Shari's Savory Pumpkin Bake

Ok, y'all.  I have a good friend in North Carolina.  She is my sister's college roommate, and she is quite talented in the kitchen. 

Here name is Lauren, and I asked Lauren a few weeks ago if she would like to share a recipe here.  She whipped up a few pumpkin recipes, one of which is a favorite of her family that they enjoy for Thanksgiving.  So, should you be looking for another side dish for Thanksgiving, you should check this out.  It looks amazing!  I wish I was close to her house so I could have some tonight!

Here's what Lauren has to say about this delicious dish... thanks for sharing, Lauren!

Stumped on what side dish to make for Thanksgiving? This savory pumpkin bake has been a long time family favorite.  

 

 

It's perfect for the holidays, but is easy enough to make year round. You can make it more decadent and sweet with a brown sugar pecan topping (as shown here), or a bit more healthy with a toasted wheat germ topping.  

 

 

I'm not sure where my mom found the recipe (possibly from her Michigan roots), but I remember requesting the creamy dessert like dish with dinner growing up.  

 

 

As far as the toasted wheat-germ goes... I don't think I have ever had it in any other dish, but you can find it at Walmart :) 

Hope you enjoy!

 

Shari's Savory Pumpkin Bake

Ingredients:

3-4 cups canned pumpkin (make sure you don't buy pumpkin pie filing)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

2-3 eggs, beat lightly

1/2 stick butter melted

For the topping:

Toasted wheat germ

or

1/3 stick butter, very soft

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Whisk all pumpkin bake ingredients together.  Pour into a greased square baking dish (you can double the recipe and use a 13x9 pan).  Mix the topping ingredients together with a fork (it will be like a crumble topping).  Sprinkle the topping evenly on top.  Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. 

Serve warm & enjoy!

PS--Whipped Cream optional ;)

Turkey Rice Krispie Treats

Thanksgiving is next week.  Next week, y'all! 

When I was growing up, we made these super cute turkey cookies.  They were from the American Girl magazine.  They use oreos, nutter butter cookies, Reese's peanut cups, jelly beans and so many other sugared items.  They are super cute and fun.  But, this year, I tried something new....

To celebrate Thanksgiving, I made these turkey rice krispie treats for the 5th and 6th grade girls at church that I help teach on Wednesday nights.  These treats were perfect since they are gluten free and peanut free.  And they were way easy to make!

All you need are rice krispie treats cut into circle with a biscuit cutter, cookie icing, candy corn, mini chocolate chips, and red and yellow jelly beans.

Happy Thanksgiving!

White Chocolate M&M's and Peanut Butter Blondies

A few weeks ago I made some more blondies.  It's the same recipe as the one I made the night it sleeted here last February.  It is such a yummy recipe.  But, this time I added peanut butter chips and white chocolate m&m's that were colored orange, yellow, and white like candy corns.  So festive!

These blondies really are a winner.  They are so versatile and are a great dessert to take to a party or just enjoy at home.

Reese's now has a white chocolate peanut butter cup.  They are so good.  So, when I saw I had some peanut butter chips and the white chocolate m&m's, I had to combine them in the blondes.

I also love this cookie tin.  It is spray painted in chalkboard paint, so you can change the message for different occasions.  I think I need to go find all the cookie tins I can and paint them all for my upcoming cookie exchange this Christmas!  Have some sitting around?  Paint them and use them to deliver your baked goods to friends :)

You could totally switch out these fall m&m's for red and green.  They'd be super cute in your new tin.  Just sayin'.

Here's the recipe.  It's adapted from my good friend, Eliza.


Blondies

2/3 cup melted butter
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup m&m's, plus extra for sprinkling on the top before baking
1 cup peanut butter chips

Blend together the butter and brown sugar.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Then add the dry ingredients, mixing well.  Finally, add in the m&m's and peanut butter chips.  Spread into a 9x13 inch pan and sprinkle on a few extra m&m's.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  The blondies will be gooey in the middle-- bake longer to avoid the need for a spoon.  :)

Butternut Squash Soup with Chicken Sausage

I made some butternut squash soup for dinner.  Well, I made it twice on the same day actually.  You see, I learned a valuable lesson the first time that I made the soup.  It wasn't related to the butternut squash, the onions, carrots, or any other ingredients.  No, it was the method.  I shall share the disastrous story with you so that you will not make the same mistake.

