Finding my thoughts...

It's hard to find one's thoughts on a day like today, and to group them into a cohesive form, and to then blog them.

It's hard to look at the faces of anguished parents on the news and imagine what their pain must be like.  What must the uncertainty be like, as you wait for news of the fate of your child?  And what of the sudden and searing pain of loss experienced by parents whose children were killed?

It's hard to see a photograph of children being led by a police officer across a parking lot that looks so very similar to the parking lot at your own child's school.

It's hard to hear that some of the children who died were kindergarteners.  Children who still believed in Santa Claus and superheroes and inherent goodness.  Children who likely did not know evil until it burst into their classroom.

It's hard to answer the questions that your 4th grader poses: Is that why we practice lock-down drills?  What if that happened at my school?  What would my teacher do if that happened at my school?  What would you do, Mom?  What if that happened on my bus?  What should I do if a bad guy comes to my school at recess and starts shooting?  Why did he do it?  Why did he want to kill kids?

It's hard to witness tragedy (even though we may be so far removed, geographically speaking) so close to Christmas; hard to see a town decorated with twinkling Christmas lights plunged so deeply into sorrow.

It's hard to take a phone call from my dad, a school bus driver, and hear the emotion in his voice as he talks about how the kids that were killed were no different than the young kids he drives to school each day.  There was a weariness in his voice as he asked the same question we've all asked over and over today..."why?"

It's hard to know what the answer is in all of this, to know what the solution is, to figure out a way to keep it from happening it again.  It's hard to keep from getting political.  It's hard not to have knee-jerk reactions and not react in the emotion of the moment.

But do you know what's not hard?  It's not hard to be happy when your kids get off the bus at the end of the day.  It's not hard to hug them tight.  It's not hard to pray over them.  It's not hard to reach out to neighbors and say "hi," to build stronger communities, to help the less fortunate, to make this world a better place.  It's not hard to pray for the families of Sandy Hook Elementary and ask God's peace and love to surround them on this cold December night.

Cinnamon Honey Cold Cure - A Follow Up

So two days ago I told you all about how the cinnamon honey cold cure worked for me.  I was positive that my cold was nearly over.  I actually did run that night (like I said I would) and my run was really good.  I was feeling really well.

Then yesterday hit me.  Ugh.  Yesterday was the "my nose is a streaming snot faucet" kind of day.  I was disappointed that my cold wasn't over, and that it was somehow worse.  At the same time, when my husband asked me how I was feeling, I said "You know, I'd feel great if my nose would stop running."  Because by then, the scratchy sore throat was gone, and I really felt good despite being a human snot fountain.

Today I'm better.  Fewer kleenexes.  Less drip-age.  Still not 100%, but I'll definitely take it over yesterday's symptoms.

So would I still recommend the cinnamon honey cold cure?  Yes.  Because one day of non-stop runny nose is better than 3 days of it.  And I honestly think it's one of the best throat soothers that I've tried.  It's no miracle cure (as some articles would have you believe), but neither are most over-the-counter cold remedies.

Cinnamon-Honey Cold Cure

A few months ago, my mom told me (or tagged me in something she posted on Facebook, which, let's face it, is pretty much the same thing anymore) about using a cinnamon and honey mixture to help cure a cold.  I then saw it about a bazillion times on Pinterest.  So when I felt a scratchy throat coming on, I thought, Let's try it.  It can't hurt.

Why might it work?  Honey has antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties that neutralize harmful agents in the body.  Cinnamon has anti-fungal properties and can inhibit the growth of bacteria.  So it makes sense that these two mixed together could help knock out a cold.  (Side note: I've also used honey mixed with nutmeg as a facial mask to knock out acne - it reduces swelling and redness like you would not believe and troublesome, painful zits are knocked out within 24 hours.  No lie.)

Here's what you do: mix a teaspoon of honey (most sources recommend local honey, but I just used regular store-bought honey) with a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.  That's it.  Take one teaspoon 3 times per day for at least 3 days.  The first day, I mixed up a quadruple batch so I'd have enough for one day, plus a little extra.  I've seen other people who mix up a cup or so at a time and then have it on hand for whenever a cold arises.  Mix it up in whatever size batch you want, just make sure to keep your quantities of cinnamon and honey in proper ratios.

I dutifully took my teaspoon of cinnamon honey 3 times a day.  What I noticed right away is that it's a great throat soother - the honey is smooth and coats really well, and the cinnamon provides a little heat.  So I actually took a few extra doses throughout the day to help soothe my scratchy throat.

Important question: What does it taste like?  It's not bad at all.  Kind of like cinnamon sugar on steroids because there's a bit more cinnamon than you'd normally consume in cinnamon sugar.  Much better tasting than NyQuil, that's for sure.

Results: I'm impressed.  On the first day of my cold (when I started the treatment), I noticed that I would feel a bit better soon after taking the cinnamon honey.  On the second day of my cold, I didn't necessarily feel better, but I could tell that my cold was going to be a minor one and I appreciated the throat-soothing properties of the cinnamon honey.  I'm on day 3 of my cold right now.  I feel like this could be the last day of my cold.  The sore throat is a lot better and the drippy nose is almost done dripping.  Heck, I'm even planning on going running tonight.  I can't complain about a 3 day cold, nor can I complain about an all natural treatment that gets me back to normal faster.

