heart heathy pumpy pumpkin bread

After i got over how RIDICULOUSLY hard it was to cut a sugar pumpkin (swear to god i was going to lose a finger or hand and sweat all over the thing) and Joe was late for work trying to help me do this....i got down to business on roasting the pumpkin to then make the faaaaabulous pumpkin bread.

So far most of my recipes are taken from allrecipes.com with modifications either recommended by other people or stuff i think would be yummy in it. I made this one because with all the bread J and I are consuming in the breakfast department i wanted something that was good for us, but also had some substantial substance that i could eat this with peanut butter and feel full for a while. I made this as bread (because i don't have muffin tins), but this would also be great in muffin cups to make portion control less of an issue.

here she be:

1 small sugar pumpkin, seeded (about 15 oz---if you go for the canned version)

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oats

3/4 cup white sugar (agave nectar would be great in this...but i don't know the conversion)

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup apple sauce
• 3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Split pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove pumpkin pulp and puree in blender. Measure out 2 cups pumpkin puree; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, stir together flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 2 cups pumpkin puree, apple sauce and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

This bread is full of spices...in a good way it's spicey. You may want to decrease the nutmeg, clove and allspice. I liked it like this though.

red quinoa salad

When my brother came for a visit a month or so ago he came with a container of quinoa he and Rachel had been carrying across the country. They were planning to eat it, but never got the chance. Instead they refused to bring back where it came from and left this delightful treat with me. I have cooked quinoa a couple of times and have been trying to find something i liked with it. I think i've finally made a quinoa dish i can be proud to share. I heard somewhere that if your meal is colorful it is pretty darn healthy.

In my salad i had
2 handfulls of raisins
1 or so cup of corn
handful of raw unsalted sunflower seeds
half an onion chopped into small edible pieces
shallot diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
arugula
4 handfuls of grape tomatoes cut in half
tablespoon of parsley (wish i had it fresh though)

1 cup of uncooked quinoa---1 cup to 2 cups of water (broth is best)

I put the salad together adding oil and red wine vinegar as a seasoning (i would also add lemon juice, but i didn't have any). Salt and pepper
Plate the salad and put the quinoa on top in the center.

ENJOY...beware it's very stinky!

Zest up your life!

Remember how i made those cookies out of new york magazine once. Yes that was the beginning of a few disasters in the kitchen. I tried again. This time i decided tea would be okay. This receipe KNOCKED my socks off!

super easy and not only does it smell good, but it just makes your insides warm and fuzzy!
I forgot to take a picture of me making it...but here is how i felt



ginger citrus tea

4 cups water

1/8 cinny stick

5oz FRESH ginger

1/4 lemon peel ZESTED in strips

1/4 cut FRESH lemon juice (1 1/2 lemon)

1/3 cup honey

1/4 bunch FRESH mint

boil water and cin

peel and roughly chop ginger, add to pot with lemon and juice

cover and simmer 30 min

add honey stir, simmer 20 more min

pour over mint- strain and stir

BAM!

http://nymag.com/restaurants/recipes/inseason/62242/

um i have no excuse

Yeah...i have no idea what to say about why i haven't been writing. So how about i just get it back on track and write a bit today and a bit over the next little while before...i hope...life gets busy again.

I've been cooking, baking whatever you want to call it. The thing is i haven't taken a lot of photos mainly because i keep forgetting durning the heat of it all. But here are a few things i've done

1) Cranberry Chutney....then i made it into a preserve, but was so paranoid about killing us with botulism i made us eat it in a week and didn't see how long it could last in a jar.

2) spaghetti squash pasta...yes it was ROCKIN'

3)heart healthy pumpkin bread (with my own roasted pumpkin)

4)gingerbread

5)zested up my life with ginger citrus tea

6)BREAD BREAD BREAD

7) brought out the ancient grains---quinoa

8)pizzaz pizza!

9)corny corn bread

10) oink oink pork loin

phew. obviously i've made more than this because more than 10 meals have occurred in this house since i last wrote, but seriously, these are the ones worth mentioning.

