Pumpkin Trifle

Call me unAmerican or a horrible New Englander but...

I don't like pumpkin.

Every October, everyone goes gaga for pumpkin everything and usually I turn my nose up at most pumpkin goodies and stick to my tried and true favorite flavor, caramel.  Mmmmm caramel.

This dessert has made me a pumpkin believer.  And...I didn't use a recipe!  I had every intention of making the cake portion of this trifle the pumpkin flavor, until I found this tasty treat at the store...

It's the caramel, gets me every time.  So I went ahead and baked myself up this box'o'cake.

Before pumpkinizing this bad boy, I quickly mixed up some instant vanilla pudding and threw that in the fridge.  Why?  Oh you'll see!  Now comes the pumpkin.  I went ahead and threw a whole block of cream cheese in a bowl with a can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, good ole pumpkin purée), and pumpkin pie seasoning.  

I whipped that fun mixture up, halfway through deciding it needed a little something else and went drizzle happy with some maple syrup.  Yup, that happened.

Mmmmm, fluffy goodness.

Remember our friend the vanilla pudding chilling (haha) in the fridge?  Go ahead and blend that into pumpkin town.  You'll get something fabulous.  Go ahead and lick those beaters.

If you can stop stealing samples, put the whole bowl back in the fridge, covered.

Now it's time to get ready for trifle assembly.  Smash up some crunchy cookies.  I used golden Oreo's but you could get crazy and use Nilla wafers or gingerbread cookies or whatever your pumpkin loving heart desires.  

Next, sprinkle your tubs of Cool Whip with some pumpkin pie seasoning and gently mix it up.  

Now comes the fun part.

Take half of your cooled cake and crumble it into your trifle dish.  I like to squish it down really well and make a nice base for the rest of the layers.  Mostly I think I just like the feeling of squishing cake.

After squishing my cake, I realized I had some freeze dried apples left over from making caramel apple popcorn (have I mentioned I love caramel??).  I crumpled those little tasty treats up and sprinkled them on the cake.  I love a good crunch in trifles.

Next came the pumpkin mixture.

Then cookie crumbles.

Then I realized I probably didn't need to add a picture of every layer.  So next came Cool Whip, then I started all over again, cake, dried apples, pumpkin, cookies, Cool Whip.  Whew!

Every time I make trifle, I always get a last layer panic, worrying that all the layers won't fit.  They always do.  You think I'd learn.

Ta da!

Beautiful!  Doesn't hurt that it's also crazy delicious, even if you don't like pumpkin.  I'm thinking next time, a caramel drizzle on the top because, you know my feelings on caramel.

So there you have it, a reformed pumpkin hater's new favorite trifle!  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Trifle

1 box Caramel Apple cake mix (eggs and oil needed varies on the type of cake you make)

1 package Golden Oreos

1 box instant vanilla pudding (requires milk to make)

Dried apples or apple chips

1 can pumpkin purée 

1 block cream cheese

2 tubs Cool Whip

Pumpkin pie seasoning 

Maple syrup

1.  Bake cake according to box instructions.  Allow to cool.

2.  Mix instant pudding according to box instructions.  Place in fridge to set up.

3.  In a large bowl, add pumpkin purée, cream cheese, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and approximately 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie seasoning. Blend until smooth.

4.  Add chilled pudding to pumpkin mixture, blend until incorporated.  Set bowl in fridge, covered.

5.  Crush Oreos in a sealed bag.  Sprinkle pumpkin pie seasoning into both tubs of Cool Whip and gently mix.  

6.  Layer your trifle!  Crumble half of the cooled cake into the bottom of your trifle dish, press down to create a compact bottom layer. Sprinkle crushed dried apples on top of the cake.  Add half of the pumpkin mixture, using a spatula to spread and create an even layer.  Add crumbled Oreos, then one tub of Cool Whip.  Repeat layers, ending with Cool Whip.  

The Turkey Trials (Episode 2)

Last night, the turkey trials continued with a venture into the world of stuffing.  You may be thinking, who needs to practice such an all-American classic?

I do!

