Sugar, spice, pumpkin – oh my my!!!!

free public domain image

For my dear friend Huntie, at Chasing Rabbitholes,  here is the pumpkin bread. It is the time of year for everything, and I mean everything flavored pumpkin spice. This is a dark, spicy, moist pumpkin bread I have been making for years. It was given to me years ago while I was at university by a Yankee classmate. Lord bless her down east, Maine heart for her goodness in sharing this. The only things I have changed about this recipe is adding chopped English walnuts, increasing the ginger, and by reducing the oil noted in the original.

If you like Starbucks pumpkin bread, you are going to love this and wonder how in the world you paid all that money for something not as good?

Pumpkin Bread
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup water
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans. If making muffins, add liners to muffin cups. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, applesauce, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. Bake for about 60 minutes in the preheated oven Use toothpick test to determine doneness). Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. You can bake as muffins – One loaf and 12 muffins. Adjust cooking times.

You can add a dab of cream cheese icing to bread/muffins. I melt 1/2 stick butter and stir in a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar until well blended. Poke holes in bread with a toothpick and slowly drizzle butter mixture over both loaves. It doesn’t take much!!

 

 

Nikujaga – Japanese Beef Stew, crock pot version

    This is an excellent cold weather dish. It is similar to other stews of this type. I like best to use thinly sliced fatty beef but the type the Japanese use is hard to find. Instead, my adaptation to this recipe is to use nice chunks of chuck roast. I also use Yukon gold potatoes so they stay more whole but if you use regular potatoes and they start to dissolve into the broth, that tastes good too!

Japanese stews are not thick like many of ours. They are more brothy and when served in a bowl over rice, they are similar to a dish, donburi – meat bowl. This stew will have your whole house smelling fragrant and homey. I was taught this recipe years ago from my Samurai, who liked both American and Japanese stews. We’d cook this on a miserable cold rainy day and enjoy for supper. It is also good sopped up with a nice baguette but I like the rice better. Serve with a dry white wine or better yet, some sake. But soft drinks work just as well!!

You can also substitute some bok choy or regular cabbage for the snow peas. Adding a small can of sliced mushrooms (yes….can. That’s what he did and I figured, hey, it’s a Japanese stew and he is Japanese so I am not arguing) along with the snow peas is good too. If you want to throw in a quartered turnip that’s also good.  You can also add more water for more broth.

どうぞめしあがれ douzo meshiagare, y’all! (eat well you all ! – said by the cook before the meal to the diners)
 

Ingredients
2 lbs beef stew meat (brown in a bit of oil before adding to crock pot)
1 cup water
3 tbs. Japanese sake
3 tbs. mirin
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb baby carrots (whole)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large white onion, diced
10 snow peas halved
quarter sized piece of ginger, grated
cooked sticky rice
garnish with some chopped parsley and/or slivered scallion

Directions:
1 Put all into crock pot and cook on low 10-12 hours or on high 4-6 hours.
2. Add snow peas last two hours of cooking time
2 Stir before serving. Serve over sticky rice.  Use chopsticks to stir or stir carefully to not break apart ingredients.

Super Summer Salad Saturday

Summer – how hot is it? It is so hot trees are running around looking for shade; the hens are laying hard cooked eggs, the melt time for a Popsicle is 20 seconds…

With this in mind, at this time of year, I cook as little as possible.  Salads, sammies, smoothies – you name it. In the South, we love our cold plates: tuna or chicken salad with sides of pickled beets, tater salad, coleslaw, bean salad, macaroni salad, sliced fresh from the garden tangy tomatoes – I keep bowls of layered salad, chicken salad, five cup salad, marinated veggies (see blog on Quickles) all through the summer.

A lifesaver to me this time of year is my eight quart stainless steel Presto pressure cooker. I grew up with these being used and have no fear of them. I respect them and know how to treat them and in return, they are good to me. When chicken breasts go on sale, I will usually buy about 20 pounds at one time. I rinse off, and do two cookings in my pressure cooker. In about 30 minutes, I have cooked all that chicken. I purchase with the skin on, bone in for best flavor. Into the cooking water I add some celery, onion, salt, freshly ground pepper, chopped parsley. When the chicken has cooled, I pull it out and de-skin and debone, then put into freezer bags of two cups each. The rich broth is strained and frozen for future use. The cooked chicken can be used for future casseroles, salad additions, and my famous chicken salad. My mama taught me how to make this. Again, we go with the simplest is best policy: no grapes, cranberries, nuts, pineapple – good quality simple ingredients. To make enough for my husband, inlaws, folks at work and church, and for several meals and sammies, I use 3 pounds of whole chicken breast. This recipe makes a lot. Common sense will tell you how to break it down.

Celia’s Chicken Salad
Chicken breast, cooked, de-boned, skin off, and shredded
Hellman’s Mayonnaise – 1 cup, more if needed
3 stalks Diced celery
A few finely diced sweet gherkins or,
2 TBS sweet pickle relish
ground mustard to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Put shredded chicken into large bowl. Add celery, pickle, good heavy sprinkle of ground mustard, and a couple of tablespoons of the chicken broth. Add mayonnaise. Using your hands, mix all ingredients well. Mess but the best way. I use those thin disposable plastic gloves. The chicken will be tender enough it should basically just all blend together with the other ingredients. Wait about 20 minutes and taste. Adjust seasonings. Add salt, pepper, more pickle, celery, mayonnaise as needed. I personally like a lot of diced celery and about a tablespoon of pickle added. That’s it! Put into sealable container and refrigerate. Use for cold plates, stuffed tomatoes, sammies, bribes, etc.

Layered Salad – Classic Recipe
3 cups torn lettuce
1/2 shredded carrot
1 medium Vidalia, red, or equivalent in scallions, chopped
1 medium cucumber. chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 cup frozen small green peas, thawed
1/2 Hellman’s mayo
1/4 cup buttermilk ranch dressing
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheese
3 tbs. crumbled cooked bacon

In a 3 qt. trifle or deep bowl, layer ingredient, first ingredient into the bottom of the bowl, etc. Stop after you add the green peas. Mix mayo and dressing and spread over top of ingredients, going to the edge of the bowl and sealing. Add cheese and bacon. Cover and chill several hours before serving. OPTIONS: alternate toppings are freshly grated parmesan cheese, crumbled feta cheese, toasted sunflower seeds, toasted almonds, cooked chicken breast. The chicken breast would be one of the items layered into the salad  The beauty of this salad is that you can use what items you like, more or less of them, make in a deep dish or spread out on a 9×13 dish.

 

Five Cup Salad (not really five cups of stuff)
1 cup (11 oz. can) mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup (11 oz. can) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup sour cream
1/2 chopped maraschino cherries
1/2 cup freshly grated or thawed grated coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. I save the mandarin oranges for last and gently fold in.Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serves about 6, so increase as needed. Variations: If desired, substitute half sour cream with half whipped cream, or Cool Whip to reduce the tartness of the sour cream. I personally like the tartness of the sour cream. Add more coconut, pecans, cherries to your own taste.