That time I signed up to make soup at church...

Greetings blogosphere. It's been a while, eh? Instagram and FB make it really hard to blog.
But I wanted to share this great recipe for soup I'll be sharing tomorrow night at our church tomorrow night.

It's my Grandpa Tony's funeral tomorrow and I realized I wouldn't have much time to make good on my promise to bring pumpkin soup. So here's what I worked out today.

Hope you enjoy!
Sabrena

Busy Pumpkin Soup

You can make it ahead or serve immediately, depending on the errands you have for the day.

Ingredients

·       1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped

·       2 TBSP butter (or substitute oil, if you’re vegan or adverse to things tasting amazing)

·       1 medium-ish sized butternut squash: peeled, seeded and cubed

·       1 largish apple: peeled, cored and cubed (preferably not red delicious)

·       1 can 15 oz. pumpkin (or a couple of cups of fresh pumpkin peeled and cubed if you’re feeling crazy-ambitious)

·       32 oz Organic Chicken Stock: you can substitute regular chicken stock – who knows if the organic chickens were even happy? Or stick with the vegan option and just use a veggie stock… but let’s be honest, it probably won’t taste as good. #justsayin.

·       ½ - 1 tsp of ginger (powder or fresh)

·       1 – 3 tsps of sugar / honey (sweetened to taste)

·       salt to taste

·       fresh cream to taste 

Directions:

1.     Realize you signed up to bring soup to an event, and that you are supposed to have a recipe…but the soup you signed up to make, you haven’t used a recipe for in years… so you make due.

2.     Realize you have a pretty busy day the day the soup is “due” so the following steps are done 24 hours prior to soup’s actual debut.

a.     Sautee onion and butter until your kitchen smells divine

b.    Try to distract your three year old as she asks to watch T.V. for the 5^th time today

c.     Add in the apple for some sweetness and let things almost caramelize – it will smell like the Autumn Fairy sprinkled magical Fall-dust in your home

d.    Cave and turn on a show for the 3 yo.

e.    While the onions and apples are sautéing, start peeling the butternut squash and ask yourself why you didn’t just buy the pre-cut variety from Costco. Remind yourself the drive was too far, and vow to do better next time.

f.       Add the squash. If you’re using real pumpkin – prep the pumpkin and then take a picture for social media of your awesomeness because the world should be validating your major skills in the kitchen. #masterchef #pinterestworthy #homemakingSKILLZ

g.    Drizzle in a little of the chicken stock. Add a bit of the sugar and ginger.

h.     Mix in the remaining stock and add the pumpkin puree.  

i.       Let things simmer (in the pot, and in your home if need be) until the squash is soft and can be easily blended. Grab a glass of water because you probably need to hydrate.

j.       Put your Blendtec / Vitamix to work and create something akin to babyfood… remember to have space for the heat to escape or there will be explosions (just sayin’ for a friend).

k.     At this point you can either chill the soup over night, or get ready to serve.

3.     (Reheat) or add liquid (water, or more stock) and seasoning (sugar, salt, ginger, cream) to taste.

4.     Pat yourself on the back and think about ordering take-out next time.

Shamrock N' Roll

Hope you all had a nice St. Patty's Day. 

We only have one St. Patrick's Day tradition at the Mangum House. It's "Guinness" cupcakes. Those orphan quotes are because a couple of years ago, one of my sweet friends started giving me part of her St. patty's stash. (She also cooks/bakes with the larger for March Maddness).

I used to use the Giana recipe; but I've found something even better. My grandmother's vegan Chocolate Cake recipe... that oddly enough I think originally called for coffee, but she Mormonized it up and replaced the java with water. I put the sin back in, and replaced the water with Murphy's.
(#not evensureifitbakesout)

A week in pictures...

So this past week I've been enjoying a little of this:

Got a new tank top from Lululemon and did this:

Had my teacher over for lunch, ate vegan peanut
noodles with cabbage and she held these:

Found this Mac Daddy cozied up and snoring here:

Let this little one FINALLY experience the snow on her own. 

Got a surprise text from my husband who said
I ought to get a babysitter and join him here:

Realized it was a beautiful Monday... and I better start a running program
if I'm doing a 5k in a month.  So I got to enjoy this view (top)
while the kids got squished into that (bottom). 

Recognizing the oil is in fact ALWAYS the tricky part,
spent time baking with this pastry chef:

And also enjoyed plenty of epic battles. 

Yes, it's been a good seven days. 

#13: Thirty Days of thanksgiving

What am I grateful for today?

Well, I could say that I am grateful for this boy and his sweet Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin. It was a gift. The man said, "You could make pumpkin pie with it." 