Happy Anniversary Gorgeous

I have this habit of going for long stretches of time without writing and then i do write and i have a million things to say...but as not to over load all of you, i write and then put it in the draft section of my blog. Well when i do this i sometimes forget to go back a few days later and upload. SO this leads to this post. Last year i wrote an anniversary blog. I wrote it weeks early and then promptly forget to post and i have just recently uncovered it a few months ago. This is last years anniversary blog, and in honor of my two years of writing here is a new anniversary blog.

10/30/08
It's official i've been writing for a year about living here in the big apple. Who knew i could write (i guess that's still debatable), who knew i had the ability to keep something like this going for a year (no really, i've never kept a diary or journal i'm a non-finisher) and who knew i was actually doing stuff that some people find interesting enough to read....FOR A YEAR!

I guess this means i have to say something profound about writing or living here or something, but i guess the only real thing i can say is that living here has taught me a lot about who i am. Although really, I guess i could say that a year of life in general can teach you a lot yourself, but i really think that it's NYC. Here is where profound thoughts should occur, but instead i have a top ten list. Kinda like David Letterman...well isn't that new yorky

Top 10 reasons why i love NYC

10) Sitting in central park in the middle of the city not hearing any sounds of being in a big city
9) Walking for miles and miles not realizing how much ground has been covered
8) How friendly people are. Although they may not be new yorkers, but i'm sure they are
7) You can get pretty much any time of food that exists
6) Delivery of pretty much anything (food, clothing, furniture)
5) People watching
4) Everything is open late night
3) Riding the trains...on the weekend it's kinda like a painful game, how long will it take to get from point A-B. You can read so much and get anywhere faster than above ground
2) The amazing friends i've made

And the number 1 reason i love NYC
1) It's the craziest most bizarre city I know....how often would a gal like me get a chance to live here?!

10/30/09
Two years and how much has changed. Not only have i finished school, but i've moved to a whole new city. I contemplated changing the name of the blog, but then realized that i like the big apple still and unless something major happens that name sticks. Therefore in honor of my move to Brooklyn where their motto is "how sweet it is" i will give my Why Brooklyn is sooooooo sweet top 10 list.

Why Brooklyn is soooooo sweet top 10 list
10) Less traffic, less people, less noise *at night at least
9) Just as close to downtown nyc, but not nearly as much hassle or frustration while on the train
8) the park...oh how i love Prospect park
7) Prospect Park farmers market
6) neighborhoods, with backyards and kids playing in the street
5) stars... i can see the stars at night soooo beautiful
4) is it possible to be not as dirty or smoggy? Don't get me wrong it's still gross though
3) independent-designers, stores, salons, restaurants...they are EVERYWHERE!
2) i'm finally living with J (corny yes, but it's so much better than riding the train 50 minutes back and forth multiple times a week)

And the number 1 reason why Brooklyn is soooooooooooooooo sweet
1) I get to have all the great things about Brooklyn and also know that NYC is still so close i can go there if i need to!

Giving bread a go

A few weeks ago i went to a 2 part cooking class given by King Arthur Flour (KAF). The first half taught us how to make bread, the second half taught us how to make pie dough/crust. For a lot of people (myself included) this stuff is really scary. The part about letting it rise and how long is good enough for kneading. Hint 1:there is a King Arthur emergency hotline for baking 911's. She said the hotline would be starting to have weekend and late night hours soon because of the upcoming holidays. Don't you just love America!!

I kept postponing my first experience. I kind of blamed the lack of a food processor to help as an excuse...but darn that KAF. She pretty much said you don't need a food processor or mixer. All of it can be done by hand. REALLY?! Well i guess our ancestors did it, i guess i can too.

My wonderful friend Chelsea took the plunge first and then shared her recipe for what i was told is a French bread. I'm sure hers turned out like one....mine was kind of just bread like. HEY i'll take any form of bread shape, it was my first go! Since then i've become brave and done it again! Each time it gets better and i become more brave. This week i've decided to tackle something in the filled bread section. We'll see how that one goes.

