Bourbon Orange Pumpkin Butter

This is the darkest and most flavorful of the three pumpkin butters I made. It is my favorite to throw into pancakes or yogurt!

4 cups pumpkin puree (see how to make your own HERE)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see my recipe HERE)

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon bourbon

1 teaspoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in bourbon and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Pumpkin Pie Butter

No, it isn’t made of pumpkin pie… But it does have pumpkin pie spice in it and is yummy enough to eat from a spoon!

First you need to make pumpkin puree (you can try this method HERE)

3 cups pumpkin puree

1/4 cup apple cider

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (my recipe HERE)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extract and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Spiced Cookie Butter

I hadn’t ever heard of cookie butter before, until I saw a recipe for it on-line. But now that I have discovered it and realized I can make it myself, I may have opened a Pandora’s box that I was not prepared for. This stuff is pure evil in a jar! And it is sitting right in my fridge, beckoning me every time I walk by. And I can’t eat just one spoonful! It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t already thinking about what flavor to try next… AHHHHH!!!

6.75 oz of any flavor of plain crispy cookies (I used some plain tea biscuits and some ginger snaps)

4 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (you could use any spice you like or none at all)

1/4 cup oil (coconut, sweet almond, rice bran…) *I used coconut but it turned into a rock in the fridge. The rice bran was better and I think almond would be nice, too.

3-4 Tablespoons cold water

Place cookies into food processor and pulse until they turn into fine crumbs.

Add sugars, spices and vanilla and pulse until well mixed.

Slowly pour in the oil and mix until well combined.

Then slowly add water (you may not need it all) and pulse until it is sticky but not too thin or wet.

 

   At this point is was still too gritty for me and I wanted my butter to have a smoother texture. So I kept pulsing until the butter was glossy and smooth.

Place in a jar or other airtight container and store in fridge.

You may want to take it out and bring to room temperature before eating. Or if you’re like me, you can just take a spoonful right out of the jar in the fridge every time you walk by… ;o)

Maple Pumpkin Butter

I decided to tackle the pile of pumpkins sitting on the hot tub today!

First step was to get them all baked and pureed. Super easy using this oven method!

Before I knew it, I had 25 cups of pumpkin! Fifteen cups went into the freezer and the other 10 got made into pumpkin butter. I’d never made it before, but from the recipes I saw on-line it didn’t seem too difficult. So, I made it up as I went along and am pretty darn pleased with the results!

spiced bourbon orange, pumpkin pie & maple

My mind is reeling with all kinds of ideas to do with them! If they work, I’ll post them here. But first, the Maple Pumpkin Butter recipe:

3 cups pumpkin puree (see recipe HERE)

1/4 cup apple cider (I used our homemade cider)

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

pinch salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extracts,, salt and lemon juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Blackberry BBQ Sauce

Behind the fence in the backyard is completely overgrown with blackberries which means a freezer full of blackberry jam every summer! The best way to get rid of the extra is to make Blackberry BBQ Sauce.

1 cup ketchup

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/3 cup blackberry jam

1 teaspoon mustard

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Mix it in a small bowl. Use as you would any other BBQ sauce.

I poured mine over a beef roast in the crock pot and cooked it on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

Shred the beef and serve on hamburger buns.

Easy Lefse

We haven’t had really good Norwegian lefse since leaving MN almost 8 years ago… Friends there seemed to make it perfectly and gave me this great easy shortcut recipe for traditional lefse that is super delicious! Unfortunately I am still getting the hang of making the stuff. It’s not very tender, not rolled quite thin enough and not even close to a circle shape. I call it “rustic”. ;o)  I’m sure my boys wish I would just get more practice so I’d get better at it. We’ll see, we’ll see…

Boil together:

5 cups water

1/2 cup lard or shortening

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

When lard is melted, add 2 cups milk.

Pour over 8 cups potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes).

Let cool overnight in fridge.

Add 2 cups flour. Mix well and divide into 2 or 3 balls. Keep the dough you are not working with in fridge to keep cold.

Cut off small pieces and roll out on heavily floured cloth. Brush off excess flour.

Cook on griddle at 450 on both sides.

  Let cool on wire rack covered with a towel.

Serve warm with butter and cinnamon-sugar.

Hobbit Food

Last week we went to the midnight premier of The Hobbit… and since we are such total Tolkien geeks (and foodies) we went to Denny’s for their new Hobbit inspired menu.

I know you’re probably thinking that if we were really foodies we wouldn’t stoop to eating at Denny’s, but they had HOBBIT food!!!

I don’t know if it was the we’re-on-our-way-to-see-The Hobbit adrenaline rush or if the cooks were really good, but the food was DELICIOUS!!! :o) No, seriously! And I have become uber picky about restaurant food lately…

If you love The Hobbit, you gotta go try it!!!

The Shire Sausage Skillet:

The Ring Burger:

Hobbit Hole Breakfast (this is what I had):

Lonely Mountain Treasure:

Frodo’s Pot Roast Skillet:

They won’t offer these items forever, so I’d better see what I can do about making them at home. We’ll see if I can do it as well as they did???

Garlic Parmesan Butter

This savory butter is good on steaks, sautéed veggies or bread. Make it as garlic-y as you like…

1 stick butter, softened

3-5 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 Tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese

cracked black pepper, to taste

Mix together well and store in fridge.