To which I responded: "I've done that before -- never again." 

Pumpkin Pie made from scratch -- and I mean REALLY from scratch. No canned Libby's; no crust from the freezer section of your grocery store.... made from scratch pumpkin pie is NEVER worth the return on investment. You would have to really, really, really love pumpkin pie... which I do not. I'm perfectly fine biting into the ones made from Costco and not feeling the least bit bad about it...

So one time (a couple of years ago) I made one from scratch, and vowed to NEVER do it again... Except today Holden wanted to make pie. And we had no agenda or "project" set in stone for Tuesday -- so I got suckered in. 

That picture above? Yep, that's Cito showcasing the Jack-o-Lantern  pumpkin we just gutted for pie. Here's a little interesting factoid: if you're going to spend the time making pumpkin pie, you might want to use a PIE PUMPKIN. They are sweeter, they are not as watery... they are not ginormous and take 90 minutes in an convection oven to bake just so you can start mixing in the ingredients. 

Yes, you read correctly. You have to bake the pumpkin before you can even start mixing the ingredients for your pie. Also, I would like to point out that after this step Holden retired to the basement and did not help with the rest of the process... Zoë was having one of those awesome days where she only likes to sleep in 20 minute segments and both children desperately needed long naps today -- didn't happen. But what did happen was a disastrous kitchen:

Yep, I'm airing my dirty laundry... or at least my wicked-messy kitchen. Ug. 

I think saying it took more than 4 hours to bake this pie is playing it safe. We basically started after Holden got home from preschool just after noon, and it was cooling from the oven when Danny got home after five. Also, somehow my hot pad stabbed it in the side... so it doesn't even look pretty. 

As far as taste, it was ok...it was actually pretty good. I've never had Jack-O-Lantern pie before, so I don't have a lot to compare it to.  My evaporated milk was more than year past the expiration date so I used sweetened condensed milk instead (but I had already mixed the sugar in with the pumpkin so it was doubly sweet). Also, I ran out of vanilla last week and only have vanilla beans on hand, which I refused to waste on something I wasn't even sure would be edible. No Allspice and I was short an egg too... did I mention that Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins are really watery? 

After draining and pureeing and pureeing and draining, it's incredible the pie is even edible. But yeah, it's pretty good. Since the pumpkin is not real strong, it kind of tastes like a ginger and cinnamon custard with a hint of pumpkin... and the crust. Well, I am a big believer in butter for pie crusts (the only thing one really ought to use Crisco for is making soap.) Anyway, the crust is divine... 

Holden wanted to try to the pie. When I cut him a piece, he pointed to inside the crust and said "I just don't like that stuff in there." Sooooo, I'm thankful I learned AGAIN that pumpkin pie should come from a can... or costco. 

"Mmmm, that's good..."

While I was straightening up the kitchen this afternoon in preparation for "Daddy" to come home, I got out Holden's baking stuff... mostly because he suddenly developed an affinity for the pizza cutter and toddlers plus sharp objects make me nervous (I know, I'm such a 'helicopter' parent.)

He started rolling and mixing and stirring.

"I'm baking dough-nuts!" He told me. I came over to try his creation. After pouring some imagined creation into a little red tart mold, I tasted the best make believed liquid doughnut of my life.

"MMMM, that's good!" We both proclaimed.

I love my little Chef Boy-R-Awesome!

St. Patty's Day Traditions (& Kitchen Explosions)

"CLUNG--K!"

"pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss....."

That my friends is the sounds of a 16 oz can of Murphy's Stout crashing to the floor and slowly exploding in my kitchen. Holden continues his experiments with gravity...

This round's score:

Gravity: One

Mom: ZERO

The Can After the Fact - notice the easy pour 'spout' now

deformed for perfect kitchen spraying action.

Tomorrow's St. Patty's Day, and even though we're not Irish (though Holden definitely has the skin-tone for it), somehow I created a new tradition last year by making Guinness Cupcakes.

The were kind of ridiculous.

The batter spilled all over the tops of the muffin tins and middles sunk so low that the only way to make them look remotely normal was to fill in three inches of frosting in the center. Danny loved them, and asked for them again (yeah, sure the alcohol bakes out). And being the agreeable and submissive wife that I am known and loved for, I obliged. Also, I'm kicking off a Raw Diet Week on Monday and of course dragging Danny along, so the man deserves a tall one: even if it is in cupcake format.

So the cupcakes?

I had Little Bits help me.

Besides his stellar performance in the "Irish Beer exploding all over my kitchen" bit, his contributions include:

Dumping Cocoa powder all over the counter.

