I bet you were thinking I was going to miss this weeks Tuesday with Dorie. Almost did. Though it had nothing to do with procrastination. See, I bought the wrong kind of pumpkin. I went to grab the pumpkin puree, but instead I got the pumpkin pie puree. Ever have that happen to you? And I didn’t want to throw it away, I just didn’t know what I wanted to make with it.
This weeks, Tuesday with Dorie choice was Crème Brulee (chosen by Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake), I figured that this would be my chance to use up that pumpkin. I of course did an inspired by so that I could give you a recipe, so I made crème caramel, which is in the same family as crème brulee. This is where the almost missing TWD came in. See I have to make this recipe 3 times to get it right. I am just not used to working with the canned pumpkin pie, it is runnier than just pumpkin puree, and already has some sugar in it. So the first batch was super runny. The second batch I didn’t add sugar because I thought the pumpkin pie puree would have enough, wrong. And finally the third batch came out how I wanted it.
I will try and be more careful next time when I am picking out my pumpkin puree, but it is nice to know that I can still come up with something when I screw up and grab the wrong can.

*LFB Update: Monday was her big check up. She is doing well and it is looking like she will get to keep the eye. We truly wont know for about another 2 months, but things are moving in the right direction. Thanks for all the good thoughts.

Pumpkin Ginger Crème Caramel

2 TBSP  fresh ginger root, chopped
½  cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
¾  cup granulated sugar, divided
2½ TBSP water
2 large eggs
¾ cup canned pumpkin pie mix
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 325F.
Place the ginger root, milk and cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Set aside to steep for 1 hour. Pour through a strainer and discard the ginger root solids.
While the ginger is steeping, prepare the ramekins. Place ½ cup of the sugar and the water in a small saucepan and cook until the sugar is caramelized, about 8 minutes. Pour into 8 clean, dry 5-ounce ramekins. Tilt the cups so that the bottoms are evenly covered. Set aside.
Place the eggs, pumpkin pie mix, the remaining ¼ cup sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the cooled, strained milk and mix to combine. Pour the custard into the prepared molds. Place in a hot water bath and transfer to the oven.
Bake until the custards jiggle but do not ripple, about 30 to 40 minutes. Cool to room temperature and place plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate at least 12 hours and up to 2 days. Top with Ginger Whipped Cream ans serve.

Makes about 4-5 servings depending on the size of your ramekin.

Ginger Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 TBSP granulated sugar
3 TBSP Ginger Simple Syrup

With standing mixer with whisk attachment or electric hand mixer, beat cream. Start slowly, as cream thickens, turn the speed up. As it gets foamier, start checking for a soft peak. In a slow stream, add the ginger syrup and sugar.
Whip the mixture together until you get stiff peaks.

Ginger Simple Syrup

12 ounces fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1 ½  cups sugar
1 ½  cups water

Directions
In a small saucepan, bring ginger, sugar, and water to a boil over medium heat. Cook 2 minutes. Strain the mixture through a sieve, discarding ginger. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
This makes far more than you need for this recipe, but can be used in a variety of ways…especially great in cocktails.

I was doing so good. Really I was. I hadn’t even clicked on Amazon.com for awhile. And then like a fool I went on, and even more foolish, I looked at my recommendations.
The evil geniuses at Amazon once again pulled me into the black hole that is the myriad of cookbooks I didn’t know I needed…but of course now need. I broke down and ordered a few (bastards). They arrived and I did my initial run through. When I get a new cookbook I immediately go through it. First, if is a book with few photos, I go searching for those. Then I skim through looking at the titles of all the recipes. Then if I have time I will read the ones that sounded good. And when I have time I sit down and read it from cover to cover, just as if it were any book, not just a cookbook.
The book I fell in love with this week is Baked. Baked is a bakeshop in Brooklyn that has a frontier theme…very odd, but I think it works for them. There are soooo many things I want/need to make from this cookbook, it’s not even funny. You will be seeing quite a few things in the coming months from this baby. But, if you can’t wait, I suggest you just go buy it.
The first thing I decided to make from it were these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. My what a mistake that was. Who knew I could eat so many of these things in one sitting?
I added a little maple syrup to my cream cheese filling (yes, I realize I have been adding that a lot as of late…Canadians are always allowed to add maple syrup, just remember that). I also considered making a cinnamon version of the frosting as well. So many choices. What is a girl to do? I know…keep making them in different ways. Though I feel my waistline might veto that. Ah, what the heck, it’s Fall now, I can just wear bulky clothing, eh?

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin Whoopie Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup canola oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble:
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoppie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

There isn’t much in the food world that I haven’t at least tried, unless of course I am allergic (which rules out quite a few things). Yet there was one food item I had seen time and time again on people’s blogs that I had never tried but always wanted to….rice pudding.
I’m not even sure why I have never tried it. I mean it is a lot of people’s go to ultimate comfort food, and I love me some comfort food.
I was at the grocery store and I saw a container of Kozy Shack rice pudding and decided that enough was enough, I was going to break down and make some. I was however determined that it would be bland for some reason and so I felt the need to make it a sauce. I also searched for a recipe using arborio rice as it gives off a more creamy texture.
When all was said and done I stood there looking at it, it’s not all that pretty by itself, then again neither is bread pudding and I love that. I scooped my spoon in and into the mouth (cue the romance music). Yeah, I get it. Big time. This stuff is comfort in a bowl. It ranks right up there with grilled cheese and tomato soup comfort…and that is a serious compliment.
I think next time I might throw in a few more spices but with the addition of the butterscotch sauce, there were not needed so much this time around.
Do yourself a favor, if you were like me and have never had rice pudding, go ahead and make it. Hopefully you will have the same reaction as I did.
P.S. CCS is doing better. LFB is doing the same, will no more on Monday.