Cake Balls and Care Packages

I sent out some care packages to a couple of Army soldiers and a Marine last week.  One of the soldiers is someone who served with my husband overseas and asked specifically for the cake balls I sent them for Christmas one year.  Posting about that on Facebook led to a request for the recipe.  They're so easy, y'all.

This recipe is for German Chocolate cake balls, but it's adaptable, and I'll show you how once we walk through the basic recipe.

German Chocolate Cake Balls

1 box of German Chocolate cake mix + ingredients needed to make cake
1 can of creamy coconut pecan frosting
1 and 1/2 pkg. of chocolate almond bark

Prepare and bake your cake according to package directions (I usually bake mine into a 9x13 size).  Allow cake to cool, then use two forks to tear it into crumbs.  Yes, you want to take a perfectly good cake and reduce it to crumbs.  They don't have to be fine crumbs, but the smaller your cake chunks are, the better.

In a large bowl, mix your cake crumbs with the can of frosting.  Mix well, making sure to thoroughly incorporate the frosting with the cake.  Using a spoon or melon baller to scoop out a bit of the cake mixture and shape into small balls using your hands.  I make mine fairly small, so that a cake ball can be consumed in 1 or 2 bites.  Some people like them bigger.  Whatever floats your particular boat is fine.  Allow balls to chill well in the refrigerator or freezer - this will help later on when it comes time to dip them.

Once the balls have had time to chill, you need to start melting your almond bark.  This stuff:

I usually melt about half a package at a time.  It's really important to make sure you don't over-melt your bark - the sugar will end up carmelizing - so if you use a microwave (instead of the double-boiler method), stir and check on it often.  Like every 30 seconds or so.  Also important to note: keep water away from your bark; it will cause melted bark to curdle (get lumpy) and it will be no good.

So once you have melted bark and a pan full of chilled cake balls, you're ready to dip.  Dipping methods vary.  I know a lot of people prefer the toothpick method (put your cake ball or item to be dipped on a toothpick or bamboo skewer and dip), but it never works for me.  Behold:

I did a couple with the toothpick method to show that it never works out for me.  The one in the bottom right corner was done using my fork method; the rest were done with the toothpick method.  Technically, they're fine.  They're still cake balls.  But they just aren't as pretty and uniformly coated.  So here's how I do it:

I drop an un-dipped ball into the melted bark and use a fork to roll it around until it's covered.  Then I slide a fork underneath the ball and lift it out of the bark.  I use a second fork to kind of wipe the dripping bark off the bottom of the first fork and then gently allow the now-coated ball onto a sheet of wax paper.

That's it.  Dip the rest of the balls, let them rest on wax paper, and allow the bark to harden.  Depending on the kind of bark you use and how big your cake balls are, the amount of bark you need will vary.  Making these balls took up about 1 and 1/2 packages of bark.  Just be prepared to melt more bark as needed.

The fun part about this recipe is that you can be as creative as you want and create custom flavor mixes.  Just change up the cake flavor, the frosting flavor, and the bark.   Some examples/ideas:

• Spice Cake + Cream Cheese Frosting + White Almond Bark
• Devils Food Cake + Chocolate Frosting + Chocolate Almond Bark
• Red Velvet Cake + Cream Cheese Frosting + White Almond Bark
• Lemon Cake + White Frosting + White Almond Bark
• Chocolate Cake + Peanut Butter Frosting + Chocolate Almond Bark
• Caramel Cake + Creamy Coconut Pecan Frosting + Chocolate Almond Bark
• Orange Supreme Cake + White Frosting + White Almond Bark

You can also get creative when it comes to decorating the cake balls - from super easy sprinkles or colored sugars to more complicated designs, a la Bakerella.  Just remember, sprinkles and such will stick better when your frosting is still "wet," so work accordingly.

So back to the care packages.  Believe it or not, these cake balls travel really well.  I first sent them overseas a few years ago to my husband and to a friend of mine, both of whom were stationed in the sandbox.  Their cake balls arrived in great shape and everyone who had one really liked them.  Many people asked for the recipe.  When I package them, I arrange them on a paper plate, slide the paper plate into a gallon sized ziploc bag, and then seal the bag, trying to remove as much air as possible.  If mailing with other items, I'll try to cushion the cake balls a bit so they don't get crushed.  

In addition to the cake balls, I sent my servicemen a few other treats that travel well: 

Peppermint Bark Popcorn - recipe here.

Cinnamon Pretzels - recipe here.

Cinnamon Bun Popcorn
I swear I don't know why there's a
 huge chunk missing in the middle of the pan. Recipe here.

I packaged these in quart sized ziploc bags and used them to cushion the cake balls.  Then I threw in some other assorted treats, sealed the boxes, filled out customs forms in triplicate, and sent the boxes on their way.

Happy National Bundt Day! (Featuring Pumpkin-Oatmeal Bundt)

Today is National Bundt Day.  If you didn't read my post from earlier this week, go back and read it to discover my history with this day. (You don't have to read it really, there's no history - Bundt cake is just a really good idea, and I wanted cake on Bundt Day 2010.  But I've celebrated each Bundt Day since then.  Because I like cake, y'all.)

Last week, my friend Ruhama (who started me on this Bundt Day broo-ha-ha) put a reminder on Facebook that Bundt Day was coming up.  A good idea on her part, really, because Bundt Day doesn't get all the fanfare and promotions of bigger holidays like Halloween or Christmas.  It kind of gets lost in the cracks, and that's just tragic because it's a holiday about cake.  So I started thinking about what kind of Bundt I'd make this year.  Seriously - I didn't procrastinate this year and glob a bunch of things together.  I actually planned ahead and looked through my recipe books.