Anyhoo, here are shots from my bread experience.

This is rising yeast. Smells like a brewery...wonder why!


My dough was supposed to be in the shape of a ball...and not soupy. Well it stuck together, but not as a ball. This is the dough in it's oil bath during the rising process.



Couple hours later it's risen and ready for baking!!


TADA! Fancy huh!

Fall Flavors

I've never really been a fan of fall veggies. Sweet potatoes (was recently added a few years back to the good list), squash, eggplant, root veggies never really made my list of favorites. Walking in the farmers market though the colors just call to me and i thought this year i'm going to give it a try. I'll try something i don't usually like, try a recipe with stuff i enjoy and maybe, just maybe i can add a new vegetable to my like section and make my dislike section smaller.

A few weeks back i made an eggplant concoction (i followed someone's recipe...i haven't the slightest clue how to make something like that). I just don't like the texture, strange hard outside, mushy gross inside, seeds tasted bitter and yucky (i'm such a child). I made it twice thinking maybe i messed it up. nope i still don't like it. I think i'll have to skin it and cut out the seeds. hmmmm it's really too bad because eggplant is such a pretty color.

Next i thought i'd make something with butternut squash. I found this recipe on "www.allrecipes.com". I love that place! So i really have no idea how to make squash based products. I had NO idea that the seeds were in the bulbous part. I always thought they were throughout the entire squash. Hence my picture. I was so amazed (does anyone know about cooking the seeds? They looked like pumpkin seeds!!).




I decided on soup, to ease myself into the veggie. It was squash with corn, rice, ground sausage and other delicious things. It was so yum i know i'll make this again!! hearty, flavorful, delish!



I was so happy with the flavor i bought another one today. I also bought an acorn squash...my next tester!! Soon enough i'll add parsnip...they were so pretty today i should have just bought them.

New digs

As my graduate degree came to a close and the search for a job began, so did entertaining the thought of moving. I obviously like to create a lot of stress all at one time because not only was i willing to apply and interview for jobs, hunt for a new apartment and then pack/move it all, i also wanted to take a vacation before any of this madness began. When would i have the chance to be this free ever again? Probably never.

J and I moved the beginning of August and yes i should have written sooner, but i knew all of you expected pictures. Unlike some of my friends i'm not nearly as organized and i don't unpack in a matter of hours. This required over a month (okay fine more than that) and some painting and lengthy discussions of where to hang stuff....sigh, i'm glad we are finally (almost) done!

And without further adieu i present St. Marks Ave apartment. Third floor walk up in Brooklyn New York. One bedroom, a work/storage/bike room (not pictured due to mess), kitchen with space (!!!), cozy living room with dining room and office combo.

My new toy!

You know sometimes you just need to buy yourself a prezzie...this was my prezzie. I forgot to write about it weeks ago, but we have been having fun. Here are the deets.
White Wizard is my Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer. She's got 325 Watts of power, 10 speeds, tilting head, 3 tools, 5 quart stainless steel bowl...pretty special gal to me.

My favorite part is that she could be considered adopted ("Refurbished" is the technical name). This means that she wasn't wanted for some reason and was returned to the Kitchen Aid store. She could have been a surprise wedding present or faulty in some way, what i do know is that they took her apart looked for anything broken and sent her to me (for a very discounted price). Some people could have dings or imperfections on their mixer, but White Wizard came in perfect condition.

