Pumpkin Bread

We had another snow day, so Nature Girl and I baked pumpkin bread together. We made three batches of batter so we ended up with five mini loaves and two big loaves. I haven't made pumpkin bread in a very long time. As a matter of fact, I probably haven't made it since I was pregnant with Nature Girl. Needless to say I had forgotten how delicious it is!!! I'm including the recipe if you want to try it. It's yummy with some butter spread on it.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin pie filling

1 ¼ cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cloves

¼ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. allspice

1/3 cup water

½ tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar, oil and eggs. Then add pumpkin.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Add to mixture.

3. Add water and vanilla. Mix well.

4. Bake at 350 in greased loaf pan for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Yield: This recipe makes one large loaf.

The Best Guacamole Ever

I mentioned that I made guacamole with my students at school last week. Since then, they've been asking for the recipe. I'm printing out the recipe so they can make it at home. I thought you might enjoy the recipe too. I did my quick and easy version of this recipe but here is the full recipe. Enjoy!

The Best Guacamole Ever

By Christy at Mamarazzi

So here’s what you need:

2 ripe avocados

1/3 medium yellow onion

1/2 tomato

1/4 cup Salsa

Louisiana hot sauce

garlic salt

Directions:

1. Peel avocados, de-pit (save one pit for later). Chop avocado with knife until it creates a chunky but slightly creamy mixture.
   

2. Chop onion & tomato into small, chunky pieces & add to avocado. **

3. Add a few sprinkles of Garlic salt., 1/4 cup salsa, a few squirts of the Louisiana Hot sauce & stir everything together. Stir until a creamy yet chunky combo forms. Keep one of the pits and put into mixture (obviously not to eat), this is said to keep it fresher a little longer, I still recommend serving right away, at the most, within a few hours.

4. The recipe size here will serve 2-3. If you are making this for more, you can easily double it. Serve with Tortilla chips or on crackers.

A few notes:

Avocados are ripe when you can squeeze them gently and feel them smoosh just a little. If they are real hard, they aren’t ready yet, if they smoosh too much, they may be too ripe.

Also, depending on your tolerance for hot & spicy should depend on whether you get hot, medium or mild salsa.

Last: If you are not familiar with avocados, they are similar to bananas in the way that, after being peeled, they tend to “brown” quickly and taste does change. I highly suggest you make this recipe same day as you intend to eat it, for best outcome, immediately before serving. Remember: Fresher equals better when it comes to this recipe.

Visit Mamarazzi for photos and directions on making the Best Guacamole Ever.

** Note from Jill:

When I'm in a hurry I skip this and add extra salsa. It's still delicious!

Banana Bread

I had some left over bananas after making waffles topped with bananas, strawberries and whip cream for breakfast the other morning so I decided to make banana bread. I own tons of cookbooks but the one I reached for was this one my mom made for me. Can you believe she wrote and illustrated the whole cookbook by hand? I have lots of cookbooks but this is my favorite because I know all the love she put into making it! Not only did she make one for me but she made one for each of my siblings - that's four handwritten cookbooks!

I love the first page of the cookbook! If you read it you'll see that cooking with 4 children was a challenge especially when the utensils were outside in the sandbox being used as shovels and the bake-ware doubled as a sled on the snowy hill! True story! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.
This cookbook is something I treasure! I hope one day to make one for Nature Girl. I think it needs to include photos of us in our matching aprons as we cook! She drew a picture of us in matching aprons in the Mother's Day book she made for me this year. But I digress!
I've shared a zucchini bread recipe from this cookbook a few years ago but this time I wanted to share the banana bread recipe with you.

So here's the recipe for making banana bread. The recipe has a cooking time of 45 minutes but I found it took about an hour to bake. It makes one loaf. Enjoy!

Happy Cinco de Mayo

So tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. Honestly, I can never remember what Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates. To me it means eating yummy Mexican food. This year my husband and I are planning a dinner at home with jerk chicken nachos, margaritas and mango salsa. My friend and co-worker Ann shared this yummy mango salsa recipe with me. It's simple and delicious! You have to try it!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 Jalapeño chile, minced (include ribs and seeds for a hotter taste if desired)
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Also good with diced red bell pepper and jicama.

Method:

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the salsa ends up being a little too hot or acidic for your taste, you can temper it by adding some diced avocado.

Cuatro de Mayo

Yes this is another recipe post but it's a good one! We decided to have friends over for a Cinco de Mayo party but since the 5th of May is a Monday we changed our minds and decided to have a Cuatro de Mayo party instead. Nature Girl has been referring to it as our Mayo party. To be perfectly honest I couldn't even remember what Cinco de Mayo was other than a great time to have a party and serve our favorite Mexican foods. I thought it was to celebrate Mexico's independence but Wikipedia set me straight on that. It's really a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.

For us it was all about visiting with friends and the FOOD. We made tacos, quesadillas, mufungo(a hot bean, taco seasoned beef and cream cheese dip) and fresh salsa. Hence the pictures for this post. We finished off with our version of fried ice cream. For our version, I butter soft taco shells then sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar. We bake them for 10 to 12 minutes or until crispy. Then we break the shells into a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Sprinkle on granola and drizzle over the top with honey to create a delicious & easy homemade fried ice cream. Sorry no photo we gobbled it all up!