I settled on a recipe from a cookbook my mom gave me many years ago, Have Breakfast with Us II, a collection of recipes from bed & breakfast owners across Wisconsin.  The recipes are all breakfast recipes, of course, but of the ones that I've tried, they've all been good.  And you've gotta think, these are the recipes for food they serve their guests - it must be good.  So although I've never made this particular recipe before, I figured it'd be pretty good.

The original recipe is called Morning Pumpkin Coffeecake and it is meant to be a Bundt cake.  I'm sure it's a lovely cake to serve with brunch at a Victorian B&B, but I can't get my stuff together early enough in the morning to make a breakfast Bundt.  So this will be dessert tonight.  Cake is cake, after all.  (I think this is Clue #1 why I wouldn't be a good B&B proprietor - "What?  You want me to cook you breakfast?  Before I've had my coffee.  Pfft.  Whatever.  Even my kids know they are on their own for breakfast.  It's every mortal for themselves around here, at least until I've got 2 cups of coffee on board."  I would maybe make a good Supper & Bed proprietor, though.  I'm usually together by then.)

So besides changing the name of the cake, I also modified the ingredients a bit to cut sugar and fat.  The original called for 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine.  I cut the butter in half and subbed Greek yogurt for part of it.  The original also called for 1.5 cups of brown sugar.  I cut the brown sugar in half and subbed in Splenda.  The original called for 6 egg whites and I just used 3 whole eggs (I don't have a problem with whole eggs, nutritionally speaking.  I do have a problem, however, with wasting 6 perfectly good yolks.)  I also didn't have the amount of raisins called for by the original recipe, so I used some dried cranberries, and I also added some chopped walnuts and increased spices.

Okay, let's get ready to rock Bundt Day 2012.

First step, assemble your ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.25 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 6 tablespoons butter (or 3/4 of a stick)
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup Splenda
• 1 can 100% 
• pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray your Bundt pan with cooking spray.  Mix dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, salt and spices) in a bowl.  In bowl of stand mixer, combine softened butter, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, and Splenda.  

Beat until creamy and light.  Mix in pumpkin and eggs, combine thoroughly.  Gradually add flour mixture by spoonfuls until all of the flour mixture is evenly combined with wet ingredients.  Add in raisins, cranberries, and walnuts, combine. 

Pour cake batter into prepared Bundt.  Bake 60-70 minutes, until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes, then unmold from Bundt pan.  Cake can then be frosted, glazed or dusted with powdered sugar. (I glazed mine with a small amount of a cinnamon-powdered sugar glaze.)

Nutrition: Depending on how big you cut your slices, this cake is fairly decent (calorie-wise) in its unfrosted state: 218 calories for 1/12 of the cake, or 262 for 1/10.  Nutritionally speaking, it's okay.  For 1/12 of the cake, you'll get 10 grams of fat.  Which isn't great, but it's less fat than what you'd get in a traditional boxed cake.  Sugars are only 6.3 grams, so that's not too bad, and total carbs are 29g.  

Verdict: I'll post an update in this spot later tonight, after we've had this cake for dessert.  :)  Check back later.

Updated (10-16-12): Sorry about not posting an update regarding the cake last night.  I've got kids, you know?  Anyhow...it's a good cake recipe.  The flavor is very good, and it's decently moist.  I thought it would have benefited more from cream cheese frosting (as opposed to the glaze), but my husband said it was fine the way it is.  It would definitely be a good choice for a breakfast or brunch spread - I think it was very "muffin-like" and could probably be adapted into outstanding muffins quite easily.  The kids gave it mixed reviews - one kid opted to skip it completely as he's not a huge fan of pumpkin to begin with (and evidently, he's also not a big fan of frosting-less cake).  Middle One ate all of hers and said it was good.  Little One ate parts of hers, which is saying something because when we have cake, she usually eats the frosting and leaves the cake behind.

A Prelude to National Bundt Day

Wednesday is National Bundt Day.  This will be the 3rd year I've celebrated.  To prepare, I dug up this item I wrote the first time I celebrated National Bundt Day.  Enjoy:

Happy National Bundt Day (Or, Adventures in Cake Baking with Toddlers in Tow)
Originally written and posted on Facebook, November 15, 2010


Earlier today, I posted a link to The Food Librarian's National Bundt Day celebration.  Inspired, I decided to make a Banana Nutella Bundt Cake.  Ruhama and Amie, food bloggers extraordinaire, asked me to share my results.  Here goes:

Note: for the complete recipe, visit Food Librarian's page.

Step 1: Find the Bundt pan.  Hope that, because you are trying to sell your house and erase any trace of actual human beings living in your home, that you didn't box it up and put it in the storage unit.

Where, or where, could it be?

Step 2: Realize that when last used (probably sometime during the second Bush administration), the Bundt pan was not cleaned thoroughly by "someone" (me) and there's still some German Chocolate cake crusted on one edge.

Step 3: Do dishes.  Wash Bundt pan, and, for kicks and giggles, all the other assorted dirty dishes lying about.  Drain sink, dry Bundt pan.

Step 4: Refill sink with bubbles because your 2 year old is having a fit that you didn't let her play in bubbles and you know you can't bake when there's a 2 year old in full tantrum mode in the middle of the kitchen. 