It took a lot of time to decide what i should make first. Our first time together should be special and create something memorable. I decided to go with my favorite cookie...oatmeal chocolate chip. Unlike my most recent cookie making experience this one came out a million times better! We ate all the cookies right away. Actually i ate a pile before i left town and then Joe played the faithful role of disposal.

potato, beet, pobeeto

Last week at the farmers market i wanted to buy beets. I had this vision of a warm beet salad with goats cheese. I looked at all the bags of organized veggies and picked out my bag...under the sign that said beets.
Today for lunch i started boiling my beets in anticipation of my yummy salad. After 30 min i come to check on them and notice an odd thing. The water is still pretty clear, just tinged with purple/red. I knew it had been boiling so i couldn't figure out if they were just taking a long time or were botched. I poked one with a fork and instantly knew i didn't have beets boiling, but potatoes. But when i pulled out the fork it was covered in a purple mush....a purpley potato mush. i poked another...maybe it's just the one odd one...ALL OF THEM!!! what else do you do with overly boiled potatoes but turn them into mashed potatoes.

This actually brought back flashbacks to a time when my brother decided to make our family dinner. Chef Wholay (as he referred to himself) was making bbq ribs, mashed potatoes and salad. This was during the days when Heinz ketchup made the "fun" and probably highly toxic ketchups that were colored. Our favorite was the green one. To go on this theme Evan decided to dye the mashed potatoes blue and the salad thankfully was just salad, green and red (lettuce and tomatoes). Your brain doesn't know what to think when it takes a bite of green bbq ribs, or blue mashed potatoes. It says "this tastes great" but thinks, "oh god this is going to be nasty". These potatoes did the same thing. They taste exactly like potatoes, but have that crazy purple color. The color in the photo isn't as pronounced as it was orginially because i put in cream cheese (purple + white=light purple). But tell me what you think....would you have guessed it was a beet or would you have known it was a purple potatoe (ps: when did purple potatoes come around?! I only know of the red ones).

nature existing in the city

For those who do not know your insects this is a Praying Mantis...best known for its abilities to stay ridiculously still, camouflage like it's no bodies business and for the females to eat the heads off of their latest sexual partner. Pretty classy creatures.
For two days i watched this Praying Mantis sitting in a flower box doing nothing. I thought it was frozen or dried out...until i came home one day to see it sitting in front of the door. If i was brave enough i would have put a penny down so you had an idea of it's size and height, but let's be honest...i can kill them, but ewwwww i'm not risking its little talon scratching or even poking at me. NAST! Let's just say it was much larger than i EVER expected them to be...at least 4.5 inches long and an inch off the ground.
Instead i'll whip out my camera and document it. Sadly, by the time Joe came home around 6 it was gone. Idea 1) smushed by someone in my building (doubtful as there was no bug goo on the stoop, idea 2) the daycare kids took it inside as a "pet" (doubtful as the person who runs the show down there could careless about enlightening the children) or 3) it found it's newest partner and went off gallivanting into the sunset ie: a rat came and ate it.
It's a REAL mystery!!

Eggspectations

When i first moved to New York my fabulous friend Rachel bought me a book all about eggs. How to make basic stuff and how to make real fancy things. Really she knew how much i loved poached eggs and wanted me to learn to make them at home. Well i have that under my belt and last week i decided to try out a few new ones. Pretty much we ran out of food, but had lots of veggies and thought scrambled or omelet or something along those lines. WELL i am not done with my testing food thing so i figured i'd give a Frittata a go.

This is what the book calls a Frittata....i call it a poorly constructed omelet. Gross as it looks it was really delicious.
ingredients= tomatoes, cold smoked salmon, onion and zucs



Last night the same deal. Forgot to unfreeze some meat and had lots of farmers market veggies to consume. This is my interpretation of a souffle. it was super yum and easy to boot!!
Ingredients= 5 eggs, some milk, lots oh parm, and cherry tomatoes.

For all the kale i must give him and my stomach something rewarding

With all the kale (and other nutty foods) i've been making i needed to reward joe and my tummy with a "healthy" chocolaty dessert. I decided chocolate dipped peach slices were easy and healthy for me and delicious for us both. Finally here is something proud to display. Oh and it was RIDICULOUSLY easy...minus the part of getting the peaches onto the tray without it being too obvious how i got them there. There was nothing involved in this recipe except for semi-sweet chocolate (highest percent of cacao) and a organic local peach. How much better does it get!?


