Pumpkin Nut Bread

March 10, 2017

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”

— Jim Davis, ‘Garfield'

The one thing about having the gas off for three weeks is that I spent more time at our little neighborhood coffee shop eating their squash bread that I love.

However as much as I love walking up to have a slice, the $3.50 cost made my wallet slim.

So my mind drifted back to that little voice in my head that says: "You could make it yourself."

I am more than well aware that part of eating out is the experience and I do love that they play soft jazz or sometimes classical which is my favorite at a coffee shop because then I can work without getting any songs stuck in my head.

Side bar on songs stuck in your head...I learned a little known fact the other day from a friend that if you learn the words to the end of the song stuck you can remove it from your brain. Psychologists have even given a name to the phenomenon it's called an Earworm.

Wierd, right? Something about our brain needing closure...made sense to me. So next time you have "Don't Stop Believing..." by Journey or "It's a Small World...by Disney look up the song lyrics and find out the end.

Okay back on topic, hope you don't have any earworms hanging out.😉

After deciding I could make my own squash bread and searching around a bit since I knew the basic recipe was from Macrina Bakery a fantastic bakery in Seattle. I decided to use their recipe as a base and make my own changes as per the usual. I decided upon pumpkin instead of squash as it seemed a simpler and I had some cans leftover from my pie making in the fall. I added some spices I love that they don't include such as Garam Masala which gives it a spicy taste rather than just a cinnamon flavor and of course changed the nuts around to how much I had on hand and Voila!

Pumpkin Nut Bread.

I know it isn't autumn but this made my house smell so good and helped me have a little closure to the gas leaking scenario I had been dealing with.

It also made me realize how much I had been paying for a slice of Squash Bread!

A load of cash!

Inspiration comes at a price though, so, Thanks Macarina for the inspiration and thanks Seattle Coffee Shops for keeping me warm.

Stay warm everyone spring is just around the corner.💐🌷💐

Ingredients

Dry

540 g or 3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
325 g or 1 1/2 cups sugar
325 g or 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted walnuts chopped
1/2 cup toasted pecans chopped

Wet

1 can of pumpkin (15 1/4 oz can)
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk (see tips if you don't have this on hand)

Instructions

Step 1

Toast your nuts and seeds in a cast-iron pan and add nutmeg and a pinch of salt for some extra flavor in the toasting. Watch the pan so as not to burn the nuts. Allow to cool!

Step 2

In a large bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, garam masala and salt and mix with a whisk.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Grind using a mortar and pestle or Coffee/food grinder half of the nut and seed combo but make sure the nuts and seeds are not hot or it will become mush.

Add the ground seeds and nuts to the flour mixing with the whisk and making sure to set aside the other half for topping the bread.

Step 3

With a stand mixer and paddle attachment place oil and sugars in the bowl and mix on medium speed for about 3-4 minutes. Add the canned pumpkin and mix again for a couple minutes.

Add in one egg at a time until each is well blended with the pumpkin and sugars and oil.

Step 4

Next slowly add in flour alternating with buttermilk until all is combined. Do not over mix! Just mix until combined each time you add flour, then buttermilk, then flour etc.

Step 5

I used mini loaf pans and made four loaves at a time. You will need to oil the pan, you can use spray oil if you have it and if not use a paper towel and wipe with oil all over the pans. Fill pans 2/3 full! Do not fill to the top or they will not bake properly, I know from experience!

Top with Toasted Whole Nuts and Seeds before baking.

Step 6

Bake in your preheated oven at 325 degrees F for 40-50 minutes. Before removing from oven check that the center comes out clean on a toothpick or wooden skewer. If not leave in longer. If it seems to be getting to brown tent (like a camping tent) with foil over the top and keep cooking until finished.

Allow to cool in pan about 15-20 minutes then remove and place on wire rack.

Step 7

You can allow to completely cool and then wrap in plastic wrap and then foil and freeze for your next big brunch or just keep in the freezer to eat the next week!

Tips

No Buttermilk? Here is what to do: Mix 1 cup of milk and 1 TBSP of Lemon juice or White Vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes until begins to curdle. Strain with a sieve and you have buttermilk
Tenting the breads with foil is a great way to prevent too much browning
Garam Masala is an Indian Spice that you can blend yourself if you want it includes: cloves,cardamom,cumin,black peppercorn,coriander,cinnamon and nutmeg
Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are know to help with cardiovascular health!

Happy Baking and Eating!

