The recipe that we use is from The Pioneer Woman's website so you know it has to be good - and unhealthy! But everyone deserves a little caloric splurge every now and then...right?!?

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/fried-mozzarella-sticks-oh-dear/

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Cowboy Quesadillas

I loved this one, and I bet that if you like BBQ chicken pizza, you will too. I make quesadillas a lot for dinner when I'm short on time. This was a great switch-up from the more traditional salsa quesadillas I usually make. Another great thing about this recipe is that you probably have most of the ingredients in your fridge and pantry already. Love those kind of dishes!

My changes: I omitted the rice altogether, upped the quantities of beans and corn a little and added a handful of chopped fresh cilantro. The dipping sauce is yummy too so make sure you don't forget to make it! Here's a link to the original recipe: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/10/cowboy-quesadillas.html

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