Bubbles!

Step 5: Prep ingredients.  Realize the paddle attachment for your Kitchen Aid is - you guessed it - dirty from making cookies the other day and sitting in the dishwasher.  Remove from dishwasher and wash by hand, stealing bubbles from 2 year old's sink full of bubbles as neccesary.

Step 6: Mix dry ingredients.  Scoop Nutella into a bowl as directed.  Realize, with a sigh, that you are using up the last of the Nutella and your son won't have any for his toast the next morning.  Wonder now if the cake is worth it, or if you should just scrap it so he can have his toast with Nutella in the morning.  Decide that hormones trump a kid's ingrained breakfast patterns and you're PMS-ing and you NEED cake more than he needs toast.  (Debate about running to Target later in the day for the big tub o' Nutella.  Because while hormonal, you're also a mom who wants her kids to be happy.)

Mmmm...Nutella...

Step 7: Set aside empty Nutella jar to lick clean with a spoon later on.  It is that time of the month, after all.

Step 8: Hear 2 year old say "Mommy look at me!" and realize she's putting on a beard of bubbles.  And getting water all over the kitchen cabinets you paid $$$$ to have redone a few months ago.  Rethink your decision at Step 4.  Consider it was still a good idea, but drain the sink of water and hope that she doesn't eat too many more bubbles.

Step 9: Cream butter and sugar.

Step 10: Add eggs to batter.  Because you're slightly OCD about eggs and salmonella, wash hands thoroughly.

Step 11: Add bananas and yogurt (Or in my case, sour milk because we just don't have plain yogurt laying about. Strawberry-mango drinkable yogurt for the kids, yes; blackberry-pomegranate Activia for the grown-ups, yes; but no plain yogurt).

Step 12: Add flour mixture, mix until everything is combined.

Step 13: Scoop out 1 cup of the banana cake mixture and fold into Nutella.  Get Nutella mix on your fingers.  Find yourself ready to lick Nutella-y goodness off your fingers until your OCD kicks in again and whispers "salmonella..."  Wash hands again.

Smells and looks chocolatey, but it's not edible yet.  Unless you like salmonella pudding.

Step 14: Scoop plain batter into pan; realize as you do that one chunk of butter didn't cream with the sugar properly.  Consider (briefly! briefly!) chucking it all because it probably won't turn out, but no:  we want cake.  We need cake.  We sacrificed our son's breakfast Nutella for this cake.  We're gonna have cake, gol-darnit!

Step 15: Scoop Nutella batter on top of plain batter.  Swirl with a knife.  Be a tiny bit sad that it's not swirling just as you'd like it to.  And you can draw swirls no problem...they're one of your favorite doodles to draw when on hold.  That and 3-D boxes.  And stick people.

Swirled (not so much) batter ready to go in the oven.

Step 16: Ready to go in the oven.  Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.  Survey disaster left behind.  Clean it up, along with counters because there could be raw egg on them, and you're a little OCD about raw egg.

Step 17: When the timer goes off, use a toothpick to check for doneness while your 2 year old dances around the kitchen singing "I want cakey!  I want cakey!"  If the toothpick comes out clean, let the cakey cool for 15 minutes.

Step 18: Unmold to a plate.  Immediately notice what became of the un-creamed butter chunk (Note: I claim Uncreamed Butter Chunks as the name of my next band.) and that there is an obvious chunk of overly buttery cake that stuck to the pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, trying (in vain, it turns out) to conceal your band-name-inspiring butter goof.

Finished product.  Wanna play "Spot the Butter Goof?"

Verdict: A great cake recipe.  Kind of crisp on the outside, very moist and flavorful on the inside.  Can't really taste the Nutella, per se, but there's definitely a nummy chocolate taste mingling with the banana.

Raising Women

Twice in the past week, I've been made aware by my daughters that I'm not doing very well at raising the next generation of women.

Example #1: Little One and I were having a conversation.  She said something that was pretty bright and I responded by saying "You're so smart!"  

"Don't call me that," she said.

"Call you what?"

"Smart.  I don't like being called smart.  You can call me pretty, and you can call me cute, but don't call me smart!"

Sigh. Talk about a wake-up call.  She's four years old.  FOUR.  And she's already thinking that "pretty" and "cute" are better attributes than "smart" or "compassionate."  And I'll admit, I tell my girls quite often that they look pretty.  As in, that dress looks really cute on you.  Or, your hair looks really nice today.  But I also toss out compliments like you're so creative.  Or that was a really kind thing to do.  Or I'm really proud of how well you did on that test! So why is it that "pretty" and "cute" are the attributes that are sticking with Little One?

Example #2: Middle One and I were watching the news together this morning before she went to school.  They were showing a retrospective of the entire election season, starting at the very beginning.  They showed a few snippets of Michele Bachmann's campaign and Middle One turned to me and said "Girls can be President?"

What?!?!?  How is it that I have a 4th grade daughter that doesn't know that girls can be anything they want to be - including President of the United States?

So you can imagine that I'm feeling today like I've let my daughters down somehow.  Somehow, I've let them fall into the traps that many girls and women fall into - one trap that says your value as a female is whatever is on the outside, and another trap that sets limits on women and tell us that we can't do such-and-such because you're a girl.  And both of these traps are things I've thought I've been active in helping my girls avoid.  Apparently not as much as I would have hoped.  Or perhaps those traps are just that big.

