Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Oatmeal is my favorite winter breakfast food and pumpkin pie is one of my all-time favorite desserts. This recipe brings them both together in a completely yummy and wonderful way, with a texture almost like really good bread pudding. I love it warm from the oven and topped with baked apples. And it's low on the sugar and the butter, and high in fiber, so I like to pretend it's super healthy, too!


Ingredients

Dry:
2 cups regular, not quick, oats
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pumpkin pie spice

Wet:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can pumpkin puree
1 and 1/2 cups milk or soy milk
4 teaspoons butter, melted

Topping:
1/2 cup pecans
4 teaspoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar


To Make

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix dry ingredients
3. Mix wet ingredients
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix
5. Pour into greased 9 x 12 pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. While it's baking, mix the topping together ingredients together and melt in the microwave. After the 10 minutes is up, add the topping. (You can also just leave it on the side)
7. Bake another 7 minutes with the topping.

For an extra treat, slice up 4 or 5 granny smith apples, mix them with some brown sugar and cinnamon, top with a little butter and pop them them in the oven at 375 until they're tender. Served on top of the pumpkin pie oatmeal, it's amazing!

Credit where credit is due: This recipe is my reinterpretation of a recipe I found over here at Katie Goodman's site Goodlife Eats . . . http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2009/09/pumpkin-pie-oatmeal.html . . . If you like it be sure to pop over and give Katie Goodman some love!

In a Pickle

About a month ago, I was at a party . . . and one of my friends was there with homemade dill pickles. They were amazing! Soaked in a brine with garlic and peppercorns and dill . . . I couldn't get enough of them. And she made it sound so simple . . .

A few weeks later, I found myself at the downtown farmer's market.




Faced with this abundance, I knew I had to try making pickles! So I bought a bunch of pickling cucumbers, and some fresh garlic, and followed my friend's advice: cut, layer with fresh garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, and dill, and soak in a brine that's one part salt to seven parts water. I made sure the pickles were completely submerged, and let them soak for a week before moving them to the fridge.

They looked pretty . . .


But they tasted AWFUL!! I think that 1 part salt to 7 parts water is well, little too salty. I tried to save them by changing the brine, but it was too late! So, after googling pickling recipes (which I should've done in the first place) I'm want to try it again, but with less salt, and adding a little sugar and vinegar to the brine mix.

Does anyone have a great fridge pickle recipe they want to share?

Happy New Year! With Greens . . .

I'm from a Southern family, (see how I even capitalize it?) and it is a Southern tradition to eat black-eyes peas on New Years Day for good luck. In my house, you were supposed to eat one black-eyed pea for every day of good luck you wanted in the new year. I don't think my dad actually counted them, but he was very diligent in his bean consumption.

This is one of my favorite recipes for black-eyed peas, which I made up one year after I had discovered the glory of cooking and eating kale. Since it's made up, it changes a lot, and I'm constantly adapting it based on what I happen to have on hand. Leeks have found their way into the mix, as has chard. Needless to say, all amounts are approximate! Adjust to your taste.



And here it is, written out:

New Year's Day Black-Eyed Peas with Kale

2-3 bunches of kale, cut into 1" ribbons
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 large onion, diced (you can dice and freeze the other half to use later, or just use a smaller onion)
1/4 to 1/2 water (depending on amount of kale used)
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 cans of black-eyed peas, drained

Heat oil in a large stockpot. Add onions and garlic, and cook garlic and onion 'til tender. Add kale, and toss in the onion, garlic, and oil mixture. (The kale will be bulky, so this will be tough - just get as much off the bottom of the pot and onto the greens as possible). Add 1/4 cup water, cover and cook entire mixture over medium heat until tender. The kale will brighten and wilt down when it's ready. Add extra water only if pot starts to run dry.

Toss in crumbled feta cheese (I love goat feta!) and black-eyed peas (depending on your taste, and the number of people you're serving, and how lucky you want to be, you may want to add extra black-eyed peas). Add salt and pepper to taste. I have also been known to add toasted pine nuts over the top. Serve it with ham! YUM!

I feel lucky already . . .

Cookies and Birthdays

If my math is correct, my dad would have been 59 years old today. Sadly, he died several years ago, when he was only 54. But I associate these cookies with him. Like so many memories, it's all a little blurry, but I seem to remember that this recipe came from his mother, and I seem to remember him making them. I certainly remember him enjoying them. I made them for Christmas this year, and am giving you all the gift of this easy, high-calorie, high-taste, and slightly addictive recipe in his honor.

And here it is written out:

No Bake Chocolate Cookies (or: The Only Reason I buy Peanut Butter)

Mix the following in a pan on the stovetop:
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
Bring to a rolling boil, stirring regularly, for 3 minutes

Remove from heat and add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (I like smooth)
2 1/2 cups oatmeal (I usually use rolled oats rather than quick oats, but either will work)

Stir! When mixed, pour into a 2 quart casserole dish or drop by spoonful on wax paper. Let cool. Either way, I cut it into fudge-sized pieces after it's cooled because this is some rich stuff! Devour.

Though I'm not sure where the original recipe came from, the version I have here at home is written out in my mother's handwriting, so thanks Mom and Dad! And thanks to Mollie Katzen and the Moosewood Cookbooks , Futuregirl, and Summer Pierre (if you click through, scroll down to see the pumpkin pie recipe) who gave me the idea for making my own illustrated family recipes.