Pumpkin cheddar muffins

When I was a kid, we used to go fishing with my uncle. We caught mainly perch, which were pretty easy to catch in Lake Michigan. Since there was much more catching happening than there was waiting for a bite, it made for a very fun day. We learned how to bait our hooks, how to cast, how to unhook our catch, how to string it up on a line. I got out of learning how to clean the fish, but I don't think my big brother was so lucky. There were enough fish to keep busy and feel successful, but still it felt like a little bit of luck and a little bit of skill when you did catch one.


Where we camp every summer, there is a creek that is stocked with ... umm, I think trout? (I am not a fisher, and I am definitely not well versed in fish species). Anyway, the creek is stocked with fish on a schedule, meaning that the fish are deposited at specific spots, on specific days, at a specific time.  


In other words, if you want to catch a trout in this creek, you go to the spot where the fish have been released, just after they are deposited there. It makes it pretty easy to catch a fish, since you know that there are tons of fresh, befuddled, fish all in one spot. The poor little fish, who just came from a hatchery, gets to swim his little heart out in a big pool, for just a few minutes, when he finds a big juicy worm (or a smear of weird-looking florescent bait stuff) floating in front of him. He takes a big bite of this opportune treat, and some fisherman gets dinner.


It hardly seems fair. It really doesn't seem like sport at all at this point. I really don't see how you can be proud of outsmarting a trout, let alone a trout that has been put there just for you to catch him.


And that is sort of how I feel about eating meat. I am certainly not opposed to eating meat. I have no problem at all with consuming animal. I strongly believe the human is meant to be an omnivore. However, I also strongly believe in buying sustainable, fairly-treated meat.


It doesn't really seem fair, though, to raise a chicken or a cow in a box barely larger than himself, and then march him up the chute at the slaughter house. There are so many things wrong with that. I know that even if a cow is raised in an open field, eating and drinking a natural cow diet, and getting natural cow fresh air and exercise and a real cow life, he still doesn't stand a chance. He is still going to be forced to the slaughter house. Short of making myself a bow and arrow and heading out to the plains, I can't think of a way to make it a fair fight between myself and the animals I consume. However, some time passes between a cow's birth and his slaughter, and it seems like he ought to at least enjoy the life he does have.


With the abundance on vegetables, and the price of free-range organic meat, there are far more vegetarian days in my house than there are meat days.


Tonight, we are eating a pot of vegetarian chili, along with these butternut squash - cheddar muffins. It was originally a pumpkin muffin, and I got the recipe from A Sweet Swiper, and she got the recipe from Chocolate and Chakra, and she got them from the book Baked Explorations. Rather than make you backtrack through all that, and since I made a couple changes, I am going to just give you my version of the recipe here. 

These muffins are delicious! The squash and the sugar add some sweetness, but the cayenne, black pepper, and sharp cheddar cheese balance them with a punch of spice and savory-ness. They make a perfect side dish with chili, soup, or stew.


And while we are on the topic of butternut squash, look for lots more recipes this week! I got a butternut squash the size of a hippopotamus, and with it I made these muffins, 5 loaves of "pumpkin" bread, a batch of "pumpkin" waffles, and a batch of "pumpkin" cupcakes. Phew!


Pumpkin -- or Butternut -- Cheddar Muffins
1 cup butternut squash or pumpkin puree
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups (about 4 ounces) grated sharp cheddar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a 12-cup muffin pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the squash and yogurt. Add the eggs and butter and whisk until combined.

In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and brown sugar.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and fold until just combined. Fold in three-quarters of the cheese.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar on top of the muffins. Bake them for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let the muffin pan cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out the muffins. Serve them warm. Makes 15 muffins.

pumpkin (or squash) butter

Do you shop at Trader Joe's? I have heard stories that some people in our great nation don't live close enough to a Trader Joe's to make shopping there feasible. I give my deepest sympathies to any of you who don't have Joe in your neighborhood.