This all comes on the heels of Halloween and the horrible onslaught of costume choices for girls (and women).  Just by taking a look at the costumes available for girls, you can see why they might be concerned about their looks at age 4, or why they might not realize at the age of 9 that the office of President is something they might be allowed to aim for.  This was the cover of an ad that came with our newspaper before Halloween:

The costumes pictured are based on the Monster High dolls.  They're like Barbies, but trashier.  The skirts are shorter, the lips are more pouty, and they show more skin and sass than your average Barbie (who, for all her faults, at least aims to be President, an astronaut, a teacher, a businesswoman, etc.).  But look at those costumes that they're selling to pre-teen girls.  Short skirts.  Fingerless black lace gloves.  Body-hugging suits that give the illusion of low-slung pants, bare midriffs, and bustiers.

And this is just one advertisement for 3 costumes.  This doesn't take into account all the other costumes out there with questionable attire.  It doesn't take into account the subtle messages our girls get from TV shows - that it's the pretty girl who is popular and that she's not necessarily the nicest or smartest girl, but it doesn't matter because she's pretty.  And there's so many other things out there that tells a growing girl that she's not good enough if she's intelligent, witty, kind, compassionate, athletic, healthy, imaginative, creative or funny - she also needs to be pretty for any of that to matter.

I knew that with all of those traps looking to ensnare girls, I had my work cut out for me in raising my girls to become wise women.  I just didn't realize that it would be so hard to counter-act the messages of society and culture.  And maybe I'm failing at my job when they would rather be pretty than smart, or when they don't realize that being a president is a job open to both men and women.  But I also realize that I'm not a total failure in parenting these women of the future.  Middle One took one look at the ad pictured above and said "Ugh.  I hate these kinds of costumes.  They're sooo not appropriate for girls my age."

Small victory.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

For the last two years, I've heard about a supposed "pumpkin shortage."  So when I see pumpkin for cheap at the grocery store, I snatch it up to add to my stockpile.  $1 a can?  Don't mind if I do.

The only problem is, I now have a ton of pumpkin and my family (okay, my kids) tends to get tired of me doing all the baking in pumpkin flavors.  ("Yay! Mom made cookies!  Oh.  They're...pumpkin.  Nevermind.  Got any chocolate?")  I needed to find another way to use some of it.

My other inspiration for this recipe comes from me being cold and wanting soup for lunch today.  We typically have soup or chili or stew on the menu about once a week around here during the cold months.  I love it when we have homemade leftover soup for lunch.  Alas...I have not gone grocery shopping this week and our only leftovers to be had were the slices of fundraiser frozen pizza.  Nummay.  (Actually, not so much.  Fundraiser pizza is pretty gross and not worth the price or calories.  The things we do for our kids and their school's PTO.)

I was a tad nervous about trying a savory pumpkin recipe since I'm used to sweet pumpkin recipes.  I turned to my good friend Internet and looked up a few different recipes that sounded good.  I liked parts of some recipes, and ingredients in others.  Some batches made way too much soup and others were too high in calories.  So I took what I liked from the recipes and cobbled together my own:

Curried Pumpkin Soup

You will need: 

Not pictured?  The ginger or garlic, because I took the picture before I got them out of the fridge.  Also missing? Water.  But you know what that looks like.

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion (white or yellow), chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can of chicken broth (can substitute veggie broth if you want a vegetarian soup)
• 1 (15 oz.) can of canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp minced ginger (if you don't keep ginger on hand - I don't - get thee a jar of pre-minced ginger to keep in the fridge.  It's way better than ground ginger from the spice aisle but it's super convenient.)
• 1.5 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• a pinch of coriander (about 1/8 tsp, actually.  I just don't have a 1/8 teaspoon and eyeballed half of my 1/4 teaspoon.)
• a pinch of cayenne (same as the coriander - about 1/8 tsp)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp half and half
• parsley (fresh or dried) for garnish

Heat your olive oil in a big saucepan over medium heat.  Add your chopped onions and garlic.  Saute until onions are tender and translucent.  Add the chicken broth, water, pumpkin, ginger, curry powder, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.  Stir to combine well.  

Heat until soup comes to a low simmer.  You might want to taste it at this point and adjust spices accordingly, according to your preferences.  (If you don't like hot-spicy, I'd recommend not adding the full amount of cayenne in the beginning and adjust at this point.  At the amounts listed in the recipe, I don't think it's too spicy-hot, it's just right, but then again, I like spicy food.)  Once you've adjusted your spices and reached your low simmer, it's time to transfer the whole soup to a blender or food processor.  Behold, The Ninja:

Proof that I'm not a good blogger - a splotch of soup on my counter top.  Oh heavens!

I bought The Ninja Master Prep Pro a few weeks ago after that unfortunate hummus incident at the beginning of the month.  We love this thing.  The kids think it's awesome when I use it to make shaved ice for snow cones.  My husband uses it a couple of times a week for smoothies for breakfast.  I've used it for hummus twice and haven't killed it.  Not even close.  It's the best blender we've ever had.  I think it's less of a blender and more of a blender/food processor hybrid, but whatever.  It's awesome.  Anyhow...

Blend your soup until smooth.  There will probably be a few visible flecks of garlic or onion, but you just want an overall nice, even consistency.  (If pressed for time or clean blender - I've been there, believe me - you could skip this step altogether.  You'll just have onion chunks to contend with.) Pour your soup back into the original pan.  Add your half-and-half and stir to combine.