Blood Orange Vinaigrette

February 20, 2017

“A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden, swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up in the air.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

Solitude sometimes feel like healing to me. It's in that moment I can look around and see, truly see what is around me or feel the calm set in. Do you need that time? I know I do.

There is so much noise and stimulation around us everyday. Sometimes I need silence and other times I need that acoustic guitar with the musical lyrics of someone's voice rasping words into my ears. I stopped listening to words so many years ago.

I had this recently at the park. I put the headphones in and walked along the water. Is that what makes headphones so amazing? The control of the noise or lack of noise around us? I'm not sure, but I think so. Whatever the reason my mind was where I wanted it.

I watched:

the sky change color three maybe four times in less than an hour
the dog chasing the ball head straight into the water with an unfounded trust in his owner
the kite flyers waiting for that just right moment of wind to whip their stream of colors into the air.

Do you ever have these moments? Do you love them?

No one stops your thought process and you write or dream or focus in your head. You don't make a list of things you need to do,or stop and worry but rather you admire and smile about what is around you.

I love these moments. I often write to you dear reader during this time. I tell you about my day, my life, why I love something or even why I don't.

Sometimes I forget what I wanted to tell you but that's okay if those thoughts but are gone, or fleeting, I don't mind, because they were my thoughts, and they let me be alone.

Days and times like that that make me realize why I create food to share.

It's funny this sharing thing... don't your think? it seems like most days I want to share but then again those moments of solitude they just can't be shared.

They need me.

I need them.

We need each other.

You know what I mean?

It's not loneliness that's different, that's sadness.

This is time well spent making me, a better me. It's the "why" in why I want to share later.

It makes me hungry for life, if I can get away with saying that on a food blog. 😂

I hope you get to have these times and if you don't I hope you make them for yourself soon.

My food stems from these places. My food confidence in the kitchen is built starting with theses moments and branch out from there like long stems on a willow tree.

My first attempt to be kitchen confident started with salad dressings. I remember hearing something about "you know you're a real cook when... you don't have pre-made salad dressings in your refrigerator." Hmm, a good goal to strive after, I decided.

It's been years now since I purchased salad dressing and it boosts my confidence even now to think I can pull out just a few things and make a nice simple vinaigrette or a yummy ranch dressing without the need for a trip to grocery land.

In fact I can't even tell you where to find the dressings in the grocery store anymore, because I stopped looking for them. That's progress.

It takes time in the kitchen to feel comfortable.

I liken it to getting to know your neighborhood after your first move into your home. The area is new, you're unsure about where to go to get your haircut, who does the best dry cleaning, where to buy that quick cup of coffee in the morning or that slow Sunday cup o' joe.

Your comfort zone comes in time. You ask others,

you try a few places,

you find your niche, you get to be a regular

and suddenly, you find yourself offering advice to someone else on where to go.

Yeah, that's what it's like being kitchen confident. You will get there I promise, give yourself time.

Let yourself have that solitude.
Allow yourself a few mistakes on making that vinaigrette.
Make it for your before you share so you know that you love it.

And if you still feel in doubt, Stop. Take a breath, and think 3 to 1 .

3 oil (TBSP)

1 vinegar (TBSP)

See it's as easy as 3...to....1.

I knew you could do it. I love that about you, my confident kitchen friend.

Happy Cooking!😊

Ingredients:

1/4 cup blood orange juice (2 oranges depending on size)(fresh squeezed)

1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed if possible)

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1 TBSP dijon mustard

1 TBSP honey or maple syrup

1 clove of garlic pressed or grated

blood orange zest

1 1/2 cups olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Step 1

Squeeze oranges into jar or using juicer, juice oranges. Next juice lemons. I like to do them separately so that I have fresh squeezed juice to mix and match or drink as I like for later.

Step 2

In a mason jar or other jar with lid to shake: mix vinegar, and juices, mustard, honey, garlic and zest. With a tight lid, shake jar until blended.

Step 3

Remove lid and add olive oil to shaken ingredients. Next with Lid on tightly shake all ingredients together until mixed. Remove lid and taste. Add salt and pepper to enhance flavor based on taste.

Step 4

Before serving make sure ingredients are mixed in jar then add how much you prefer to salad of your choice. Start with a small amount as you can always add more. I love it with thinly sliced raw root vegetables.