The greatest thing about Trader Joe's is not that they have great prices (although they do). It's not that they have a good selection of organic or gluten-free or nitrate-free or sugar-free (although they do). It's not that they have a whole bunch of convenience foods -- think frozen pizza or pre-made cheesecake -- that manage to still be made of real ingredients (although they do). The great thing about Trader Joe's is that they do all of these things, and they manage to have an absolutely astounding variety of products. Every time I am in the store, there is something I have never noticed before. And any time I talk about Trader Joe's with a friend, I learn about their favorite product, which also is quite often something I have never noticed before. I could spend hours in that place perusing the aisles, finding all manner of yummy treats I have never tried.


As a matter of fact, I would love to hear what is on your shopping list at Trader Joe's. I am always interested in hearing what else I need to look for there... leave a comment if you know of something I need to try! 


One of the favorite items that my family discovered in Trader Joe's is the pumpkin butter. It is a spread made out of pumpkin and spices, that is great on toast, English muffins, bagels, etc. My kids also love it in place on jam on their peanut butter sandwiches. I have used it to make a quick dessert (rolled into puff pastry and sliced into rounds before baking). It tastes like having a little bit of pumpkin pie with your morning coffee.


Trader Joe's only has the pumpkin butter available in the fall, and we used to stock up on about 10 jars of it when we found it on the shelves, in order to last us through to when it came back the following year.


And then I started to get the Abundant Harvest Organics box. In the AHO box, the fall brings pumpkins. And quite a few butternut squashes. And even a kabocha squash, which is something I had never heard of before. And, as it turns out, these three squashes can pretty much be substituted one for the other. They aren't exactly the same, of course, but they work the same way. The flavors are very slightly different, but I like them all. I have made "pumpkin" pie out of all three of them. I have made "pumpkin" cookies out of all three of them. And, to my great joy, I have found that I can make pumpkin butter out of all three of them as well. It is pretty easy to make, once you have pureed the squash. It just takes a few ingredients, and a little while standing at the stove, stirring and simmering.


A quick note about the kabocha squash... We got one in our box a few weeks ago, and it terrified me. It was big (the size of a medium pumpkin). It was ugly (a sort of odd green color). It was hard (hard like a gourd almost). I couldn't imagine that anything good would come of it. As a matter of fact, I added it to the fall porch decorations and left it there a couple of weeks, happily nesting amongst the pumpkins. But a friend assured me that her mother had gotten one in a CSA box in Colorado, and that she loved it. SO if a friend's out-of-state mother likes kabocha squash, who am I to turn up my nose? I brought in back inside, roasted it, pureed it, and became smitten. The kabocha squash is sweeter and more flavorful than pumpkin. It roasts into a wonderfully soft consistency, and the puree is amazingly smooth and creamy. As a matter of fact, give a choice between a pumpkin and a kabocha, I would now choose the kabocha every time. 

Anyway, I was sitting here with a pumpkin, a kabocha, and two large butternuts. That is a whole lot of squash. I roasted and pureed them all, and I made a kabocha pie and a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. However, I still had an immense amount of puree leftover. I combined it all and made "pumpkin" butter out of it. It made a whole bunch of pumpkin butter, so I was able to freeze several portions, and once again we will have enough to last us until squash season next year. 


I would say that this recipe works equally well for any one or any combination of these squashes. Use whatever you have on hand, or pick your favorite. Or, if you prefer, you can buy canned puree. About one large can of pumpkin is what is needed for this recipe.

Pumpkin Butter

         3 ½ cups pumpkin (or butternut or kabocha) puree

         3/4 cup apple juice

         1 1/2  teaspoons ground ginger

         1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

         1 1/2 cups white sugar

         2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

         1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine squash puree, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently. I am not sure about the acidity of this, so I can't recommend canning it. If you make a whole bunch, I suggest freezing it. It thaws quite nicely.

soft pumpkin cookies

This pumpkin recipe is one of the standing traditions around here. As I was making the pumpkin puree last week, I knew that some of it would be finding it's way into these cookies. These end up on our table at least a couple of times every fall.

My husband had this recipe when I met him... his mother used to make them for him. I know it can be treading in some dangerous waters to try and make something for a man that his mama used to make,  but these are pretty fool-proof. I've never had them come out anything less than perfect! He's not the complaining type in general, but he's never mentioned that his mother could have done better.

I have done them with canned puree and with my own, and either way they come out lovely. They are light, almost cake-like, soft, and not too sweet. The spices are similar to pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread, so they immediately feel like an old favorite, from the first time you try them.