Sorry joe...such an unflattering picture...what else was i to do?

there is always goign to be the dud

As i mentioned when i started this cooking section of my blog that i have a huge pile of recipes stored up. I'm sure you've got something like it "oh this looks so good, i'll try this next time i (fill in the blank, have company, eat/cook, have 3 months of free time to waste)". Enter in the recipes from the New York Magazine. I should have known this wouldn't work out b/c usually this section is filled with stuff that i look at and think geez that looks good and who has the time for this? so many steps and is much too complicated. WELL cookies seem so easy that i thought F'it, i'll give it a go!

Here is what they expected




Here is what i got. No need to examine these closely they are as flat as they seem. The height is due purely to the mounds of almonds compacted in a sugary bunch.



My parents are probably laughing because i was that kid, no wait teenager, no wait grown up who would miss an ingredient or add too much um salt or molasses, as two memorable occasions, into a recipe. I swear i didn't do anything wrong with this. i double checked!!!

For any of you who want to give'r a go here is the recipe. Oh and be sure to tell me how much better yours turned out (photos are always great!).
ps: i threw out the recipe along with most of the cookies!

http://nymag.com/restaurants/recipes/inseason/45991/

Kale chips

Oh the joys of kale... full of so many good things for you and yet it can taste sooooooooo bad (and smell so bad)...especially if done wrong. Joe is being such a good sport because not only did i force him to eat a salad concoction of kale, beets and pumpkin seeds (which i may add was really good), but he's now smelling kale almost daily as i find new ways to incorporate this hearty, fabulous and plentiful vegetable.
I had read/watched this video on ways to make kale chips (a replacement for potato chips and even the "healthy" veggie chips) and it seemed soooooooooo easy i decided to try it myself. pretty much you tear up the kale, massage with olive oil, lemon juice and salt (and pepper in mine) and place in the oven for 20-40 minutes, depending on your crispy factor. Here is what i got.




This is definitely NOT what the cook online had made, but hey i'm an amateur and as i've said before...just learning! As much as i ohhhh'd and awwwww'd over how yummy the chips were, Joe wouldn't try one. The stink of healthy goodness was too much for him. Oh well, more for me!

Kelp Noodles

What the heck are these little noodley buggers? People i've been reading say they are the insides of kelp...the sea vegetable. I went on the hunt for them. I tried my local organic grocer (because kelp noodles are a "raw" product)...no luck. I tried the specialty store...no luck. I tried the Japanese market where no one spoke English....no luck. Okay let's google. Well apparently kelp noodles are HUGE on the west coast...who's surprised there? The company provides the noodles to almost all the Whole Foods in LA and San Fransisco and then a few extra health related stores (i swear they have at least 45 or more stores selling kelp noodles) and New York has ZERO! count'm ZERO stores selling kelp noodles. Oh wait i lied, in Buchannan, NY, Flushing, NY and Pine City, NY there are stores that sell them.
Because we live in a world where i CAN get anything i want, i went online and ordered them. Well here's the annoying part, the company who makes them "Sea Tangle" only sells them in cases of 12, so the search continued until i found a small raw/vegan/organic store that sells them. They arrived in that fancy packaging that i already wrote about and here i what i created.

I call them Asian inspired noodles.


You rinse the noodles and they are ready to eat. The thing is they have NO taste. It's so strange, they are ridiculously crunchy, but have no taste. I'd say they are kinda like a cucumber, but even cucumbers have a taste. Because of the lack of taste i added some other yummy thing.


I added some tofu for protein, carrots, and later some cucumber. For sauce i made a peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, toasted sesame seed and cilantro mixy deliciousy thing. I swear i could drink this concoction!
And Voila....an up close and personal shot of my lunch.


HIGHLY recommend at least trying them. You can't loose in this one. no taste, lots of crunch and ridiculously good for you!

What DO you do all day?

I'm sure many of you are wondering what I do with all this free time i've got since i'm still unemployed. Now that i'm all caught up on sleep...that was about 20 years of backed up exhaustion I now have time for other things i like to do. Other than search daily for jobs i've been doing A LOT of reading and cooking.

