Wildlife Thanksgiving

Squirrels and chipmunks feasting on dried sunflower heads on my back porch.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I would love to share with you, my recipe for pumpkin pancakes. It is so delicious, I'm sure it will become one of your family's favorites! There is one thing that sets this recipe apart from other pancakes...and that is folding beaten egg whites into the batter. This makes the batter so light, fluffy and airy! OK, enough already...let's get to the recipe!

*First let me tell you that you can cut this recipe in half if you are only feeding 2 people.
*However, if you are feeding a family of four, you will definitely need to make this recipe in full...which yields approx. 20 - 24 pancakes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 C. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 eggs, separated
2 C. milk
1 C. pumpkin puree or plain canned pumpkin
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Combine baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon



and flour in a bowl.



In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks,



milk and oil



and pumpkin



until smooth.



Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture just until moistened.



In small bowl, beat egg whites...


until...



soft peaks form.



Fold egg whites into batter.



Fold and fold



and fold...that's perfect.



Pour batter by 1/4 C. each onto hot griddle.



When bubbles come to the surface, flip pancake.





Enjoy!



Don't forget the syrup. I like to warm my syrup in the microwave.

Make your own pumpkin puree

Making your own pumpkin puree is very easy and very rewarding. This time of year there are plenty of sugar pie pumpkins available at your local fruit market and the grocery store. It is wonderful to have pumpkin puree readily available in your freezer. This will allow you the freedom to make pumpkin dishes and desserts all year round. For instance, my family loves pumpkin pancakes...any time of year! Not only is pumpkin delicious, it is very healthy. Pumpkins are loaded with beta carotene, potassium, fiber, zinc, and vitamins A and C. Sugar pie pumpkins are small, dark orange and have a thick skin. The small 3 or 4 pound sugar pie pumpkins are claimed to be the best to use for cooking and baking. All pumpkins are edible, but some say the larger field pumpkins used for carving jack o lanterns can be too stringy and not as sweet. However, I have read, more than once, of people who've always used field pumpkins to make all of their pumpkin desserts and it has worked fantastically.

Here's the process for making your own pumpkin puree..give it a try!

You will be so happy you did!

1) rinse pumpkin free of dirt

2) cut top and stem off of pumpkin and discard

3) cut pumpkin in half right down the middle from top to bottom

4) scrape and remove seeds and pulp, discard pulp and save seeds for roasting



5) place pumpkin halves with interior side face down in baking dish



6) pour 1 C water into baking dish



7) bake pumpkin for 1 hour in 375 degree oven



8) remove pumpkin from oven and allow to cool





9) easily peel skin from pumpkin with fingers

10) cut pumpkin into several pieces and place in food processor

11) puree pumpkin with metal blade until smooth



12) divide pumpkin in 1 cup increments in quart size freezer bags





I like to flatten the pumpkin in the freezer bags and store flat in a 9 x 13 plastic container to save space and keep bags from sliding all over the freezer



13) freeze pumpkin for future use



Pumpkin is so versatile...
it can be cooked in many ways...
including, but not limited to: pie, rolls, cookies, muffins, pancakes, cheesecake and so on and so on.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. I'll be posting my famous pumpkin pancakes recipe! It is a definite favorite at this house! My family can't get enough!

Apple Dumplings

Oh my goodness gracious!
I made apple dumplings and they were DELICIOUS!!
Really...seriously...you have GOT to try this recipe! You will love it!
There are five separate steps to making this recipe.
Each step is very easy so don't let that discourage you.

1) make the dough...very easy
2) prep the apples...very easy
3) assemble the dumplings...very easy
4) make the sauce...very easy
5) bake the dumplings...really easy

Ok...so you see...it's all very easy...but there is a process.

The Dough Recipe:
2 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 C. Crisco shortening
1/2 C. milk

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture with a pastry blender or 2 knives. Add the milk all at once and then quickly mix with a fork until dough comes together and all milk is absorbed. Do not over mix. Quickly shape dough into ball with your hands and roll dough into 8 x 12 rectangle on a floured surface. Cut dough into 6 sections with knife and leave on floured surface.

Prepping The Apples:



Peel 6 small Macintosh apples.
Cut apples in half.
Core the apples by removing seeds and stem.

Assembling the dumplings:



Take 2 apples halves to create one apple and place on a square of dough.
Holding the apple together with one hand, pour sugar down in between the 2 halves filling almost to the top.
Sprinkle with a nice dose of cinnamon.
Sprinkle with a dash of nutmeg.
Top apple with a pat of butter or margarine.



Continue with the remainder of apples until all dough squares are used.
Wet the edges of each square with water using a pastry brush or your finger.
Bring sides of dough up to top of apple and pinch together at sides.
Sometimes the dough breaks or won't fit....just work with it and don't fret...cover that apple as best you can...it will all turn out beautiful and yummy in the end. The sloppier it looks, the more homemade it looks...we don't want these to look like they were made in a factory do we?? No way!

Place dumplings in a 9 x 13 casserole dish or use two pie pans.





Sauce Recipe:
1 C. sugar
1 C. water
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Mix sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Turn off heat and add the butter. Stir butter into mixture until it melts. Pour sauce mixture over uncooked apple dumplings and bake in oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Leave dumplings sitting in the thickened sauce. That's the best part!!!



Enjoy!

SCORE! sugar pumpkins 4 for a $1.00

Lookey what I got!!! I stopped at my local fruit market and found pie pumpkin/sugar pumpkins on sale at 4 for $1.00 !!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I totally scored! I bought 12 pumpkins for $3.00 ! I bought a sugar pumpkin at this same market 2 weeks ago for $2.00 and now they are only 25 cents a piece! I am so happy, this just made my day big time!

All weekend long, I'll be roasting pumpkin, pureeing pumpkin and freezing pumpkin puree in 1 cup increments. This will last me until next October. I did this last year and it lasted me until June. So...I had the last of the pumpkin puree frozen for 8 months and it was good as new. It wasn't freezer burned or anything. Last year I think I only did about 4 sugar pumpkins but they were a little larger than these. As you can imagine, I will have lots and lots and lots of puree to use for pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin roll, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins....do I sound like Bubba in Forrest Gump? (shrimp gumbo, shrimp stew, shrimp kebobs, shrimp creole...) ha ha ha!