I always have half-and-half on hand because I like it in my coffee.  If you don't have half-and-half, you could use whole milk.  Coconut milk would be good too if you want the soup to be vegan or you avoid dairy.  Basically you want to add a touch of creaminess to the soup - it compliments the pumpkin and the spices nicely.  Heat the soup through if the milk-product-of-choice has cooled it significantly.  Ladle into bowls, garnish with parsley:

This recipe makes about 5.5 cups of soup.  I plugged the recipe into Livestrong to figure out calories and such - a 1 and 3/8 cup serving (about 1/4 of the recipe) clocks in at 102 calories.  I had about 1.5 cups in that bowl, which was 111 calories.  It's a little bit higher in fat than I would like (5 grams per serving), which would be a good reason to substitute a lower-fat option for the half-and-half if you're looking to reduce your fat intake.  I worked with what I had on hand, though.  Obviously, 100 calories of soup isn't going to keep you full for very long (though I did get filled up on this one bowl of soup, but I also tend to eat small lunches), so if you're making this for lunch, you might want to add in a small sandwich or salad.  As a starter course, this soup would be great.  

Overall - a warm, spicy soup perfect for fall.  I'll be making it again.

Pumpkin-Carrot Cookies

If you've spent any time on Pinterest, chances are you've seen this pin before:

The premise: mix a can of pumpkin and a box of cake mix and voila - easy pumpkin cake or muffins that are Weight Watcher friendly because they don't use extra oil or eggs so it keeps the calorie and fat count down.  I've made this recipe a number of times because it's just so easy and the results are satisfying, but friendly to those of us who are eating healthy.  My personal favorite is to mix the pumpkin with spice cake mix, but I've also done it with yellow cake mix.  I've made it into a cake with an apple cider glaze, I've made it into muffins, and I've made it into cookies.  

Yesterday at the grocery store, both pumpkin and carrot cake mix were on sale for cheap, so I knew I'd be making something along the pumpkin+cake mix lines.  I was also slightly hungry for something called "health food cake."  It's not really health food, but rather a concoction very similar to carrot cake but it has applesauce, raisins and nuts in it.  And then it's slathered in cream cheese frosting.  But I'm guessing that the fine ladies who started crafting these cakes for pot-lucks were like "Applesauce?  Healthy.  Raisins?  Healthy?  Nuts?  Healthy."  And it's super tasty, but all the non-healthy in the recipe sort of cancels out the healthy, you know?  

So a sale at the grocery store and a hankering for a non-healthy health food cake were the inspiration behind today's recipe:

You will need: 

* One box of carrot cake mix

* One can of canned pumpkin

* 1/2 cup raisins

* 1/2 cup walnuts (though judging from my picture, it looks like I'm adding a 1/2 cup of English.  I started quoting the movie "Witness" in my head when I noticed that. You be careful out among them English.)

(Also, you'll notice I'm not above buying generic ingredients, much to my tween's chagrin. Ugh.  Why can't you ever buy the name brand granola bars, pop-tarts, and canned pumpkin?  Wait.  Maybe he doesn't complain about the generic pumpkin.  *thinking*  Nope, he just complains because it's pumpkin.)

Mix carrot cake mix and pumpkin in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment.  Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes until everything is well combined, scraping down sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through.  

Whee!

Fold in the nuts and raisins by hand.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment (or sprayed with cooking spray - that's fine too).  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until cookies are set and just browning around the edges.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then remove to wire rack.

You'll end up with moist, cake-like cookies that are about 175 calories for 2 cookies.  I made 32 large-ish cookies though (very generous teaspoonfuls).  You could easily make these cookies smaller to increase your yield and drop the per-cookie calorie count.  You could also use this same mix to make muffins (divide into papered muffin tins) or a snack cake (spread into 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray).  Adjust cooking times accordingly.

The verdict: They're not terrible by any means.  They're satisfying.  They satisfy the cake craving I've had going on for the last few days.  But they'd really benefit from a dollop of cream cheese frosting on top, darnit.

Edited to add: I'd forgotten that these are the type of cookies/baked good that taste even better the second day.  Today I'm not even missing the fact that they don't have cream cheese frosting.

Kitten paws

When you raise a child, you become keenly aware of the passage of time as you watch them move through stages of growing and changing and becoming.  Sometimes these stages come charging at you like a buffalo snorting and pawing at the ground (hello, teenage years!  ugh.).  And sometimes those stages whisper in on kitten paws and catch you unaware.

My Middle Child has always been my cautious child.  She's the one who indirectly taught us that a word like masklophobia exists because we needed to put a name to her fear of mascots and people in masks or costumes.  She's always been careful about her own personal safety, always been the one afraid of kidnappers and bad guys.  She has always wanted me to be with her at the bus stop in the mornings and so I would go, shivering and stomping my feet, clutching a cup of coffee like a lifeline.  She just didn't want to be alone (she's the only kid who gets on at her stop), and she was afraid that if she was alone, someone could snatch her.

She started 4th grade this fall and our routine of going to the bus stop together continued.  Until a couple of weeks ago, when she told me that she would go to the bus stop on her own from now on.  She told me that she was the only kid on her bus route that had a parent accompany them to the bus stop.  She felt like she was old enough to handle it on her own now.

Kitten paws.