The cooking thing did a bit of a skyrocket thing when Joe and I moved in together. Cooking for more than one person is so much more enjoyable and i like learning all these cool new recipes and new products available. Also there are a bunch of farmers markets near by and seeing all the local and organic produce just makes me want to get creative.

I'm not exactly sure how this all started, probably something to do with all my stored up recipes that i never tested out, and a link sent to me from a friend of mine, but i started to learn about organic, nutritional cooking. The idea of more healthy, whole grain, fruit and veggies in and processed food out. I'm a good eater as it is. I have variety in my diet, but sadly produce is where i would cheap out. I've never been a person who eats a lot of pre-made frozen foods, but who doesn't like convenience? With all my reading I started to learn more about why i should buy local, eat whole grains, why i should cut down on my meat intake (that's the hardest one for me) and why organic is better for us. I'm not going to start on you guys to change....but i did want to show you some of the stuff i've been doing! These foods are probably old news for some of you, but for me, it's exciting and this is what i do all day. Read about crazy things and then try to make them.

A message before i finish. I have never called myself a cook, nor do i believe that i create beautiful things, and Joe can attest to this i'm very critical of my cooking always wanting to make my recipes better. So when you look at my food don't judge on the presentation, just know that it's a learning experience (because how else do you learn to cook?!?!).

Have you ever experienced anything so cool?!

So this has nothing to do with my life in new york...well i guess it does because this is happening while i'm here, anyways i digress. To the story: i received some packing popcorn in a box to protect the kelp noodles i had shipped to me. The kelp noodles thing i'll explain later. All this packing popcorn arrived...i hate packing popcorn. It gets everywhere, sticks to everything and it's impossible to dispose of. I had heard rumors of this dissolving packing popcorn and i thought there is no way an organic/raw/eco friendly store would send me styrofoam packing popcorn. So i stuck it underwater and in a matter of seconds it dissolved.

SUPER COOL!!!

Because i wanted everyone to enjoy my amazing discovery i documented it. so enjoy...if this is totally lame and you are starting to notice that my unemployed days are being used for nutty things...well yes you're right. what else can i do with my time while i'm not hunting for jobs! i'm open to suggestions.

Bells

One of my very first posts to the blog was about how i could hear the bells from St. John the Divine chime while i sat in my apartment. Good news! From this apartment i can hear the bells toll as well....from a different church (still unknown to me), but it's beautiful and it just makes me love our apartment even more. On a Sunday i'll have to listen for more elaborate songs.

Bringing color into our lives

We moved into our apartment a week and 2 days ago and before i would allow myself to completely unpack and feel like the place was clean, I told Joe his desire for painting the apartment needed to be completed.

I had never painted in my life. I had no clue how it was done. My teachers have been shows based around home improvement and that show on TLC, House Switch?, Take This House and Sell It?, hmmm can't remember. Anyhoo, after this weekend i would consider myself a talented painter. Taping of all edges, two coats of primer Saturday, two coats of paint on Sunday (alternating colors i'll have you know!) and we are finally finished... the living room. Sigh, at least this room can have stuff hung up and made more cozy.

Painting was an interesting experience. Joe and I aren't exactly the cutsie, "teehee i'm going to put a blob of paint on your nose" type of couple. More like the change the music or i'll paint your ponytail or if you don't stop stealing my roller i'll paint your good shorts type of people. Come hang out with us, i swear we're entertaining! Righto, but seriously, painting could have been a relationship breaking experience, but it was more soothing than anything. Breathing in all the paint toxins, trying not to throw the paintbrush out the window while focusing on painting a wall corner without getting green on the ceiling and of course smiling while we watched our landlord sweat while cementing his whole backyard.

The only problem now is motivating ourselves to do the rest of the apartment. There is so much wall to cover in the bedroom (whine whine whine). Enjoy these photos because who knows how long the rest of the apartment will take.