4th of July: Patriotic Treats

The 4th of July is possibly my favorite holiday of the year, after Christmas of course! I love the warm summer weather, picnics with family, and the FIREWORKS! I am an absolute sucker for things that blow up, shoot sparks or need to be lit with a punk or blow torch!

This is our 2012 fireworks show. I’m not the only junkie in our family… ;o)

It’s actually a genetic thing. My grandfather was a fireworks junkie! He loved them! He was anal about emptying the dryer vent to prevent house fires, but would shoot off bottle rockets with reckless abandon. Can your toddler stand on his own and hold something in his hand? Then he is totally ready for sparklers! I think all of my boys held their first lit sparkler before they turned 2…  I think I miss my grandpa the most on the 4th of July!

this is my grandpa at his fireworks stand in the early 40’s

I also love the food on the 4th of July! Not surprising, huh?

I made all red, white and blue treats this year…

fruit salad with watermelon stars

  

strawberries dipped in white chocolate and blue sparkly sugar

3-layer punch. Fill cup with ice. Pour in red Kool-Aid, followed by blue Gatorade, then topped with sparkling water or club soda. The secret??? Pour VERY slowly over the ice!

I wish I could say I made this gorgeous strawberry-rhubarb pie with the sweet little blackbird pie vent, but it was my super-talented little sister! But if I ever make pies, I’m getting a pie bird! You can buy your own at eBay, HERE.

Hope you all had as wonderful a 4th as we did! And remember to be thankful for this amazing country we live in!

Fancy Salts

For my birthday, my friend Kate gave me a whole bag full of fancy salts. My brain immediately thought “salted caramels” but I know I need to expand my repertoire. But that required a bit of research on the Salt Works website.

Here’s a bit about what I learned about the salts in my birthday bag…

Alaea: has a bit of Hawaiian red clay in it. Is used for roasting or grilling meat and in traditional Hawaiian dishes like Kalua Pig and Hawaiian jerky and poke.

Salish: alderwood smoked salt used by PNW native Americans to smoke salmon and other meats

Mediterranean: harvested in the south of Italy. Has a mild flavor and bright white color.

Murray River: comes from the Murray River in Australia. This flaky pink salt gets its color from carotene, a salt tolerant algae. Best as a finishing salt.

Fumee De Sel: this salt is smoked with wood from Chardonnay oak wine barrels. This salt has a unique flavor that can be used in many different ways.

Cyprus Flake: light and fluffy and used to garnish fish or vegetable dishes or in baking.

Himalayan Pink: one of the purest salts on earth mined deep in the Himalayan Mountains, this has both healing and nutritional properties. Use to rim drink glasses or rub into meats or vegetables for grilling or roasting.

Hiwa Kai: this dark black salt gets its color from activated charcoal. Evaporated in the sun, it has numerous health benefits. For finishing, salads, meats and seafood.

Sel Gris: also known as gray salt. This salt has a high moisture content and a gray color from the clay in the salt ponds. It is great for cooking or baking. Grind it fine to sprinkle on nuts or popcorn.

I promise to use them on more than just caramels… ;o)

La Tea Da

I didn’t think I would ever become a tea snob. I like my cup of Celestial Seasoning tea just fine. Besides I like reading all those sweet little quotes on the box.

But then we went to the tea store at the mall… then I discovered good tea! I mean, really good tea. Every tin of tea he opened smelled heavenly! It was so hard to not buy a bit of every one of them! That is, until I saw the price tags. ;o)  But we did splurge and bring home a few different bags of tea.

I do enjoy a lovely cup of tea but my favorite part is all the things I learned about the world of tea that I never knew before.

Since I am so excited about my newfound knowledge, I thought I would share some of it with you:

White tea: This is the least fermented of the teas and has only 1% of the caffeine of coffee. It helps with detoxification, hydration, as well as a healthy skin and complexion.

Green tea: The next most fermented tea with 5-10% of the caffeine of coffee. It boosts the immune system and helps maintain normal blood sugar levels.

Oolong tea: With 10-15% the caffeine of coffee, this is almost the most fermented of the teas. Aids in weight loss, metabolism, and digestion. Also promotes healthy skin and teeth.

Black tea: This is the most fermented of the teas. It has an energy boosting 20% of the caffeine of coffee and is good for the heart and cardiovascular system.

For the first time in about 15 years, I can drink black tea again. Since my youngest son was born, caffeine has not done nice things to me. Even better news… you can decaffeinate any cup of tea by simply only drinking the second brewing! All the caffeine comes out in the first brewing of the tea. This was especially good news since we bought a couple of Mate teas….

Mate tea: This tea has all the caffeine of a cup of coffee without all the acids and oils. As an added bonus it is also a source of vitamins and minerals. People say the 2nd or 3rd steeping is even better than the first!

For the days when my stomach isn’t at it’s best, we also picked up a few rooibos and herbal blends.

Rooibos: These teas have no caffeine and promote digestion and can even help with upset stomachs.

The best sweetener for tea??? Raw cane sugar makes it sweet, and enhances the flavor without changing it.

Now that you’ve learned so much about tea, you should heat some water and relax and enjoy a cup!