Growing up, my grandmother always brought the stuffing to Thanksgiving.  Her stuffing is a super moist meaty-bread concoction that, to the naked eye, does not look like stuffing.  Don't get me wrong, it's DELICIOUS (I mean it's full of bread and meat, how can it now be), but it's not your traditional all-American stuffing (which she gets away with because she's adorably Portuguese).

My grandmother still brings her wonderful stuffing to Thanksgiving every year, but last year I decided to add a second type of stuffing (because, you know there's not ever enough food choices on Thanksgiving).  It all started when we went to a Friends-giving get together at my friend VT's house the weekend before Turkey Day last year.

VT has this amazing gift where she can stay totally calm in the kitchen and throw together a massively fabulous meal without (seemingly) any practice or prepping.  Last year she whipped up a last minute stuffing for our Friends-giving and it BLEW MY MIND.  My entire perception of stuffing was changed and it seemed so simple.  There was some sausage and some green apples and oh man it was crazy good.  With only a few days to go before Turkey Day last year, I attempted my own VT-style stuffing and it turned out pretty decently.

With more time to plan this year, I've decided to attempt VT's yummy stuffing again.  I searched for recipes and found one that looked pretty close so last night, I gave it a whirl.

Here is the recipe I used.

I melted some butter in my wonderful dutch oven and threw in 2 chopped Granny Smith apples.

Butter + apples + heat = a deliciously fall scent!

When those looked slightly browned, I removed them to a bowl and added some more butter (mmm....butter) and threw in the chopped celery, onion, and sweet Italian sausage.  All of that goodness cooked up and looked amazing.

At this point, in went the chicken broth and a whole lot more butter.

In a separate dish, I mixed together the stuffing mix, a bag of croutons, 1 beaten egg, a whole lot of chopped sage, and the apples.

Look at how pretty that is!

When my sausage/broth/butter mix came to a boil...

(Ok so my awesomely professional cell phone camera could not capture the true boiling that was going on here but just believe me, it was.)

The bread/apple/sage mix then promptly went to mingle with the sausage broth mix.  I threw a cover on there and into the oven it went for 45 minutes.

Get in your time machine and travel 45 minutes into the future with me.

Sha-bam!  There you have it!  I took the lid off for the last five minutes of baking to get some crispy-ness going on up top.

There it is served up next to some yummy mustard crusted chicken (that was a little too mustardy but that's a story for another night).

Drumroll please for the verdict....

Pretty delicious!  Hubby liked it too which is a big plus.  I kind of wanted the apples to be a bit crispier, they were super soft.  Hubby said he liked them soft and would not like them crispy so I'm thinking next week I'll have them somewhere between crispy and squishy.

Either way, this is definitely on the T-Day menu...although I may add a few changes to the recipe last minute.

I would love any stuffing-related hints!!

Countdown to T-Day

Thanksgiving is fast approaching!  November is flying by!  Since the highly successful saffron butternut squash trial, I have not had the chance to do much cooking or turkey day practice.  This week I am planning my second trial recipe...apple and sausage stuffing.  I have, however, come up with a final menu...and by final menu I mean the first draft of a menu that will inevitably change daily until November 22nd.

So here it is, as of today:


Thanksgiving 2012 Menu

Roast turkey
Fried turkey
Mashed potatoes
Saffron butternut squash risotto
Corn chowder
Apple sausage stuffing
Roast autumn vegetable medley
Assorted breads
Salad


I'll come up with sassy restaurant quality, less boring names for those dishes as we get closer to the big day.

Check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest board here.

An Ode to Bob

It all started about a year ago when I was on a homemade pasta kick, all thanks to a particularly delectable pasta making article in Food Network Magazine.  In a desperate search for semolina flour to perfect my pasta making endeavors, I scoured every local grocery store. 

My search was concluded upon my discovery of Bob's Red Mill natural food line. 

Hidden amongst the natural section of my local big name grocery store, I was drawn into the various mixes and natural Bob's Red Mill products that appealed to my inner hipster wanna-be.  Over the past year, I bought more than just semolina flour from good ole' Bob, I began to dabble in pancake mixes and grains. 

Alas, tonight....Bob changed my life. 

Over the weekend, I made an impulse stop at Ocean State Job Lot.  If you've never been to Job Lot (that's what the cool kids call it), think of the sketchiest dollar store you have ever been in, mentally add a few degrees of sketchy, mix it with every random purchase you never knew you needed, and throw in some totally arbitrary food products.  There you have it, Job Lot.

