Roasted Pumpkin Scones with Fresh Ginger and Cranberries

The aroma of roasted pumpkin is such an awesome thing to have perfuming your home.  Days later I was still smelling that delicious scent.  It seems to linger.  Since a little piece of that fabulous pumpkin was left, I thought how nice pumpkin scones would taste, with a bit of fresh minced ginger and some cranberries .  The sort of thing I wake up thinking about.  To go with my hot cocoa.

To tell you the honest truth, I will never boil or steam another pumpkin, which amounts to flavorless really, when compared to a roasted specimen.   An executive decision has been made in this kitchen.  I am only saddened to think of all those wasted years, of cooking pumpkin the wrong way, just the difference between diluting a flavor or concentrating it.

So, what you do with a little dab of left-over (aside from frying it up with an egg) is to mash and add to this lovely scones recipe from Alice Waters.  Which I did, with a few other adjustments.  Like adding some spices and cranberries, using  kefir instead of cream (but feel free to go with the cream) and a bit of soda to balance the acidity in kefir.

Guacamole with Tomatillos and Easy Baked Tortilla chips

Guacamole responds nicely to the tang of tomato, though that does seem to dull things out color wise.  Red being opposite on the color wheel, you could create some gray if you were dabbling.  Tomatillos, on the other hand, being green(ish) and also being on the tangy side are the bees' knees.  I think they used to say that way back in the day before the day.  Besides which my garden happens to be jumping with them at the moment.  Not that either substance here is a vivid green, but we don't want to muddy things up more than we have to.  Those few flecks of red chili pepper keep to themselves pretty much.

You only need one tiny Hawaiian chili pepper to get a good zap of hot.  A bit of Cuban oregano, just because it's from South of the Border, a plant that grows wild in the tropics, it's actually Plectranthus amboinicus,  a tender fleshy perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae with an oregano-like flavor and odor.  Some people call it Cuban Oregano or Mexican Mint.  Nothing like mint.  Don't be calling it that.

I add a little chopped onion, salt and lemon juice for overall yummyness.  Also, char broiling the tomatillos is a way of cooking them to bring out maximum flavor.  So, you do that first.  Then let them cool while you're mashing avos and chopping things.

Making Kefir Cheese or "Grandma you could die!!"

On a recent post about my experience with making kefir at home, I mentioned that my next experiment would be using that kefir to make cheese.  My granddaughter was here, so thinking she might like to be involved, I told her about my plans.  I said, for Brie or Blue Cheese, we can scrape a bit of the mold off some purchased cheese, and use it to inoculate ours. When she heard that I would be MAKING CHEESE AT HOME, it seemed to terrify her.  I hardly knew what to say, I was so shocked by the reaction.  Of course, being on the cusp of teendom, she has been lecturing me on various subjects, so I should have been prepared.   "Grandma, don't you know there are thousands of bacteria out there, how are you going to know the mold is safe???  You could die!  I'm not eating any."  Grandma is known to live dangerously; eating mushrooms growing out in the wild, making wine and yes, cheese.

Moo Shu Pork with Mandarin Pancakes for Daring Cooks

This is a tale of two dinners.  The first, due to major pancake error, was served on rice instead of the cute, authentic Chinese Pancakes.  And, just so you know, those pancakes do roll out very nicely.  The dough is easy to work with, the recipe simplicity itself.  Just don't stack your uncooked, painstakingly rolled out, darling little cakes, cover them with a damp towel, and then go have a wine and chips break.  It won't work.  You will come back to this:

A gooey, stuck together pile of unusable dough, which you will then have to throw out, muttering under your breath (we won't curse, will we?) and have another glass of that wine.

Also, I must confess, that whilst rolling out the pancakes, there was already some mental grumbling going on.  Like making a batch of crepes is so much easier, and you can use flour that isn't white refined, and said to be bad for you, plus which there are lovely eggs, butter and milk in them.  This is taking too long, I'll never do this again, blah blah blah.  So after all that work, to face actually doing it again, was God teaching me a lesson almost too much, but we persist with challenges around here.

The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.  Deh-Ta Hsiung, a renowned authority on Chinese cuisine, published a beautiful book called The Chinese Kitchen, which was a source for our recipes.

For round two I used the alternate technique given - squished together double pancakes with sesame oil in between, which you pull apart, after cooking.  Just to vary my life. BUT NOT leaving them stacked, uncooked with a damp towel over.  We frequently learn our lessons the hard way.

For the pork stir fry section of the recipe, I used a precious, naturally raised, too expensive, pork butt.  On the plus side, it was slow roasted for our Sunday dinner of pulled pork tacos (which did taste fabulous), leaving plenty left over for both of my Moo Shu attempts.  So, we did get three dinners out of that yummy butt.  My personal opinion of canned bamboo shoots and dried black fungus, being what it is, (say no more) I substituted slivers of fresh carrot and shitake mushrooms.  I will give the recipes unchanged however.

Cream-braised Green Cabbage with Seared Ahi for Cook the Books Club

Our latest Cook the Books Club pick is Molly Wizenberg's delicious little memoir-cookbook, A Homemade Life.  Molly writes a popular blog, Orangette as well as contributing food related articles to newspapers and magazines, such as Bon Appetit.  In this, her first book, she carries off a fine, well-integrated balance of personal reminiscence and culinary writing.