Fresh salsa is the best! It takes me longer to chop it all by hand but it's worth it in the end! Tomorrow for lunch I'll be eating a salad with yellow corn, fresh salsa, crushed tortilla chips and sour cream. Yum I can't wait! I think I might be eating some more fried ice cream too. Maybe I'll even remember to take a picture so you can see how yummy it is.
Since the rest of the world will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo tomorrow I thought I'd share the recipe I use for fresh salsa. Enjoy and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Salsa

4 large ripe tomatoes chopped
1 med. onion
1 handful of fresh cilantro
2 limes
4 tsp. sugar
part of jalapeño pepper according to desired "heat"

Chop tomatoes & place in a bowl. Chop onion and add to tomatoes. Chop the big leaves of the cilantro and add. Squeeze the lime into the mixture getting as much juice as possible. Stir in the sugar; taste, then add salt as needed. Put in as much of the jalapeño as you want for "mild" to "hot" salsa. The seeds are the hottest part. Serve in a bowl with corn chips.

*I use roma tomatoes for my salsa since they seem to have less seeds and mush inside. They are smaller than other tomatoes so I use more like 6 when I make salsa.

Pampered Chef sells a wonderful citrus juicer perfect for juicing the limes in this recipe. No I don't sell pampered Chef, I just love that little citrus juicer!

Recipe Box Swap

Randi from i have to say is hosting another recipe box swap. The theme this month is cookies & bars. If you're looking for a new cookie recipe you should check here:

I'm sharing a recipe for molasses cookies. The recipe was given to me by my sister. It was passed down from her husband's grandmother. I hope you enjoy them! I don't know if biscotti counts as a cookie but while you're here check out my Pecan Toffee Biscotti recipe from this previous post.

Molasses Cookies

ingredients:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Now add the dry ingredients. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Roll dough into balls, then roll balls in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.



This is the project I worked on today while Nature Girl was at school. I stitched the cupcake from one of my doodles and decided to work it into a mini quilt for my friend Susan. She was kind enough to review my tutorials for me so I wanted to say thanks. I'm new to quilting and wanted to try this small project before heading on to my next project, a mini quilt for the Miniature Booty Swap. I learned a lot from this project so I hope the next one will turn out better. If nothing else I think it will make a great potholder! Susan & Tracy have started a new 6 " mini quilt trading swap group on Flickr and are holding sign ups for the swap.

Biscotti & Crocheting

Biscotti and crocheting may not usually go together but today they did. I invited my friend Cindy over for coffee and biscotti in exchange for a crochet lesson. Really I haven't seen her all winter and wanted to visit and catch up, the crochet lesson was a bonus. Cindy stopped by this morning and after catching up for a bit, a couple cups of coffee and a few pieces of biscotti the lesson started. I learned to single crochet and double crochet. From the picture you can see I struggled a bit and need to keep practicing. It looks like a kid made it, but you have to start somewhere. Right? I really want to be able to make this basket and this bag. So I'll continue to practice. I hope to continue to have coffee & crochet lessons each month. Getting to visit with a friend is always nice and maybe I'll learn how to make these tortoises for Nature Girl. Now on to the biscotti recipe I promised.


My mom loves biscotti, so I would buy Nonni's biscotti for her. True to my nature I thought "I can make that myself." So I did. I found a recipe and modified it to create Pecan Toffee Biscotti. My mom loves it so I've put a few pieces in the freezer and will take them to her this weekend. You can freeze any leftover biscotti and take it out as you need it, however we've never had any left to freeze. We tend to share it with friends and family so it disappears fast.
Today's biscotti was super yummy so I've already had two pieces. I'm sure I'll be having another piece with tea tonight. It's a nice treat for my husband and I after Nature Girl is asleep. Now it's your turn to enjoy some biscotti so get baking. Let me know if you have any questions on the biscotti recipe.

Pecan Toffee Biscotti

Ingredients

4 to 4-1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 Tablespoons almond extract
1 8oz. package toffee pieces (I prefer almond toffee pieces.)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 large baking sheets with cooking spray. In medium-sized bowl, combine 4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In large bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add almond extract to butter mixture and beat well. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture until well blended.

With spoon, stir in toffee and nuts. If dough is too soft to shape, stir in some of the remaining 1/2 cup flour. Divide dough into six equal pieces. Shape each piece into an 8 x 2-inch log and place across a large baking sheet. Bake logs 30 minutes or until firm and golden brown. ( I tend to cheat and make 3 larger logs. You have to increase the cooking time but it's a little less work.)

Transfer biscotti to cutting board. Using serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut diagonally into 1 inch thick slices. Arrange slices on baking sheet. Bake slices 15 minutes. Cool slices on wire rack and store in airtight container. Will keep for 2 months or so. In the freezer, they will keep up to 6 months. Enjoy with coffee, tea or hot chocolate!

The Last Piece

This weekend my in-laws came for a visit. Having visitors means I get to cook my favorite dishes. Coffee Cake Crumble is one of my favorite things to serve for breakfast. It's delicious! So delicious in fact, that this is the last piece. Not to fear. . . I'm sharing the recipe so you can enjoy it too! Be warned it disappears quickly.

Coffee Cake Crumble

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Crumble Topping:
1/3 cup flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) grease a 9x13 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Mix well.
Add the flour mixture and combine. Batter will be thick so stir it by hand.
Spread the cake batter in prepared 9x13 inch pan.
Combine 1/4 cup sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture on top of the batter.
Prepare the crumble topping by mixing the flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon together. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.