Any who...

among other things (like every other thing known to man), Job Lot has a HUGE selection of Bob's Red Mill products for crazy cheap prices.  This weekend I decided to branch out and grab a bag of Bob's Vegi Soup mix. 

It appealed to my sudden desire to eat healthy, hearty foods and well, it was super cheap.  Tonight, I decided to give this soup mix a whirl.

I was slightly skeptical about how this soup would turn out for a few reasons.  (Have I mentioned that I love making lists??)

1. I'm generally wary of any kind of store bought soup/soup mix, homemade is always way better.
2. There's a ton of healthy junk in there and that generally means flavorless, in my experience.
3. There is absolutely no seasoning in the mix, just healthy stuff.
4. I purchased it at the wonderfully sketchy Ocean State Job Lot, it may taste like rubber garden gloves and marbles.

The directions on the back of this bad boy said to simmer 4 cups of water and 1 cup of Vegi soup mix for an hour and add whatever spices tickle your fancy.  I opted to simmer the mix in 4 cups of chicken broth for some extra hearty-ness.  I tossed in some Italian spices and then swirled in a few good squirts of tomato paste.  

About 20 minutes in, I started to get really excited.  The smell was amazing!

About 40 minutes in, my dear hubby (who told me he was not hungry for dinner tonight) pulled a Toucan Sam and followed his nose to the stove.  I should mention....my hubby dislikes soup for the most part (I know, he's un-American).  Based on smell and sight alone, he asked for a (small) bowl of the soup when it was done.  I warned him that it was full of healthy stuff and was really good for him.  He still insisted.

At the 1 hour mark, the soup looked thick and chunky and all sorts of amazing so into bowls it went.  I grated some fancy, stinky Parmesan cheese on top and it looked a little like this...

This is the point at which my life changed.

This stuff was so good, even my un-American, soup-hating husband loved it and went back for seconds.  He didn't believe that it was super healthy as per my warning.  I had to show him the nutritional facts...he still continued to eat it. 

Total success.

Way to go Bob's Red Mill.  I will be purchasing more of your delicious mixes at my local sketchy store.  I highly advise everyone to follow suit.

The Turkey Trials (Episode 1)

Apparently I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  Well, at least at the blogging consistently thing.  Have no fear, I haven't had any culinary breakthroughs in the time that I've been away.  A few disasters (spaghetti squash...I need to practice that some more) but nothing huge.

I did make some adorable and delicious hurricane cookies the day that Hurricane Sandy rolled through.

I found the idea and recipe for these cute little things here.

There is one important thing that happened while I was being too lazy to blog....

NOVEMBER arrived.

I love November.  Mostly, I love gorging myself at Thanksgiving.  I have been hosting Turkey Day for a few years now (since hubby and I have been married).  I thoroughly enjoy hosting, despite my mother's premonitions that this won't always be the case (advice from a woman who hosted Thanksgiving for over 20 years...I love you, mom!).

I spend most of November planning and prepping for Thanksgiving.  Planning the menu, testing various new recipes, cleaning the house, and spending way too much time on Pinterest looking for ideas.

One of the most important parts of this November nutty-ness is testing new recipes.  I'm slowly pinning down favorite turkey day staples but I also love changing things up every year.  Today I attempted my first Turkey Day trial (thus it's officially Thanksgiving season!)

What recipe did I choose for this momentous occasion?  A highly rated little gem by none other than my favorite celebrity chef, Ms. Ina Garten.

Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

I know what you're thinking...holy ambitious, Batman!  Well, you're right.  This recipe was a crazy jump for me for the following reasons:

1. I've never made risotto before.
2. I've never cooked with butternut squash before.
3. I've never used saffron in cooking before.
4. I've never had or cooked with pancetta (an ingredient in this risotto).

Are we noticing a pattern here, people?

In an effort to channel Ina's spirit as good luck for this recipe, I took a trip to my local fancy cheese shop.  I pretended to know what I was doing and walked away with a hunk of pancetta and some stinky Parmesan cheese.

Back at home, I turned on some tunes, went for it and started risotto-ing.

