Pumpkin Patch Fun

    Halloween has been gone for over a week and the neighbors pumpkins are rotting away on their porches and I have still been remiss in posting about our pre-Halloween activities. I'll pin the blame on pregnancy brain and not just plain laziness! The Saturday before Halloween, Tim and I took our boys to the local farm located smack dab in the middle of Vancouver. I love having farm fresh produce available to me whenever I remember that Joe's Place farm  is so close to us.

 Once there, the boys began investigating the tent that held the hay bale maze.

Elijah was a bit concerned that he was going to hit his head on the roof about two feet above him.

Beniah was brave enough to crawl through the tunnels under the hay bales. No amount of coaxing, pleading, or shoving could get Elijah to go into the tunnels.

No amount of coaxing, pleading, or shoving can convince my husband to take a serious self photo of us.

Next up was the corn stalk teepee. Again, Elijah was super concerned with hitting the top of his head of the roof. 

Then it was off through the corn maze in search of good pumpkins.

We didn't find any good pumpkins there, but we did get in line for the highly anticipated tractor ride around the farm.

Complete with free apples to enjoy on the ride (perfect for this super hungry pregnant Mama!)

The ride was... thrilling as we passed neighboring houses and got to peek into their backyards. We had forgotten that we were actually still in the city.

 

Elijah ate his whole apple from the bottom to the top. It was the first non sliced up apple that he ate.

Then it was off to find a wheelbarrow and some pumpkins for the boys.  

Thankfully, they are more interested in the fun looking gourds than actual carving pumpkins. I personally hate carving pumpkins because of the gooey mess during the carving and subsequent rotting of the pumpkin as it sits outside with a candle in it. Plus, I like to cook up the pumpkin and make puree out of it for fall and winter baking.  I personally use the Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe for Pumpkin puree and got 13 cups of puree out of my one large pumpkin. 

 But pumpkin puree rant aside, we had a wonderful time finding the perfect decorative gourds that day.

Pumpkin Bread - The Cancer Fighting Superhero!

Did you know that Pumpkin is supposedly a cancer fighting agent? According to foodandlife.com it is one of the top cancer fighting foods. So, if I happen to hand out something made with pumpkin (or a bag of frozen pumpkin), know that it is because I care about you and definitely not because I have 12 bags of cooked pumpkin in my freezer and one can eat only so much pumpkin!

 Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping.

Streusel Topping Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup butter , softened 

Mix all ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.

Bread Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white 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
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, 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.
3. Top with Streusel Topping 
4.  Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Pi Day!

   Happy Pi Day! This is the day that math nerds unite and celebrate the irrational number, pi. 

 

To commemorate this special day, I usually bake a pie. After much debate, I decided that not only will I celebrate the number pi, I will also give a shameless plug to my Aunt Nancy's book, More Than The Meal.  

  (Being sold for only $10. Please make your checks or money orders to Nancy Luse.)

Here is a pie recipe directly from my aunt's amazing book.

Lori's Peanut butter Pie

1 baked 9" Pie Shell
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Peanut butter
3/4 cup sifted confectionery sugar

Blend sugar and peanut butter until mealy. Sprinkle in shell.

Filling:

1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups scalded milk
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a double boiler or heavy saucepan. Stir in milk and cook, stirring until thick. Pour some of the mixture into the yolks to temper them so they don't turn to scrambled eggs. Pour into the rest of the mixture in the pan, cooking for several minutes. Add butter and vanilla. Pour into shell. Chill. 

Whipped Topping:
1/2 pint Heavy whipping cream


Whip heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  Mound over the top of the pie. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup peanuts and drizzle chocolate sauce to your liking.

Since my mother in law and I are both Chocolate Peanut butter addicts fans, I raided her cupboards and pulled out her chocolate chips and mixed them with the peanut butter on the bottom of the pie shell. I also warmed up some peanut butter to drizzle over the whipped topping and then sprinkled mini chocolate chips on the top.

Have a wonderful Pi day! May all your math equations be answered quickly and correctly (and my aunt's book sales soar)!

A Week of Christmas Fun - Day 3 Christmas Day

For as long as I can remember, my family has always celebrated Christmas Eve by eating special finger foods and watching A Christmas Carol. With adding husbands, jobs, and children under the age of four to the mix, our tradition morphed into eating the finger foods and watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on Christmas evening.

Risky business, anyone?

Well, what do you know? Elijah isn't crying when Uncle Ravi is holding him!

What family gathering isn't complete without Tim juggling some toy or another?

My contribution to the snack table was the Snowman Cheeseball which I adapted from Betty Crocker's  website.  I didn't want to follow the recipe because I am slightly scared of pesto since I have never had it before and I couldn't find any while I was grocery shopping at a busy store with two boys the week before Christmas.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe.

