Pumpkin Love

I love fall.  It is my favorite time of year.  I love the colors of the leaves, the sounds of football, and most of all the flavors of the season.  I should just come out and admit it...I am a pumpkin addict.  Not even a recovering addict, a true addict that does not intend to give it up. If my family would let me, I would camp outside of Einstein Bros. the night before they release their pumpkin bagels for the season, much like many of you who will be camped out for Black Friday.


In my obsession, I have tasted and created pumpkin pie, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin french toast, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes and have even attempted to create my own pumpkin spice latte creamer.  Besides the deliciousness of the pumpkin, there are several health benefits to eating pumpkin too....It's lovely orange color means it's going to be good for you!  It is loaded with vitamin A, C, K, and E plus it is full of antioxidant carotenoids, which is a big medical term that means healthy stuff.  


And if that isn't enough to convince you about the amazingly wonderful benefits of consuming the pumpkin, it also has magnesium, potassium, and iron and makes a lovely gift.  I accept all forms of pumpkins including but not limited to: pumpkin scented bath soaps, shampoo, conditioner, lotions, candles, etc.  It is a very versatile fruit.  And in that spirit I am going to share with you one of my favorite pumpkin recipes...



Pumpkin Spice Scones
In a large bowl sift together:
2 c. flour
1/3 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. ginger  


(If you don't have these last four spices, you can just use 1 and 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice)
Set Aside this mixture.  
In a separate bowl blend 1/2 c. of pumpkin puree, 3 Tbsp of half and half, 1 large egg, and 1 tsp. of vanilla.  Once blended place this mixture in the fridge to keep cool.


Take your bowl of sifted ingredients and either using a pastry cutter or two forks, cut in 6 Tbsp of cold butter.  Once this is mixed in to resemble course meal, stir in 1/2 c. of chopped pecans.
Take your liquid mixture out of the fridge and slowly fold this into your dry mixture. 


Once you have a dough formed, pat it into a 12 inch circle.  Try not to use your hands too much as the heat will melt the butter.Use a pizza cutter and cut the dough into 12-16 small triangles.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the triangles on the paper.  Bake at 425 for 15-20 or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire wrack.


I made two icings to drizzle on the scones.  If you don't want any icing you can brush the scones with a little half and half and sprinkle them with raw sugar before placing them in the oven.  I drizzled the white icing first after the scones cooled about 10 minutes.  I then let them set for another 10 and then drizzled with the spiced icing.


White Icing:
1 and 1/4 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp of milk


Spiced Icing:
1 and 1/4 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
dash of ginger
dash of cloves
Yellow and Red food coloring to make orange.

After you enjoy your delicious scones, I will accept any of the above mentioned pumpkin scented gifts. :-)

Absurd Life Lessons

My family and I wanted to make some of my parent's famous chip dip for the upcoming Sunday football games.  For those of you that will make this fabulous recipe which I will include below, it is best if you make it the night before.  So Saturday night I started assembling the dip prior to making dinner.  The last item I put in is always the Worcestershire sauce...the good kind--Lea and Perrins.  For those of you that aren't aware, Worcestershire is a fermented anchovy sauce..yum! :-)


Well low and behold, I was out of this magical sauce.  Since I already was in the middle of making dinner didn't want to run to the store, I had my husband text our good friend and neighbor from across the street to see if she had any.  The neighbor said yes but that she was not home.  She told us to head on over and get it out of her fridge.  I love garage door codes!  She was our superhero.


So I jokingly told the children and my husband to pretend they were burglars and sneak over there all Mission Impossible-like.  I watched them from the kitchen window be as stealthy as a 41 year old man and two preteens could possibly be--which was, not at all.  They brought me the sauce, I finished the dip, wrapped up dinner preparations and we sat down as a family.  You would think that would be the end of the story--but you would be wrong because, hello, this is my crazy life.....