Blood orange vinaigrette with shaved raw root vegetable salad

Tips

When juicing citrus fruits remove the rind and most of the white pith otherwise your juice will have a bitter aftertaste
Using a microplane grater for garlic will allow you to have a freshly grated garlic without all of the chopped chunks in the dressing. Also it is great for zesting the citrus.
You can also make this dressing in a bowl and add the olive oil very slowly while whisking to have an emulsion that will stay in the jar and not need to be shaken. But for me dressings are fine if they need a little shake 😉
Shaved root vegetables such as rutabagas, golden beets, and radishes make a delicious accompaniment to this vinaigrette

Do you want to see a blog post on the shaved raw root vegetable salad? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Dungeness Crab Salad

February 13, 2017

“The crab that walks too far falls into the pot.”

— Haitian Proverb

It's been one of those weeks. The kind where everything that can go wrong does. Trying to keep up that positive attitude all the while dealing with a gas leak in the house that no one seems to be able come and fix.

It's funny how such a small thing can effect so much of your life. So I don't have hot water, or a stove top, or heat it's not all bad I can deal.

Then throw in getting a cold, and food poisoning to the mix and well it just seemed to go downhill from there.

I was beginning to go on that downward path of poor me, you know the one that one gets from time to time.

Then I started thinking I can manage there, has got to be something good to come out of this. It's funny how just when you think no one cares little things come your way.

I got a Starbucks card from a friend.
I helped someone learn some new things.
Neighbors offered their hot showers as needed.
A friend stopped by with a bottle of homemade coffee liquor.
Someone mentioned how much I had been missed while I was at home dealing with the cold.
Amazon Prime rescued us with a new electric heater that is here to stay and is even chic and stylish.
My sweetie offered to cook on the grill even in the cold.

The list seems little but it was all BIG to me.

It was what I needed, just a reminder that sometimes things seem insurmountable and overwhelming and then someone does something kind, or offers a smile and you think okay, I am gonna be okay. Tomorrow will be a better day.

So if your are hating life today cause it's Monday I'm sorry, cause this is my Monday.

It is the Monday that I have been waiting for, cause:

my Gas Leak is going to be found,

the repair is going to happen

and...

I am going to once again have hot water. 🚿 Hallelujah!

It's the little things that I am thankful for today and I am going to try to keep in mind for the next time that it's one of those,... weeks.

I hope you do too. And if your week or month is already amazing then I am happy for you too. If it's not here is a little kindness being sent your way.🌷

Oh and a crab salad that doesn't need to be cooked with a gas stove, ♨️ just saying....😉

Happy Eating! Dungeness Love!

Ingredients

Adapted from

Vinaigrette

1 garlic clove, micro-microplane grated or minced
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1-2 Tbsp Sugar to taste
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 cup grain course- grain dark mustard
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill for vinaigrette and more to top salad
Salt and pepper to taste
Squirt of lemon juice

Salad

1 head of Bibb Lettuce-washed and lightly chopped
2 Whole Dungeness crabs pre-cooked cleaned and crab meat removed

Instructions

Step 1

Buy Dungeness Crabs from a reputable source (avoid anywhere the crab smells like ammonia) and ask them to open the crabs and clean them. You will still be pulling the meat out of the crab but it will take less times than doing everything. The best part of this salad is you can clean the crabs early in the day and have the crab meat and dressing prepped and ready to go. Remove the crab meat and for extra tips on how to do so check out this video by a Seattle Chef who made a lentil dish for my food styling class where I learned and share many tips right here on the blog.

Step 2

Grate the garlic on a microplane if you own one (I like this one) directly into a bowl or even a mason jar to make it easy for storing. Add the cider vinegar, sugar, and grain mustard and either whisk together or shake in the jar. Next add the olive oil slowly whisking into vinegar so that it emulsifies or add to jar and shake. Add fresh dill if eating immediately, if not add to dressing before eating salad. Salt and pepper to taste and whisk all together or shake jar.

Step 3

Lightly chop bibb lettuce prior to serving and dress with vinaigrette in a bowl. Top with fresh crab, squirt of lemon and a little more fresh dill.

Enjoy the salty fresh taste of crab mixed with the mustard vinaigrette and light lettuce leaves. It is a started to any meal or a fresh dinner all on its own.

Tips

Enjoy with a glass of Viognier or better yet Champagne! Splurge a little!
Heavy crab is better...lift it up and if it feels heavy it's a keeper
Don't buy a crab with a missing leg...you want it to have all it's body parts so you know it was not overcooked