Pumpkin Bread.....Simply Scrumptious

This has got to be one of my favorite recipes EVER...and it stays with the FALL theme :)

I have a tendency to bake when I need to calm down or de-stress. Some people laugh at this because they find cooking in general to be a very stressful process. But I think it's soothing...just following the directions not having to think about anything else, just creating wonderful smells...and eating the batter along the way isn't so bad either! I highly recommend trying it. If you don't bake regularly try do it when you have some time so you aren't rushing through it, pour a glass of wine, turn on some music (or wheel of fortune as is often the case in my house), and just start by reading the recipe all the way through.

This particular recipe will make your house smell like the Christmas! It's amazing. I do them in medium sized loaf pans and have given them to neighbors and friends. They are a perfect holiday gift!

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

3 c. sugar

1 c. melted butter

15 oz. pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1/2 c. water

Step 1:

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. (i just buy the 3 pack loaf pan from the grocery store and split it evenly among them.)

Step 2:

   Sift Flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together and set aside. 

Step 3:

   Mix together Sugar, butter, pumpkin puree, and eggs until smooth. 

Step 4:

   Add the flour and water...Alternate adding them in this order flour, water, flour, water, flour. You should mix after each addition. 

Step 5:

   Distribute the batter among the loaf pans evenly and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean! Let cool on a wire rack.

It's so yummy...i might recommend making a double batch because you will eat an entire loaf in one sitting. I'M NOT JOKING... I may or may not have done that....twice.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween tomorrow!

Beer and Honey Glazed Drumsticks!

There is no better way to get friends to eat your food then using beer as an ingredient...kind of sad but true! It's actually a pretty good ingredient to work with. I made Blue Moon Cupcakes a while back and they were great! I'll put that recipe up at another time.

Since it's finally fall weather in Texas...more like winter considering it snowed the other day...i've been whipping up everything i can think of with a fall flavor. I got this recipe from a website and they just used a regular Lager, but since it's fall that would simply not do. So I used Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale and it worked out perfectly. The recipe also just said to rub them in a "mix of spices" so I used spices like nutmeg, peppercorns, all spice and just a touch of cinnamon to complement the fall beer.

This was a super super easy weeknight meal. It takes no time at all..you just have to remember to marinate them over night!!! p.s. sorry I didn't take pictures this time.

Beer and Honey Glazed Drumsticks

8 chicken drumsticks

3 tbs. olive oil

"freshly ground mix of peppers and/or spices"

3 tbs. honey

150 ml lager

Step 1:

   Season the chicken generously with salt and the mix of peppers or spices. (I was very generous and I also tried to shove some of it up open flaps of skin). Drizzle with olive oil and toss them to coat. I like to do this part in a zip lock bag I think it's more efficient and less messy. Let it marinate over night or at least for a couple of hours.

Step 2:

    Preheat oven to 370 degrees. Put the drumsticks in a roasting pan. Mix honey, beer, and any left over marinade from the bag together and cover the drum sticks with it.

Step 3:

    Roast for 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. You should flip them occasionally. I just flipped them once and used then poured some of the pan juices over them to keep them moist. 

Then you are done! You can also drizzle them with the pan juices before serving. They are super yummy. I served them with green beans and olive oil potatoes with sea salt and pepper! 

Homemade Meatballs!!!

These meatballs were DE - ee - licious! I pulled them from a meatball sub sandwich recipe...maybe one day if i'm feeling up to the challenge I will try the hoagie rolls and sauce they included and I'll post it on here too!

But in the mean time....MEATBALLS! I really try not to buy frozen foods or pre-made meals. And if I do I try to include something from scratch. Since I was obviously using boxed pasta (let's get real I may be a student but I DO NOT have time to figure out how to make my own pasta) and jarred sauce from the store I decided I'd make my own meatballs.

As an appetizer I cut up some fresh cucumbers from my garden and set out some hummus! I'm so proud of the garden. And the cucumbers just keep growing. If anyone wants some let me know!

Back to Meatballs :)

Hereeeeeee are the ingredients

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs. unsalted butter

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 of a large onion (finely chopped)

1 c. italian style breadcrumbs 

1 large egg 

2 tbs. dried basil

2 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 c. milk

Step 1:

• In a skillet heat the butter and olive oil (I actually wait to do this till i've mixed the other ingredients and shaped the meatballs. If it gets too hot then your meatballs will burn while you are shaping the other ones)
• In a large bowl mix the rest of the ingredients.

 *** there will be a lot more meat then that, but I took this after I made some of them

Step 2:

• Form the mixture into balls and let it brown slightly on all sides. Pay attention because they brown and get crispy very quickly.