You might notice that the tag line on my blog is "adventures in my kitchen", which would imply sometimes there are success stories and sometimes not.  Today had both.

I saw this recipe for butternut squash soup on Two Peas and Their Pod that you make in the crock pot.  It looked delicious, and I love crock pots, simply because you dump in the ingredients and let it do its magic.  So, this recipe calls for the use of an immersion blender.  I've never used an immersion blender, and I've never used a crock pot liner (plastic bag).  This is a bad combo.  This is a particularly bad combo when you have a tired CPA and tax attorney trying to cook on a Thursday night.  We thought it would be fine to use the liner and then just blend the soup with the blender in the bag.  Not. A. Good. Idea.

I really should have thought of it when I came home from work and started blending it.  But, it's Friday night, and I was more tired than I thought.  I'm sure I don't need to explain what happened next.  Really, I know it was a bad idea.  Complete epic fail.

So, I mentioned I made it twice in one night.  So, back to the grocery store I ran for more ingredients since my friends and I needed something for dinner.  And here is what I came up with.  It was so, so good.  In the words of my roommate, it's fall in a bowl. 

Butternut Squash Soup with Chicken Sausage

Inspired/adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

6 cups chopped butternut squash*
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 green apple, peeled and chopped
chicken or vegetable broth base
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 chicken sausages, sliced (I used the Johnsonville brand flavored with apple)
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream for garnish

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add the broth base, butternut squash, onion, carrots, and apple.  Cook for 20 minutes or until all the veggies are soft.  Once cooked, scoop out the veggies and measure out 28 ounces of the cooking liquid.  Recombine the veggies and liquid together and blend together with an immersion blender.  (If you don't have an immersion blender, you can blend it in batches in a blender).  Once the soup is fully blended, heat on low heat and add the cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, salt & pepper, and sausage.  Heat the soup until the sausage is warmed completely through.  Serve with a garnish of sour cream, if desired. 


* If you have never peeled and chopped a butternut squash, do not be afraid.  I did it a few times this week, and it's not as hard as you might think it would be.  Here's a great tutorial.

Chocolate Covered "Pumpkin" Pretzels

I don't know about you, but I love chocolate covered pretzels.  I love chocolate covered anything for the most part (who doesn't?).  They fall into the "snack" foods category, and I am such a snacker.  I have to keep it in check or it'll get me in trouble.  I think I come by it honestly as there are other snackers in my family.  Whenever I go to my grandparent's house and look in the pantry, my grandmother has the best snack items in there for my grandfather.  And she usually always has chocolate covered pretzels.

I few weeks ago, when I was on Pinterest, I came across these pretzels, and knew I had to make them.  It wasn't a question of if, but when I would make them.  I love festive foods, too.  So, these were right up my ally!

Now, I will say these can be a bit labor intensive (at least it might seem that way if you start the project at 9:15 pm).  But, they are totally worth it!  If you have never gone to the kitchen to cook something up at 9:15 pm, you should go make these. :)

Here's the recipe.  I made a slight alteration to use the candy bark instead of the white chocolate.  It may not be as "real", but it's definitely simpler.

Chocolate Covered "Pumpkin" Pretzels

Pretzel twists
Green M&M's
White almond bark
Orange or red and yellow food coloring

Melt the almond bark according to the package directions.  Once it is melted, add the food coloring until you reach the color of orange you would like.  If you use red and yellow, use the ratio of two drops of yellow for every drop of red.  I used eight drops of yellow and four drops of the red.  Then, dip each pretzel in the almond bark and then place it on wax paper.  Immediately add the green M&M at the top.  Let the pretzels set completely before storing them.  You can cover them and place them in the fridge overnight to set, and they'll be perfect.