Just like that - she was older.  She wasn't my super-cautious child anymore.  She was older, and she was taking on her world.  Alone.  Without me.

I can see her bus stop from our living room window, so I watched her that first morning (and every morning since) as she took off on her own.  There was no tentativeness to her journey.  Indeed, what struck me was that she was so sure of each footstep.  She seemed...brave.  Not afraid of the world as she might have been a year or even a week before.

I was so proud of her.

And yet, it was bittersweet.  Because it's hard to let go and let them negotiate the world.  Just when you feel like the world is a safe enough place to send your children out, you read about a kidnapping, or a child being hurt.  The news story about the girl that gets kidnapped on her way to school reminds you of your child that you send to school each day, trusting that the hand of God will protect her and that her fellow humans will not harm her.  Hoping that all she learned from safety drills will come to her in a moment of danger.  Wondering if she'll find her voice and her strength in a moment of crisis.  Will she - my most compassionate child - help a sketchy guy find a lost puppy?  Will she be able to summon the years of tae kwon do training and be able to defend herself against a bully?  If the bus crashes, will she be able to find her way out of the wreck?

Ugh.  It's hard, this parenting thing, this raising of little babes that turn into children that turn into people.  I worry every day that I'm doing it wrong, that a comment or a deed (done or undone) will change the course of their lives from its original trajectory and I will screw them up irreparably.  If I insist upon going to the bus stop with her, I will be able protect her, but will I keep her from growing?  Will it shelter her too much?  Or, if I stay home and let her go on her own, will she be hurt in some way?

In the end, I let her go on her own.  Like I said, I watch from the window, still clutching a cup of coffee like a lifeline, though I'm much warmer indoors.

I watch as she strolls to the corner and waits at her stop.

I watch as she jumps around trying to see the bus as it approaches.

I watch as the bus opens its doors and swallows her up.

Off she goes, into her day and her world.

The World's Smallest (and snarkiest) Waitress

We're playing "Restaurant" this morning, the Little One and I.  We had Domino's last night for dinner (don't judge - it's not all home-cookin' and made from scratch here), and she loves taking the menus off the pizza box and pretending to be a waitress.  She certainly has a ways to go on her people skills before she starts earning a decent tip, though.

LO: Hello.  I will be your waitress today.  What can I get for you?

Me (perusing the menu):  Hmm.  I'd like a thin crust ham and pineapple, some chicken wings, Diet Coke, and a couple of those chocolate lava cakes, please.

LO (giving me the side-eye): You don't really need all that much.  You're getting a pepperoni pizza and that's it.


And then later:

LO: Hello, I'm your waitress.  What would you like?

Me: I think I'd like a pepperoni pizza, some cheese sticks, and a Diet Coke.

LO:  What about for your little girl?

Me:  Oh, I will share my food with her, but she would like a Sprite to drink.

LO:  We're out of Sprite.  Your little girl will have a Coke. She'll just have to deal with it.

Me: I still get my Diet Coke, right?

LO (again with the side-eye and a sigh): No.  We're out of Diet Coke, too.  You get a Coke.  You'll have to deal with it.  Now pay me.  Real dollars please, not imaginary.


Yeah.  Real money.  Nice try, kid.

The One Where She Kills the Blender...

Remember how every episode of the TV show Friends was titled with "The One Where...?" Like "The One Where Where Chandler Can't Cry" or "The One with the Embryos" (which features the Ross-created game that pits Monica and Rachel against Joey and Chandler - classic). Yeah, if my life was a Friends show, yesterday would have been titled "The One Where She Kills the Blender."

 It all started because I wanted hummus. I've been on a hummus kick for the last few days. And when I get on a kick, that's all I want to eat. I'd call it a craving, but cravings come and go, you know? A kick lasts longer...days, weeks (or until "that time of the month" ends, just sayin'). So on Monday, when the hummus kick hit, I was grocery shopping and picked up some Sabra-brand hummus. Deeeee-lish. It was gone in less than 48 hours. However, it's also a bit on the pricey side (thought I noticed Target sells it for $3 less than our grocery store). So I said to myself, we can make this stuff. It'll be cheaper and potentially healthier too. 

Problem: I've never made hummus before in my life.

Solution: Turn to a couple of friends - my friend A, who is something of a kindred spirit in the cooking/food department, and my other good friend, The Internet. I knew A would probably have a recipe for hummus, and she did. But in searching on the internet, I also found a few ideas and suggestions that I incorporated.

A's recipe comes from Dave Lieberman of the Food Network and can be found here.  One of the big things I appreciated about this recipe on first glace was that it doesn't use tahini which, let's be honest, can be hard to find in middle-of-nowhere midwestern towns like the one I live in.  It's not like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's is just down the block.  I can usually cobble together pretty decent international fare by visiting the two major grocery stores in town along with a trip to the Walmart Supercenter (which is decidedly not super) or Target.  But traipsing to 4 different stores with the Little One in tow just looking for tahini?  No thanks.  This recipe uses sesame oil instead of tahini and sesame oil is much easier to get your hands on around here.

Now, in reading about hummus on the internet, two tips stuck out at me.  One was to take the skins off your chickpeas if you want a super creamy hummus (I did.)  The other was to use a blender as opposed to a food processor - again, if you want to have a creamier hummus.  Taking skins off of chickpeas isn't as putzy as some people online complained about it being.  I thought it was more like Popping Bubblewrap: Kitchen Edition.  There was something a bit satisfying about squeezing each chickpea between my fingers and having the skins pop off.  But it does take a decent amount of time to skin 2 cans of chickpeas.  Tip: rinsing them under cold water helps.  If it starts to get difficult to skin them, rinse under cold water again.  Bottom line: if you want creamy hummus, skin your beans.  If you don't care, don't worry about it.