Step 3:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. As the meatballs finish browning take them out and put them on a parchment lined baking sheet. (I didn't have parchment paper so i just put some olive oil on the pan so they wouldn't stick)
• Bake for 20-30 minutes or until they are cooked through. Mine cooked through quickly and were done in about 15 minutes.

Before Going in the oven! There were quite a few more than this by the end

Finished!!

THESE. WERE. SO. GOOD!!!!!!!!

I didn't technically follow the recipe exactly...go figure. For instance, I used both my onions the other day when I was supposed to save half. Soooo no onions were used. I opened the refrigerator to grab the milk....and there was no milk WHOOPS! so neither of those things were used in the creation of these meatballs. I did however use some parmesan cheese and I added that when combining all the ingredients. This was a minimal MINIMAL effort meal, perfect for the middle of the week. And you could definitely half it if you are only cooking for yourself or for two. Although, I had left overs for lunch today and it was just as good as last night! 

For those of you with kids you could let them help you shape the meatballs. It's kind of a fun way for kids to get involved and to know what's in/be excited to eat their food! 

An adventure with Pork Loin

So I found this recipe on Taste Spotting and I was DYING to try it.

   *Side bar: If you haven't been to taste spotting you must go! It's part of why I refuse to join pintrest because looking through all of these recipes keeps me busy all afternoon.

The recipe I found wasn't very specific sooooo I kind of (and you will have to too) experiment and be willing to just kind of go with it.

First off here is the recipe so the rest of what I say will make sense

A Beautiful piece of boneless pork loin, with some trace of fat

Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 knob of butter

2 cloves of garlic

3 apples

1 white onion

1/2 c. of wine

Clearly my first mistake was in buying the meat. Because this recipe didn't specify and I was cooking for three people I assumed I would be buying something on the smaller size. HA! Well I went to the grocery store and the only size they had was a ginormous piece of pork loin. I suppose I could have asked the butcher about getting something smaller, but I thought maybe this is what she meant so I bought the smallest one they had. IT DIDN'T EVEN FIT IN THE PAN! I had to wrap it around the edge making it look like a large disgusting slug.  They also suggest using a cast iron pan and because I was cooking at a friends I didn't have mine with me :\. I trudged along anyway.

Step one: 

• Tie the pork with twine and rub the pork down with sea salt and black pepper. I tied the kitchen twine in about inch to inch and a half increments across the whole pork. 

Step two:

• Put a few tablespoons of olive oil and the knob of butter (I used a tablespoon + some extra because I had such a big piece of meat) 1 tablespoon should be plenty! Let it melt then add the cloves of garlic.
• Add the pork to the pan and let it brown on both sides. Try to flip it with a blunt object so you don't pierce the pork. You want all the juices to stay inside if possible. (About 10 minutes)

SEE!!!!! I told you it was too big. I had to give a bunch away or I would have been eating leftovers for WEEKS!

Step 3:

• Pour in the wine (I ended up putting in 1 1/2 c. because of the size) You could put in a little extra just because to add flavor or make your kitchen smell nice, but with a smaller piece of meat 1/2 a cup is fine :) Leave the pork alone until most of the wine has evaporated.

Step 4:

• Reduce the heat and add the apples and onions...again my pan was not big enough so they are over flowing, but you want to keep them down by the sides of the meat if you can so you can cover it in the olive oil and remaining wine sauce. If you run into the same problem as I did I just poured a little white wine and olive oil over the top so those apples and onions got covered.
• Cover the pot with a lid and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes checking on it occasionally.
• If the meat isn't cooking evenly because you bought a ridiculously large piece then just rotate it every now and then so it can at least attempt to cook evenly. 

Step 5:

• Remove the pork from the pan and wrap it in aluminum foil to cool for a few minutes. I was anxious to try it so i only let it sit for about 5 minutes
• Turn up the heat for the remaining sauce, apples, and onions.
• you can serve the apples and onions with the meat like I did, or the recipe suggests purreeing what's left and serving it as a gravy, which I'm sure would taste amazing!

It got pretty good reviews, but by the end of trying to figure all of this out I had completely lost my appetite. It was still kind of fun improvising with the recipe. I didn't stray too far from it. Not quite the adventure I make it out to be, but the process definitely was not what I expected. If you have better luck then me or suffer through your own adventure let me know what you did differently and how it turned out!

Fall Time = Chili Time

One of my favorite things about fall is the food. There is so much you can do and so many different flavors to experiment with. But on Saturday and Sunday afternoons with a bunch of hungry guy friends asking for food, my go to recipe is.....Chili. There wasn't a whole lot of suspense there since I named the title of this post Chili, but I think the ..... really adds something ;).

