Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin pie with bourbon-spiked whipped cream

OK, I’m a day late, but I certainly hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. What a wonderful holiday to celebrate our nation’s abundance of food — and the importance of supporting local farmers.

We did not host the holiday ourselves this year, so I only have one recipe to share (a to-die-for pumpkin pie I made using fresh pumpkin), but I did want to share a great article about what food says about class in this week’s Newsweek. I think the author’s discussion of the need for a bigger focus in America on viewing eating as a social activity, rather than as calories, carbs, fats and sugars, is right on. Comments toward the end of the piece suggesting that health insurance companies become advocates for small and medium-size farmers was also good to see, and an interesting thought. We need more articles like this to help increase awareness of just how much small changes in what and how we eat can make a big difference.

I’ll step off my pedestal now, but the holiday season really is a great time to think about how the food we eat and where we get it from affects our health — as individuals, communities and society as a whole. There are plenty of winter farmer’s markets going on right now and most offer some great holiday gifts. Plus, it’s not too early to sign up for a community-supported agriculture share for next season.

And now, on to the recipe!

Pumpkin pie with bourbon-spiked whipped cream

From The Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook

Pumpkin pie

• One 9-inch deep-dish frozen pie shell
• 3.4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 can pumpkin (15 ounces) (I used fresh pumpkin puree)
• 1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp bourbon
• 1 tbsp milk

Whipped cream

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp bourbon

To make the pumpkin pie: Pre-heat over to 425 degrees F. Stir together the sugar, kosher salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg in a small bowl and set aside. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the pumpkin, cream vanilla, bourbon and the sugar-and-spice mixture and mix well. Brush the outer edge of the piecrust with the milk. Fill the shell to the rim with the pumpkin mixture (depending on the pie shell and dish, you may have as much as 1/3 cup of the pumpkin mixture left over).

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees F and bake until the pie is set in the center, 40 to 50 minutes more. (The filling will still jiggle when moved.) Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool completely.

To make the whipped cream: Combine the cream, sugar and bourbon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Alternatively, use an electric hand mixer.

Putting Halloween pumpkins to good use!

Halloween is long over, but hopefully you haven’t thrown away your pumpkins just yet.  Instead, puree your pumpkin and freeze it to use in your favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

We received what our farmer called a long pie pumpkin in our second-to-last CSA delivery, and I finally got around to roasting it last weekend.

I split the pumpking in half long-wise, roasted them at 350 degrees F in a little bit of water for about 45 minutes and then scooped out the  pumpkin and blended it into a puree.  I separated the puree into two 2-cup portions and poured into freezer bags, ready to be used for yummy Thanksgiving pies and my favorite — pumpkin rocks! (Thanks to Justin for introducing us to this fabulous fall treat!)

Give it a shot — I can’t vouch for it just yet myself, but I’m told using fresh pumpkin versus canned in pumpkin pie is fabulous!

Roast pumpkin for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F

Don't forget to roast the pumpkin seeds as well! Yum!

It’s apple season!!

We are approaching the end of the apple-picking season (in fact I know many farms had to shut down their U-Picks early because they were all out of apples), yet many farmers’ markets will still have this fabulous fruit for another couple weeks. I managed to do some apple-picking a few weekends ago, and continue to pick a few up every weekend at the market. They go quick in my house, especially when I make my hubby’s two all-time favorite desserts — apple pie and apple crisp.

My sister sent me an apple pie recipe that she’s a fan of and, while I was somewhat skeptical of it at first, it turned out great! I was concerned because this one has you add the apples to the pie pan, put the lattice crust on top and then pour the butter and sugar mixture onto the pie and let it seep in through the lattice holes. For other pies I’ve made, I’ve mixed the butter and sugar in with the apples before putting them into the pan and covering with the crust. I honestly think it can work either way.

Here’s the recipe, with a few modifications we made:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I sadly must admit I went with a Pillsbury pre-made dough; didn’t make my own)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced (My sister and I both used Jonagolds, and more like 6-7 apples)

Dash or two of ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. Enjoy (preferably warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!)

The recipe for the apple crisp comes from, again, one of my favorite sources cooking sources — “The Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook.” The recipe calls for baking the crisp in an 8-inch square baking pan, but I was feeding a large crowd with this crisp, so I double the recipe and made it in a 9×14-inch pan.

Harvest Apple Crisp

Filling

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 granulated sugar

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp kosher salt

Steusel topping

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (I used dark b/c it was all we had on hand)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup rolled oats or quick-cooking oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the filling: Combine the apples, granulated sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and kosher salt in a glass baking dish and mix well. Set aside.

To make the streusel topping: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the brown sugar and kosher salt. Add the flour and oats and stir until just incorporated. Crumble the mixture evenly over the apple filling. Put the baking dish on a baking sheet (in case the filling boils over) and bake until the topping is golden brown and the filling in bubbling, 50 to 60 minutes.

Harvest Apple Crisp

This Wedesday was the last CSA delivery of the season. I’ll be continuing to post for another week or so, sharing our latest recipes (tonight’s dinner was delicious — moroccan-style acorn squash — stay tuned), but this season’s share is now over. So sad. I’ll try and post some concluding thoughts on our first CSA season soon, for those who might be considering giving it a shot next year.

A crisp to be reckoned with

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve had my eye on a recipe for strawberry-rhubarb crisp, which I finally made last week, to my husband’s delight. I haven’t really had a lot of experience with rhubarb to date, but after the delicious muffins from last week, and a yummy dessert we’d ordered recently at our local Irish bistro, I have a new appreciation for this spring specialty. And we’d managed to save just enough strawberries from last week’s farmer’s market trip to make this recipe work.

Be forwarned, as you’ll notice if you clicked on the recipe for this crisp, there is nothing low-fat or diet about it. With 2 cups of sugar (one white, one brown) and an entire stick of butter, healthy this is not, but that’s what makes it so darn good. I’m of the mindset that you just have to indulge every once in a while.

I examined several other strawberry-rhubarb crisp recipes before ultimately deciding on this one. If anyone tries out a different recipe or has other recommendations, please let me know. But the one we tried was money — butter, buttermilk and all.

Strawberry-rhubarb crisp

Ravishing rhubarb!

Managed to take my first trip of the season to our neighborhood farmers’ market this past weekend, and boy had I missed it. We weren’t really in need of any veggies, but several vendors had some great looking spring fruits!

First farmers' market loot: Raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb!

Now, what to do with everything? Well, I needn’t worry. The raspberries are already gone — gobbled up quickly by the hubby and me. The strawberries are disappearing quickly as well.

And as for the rhubarb? I made the famous Aunt Norma’s rhubarb muffins. I kinda hated turning on the oven in today’s heat, but it was worth it!

Aunt Norma's Rhubarb Muffins

These puppies are delicious. I actually ended up substituting chopped almonds for the walnuts because that was all I had around the house. Because of the switch, I also used almond extract instead of vanilla. I wasn’t quite sure how it would work out, but it was great! I still have some rhubarb left over, so I’m considering attempting a strawberry rhubarb crisp (inspired by a dessert hubby and I shared at Mrs. Murphy & Son’s Irish Bistro this past weekend). We’ll see if there’s any strawberries left by tomorrow evening! Stay tuned!

My rhubarb mustache - just for you, Em!