Arborio Rice Pudding with Stone Fruit Butterscotch Sauce

Arborio Rice Pudding

1 cup water
Pinch salt
½ TBSP unsalted butter
½  cup Arborio rice
2 cups whole milk
8 TBSP granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh)

Bring water, salt, and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rice, return to a boil, and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Shake the pan occasionally and cook until rice has absorbed the water but it still al dente, about 15 minutes.
Bring milk, sugar, vanilla, and spices to a simmer in a separate saucepan. Add the cooked rice and cook at a simmer over medium-low heat until rice absorbs most of the milk and mixture starts to get thick and silky, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer pudding to a large bowl and cool to room temperature. Place in refrigerator until cool and set. Serve with whipped cream and a dash more cinnamon.

Adapted from Food Network.com

Stone Fruit Butterscotch Sauce

¾  cup light brown sugar, packed
½  cup light corn syrup
4 TBSP unsalted butter, divided
½  cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 large peach, peeled and diced
2 medium pluots, peeled and diced

Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, and 2 TBSP butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Boil for 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in cream and vanilla immediately. Be careful as sauce will boil up and possibly splatter and could burn you. Set aside.
In a separate pan, melt 2 TBSP of unsalted butter. Add stone fruits and cook on medium heat until fruit starts to get soft, about 2 minutes.
Fold fruit into butterscotch sauce and scoop on top of rice pudding servings.

I have a friend who is what I call a life sucker. Do you have one of these? You know the kind of person who would complain, even if they won the lottery. Nothing is ever good in their life (even when it totally is). The person that when you get done talking to them you feel like you need a nap because they sucked the very life out of you with their negativity. I am fortunate enough that this person lives in another state (I moved) so the life sucking has slowed down but it still makes me sad. When I was trying to point out the good things in her life to her last time we talked she said to me, “of course it is easy for you, you have a happy life”. Do I?
I find it amusing for the fact that our lives are not that much different. Yet how I see things is very different. When LS ( Life Sucker) had to pay for health issues for her dog you thought the world was coming to an end. She feels about her dog how I do about mine so we both would spend a small mint to make sure they were okay. But to talk her you would think that things like this only happen to her. She is very much, why do things like this always happen to me kind of gal. Well here is a news flash, they don’t. Craptastic things happen to people every minute of every hour of every day. You are not alone in that, she is not alone in that, I am not alone in that. Good things also happen every minute of every hour of every day. You just have to be able to recognize it. And that is the hard part for people.
My good things today included laughing at LFB hoping around in circles looking like she was chasing her tail. Driving down the road and seeing the red and golden leaves starting to pop out.  Eating a nice scoop of Strawberry Gelato while sitting with my blog designer going over the new design. My hair growing out just long enough to go back into a pony tail. CCS laying at my feet keeping them warm (it’s a bit chilly in the house). Laughing with my husband that we have had to talk WAY too much about animal poop the last week. . Some people may not find any of those things particularly good. But boy, I sure do. And maybe that is the difference. Maybe that is the key.
In a dirty hippie kind of way, the last few moments of my day are always spent meditating. Not in the chantey, humming kind of way, but in the sitting calmly with no distractions and concentrating kind of way. Concentrating on what? All the good things in my life. Sounds hokey, but I really do think it helps. Now don’t get me wrong, I have my bad days, we all do (I’m not all sunshine and rainbows coming out of my butt). But I try pretty darn hard to let my good days out number my bad.
I used to have a sign over my desk that read, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it”. Those my dear readers are words to live by.
So today I offer up a simple granola. One that celebrates the flavors of Fall, with dried apples, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds (pepitas). Have it for breakfast or sprinkle it over yogurt and cake.

Fall is Here Granola

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
½  cup raw sunflower seeds
½  cup raw pumpkin seeds
¼ cup raw sesame seeds
1 ½  tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp sea salt
2 TBSP canola oil
¼ cup honey ( I use creamed cinnamon honey)
¼  cup maple syrup
1/3 cup dried apples, diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, honey and maple syrup.
Pour oil mixture over the oat mixture and toss together. Make sure all ingredients are coated with the oil mixture.
Spread evenly onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. Take out of oven and move granola around using a heat proof spatula or wooden spoon. Spread out again evenly onto baking sheet and place back into oven.
Bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how crispy you like your granola. Be careful not to get it too dark or you will get a unpleasant burnt flavor, and no one wants that.
Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
Once room temperature, remove from pan and break up the larger clumps of granola into smaller pieces. Add dried apples and dried cranberries to the mix.
Store in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.