I peeled and chopped up the butternut squash (so what if I had to Google how to peel a butternut squash...it's a learning process, people).  I threw all that golden goodness into a pan, tossed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and into the oven at 400 it went.

While the squash was roasting away for about 30 minutes, I diced up my pancetta and onion.  The recipe calls for shallots but I couldn't find any at the store (I didn't look very hard...) so I substituted in some onion.

After perusing reviews of this recipe online, I decided to make a few tweaks, such as using less butter in the next step.  I melted about 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter in my trusty dutch oven and added the pancetta and onion over medium low heat.

While that was sizzling away, I began to warm up my chicken broth (not homemade, sorry Ina) on a back burner. 

On a side note...pancetta smells so ridiculously amazing while cooking.  Why have I never used this stuff before??

About 10 minutes later, my onions were translucent and my pancetta appeared to be cooked through.
Time to add the rice!  Can we just talk about how adorable Arborio rice is?  It's so little and squat and ovalish.  Super cute.  Have I mentioned that rice is my favorite food?  Anyway, in went the rice and saffron.  I didn't have any white wine (a sin, I know) so I used a little bit of my warmed up chicken broth instead.

As a saffron virgin, I totally expected the entire dish to turn saffrony golden yellow instantly when the saffron was added.  Alas, I was disappointed to see no such miraculous color change.  As per reviews of this recipe, I only added about half a teaspoon of saffron instead of the full teaspoon in the ingredient list.

After a few minutes, it was time to start the intimidating part.  If you've watched food shows half as much as I have, you probably have a healthy fear of the risotto process, just as I do.  Facing my fear and putting my trust in Ina's recipe, I slowly added two ladles of my simmering chicken broth and held my breath....

I stirred and watched and waited.

A little more than 5 minutes later, when the broth appeared to be soaked up, I did it all over again.  It seemed to be coming along nicely.  I still held my breath.

There's that pretty saffron yellow I was looking for!  It was being shy and took a while to warm up to me.

While this wild risotto dance was taking place, my butternut squash finished roasting and it came out to cool.

Hello, beautiful.

After adding ladles of broth, stirring, and waiting about 3 times, I added the squash, one more ladle of broth, and my fancy cheese.

 
I let all of that golden deliciousness sit over low heat for a few minutes, still going stir-crazy (haha get it?) and gently breaking up the chunks of squash with my spoon.

A few minutes later, I couldn't stand it anymore and licking the spoon wasn't cutting it so I let out my held breath and declared my risotto experiment finished.

DO YOU SEE THAT COLOR?  That bowl is screaming, "It's Autumn, eat me!".  I had to listen to it.

Two bowls later, I called my first turkey trial a success.

HOLY CRAP, I MADE RISOTTO. 

This stuff is seriously delicious.  Is all risotto like this??  I've only had risotto a few times in my life but oh man, I've been missing out.  What did I take away from this experiment of mine?

• risotto is not as scary as I thought
• maybe a tad less saffron next time, I couldn't taste the butternut squash as much as I wanted to
• empty your bladder and turn off your phone before embarking on a risotto journey, you'll be way too paranoid to leave that sizzling pot for even a second 

 I would love to add this dish officially to my Thanksgiving 2012 menu but I have some worries...I'm all about making anything I can ahead of time to cut down on the craziness of turkey day and I'm concerned about this recipe being a bit too time consuming for the big day.  I'm typically juggling a dozen different last minute foods half an hour before Thanksgiving dinner, will I really have the time to dedicate to risotto making?

I'll have to ponder this quandary.

For now, happy November and I'll try to be better about posting :)

Pulled Pork, take 1 (a C+ for effort)

A few weeks ago we visited friends and had some spectacular pulled pork, which they cooked all day in the crock pot.  I was so impressed with the ease and overall deliciousness of the whole meal that I decided to take it on, recipe-less, myself.

Spoiler note...I probably should have used a recipe!

My recent sans recipe adventures have been mildly successful so I got super daring on this one.  I have never made pulled pork before nor am I very familiar with pork (other than the occasional chop).  I found a smoked shoulder picnic cut at the grocery store for super duper cheap and figured it was my lucky day.

