Spiced Butternut Squash Muffins

Ingredients:

(makes 12 muffins)

Dry:

• 1.5 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 C cane sugar
• 1/3 C finely ground flaxseed
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet:

• 1 C pureed butternut squash (canned or fresh)
• 1/2 C raisins (or chocolate chips)
• 1/2 C skim milk
• 2 small very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

1) In two separate bowls, mix dry, then wet, and then combine, adding wet to dry and stirring gently until the mixture is uniform-ish.

2) Spoon the mixture into a non-stick (or sprayed with PAM) muffin tray. Don’t forget to sprinkle some raw oats on top to make ‘em look pretty!

3) Pop them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Fork check to make sure they are done.

My notes:  I used half an avocado instead of the second banana, wheat germ instead of flax meal, and squirted a little bit of agave into the wet ingredients, and of course used soy milk, oh, and I put vanilla in the wet ingredients, too.  I used the white sugar, but I think I'll just use a few dates next time because they were a teensy bit too sweet.  We put this in the dinosaur pan the Warlock's mom gave our family for Christmas.  They were a huge hit.  This recipe is from this website.

Yams and Apples

This recipe is stolen from my friend Christine's private blog.  It's so good that I will be making it on Thanksgiving.  It's not particularly healthy.  Sorry.

Yams and Apples

6 medium yams

5 golden delicious apples

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 cube of butter

Boil yams and cool.  Place peeled, sliced yams and peeled, sliced apples alternating in casserole dish starting with apples.  Combine remaining ingredients.  Cook until thickened then pour over yams and apples.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  *I cut the yams in half and boil them with the skin on.  Allow them to cool for an hour or so, then with a small knife remove the skins and slice. 

Blueberry Corn Pancakes

This recipe is awesome. MY friend has been trying new recipes and this recipe is from a cookbook call Veganomican. I'm definitely getting the book. I think the recipe calls for too much liquid. I reduced the milk to just 1 cup.

3/4 cup all purpose flour (I use whole wheat)

1/2 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola oil (I used coconut oil and not that much. I used 2 tablespoons and tripled the recipe.)
1 1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I used lemon extract because I didn't have lemon zest at the moment and it worked well.)
1 cup fresh blueberries
cooking spray or a little oil for greasing the pan

Preheat a large non-stick pan on medium high heat.
Sift together flour, cornmeal, bakig powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine all other ingredients. Add wet to dry, mix until just combined, then fold in the blueberries. Do not over mix or pancakes will be tough.
Spray pan with cooking spray. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup or an ice cream scoop to pour ot batter into pan. Cook pancakes until brown on bottom and bubbles form on top, about 4 minutes. Flip pancakes over with a thin spatula and cook until bottoms are brown and pancakes are barely firm to touch. Transfer to plates. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more oil to the pan as needed.

Fresh Tomato Soup Mmmmm Yummmmm

This soup recipe taught Silas to say yummmmm.  It sounds more like mmmmum when he says it but I think it counts.

I called mom for this recipe and maybe it has been posted before either on this blog or moms, but I figured I needed to put it somewhere I could find it!

1/2 C. chopped onion
1/4 C. butter or margarine
1/4 C. all purpose flour
combine over medium burn to make a paste
2 C. water
gradually add water while mixing with a wire wisk.
6 med. tomatoes peeled and diced
1 T. parsley
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. Thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 t. pepper
add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.

Pickles

This is the recipe I got from mom and she received it from someone else.  I am not sure who deserves the original credit.

Rinse and wash pickling cucumbers thoroughly.

Combine 3.5 c. vinegar, 6.5 c. water and 1/2 c. pickling salt and boil for 15 minutes

Sanitize jars

Pack jars with dill at the bottom, then cucumbers, more dill at the top, garlic clove (peeled) and 1 Tbsp. sugar. - all of this should be 1 inch below the top of the jar.

Cap with sterile lids.

Bring your canner water to a boil and then turn it off 15 minutes prior to immersing jars.  Let the jars sit in the water overnight, preferably outside.

The next morning remove you sealed pickle jars from the canner.

Choke-Cherry Syrup

First for this recipe you need to live in an area where you can find the berries because you have to pick them yourself.

Rinse 12 lbs of choke-cherries run them through a food grinder so that the pit breaks and you can smell a nutty smell. A hand meat grinder works perfect.  Add 3 oz. tartaric acid and 2 qts water.
Let it sit for 48 hours.

Next strain the mixture through a cheese cloth or in my case the corner of a clean pillow case.

For every one cup of juice add 1.5 cups sugar.

Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Pour into jars and can in a hot-water bath canner for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

This is my favorite syrup, EVER!

Solely Delicious - Cream Carmel Popcorn

Last summer Mom and I attended a class on how to make snowflakes out of stiffened fabric. They were really pretty, but an awful lot of work...if I were ever to make them again, I'd just use paper. What we really got out of the class, however, was an AMAZING Carmel Popcorn recipe. I tried it today, and it is WAY too tasty not to share...in fact I'm sharing it with my church class today :).

2 Cups sugar
1 Cup real butter
1 3/4 Cup corn syrup
2 Cups cream - divided

10 Cups popped corn (I used more like 15, and it probably would have been easier to manage if I'd used 20)
1 Cup sliced almonds
2 cups ribbon coconut (the big flakes that you can get in the bins at the Real Food Store)

Combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup, and 1 cup cream. Bring to a rolling boil. SLOWLY add remaining cup of cream so boiling doesn't stop. Cook to soft ball stage. Pour half over 10 cups of popcorn, ribbon coconut and sliced almonds. Mix well, then add the remaining popcorn and Carmel and mix again (this last bit, wasn't in the original instructions, but it's the way Mom and Dad always do it, and it's much more successful than trying to manipulate all of the Carmel and all of the popcorn all at once). Stir well and spread to cool. I spread mine out on waxed paper to cool, and that was a mistake (it stuck to the waxed paper), next time I'll just spray the counter with some cooking no stick spray and I think that will be more successful. Enjoy!