  

Snowman Cheeseball

Ingredients
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded Pepperjack Cheese
1 cup grated Parmesean Cheese
Garlic Powder to taste
Onion Powder to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 container (4 ounces) whipped cream cheese, softened
Snowman Decorations, if desired (I used vegetables that I swiped from the veggie tray)
Assorted crackers, if desired

Directions

1. Mix 3 packages cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, Pepperjack Cheese, and Parmesean cheese; Add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. 
2.  Cover cheese mixture and refrigerate about 4 hours or until firm enough to shape. Shape each cheese mixture into ball. Wrap each ball, label and freeze.
3. About 12 hours before serving, remove balls from freezer. Thaw in wrappers in refrigerator.
4. Arrange balls on serving plate with smaller ball on top for head of snowman. Toothpicks hold the cheeseballs together the best. Frost snowman with whipped cream cheese before serving. Decorate as desired. Serve with crackers. Store covered in refrigerator

The cheeseballs were good, but needed some more kick to it. Maybe I should have actually measured out the spices. If any of you try this out, let me know what you did differently, so that I can find that perfect kick.

The lone snowman watched as his friends were slowly eaten.

Happy Birthday

I may be five days late in posting this, but Happy birthday to my wonderful husband and best friend.

I love your goofiness.

I love watching you playing with our boys.

I love your imagination even if it means that I must make you a Pumpkin Spiced Latte Pie for your birthday.

Happy birthday, Tim Dear!

Photo credit due to the fabulous Joann Renee Photography

Pumpkin Spiced Latte Pie - adapted from Diana Rattray, about.com Guide

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup strong brewed pumpkin pie flavored coffee
• 1 cup milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 baked pastry shell, 9-inch
• 1 recipe meringue (below)

Preparation:

To make Pumpkin Pie flavored coffee: Mix 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice for every cup of water with coffee grounds. Brew coffee in your favorite method.

To make pie: In a medium saucepan, combine flour, salt, and sugar; add coffee and milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir mixture into beaten egg yolks then return to the saucepan. Cook 2 minutes longer. Add butter; cool. Pour into pastry shell and top with meringue. Bake as directed for meringue (below).
Meringue Topping

• 2 egg whites
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat egg whites until frothy; gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla or other flavoring. Spoon onto pie, spreading to crust edge to seal filling in. Bake at 325° for 15 to 18 minutes, until nicely browned.


The pie was delicious, but didn't set up quite right. Any suggestions?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my dear family and friends (who are probably the only ones who read this blog). This year was the Whittaker year for Thanksgiving, so we bundled our boys up in the car and drove north. Beniah went napless today and did amazingly well. There were a couple of times that tears were about to erupt, but were quickly subdued after we told him to "control his crankies". Now before you give us rounds of applause for our magnificent parenting, you should know that his cousins distracted him by calling for him to play with them. Playing with a big 5 year old boy is so much better then crying over a car that was being played with by his younger, girl cousin.

Beniah loves to play pianos. I think music lessons are in store for us.

The Ipad was the hit of the night.

I was so proud of how well Beniah climbed the ladder to get onto the loft, but was also a little bit sad on how quickly he is growing up.

Elijah was his sweet self and was doted on and cooed over well enough to make this Mama's heart swell a little. I can't help but be happy when people tell me that my children are beautiful.



As with every Thanksgiving, there is a lot of food! This year, I was designated to bring the sweet potatoes for thirty people. After scouring my favorite food website, I found a recipe that was divine! Unfortunately, when I had the website switch the number of servings from 12 to 30, it failed to mention that one serving was for a lumberjack who had just worked a 14 hour shift and had only eaten top ramen for the past 3 days. I ended up with two 9x13 pans and four 8x8 pans worth of sweet potatoes. Thankfully, everybody enjoyed it and is (at least I am ) excited for the leftovers.



Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potato

Ingredients

• 3 sweet potatoes
• 3 yams
  
• 6 large apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 bag cranberries (around 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
  
• 1 cup white sugar *Note: I am going to try cutting down the sugar by a 1/4 cup next time to see if it comes out a little less sweet.
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Peel and cut sweet potatoes, yams, and apples into chunks. Mix the sweet potatoes, yams, cranberries, and apples into a 9x13-inch baking dish.
3. Meanwhile, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan. Stir in the water and butter and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook and stir until thickened and no longer cloudy, 5 to 10 minutes. It will turn into what I imagine a gelatinous blob looks like before it attacks you, but don't worry it won't. Pour over the sweet potatoes.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the apples are very tender and the sweet potatoes are golden on top, about 1 hour.

My next holidayish baking will be individual pecan pies. I had a piece of pecan pie for dessert and am now all about pecan pie.