 Something about this book just got me trying things.  Often I can have a cookbook on my shelf for years, without actually making anything from it.  However, for the past few months I have been enjoying an unprecedented  number of recipes from A Homemade Life.

For instance, normally, I'm with Brandon on the cabbage question.  I love raw cabbage and rarely cook it, so of course, I first had to make his Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Black Pepper, which was excellent of course, but then I wanted to try the cabbage cooked in cream method.  It just sounded so decadent.  And, since the recipe made enough for four, it gave me two meals' worth.

On night number one, I served the creamy, tender cabbage with seared ahi and a salad of fresh tomatoes and basil.  Sweet, and slightly caramelized, the cabbage was wonderful. 

Afterwords, just looking at all that lovely cream sauce lapping the remainder of our cabbage, I thought maybe, when Bob's not looking, I'll just slurp it all up.  It was that good.  But, adding chicken, and serving over egg noodles would also be wonderful for night number two.  And, guess what?  It was.  I removed the meat from two baked chicken breasts, added it to the cabbage in cream sauce, and gently warmed both together before serving over the hot noodles.

More also rans from Wizenberg's book were the Bouchons au Thon (a kind of tuna muffin), were tasty both hot and cold; the delicious Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Yogurt Sauce (which as it turned out, I liked better with the sauce cooked); and a most excellent Butternut Squash Soup with Pear and Vanilla.  Also her Ratatouille, a dish I've made for years (though still prefer my simpler method),  inspired me to add Scampi, bringing about a wonderful new combination of two old standards. 

The lovely thing about all this is that there are still more recipes to try.  I have bookmarked her Little Corn Cakes with Bacon, Tomato and Avocado for my next brunch or dinner appetizer.  Be watching out for the Cook the Books Club Round-up to see what everyone else whipped up from our enticing little selection.

Mr. Ratatouille Meets Ms. Scampi on a Bed of Pasta

Two well-loved, old favorites of mine got together last night, and discovered they never want to separate.  It is true love.  I am serious here, folks.  Take a look at these recipe cards, if you don't believe me.  They've been around for awhile.  Sadly all on their own. 

You don't have to depend upon having some left-overs for this dish.  However, keep in mind that Ratatouille is better on the second day, and just know from the start what a good thing a merger can be.  I did have the left-overs, and happened to pick up some locally raised Kauai shrimp, when the light bulb went off in my brain.

Butternut Soup with Pears, Cider and Vanilla

This slightly unusual soup was thanks to Molly Wizenberg's delightful book, A Homemade Life,  which we are currently reading for Cook the Books Club.  I have been trying various of her recipes, this soup being the latest.  What a fantastic concoction of flavors -  golden butternut with pears, cream and vanilla, a hint of apple cider and my duck stock backing everything nicely.

For Daring Cooks this month our goal was to make stock and then a soup.  Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook’s September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

I made a flavorful stock from Sunday dinner's roasted duck carcass, with added aromatics, carrots, celery and onion.  After chilling the broth and removing all fat, I reduced it by quite a bit, then went on, days later after numerous attempts at gathering together the various ingredients, to this soup.  Finally.  But, well worth the effort.  Since I do make stock on a regular basis, I should have done the clear Consommé thing with an egg white raft and all.  But, truthfully it just did not call out to me.

Guava Butter recipe

The guavas are coming in.  There were just enough yesterday for a nice batch of butter or jam.  I usually make jam with my fruit as it's easier than jelly, and anyway why waste the pulp part of the fruit.  Seeds, okay I draw the line there.  No one in their right mind wants guava seeds in jam, or anything else for that matter.  They are very hard, and not small enough to just swallow without noticing.

I filled two 4 cup measures, but on a digital scale, for the correct amount of sugar to add.  The fruit went in as I peeled off bad parts, halved, then scooped out the seeds, and cut into chunks.

For a fruit butter, only one extra step is needed, that of pureeing or blending it into a nice smooth sludge, once cooked in a bit of water until soft, after which you finish cooking with the sugar added.  Now for my next batch, when there are way too many for a single pot of jam or butter, I will be doing the oven baked method.  No stirring involved (or hardly any); no spitting pot of bubbling fruit hitting my arms, face, oven and floor.  The smooth sludge spits rather than simmering or boiling properly.  It's a super simple recipe, just the basics here. Unlike a fruit curd, it doesn't have eggs or butter in it.  Unlike a jam though, it doesn't keep well.

Cold Avocado Soup with Garlic Chives

We  have been enjoying lots of cool salads and cold summer soups lately, with whatever fresh vegetables and herbs are available.   This Avocado Soup is an old favorite.  All you really need are avocados, broth, and a bit of cream.  No cooking is involved.  Just a blender.

I am proud to say that Bob purchased our blender, an Osterizer, in about 1976, for $5. at a garage sale.  Unbelievably, it still works fine.  Do they even make things like that anymore?  The Blender Cookbook (source of recipe) either came with it or was purchased at the same time, which gives you an idea of just how long I've been making this soup.  You can vary the type of broth, just keep to mild tasting ones so that the avocado won't be overpowered.  Also, various herbs will work -  parsley is fine, dill or cilantro, but these Chinese or garlic chives are lovely, especially with their little white flowers.

They seem to re-seed themselves, and are popping up in different spots in my garden.  Always welcome.  The buds give a nice zap of intense flavor to omelets as well.

This little avocado scooper thingy is quite handy.  Just take the seed out and scoop the flesh into your blender container.