Early on the morning of pork day, I got crazy with some spices and created a rub for my cheap pork (that some how doesn't sound right).

That lovely looking bowl contains some chopped garlic, salt, Italian seasonings, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, paprika, and ground mustard.  I smooshed it all together with some red onion jam and it turned a beautiful brick color (so I assumed I was on the right track).

I threw my pork picnic in the crock pot and slathered this rub all over the pork.

About 12 hours later, after cooking on low all day, I returned home to a delightful scent.  Happy with my work thus far, I shredded the pork, drooling, and removed the bones.  Then I took my first taste.

HOLY SALTY, BATMAN.

Looking back on my rub ingredients, I didn't recall putting very much salt in so I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong.  Maybe my lack of pork knowledge is to blame...is pork way saltier than I realized?  Or maybe it's the cheap smoked pork I purchased, extra salty?

In a panic to somehow save dinner, I dumped a huge glob of red pepper jelly in with the shredded meat and stirred it up.  I feel like someone somewhere told me that sweet balances salty.  I dared another taste and it actually worked (for the most part).  Still saltier than I would have preferred, I decided it was safe enough to cover in cheese and BBQ sauce and throw on a sandwich.

So into the toaster oven went some crusty bread, covered in sliced pepper jack cheese.

I added some BBQ sauce to hubby's sandwich because, well, he loves BBQ sauce.  We both finished our sandwiches without hesitation so they weren't terrible by any means.

I'm just now realizing how unappetizing all of that pork juice on the plate looks but it was yummy soaked into the bread.

The verdict?  The next time I venture into pulled pork land, I'm thinking I'm going to be wary of the type of pork I purchase (salt content) and definitely not add any extra salt.

C+ for effort but maybe I'm not ready to stray so far from recipes just yet!!

Stuffed Pepper (just one)

Hubby hates peppers.  What does that mean, you ask?  It means he's a food wuss.  Just kidding!  It means more stuffed peppers for me!

I've had a lovely yellow pepper sitting in my fridge for a few days now, just begging to be stuffed with rice and tasty goodness.  Tonight, I fulfilled that poor pepper's wish.

In an effort to stay away from sandwiches, I made this sucker for tomorrow's lunch.  I like stuffed peppers even better a day later, when the pepper flavor has had a chance to really jive with the stuffing.

I started this pepper stuffing extravaganza in my favorite sort of way...with some chopped onions and garlic sizzling in a pan with olive oil.

When the onions were soft and yellow, I threw some canned diced tomatoes (not drained) in the pan to join the sizzling stuffing shindig.

After a few minutes, I added some cooked brown rice, a bay leaf, dried basil, dried oregano, a shake of Emeril's Original Essence, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and some frozen chopped spinach.  Whew!  That seemed like a lot less ingredients as I was adding them.  I doused the whole colorful party in some chicken stock and let it get warm and soak up some of that yummy broth.

While this mixture simmered away, I took the top off of my pepper.

It's doing a little bow to show you how nicely I cut off it's little hat.

In went the rice mixture, sans bay leaf.  I made a little too much stuffing mixture but I'm thinking that will taste great in an individual serving size of soup, maybe for another lunch this week!

I sprinkled a little Parmesan cheese on the top for funsies and got ready to cook this baby.  Now, prepare yourself.  I'm going to admit to what is probably a stuffed pepper sin right now.

I microwave my stuffed peppers.

Eek!  Gasp!  Alert the media!

That's the way my grandmother taught me to do it and that's how I'm doing it for now (I also don't feel like baking one little lonely pepper in the oven or burning it in my toaster oven so I think I'm justified).

Five minutes later, Mr. Bowing Pepper looked ready to eat.

Alas, he will have to wait until tomorrow's lunch to be devoured.  I should note that I usually put meat in my stuffed peppers (ground turkey or shrimp) but I didn't have any handy, most likely due to the fact that I haven't had to cook once yet this week!

I can't wait to find this festive looking feast in my lunch box tomorrow.  I always love having an exciting meal to look forward to in the middle of the day!




**A note from the future....oooooooooh crazy!!  I had this stuffed pepper for lunch today and it was FANTASTIC.  Super moist (all that chicken stock I drowned it in) and great flavors.  I'm totally going to make it this way again!