Turning the cake flour box upside down, which later resulted in this:

He also managed to spoon teaspoons full of the sourcream-egg mixture on his chest (he was aiming for his mouth).

In Holden's defense, he is great at cracking eggs. I always let him do the first 'whack on the kitchen counter' and then I follow up with another, or just separate the shell and put it in the batter.

He's also super supportive and of what we're making. For example, yesterday we were making almond biscotti from scratch. I thought I completely had this recipe dialed; as it's been a go-to quick treat for the past month. But somehow I made the dreaded mistake of baking soda instead of baking powder... but every time Holden dipped his slimy mitts in my batter and licked his fingers he'd say, "MMMMMMMMMmmmmmMMMMMM." So the kid really knows how to lift my spirits. (I still ended up throwing out all 3 dozen, though... sad.)

But when he looks that great in a baker's hat, how could I ever think of being upset at him?

Regardless, I guess our St. Patty's day tradition is officially that...a tradition! I just hope next year comes without the beer explosions. Seems like they'd appreciate that more in Chicago or Boston.

Little Sample of Holden's maneuvers and way sweet kitchen skills.

Also, he gets some flour in his eye....

and yes, I have a problem closing my kitchen cupboards when I cook. I'm sure it stems from my relationship with my father, or something...

PS. Special thanks to my dear friend *Emily for hooking me up with the stout. She was making Irish Stew and had an extra can that saved me from buying more beer than I'd know what to do with.

*Names have been changed to protect the Mormon innocent... or have they?

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Six

Pumpkin Centerpieces at Dinner Parties.

I love dinner parties.

I love plum chutney made from fruit trees my grandparents planted and Holden helped pick; tomatoes for caprese that Little Bits help cultivate in our planter boxes that Danny built and centerpieces from gourds we grew in the backyard. (No seriously, we grew ALL of those pumpkins!!!)

I love napkin rings, pressed linens, whipped honey butter and Lavender Artisan bread (yep, also made from scratch).

Mostly I love the people around the table.

To me, cooking is art.

And I never feel more artistic than when I cook for loved ones from scratch.

Braggart

Just wanted to throw out there that tonight I made stuffed peppers for dinner and the Chile sauce included an Anaheim chili from our garden.

We also pulled beets from the garden, roasted the roots and cooked the beet greens like Swiss chard. I felt kind of cool....

And just to keep the yin in this yang, etc etc...

I ought to confess I have managed to gain back a bit of the weight I lost earlier this year. I blame summer's obligatory home made ice cream; and I keep making that damn keylime pie (I keep trying to perfect a graham cracker crust from scratch), oh and I continue my love affair with chocolate chip cookies (there's probably a few other things I ought to mention too.)

You'd think I'd be looking 'fit' as I'm training for a marathon and all, but apparently I'm not at the point where I get to eat whatever I want... I feel like that guy from Biggest Loser that gained two pounds training for the marathon last season. Jillian would be going all psychoanalysis on me trying to figure out what happened to make me hold onto this resentment (aka fat cells), and such like...



Maybe I can blame it on my father. :)

Last word - Speaking of my father...

Maybe I shared this before, but the other day my Dad told me he got online to look at my blog and thought 'Why would anyone be interested in this?'

That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself.

Pita You Can Eat-ah.

I'm in a recipe club. (I know, so domestic of me - right?)

It's a standing meeting. One particular Thursday each month is blocked off of my schedule for a GNO with delicious treats and even better company.

The host picks the theme.
We each bring something.
Then we're supposed to post it on the intranet.
(We have a blog... yeah, so 21st century.)

For June's soiree I made Hummus and Pita (the carrots are not grown from my garden. Sorry, I'm not that impressive.)


I'm excited to make the pita bread with Holden when he gets a little older (currently I make the dough before I go to bed, and cook the dough during his nap time the next day.)

But the flatbread 'puffs up' in the oven in less than 2 minutes; so it's like making German Puff Pancakes on steroids (and with out all the butter, sugar and eggs.)

You can find the recipes at FAT THURSDAYS.

Making "Easy" Key Lime Pie (sort of)

So last week, I clicked on Make and Takes for the latest and greatest in home making; and discover a guest blogger's recipe for Key Lime pie.

It looked amazing.

Photo from Two Peas & Their Pod

And touted 'almost too easy to make.'

I had a few limes that were on the wane, and the recipe didn't actually call for 'key lime juice' which I remember seeing in Key West, Fl but not at Smith's Marketplace recently... so I am stoked.