Halfway through dinner, my cell phone rang.  It was my mother.  
I answered and she asked, "So why did you need Worcestershire sauce?"
Me: "What do you mean?  How did you know I needed Worcestershire sauce".
Mom: "Your husband texted me."
Me: "No he didn't--he texted our neighbor."
Mom: "Check your phone--we couldn't understand why you would want to drive all the way over here and borrow our Worcestershire sauce when it would be faster to go to the store."


I checked my phone.  Yup, he had texted my mom and NOT our neighbor.  So apparently we had just broken into her house and stole her Worcestershire sauce--which ironically enough was in the exact same spot in the fridge as my mothers.  


As a family, we all stood up from the table and went to the picture window to look across the street.  I whispered to my husband, was the light on when you entered the house?  The kids answered--Nope.  After staring out the window about 15 min to make sure no cops were coming to arrest us, I informed them that they needed to go back over there, return the sauce, and turn off the lights.  I would call my neighbor later and explain--which I did the next day and she laughed her head off.  But the most entertaining part of the evening was after the kids and my DH returned home.  


I asked both children what was the important life lesson we learned tonight about mis-communication?  Without missing a beat my clever daughter answered: "When you break into someone's house, make sure you leave it the same way it was when you entered."


Oh yeah, parents of the year award...right here!


Famous Family Chip Dip
2 pkgs softened cream cheese (regular or 1/3 less fat only)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup (the fat free kind DOES NOT work well with this recipe)
1 small onion, finely diced

1 pkg beef, diced (see image)
1-2 Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce.


Blend the soup and cream cheese together in a food processor.  Stir in beef and onion.  Mix-in Worcestershire sauce to taste.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Serve with potato chips, Wheat Thins, Wheatables, celery, carrots, or baby tomatoes.

Bad News Bananas

Last week I received some news that just plain sucked.  I wasn't prepared for it and it caused me to spend Wednesday in my robe and slippers, escaping reality by watching every DVR episode of House Hunters International.  I am shocked, by the way at a cost of a rental (A RENTAL mind you) in city-center Singapore.  $5,000 a month barely gets you a stove to cook on much less an oven.  

Anyhoo, by Thursday I had advanced to the anger stage.  Anger doesn't sit well on me, I am by nature pretty happy-go-lucky and content.  When anger strikes, I really am not sure what to do with it.  I did what everyone should do when they are angry; I headed to Walmart.

See, I also like to depression shop.  When I am depressed-I want to eat.  As I know this is an unhealthy habit, I have created my own game "Imaginary Eating Shopping".  I wander around the store and put everything in my cart I want to stuff my face with (it is always crap food-nothing organic, or grown-up gets to go in the cart) for example: Twinkies  Funyons, honey roasted peanuts, the ginormous vat of cheese balls, chocolate plastic-y mini donuts...etc.

The genius is that I never buy them.  I look at them in my cart, I imagine buying them, getting home and ripping into their delicious contents only to feel gross and lethargic afterwards.  So I put them back on the shelves.  

Now here is where the misplaced anger comes in to play.  I never put them back where they belong.  I get a perverse joy out of placing the Twinkies with the diapers, the Funyons by the slippers, and the honey roasted peanuts by the camping gear.  I like to think that I am helping shoppers who, for example, might be exhausted from a newborn and need the Twinkies but are so tired they can't figure out where they are in the store.  And what camp site doesn't need honey roasted peanuts.  I'm a helper.  

At the same time, I imagine the re-stocking team uttering their frustration and at the same being impressed with the ingenuity of the random grocery bandit.  So I giggle my way around the store, feeling immensely better and almost righteous in my junk food resistance.

I did manage to buy one nostalgic food item for comfort.  Banana-flavored popscicles--the cheaper the better.  I love that imitation banana flavoring, it makes me feel like a kid.  I've only had like, 20 of them since Thursday.  If my tongue turns yellow, is that a bad sign?