Pumpkin Cookies

(makes 4-5 dozen small cookies)

3/4 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs. Mix in the pumpkin puree. 

In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Stir into the pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. (the dough is a little wetter than most cookie doughs, don't fret.) Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the bottoms are starting to brown.

pumpkin-cream cheese wontons

Last month I participated in the Improv Cooking Challenge that had been started by the Lady Behind the Curtain. The challenge was to come up with a recipe that used apples and caramel, and I made a Dorset Apple Cake.

This month, the two ingredients assigned were pumpkin and cream cheese. As luck would have it, I had just received a pumpkin from the mother of one of the preschool kids where I work. Not that I was going to mention it to the others in the challenge, but I was planning to make some yummy pumpkin things anyway!

Well, I thought I would get ahead of the game, and I decided to make these pumpkin-cream cheese wontons. (I found the recipe here, but as usual I didn't follow directions very well.) I pureed the pumpkin, went to an Asian market for the wonton wrappers, and assembled the rest of the ingredients. I mixed and dolloped and folded and baked, and I sampled and refolded and photographed and ate and ate and ate.

And just when I uploaded the pictures and thought about how to write about the cute little guys, I got an email from the Lady Behind the Curtain. Sadly, for reasons she didn't go into, she is unable to continue hosting the challenge. 

Really? The exact morning that I was about to write my blog post? The challenge is cancelled?

So sad.

Fear not. All is not lost. I got these wontons out of the process. And now you can too!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese wontons

I used the pumpkin puree that I told you about yesterday, but you can buy a can of it if you prefer. It would make these guys super duper easy to throw together.

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

18 wonton wrappers (these can be easily found in almost any Asian grocery store, and even the frozen aisle of most general supermarkets)

a bit more cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 400.

Now, mix up everything except the wonton wrappers. It's just that easy. 

Lay out a wonton wrapper and place a dollop of about 1-2 teaspoons of the pumpkin-cream cheese mixture in the center.

Using your fingers, wet two sides of the wrapper with water. Fold it in half diagonally (to form a triangle) and press the two sides of the wrapper together.

You can leave it in this triangle shape, or you can make it shaped like a traditional wonton by bringing the two corners at the base of the triangle together, wetting the corners, and overlapping to form a circle of sorts. A bandana headband? A little sailboat? This guy's hat?

They should look like this:

Anyway, after you have filled and folded, you can bake them.

Lay them on a baking sheet and sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Turn them over and bake another couple of minutes, so both sides can get nicely toasted.

Enjoy!

pumpkin puree

Pumpkin puree is the stuff you get out of a can. But guess what? Before it was in a can, it was a pumpkin! A real, live round, orange pumpkin.

It is so easy to take a pumpkin (or a couple, if you plan to do a lot of pumpkin-based cooking) and turn them into puree that can be used in any recipe asks for canned pumpkin. Buy a couple of the smaller, orange pumpkins next time they are on sale. They keep very well, so you won't even have to use them up immediately.

I actually got mine from a mom at the preschool where I work. She brought one in for each of the staff members from her garden. How sweet is that? I'll be bringing her some pumpkin cookies made with her terrific pumpkin this week.

Once you are ready to try out some baking, you will be amazed at how simple it is to turn a pumpkin into pumpkin puree. First, you need to cut it into some big chunks. Just cut it in half, and then cut each half into 3 or four wedges. Then, scrape out the seeds and stringy pulp.

Now, just set the chunks of pumpkin down on a baking sheet and bake them! They need to roast for about 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees. That's it! Just stick them in the hot oven, wait an hour, and get them back out. You will know they are done when a fork can easily pierce them.

Next, scrape all of the pumpkin flesh out of the peel pieces. It should come apart fairly easily. Stick the chunks into a food processor, and well, puree.

If it feels too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time. If it feels too wet, let it drain a bit from a mesh sieve. My pumpkin ended up taking about 4 tablespoons of water altogether.

Other than that, don't do a thing! Jut get it into a nice gooey pureed form, and then let your imagination run wild. I'll give you some of the ways I used it later this week. Keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Just for your reference, a can of pumpkin equals 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin puree. So if a recipe calls for one can, you can easily measure it. My medium pumpkin came out to just about 4 cups.