I have ALL the ingredients it seems. Your basics - eggs. sugar, butter.. they're staples around here. I even have a couple of cans of organic sweetened condensed milk. This is going to be BRILLIANT!

What I don't have on hand, is graham crackers. Yeah, remember how I tried to rid our house of heavily processed foods? While a few exceptions were made, the graham crackers did not make the cut. They were voted off the island... with the marshmallows. Though the chocolate stayed (I may be eccentric, but I'm not crazy!)

So of course, I start thinking (which is always a scary thing), wondering where Graham crackers came from... and how you make them, and could I make them, and.... and before you know it, I've found a recipe for Made from scratch graham crackers...so I can make EASY key lime pie. (Hmm, there's some irony in there... or just a cruel joke.)

As is the case with most of my culinary projects (see shapeless tortillas, salt lick angel food cake, etc), some of them worked and some of them didn't.


The recipe says 25 minutes, but I opted out of the second round of 'refrigerator chilling' so some of them got a little toasty.



But Holden liked them.




Danny liked them much better than the Lavender-Mint Shortbread (I know, odd right?). We've been noshing on them since they cooled from coming out of the oven so there's really not enough to make a pie crust.

The Key Lime will just have to wait, but I have to admit this was a pretty good trade off.

Thank you Barefoot Ted -OR- I've Got Mail!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been asking 'What BROWN can do for me...' Every time the UPS truck drives by I get a little tinge of excitement inside wondering if any of those delightful parcels in his truck are for yours truly.

Last week he brought this:

Yes, that says:
Michael Pollan makes me have seriously mixed emotions about 'organic'...but,

I was still super thrilled because I can use it to make teriyaki sauce from scratch all thick and commercialized-HFCS-like for Danny...I can also use it to make my own ironing starch.*

So you can obviously see that packages get me giddy like Christmas morning.

Here's something else that made me happy. On Wednesday, Holden's new SOFT STAR SHOES were delivered. He's getting close to growing out of his 24-month old "Robeez" (so sad, since he's just 15 months!)...so order we did!!!

And I think the photos speak for themselves:

If my child were an ABBA song, he'd be the Dancin' King.

My Vibrams came too, but I am exchanging them for a different pair. More on that later.



*Side note to the Corn Starch story. The other day I made teryaki for Danny and made it extra thick and gooey (gag), but he liked it. That same day, I had a rare moment of 'niceness' and decided to iron some of his work shirts (so I made laundry starch.) At dinner I told him, "Isn't it weird the same thing I used to make this teriyaki is what I used to iron your shirts?" His response: "I wish my shirts tasted this good."

Pie or Garden Adventures Continue!

Remember yesterday when I told you about our secret garden, and how we discovered RHUBARB?!?! (If you don't remember, or didn't see it, you can just click on that link.) But here's a picture to remind you:

Anyway, we decided to put that hardy plant to good (and delicious) use, so we picked it and brought some of it inside.

Some of it was almost as big as Holden.

I got it all 'prepped' with plenty of help from Holden (some of that help being him in the form of naptime while I worked on making the dough for the crust), added apples, spices and loads of butter and sugar!!!

We let it spend some time in the oven: juices bubbling, aroma wafting

and ended up with my FIRST RHUBARB-APPLE PIE!!!

I have a confession... it was delicious. I invited my in-laws over and my sister and her family to share in the goodness, because if not, I probably would've finished the whole thing off... seriously. Pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner.



PS. Thanks to Q's mom for teaching me to make pie.

(Recession) Day Spa Cookies

So the past week I've been indulging in spa treatments...Jealous?

Think:

• exfoliating salt and sugar scrubs
• luxurious body butters
• relaxing to the heavenly scent of lavender
• invigorating the body with fresh mint wraps

Sounds pretty swanky, doesn't it? And expensive, but it's actually just some ingredients for cookies I've been making recently... not so much camping out at the local Med spa.


Danny said I took all the things I like about a lotion and made them into a cookie. It's kind of true. I found a recipe online for Lavender-Mint Shortbread, tweaked the recipe a little bit and whipped up a couple of batches this week.

They've come with mixed reviews.

While Danny can do without them, Holden and I love them.

In fact, here's a few shots of Little Bits helping me...



...more like 'helping himself to the dough.'


A gal at a recent GNO sewing club said "They taste like you made sugar cookies and had essential oil on your hands." (I didn't take it as a compliment.)

My cousin-in-law made a remark about not really needing to eat more than one. (I think it's because they're plenty sweet, but the mint and lavender provide a one-two-punch that catch your taste-buds off guard.)

My sister, who hardly ever indulges in treats (and has the figure to show for it), ate seven of them in one sitting... her kids love them too.