I would also recommend adding the lemon juice, cumin, and garlic in their recommended quantities at first and increasing depending upon your tastes.  Like A said to me, lemons vary in their juiciness and acidity.  One half of one lemon might be plenty.  One half of another lemon might not be enough. Sample your hummus before you're finished with it and up your lemon, cumin or garlic accordingly. I ended up using an entire small lemon and adding a few extra dashes of cumin.

So, chickpeas were skinned, other ingredients were assembled, I was ready to go.  Put my chickpeas and oil in the blender only to see my olive oil oozing out the bottom of the machine.  Well that's not good, says I.  I dumped the chickpeas and oil into a bowl to investigate the seals and whatnot, tightened the band at the bottom, and figured we were good to go.  To be on the safe side, I measured out the rest of my ingredients into the bowl that I put the chickpeas into and added a little extra oil to make up for what leaked out previously.  Then I put the whole shebang into the blender and started blending.  I would recommend blending until the desired creaminess/smoothness is obtained.  Depending on your blender and your tastes, this could be anywhere from a couple of minutes to 10 minutes.

And when my hummus was about 2 minutes away from my desired texture, my blender died.  No warning, not a sputter or a wheeze - she just up and quit.  I'm not qualified in kitchen forensics, so I don't know if the blender dying had anything to do with the leaky jar, but either way, the blender was dead.  Ugh.  At least the hummus was pretty well close to being done, so I scraped it into a container, garnished it with fresh parsley from my garden and some paprika (I kind of overdid it on the paprika, but the red against the yellow and green was just so pretty).

The Rubbermaid storage container is quite attractive, right?  Food stylist I am not.

 I sampled what was left inside the blender.  Tasty.  Quite tasty.  Lick-the-blender-clean tasty.  In fact, it was difficult not to sit down with the container of hummus and a bag of pita chips and just eat that for dinner.

And, because this blog is all about honesty in triumphs as well as failures, you should see the mess left behind by my hummus-making, blender-killing adventure:

From left to right: blender carcass, spices, olive oil, more blender carcass,  crockpot with  the night's supper in it.   Professional food blogger I am not.

Later on last night, I had some hummus and pita chips while watching TV with my husband.

"How do you like it?" I asked.

"Pretty good," He said.

"It was much cheaper to make this than buying the store-bought," I said.

Him: How do you figure?

Me: Chickpeas were 65 cents a can.  I had everything else in stock.

Him:  You're forgetting the replacement costs of the blender.

Me:  Oh...right...the blender.

End result: good hummus.  Cheaper than store-bought.  Unless you kill a blender.

Pumpkin Smoothie (Concrete Mixer Substitute)

One of my favorite, favorite things about fall is all the pumpkin flavored stuff.  Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie...all good.  And one of my favorite pumpkin flavored things is the Pumpkin Pecan Concrete Mixers that Culver's features on their menu this time of year.  If you're not lucky enough to have a Culver's restaurant near you, a concrete mixer is basically the frozen custard equivalent of a Dairy Queen blizzard: lots and lots of frozen custard blended with flavorings, candy, cookies, etc.  Each fall they trot out the Pumpkin Pecan concrete mixer, and I will usually treat myself to one or two before they disappear around Christmas time. (Which is about the time they trot out the Peppermint Stick mixers.  Oy.)

However, over the past year, I've lost 75 pounds by taking up running and cutting down on calories (I'll write more about this in another blog post).  I knew that this year, a Pumpkin Pecan concrete mixer was going to be a no-no.  A simple look-up of Culver's nutritional information confirms this: the smallest size pumpkin pecan mixer (a "mini") is 603 calories and 43 grams of fat.  Yikes.

So the other day I decided to create a substitute.  Now, if you're expecting a super-rich, creamy dessert, you might come away from this disappointed.  But for me, this substitute satisfies my craving for a pumpkin pecan mixer with all the taste, but many fewer calories and almost no fat.  This recipe clocks in at 223 calories, even less if you split it as Little One and I did.

It's based on the Pumpkin Smoothie recipe listed on Skinnytaste and also utilizes her recipe for pumpkin butter (which I totally recommend that you try). I just altered her recipe a bit to suit my tastes and nutritional needs.

You will need:

4 oz. frozen pumpkin butter*
1/4 cup 0% fat, plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk

*(I used this recipe and froze my pumpkin butter into 4 oz. portions to use in various recipes.)

Put everything in a blender. If your pumpkin butter doesn't want to leave the container you froze it in, run the closed container under some warm water to soften it just a touch. If it still won't slide out, you can use a spoon to scoop it out.

Blend till smooth.  It'll have the consistency of an Wendy's Frosty when done.

Using the frozen pumpkin butter is key - it eliminates having to add ice, which keeps the pumpkin taste more concentrated, less watered down.  You could also easily add extras if you'd like (extra sweetener, chia seeds, some chocolate chips, a banana) but keep in mind extras will alter the end result AND the nutritional info and calorie count.

Voila - the finished product:

Smooth, creamy, and pumpkin-y, and at a fraction of the fat and calories of a frozen custard concoction.