It's still pretty warm here during the day, but early mornings and right around dinner time the temperature has been dropping pretty quickly. Which means it's the perfect time to whip out mom's chili recipe. It takes a lot of time to make, but not a lot of prep time which is nice. Today Texas played at 2:30 and the Rangers stepped up to bat at 7, so it was perfect timing. Right after the first quarter of the football game I got everything set up and dinner was ready right before my boyfriend Ian (Yeah I know he's married) stepped up to bat. We also made some jalapeno poppers to go with it! A spicy meal but DELICIOUS!

Here is the recipe:

Mom's Chili

Cook time: about 3 hours and 15 min

15 min prep time

3 hours cooking

Serves 4-6

3 Tbs. Butter (or olive oil)

1 large onion (minced)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 pound chopped Beef

    *At the store they often have a package labeled "Chili Meat" that's what I use

1 1/3 c. diced tomatoes (I use Hunts petite diced)

1 green pepper minced

1/4 tsp. Cayenne

3 cups water

1 tsp. cumin

1 small bay leaf

2 tablespoons chili powder

1/8 tsp. basil

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 can kidney beans (optional)

Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Step 1

     I think it's easiest to chop everything up before you start.

Step 2

    Heat the butter or oil in a skillet (I just go ahead and put it right in a big pot), add onion and garlic and saute until golden brown. Add the meat and brown.     

Step 3

     Transfer the meat mixture to a large saucepan (if you didn't start this way) and add the remaining ingredients. I'm pretty generous with the spices because I like the strong flavor, but it's pretty flavorful as is. Bring pot to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is as thick as desired or about 3 hours. 

      It will look a little soupy at first, but don't worry it will thicken I promise! It just takes time.

Step 4

     Grate the cheese. Add kidney beans just before serving. Pour into bowls add cheese and Fritos or any chip/cracker you want! 

It's really easy to make a double or triple batch if you are serving a lot of people. It goes quickly so be prepared! Email me if you have any questions about the recipe. Happy Fall Y'all!

P.S. Countdown to Halloween: 18 days!!!

Halloween Tree

For all of the stuff I do every day I'm actually pretty lazy. And the holidays don't help matters. I love Love LOVE!!!! decorating. It's so exciting and the anticipation for the holiday or the event nearly drives me crazy, but putting decorations away is one of the worst chores of all time. I mean don't you hate taking your Christmas tree up and down every year??? I certainly do! It's a pain in my booty because I can't even reach the top of the tree! Setting it up ends in tears and taking it down ends with me getting whacked in the head with the top third. With quite the predicament on my hands there had to be a better solution then storage... My answer? LEAVE THE TREE UP ALL YEAR!!!!!!!!

Some may say "Blasphemy! You can't do that!"

To which I say "You betch yer booty I can!!!" All you have to do is change the decorations depending on the holiday! And that's how my Halloween Tree came to be! and for the record it looks phenomenal...

But don't be jealous you can have your own! See for yourself below!

Yes....it's true there are some bald spots. But I'm a girl on a budget what can I say. This is demonstrated by my poor garland which only made it around the tree twice...and that's not even a full two wraps all the way around. It's more of a zig zag around the parts people can actually see (shhhh...don't tell anyone ;) ). My mom gave me a bunch of halloween "ornaments" (really just little stuffed animals with strings attached to them) that are hung on there and some Halloween lollipops from Pier 1. SO CUTE! they are my favorite part. I also tossed some decoration leaves on the tree for a little bit of color, and finally covered it in the fake spider webs! To be honest...I'm a little nervous that's not going to come off very well. I guess we will find out about Thanksgiving time when I get around to redecorating it!

Here is another picture close up. When I used the flash the green overpowered the thin parts of the cob web. It looks like there isn't much there, but there actually is. When making your own the more webbing you use the spookier it looks!

That pumpkin in the middle is one of the lollipops I stuck in. And we can't forget the Dallas Cowboys ornament thrown in for good measure during football season.

All in all I was really happy with how it came out. But like I said the spider web is really what adds a lot of effect it just didn't come up well in a picture!

A lot of stores have actual ornaments I know for sure Pier 1 does and I'm sure Michael's and Joann's do too......I hear all of you running to your garages and attics to pull down your christmas trees! Be creative tons of decorations can be substitute ornaments, so you really don't have to buy much at all.  Caution tape anyone? or those construction paper chains you made in second grade? Both would be excellent garlands.

If you do decide to make your own tree let me know how it turns out!

Countdown to Halloween: 19