So I don't get offended by the mixed reviews. In fact, I feel fancy just saying 'lavender mint shortbread.'

I think they're decadent. And not because they're hard to make, but just because using ingredients like lavender and fresh mint from our 'garden' (ok, the mint's actually over-grown into our lawn)...well, it makes me feel a little bit posh with the kitchen aid.

So I've included the recipe here.


If you need some mint, stop by my house... it's plentiful. And I've most likely got some lavender on hand you can use as well.

St. Patty's Day = Free Sin!

So you know I'm Mormon, right? Latter-Day-Saints (aka "Mormons") come in all different shapes and sizes; and like any other religion, we come with a spectrum of devoutness ranging from 'not active or interested' to 'go-go gadget nearing perfection.' I would consider myself somewhere in between...I try. I feel committed. I am not going to lay out exactly what that means, but I will say I believe it and I try to do the best I can.

So those of you familiar with the LDS protocol may be wondering what a bottle of Guinness is (was?) doing in my kitchen.

Well, Danny's not a fan of corned beef and cabbage (ew, me either! Surprise, surprise...)But I still wanted to cook something with a little Irish Flair for St. Patty's day. So we had potato quiche for dinner (hello, Irish potatoes?!?!?), and after hearing Nigella Lawson's bit on NPR about Guinness Chocolate cake I figured cupcakes would be a nice treat for the holiday.

In fact, I even thought about taking a sample to the Mormon ladies I 'visit teach' ... but wasn't sure if they'd think it was funny or offensive. (There's that whole "Word of Wisdom/teetotaler thing").

But as the luck (of the Irish) would have it (or not), the cupcakes didn't exactly work out as I had planned. Yes, please note the giant holes in the middle of my sinful chocolate creations.

Apparently you cannot substitute melted butter at a 1:1 ratio for vegetable oil. Everyone knew this but me, huh? I had to ask my friend Ashlee about it.

Ah the misadventures of Yours Truly continue in the kitchen...


But I was not about to wave the white flag so soon! (I've been in much worse kitchen situations than this!) So I made the cream cheese frosting, and just filled in the holes... and you almost couldn't tell. But I did opt out of taking them to the Relief Society Sisters... instead just one very daring friend, who incidentally happens to cook with bourbon...and Jesus still loves her too.

Why I Can't Write a Cookbook, (Erin).

In short, because my food doesn't always turn out. And sometimes it's a down right failure. (If you're interested in the details, read on.)

Adventures in the kitchen continue...

But unlike most Mommy-Blogs that pridefully boast over all the amazing stuff they cook, today's post comes with a hefty dose of reality: like that dinner party I hosted when we lived down town and my angel food cake that I slaved over turned out to be one giant salt lick.

It's true: my 'stuff' doesn't always work. Just ask my friend Caitlyn about the salty-foodcake debacle.

Take yesterday's meal plan for example: Mexican Food -- Onion & Red Pepper Fajitas (with steak for Danny), black beans and cilantro lime rice. A first attempt at whole wheat tortillas, with fresh homemade salsa and guacamole (plus the fixins')

Sounds pretty tasty right?

Here's the reality:

Grilled veggies anyone can make - and quickly - and they turned out fine.
The guac and salsa, pretty much easy-peasy.

The tortillas? Hit and miss.

How do you roll out a circle? My first attempt did not quite work...

A few later, I kind of start to figure it out...

The finished product (albeit made with butter instead of lard. Though I think I will try with olive oil sometime too.) I almost can't believed it worked...

Well some of them worked. The first one was more along the lines of a crispy tostada than a soft shell tortilla... but there's a learning curve in my kitchen.

The rice and beans did not have fate smiling upon them. My rice was too lime-y, not to mention still crunchy. How hard is it to use a rice cooker? Apparently really hard when it comes to my talent set or serious lack there of.

The beans? Besides the fact that the pot boiled over TWICE (you think I would've caught on after the first round.)...and they cooked for close to 2 hours plus soaking time, and they still were not cooked enough. Ugh!

How does Cafe Rio do it?

Thankfully, Holden will pretty much eat anything -- so he enjoyed the beans & rice. And Danny was so tickled I cooked red meat for him (I honestly can't remember the last time I made cow for this man), that he declared dinner a success. But the truth is, even with a biological grandma born in central Mexico, I did obviously NOT inherit the Mexican cooking gene.

Better luck next time? Or maybe I just ought to stick to making cheese quesadillas.


PS. Erin, thank you for your vote of confidence. But I mostly just steal everyone else's ideas and try to do it myself. You are too kind, but very good for my self esteem friend.