My Pumpkin Misadventure: Cooking up my Fall Decor Pumpkin

In January, I decided to break into my pumpkin from my Fall Decor.  I bought it in September and thought for sure it would be rotten inside, but just in case I didn't want good pumpkin to go to waste.   I cut into and it was perfectly fine!    I haven't done much cooking with pumpkin and was excited to try to find some yummy recipes to use it in.

My first task was to figure out how to take it from a whole pumpkin to usable for recipes.  I searched around and one of the solutions I found was to cook it like acorn squash.  Cut it up, put it the oven, fill the bottom with an inch or so of water, and bake until soft.  It kind of worked, but turned out to be a much bigger ordeal then planned.  The pumpkin was so thick that it took much longer to get the pumpkin soft then expected.  By the time it was soft in the middle the top had a nice crispy crust which I had to peal off in order to use the soft pumpkin underneath.  The other problem was because it was taking so long,  the water kept evaporating, so I kept needing to add more water.  One time, I wasn't thinking, and I added cold water to my pan instead of hot water.  The below picture was result of that mistake.  BAM! Explosion - glass everywhere.    :(   I'm sad too, because I can't find another blue glass 9 X 13 pan.

How do you cook a pumpkin?

The first thing I made from it were pumpkin pancakes.  They were quite yummy, soo moist.  I unfortunately don't know know what recipe I used.  Anyone have any good pumpkin pancake recipes to share? I'd love to try them out this season!

The one thing that I do remember was that all the recipes called for pumpkin  pie spice mix which I did not have because I don't like pumpkin pie  (yes, I know, how could I not like pumpkin pie? Well, I don't like cheesecake either. I'm weird - it's just a texture thing I have).  I looked up how to make it from scratch and all recipes included nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and ginger - all ingredients I had on hand.

The other recipe I tried was from a blog I like to read - Something Swanky: Desserts and Designs . Her blog is all about desserts and diy blog design tricks... kind of a weird combination but two things which I'm very interested in.  It appeals to both my tummy and  my brain.  :)

This recipe is to die for - so yummy and fairly easy to do too.  I recommend you don't pass this recipe up this fall season.

Photo Credit: Something Swanky

This is a pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting... oh so delicious.  Just give it a try yourself, you'll be glad you did.  I'm bringing this recipe to the next Thanksgiving gathering I go to this year.

Pumpkin Roll from Something Swanky.  

So the season for pumpkins is here again - What are your favorite pumpkin recipes?

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie

When I was a kid, my parents and I used to pick blackberries in Oregon. It was lots of fun, and I loved it.   So when I was talking a walk with my little girl the other day and noticed tons of wild blackberry bushes, I was quite excited.  I decided to come back the next day with a container to see if I could pick enough to make a pie.  (My husband loves pies, and is always bemoaning the fact that I don't make them enough).  The problem with berry picking is that you usually eat just as many as you take home.  In the end, we probably only ended up with enough for about half of a small pie.  I was determined to still make a pie, so I combined them with the only fruit we had in the house - nectarines. Sounds a little weird, right?  I've heard of peach pie, but not nectarine pie, but surprisingly it was quite delicious. 

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  :)








Start with blackberries and nectarines:

Mix ingredients together.

Bake.

Top with whip cream or vanilla ice cream.

 If you want to make your own blackberry and nectarine pie, here's the recipe:
(I'm assuming you have your own pie crust recipe.)

Blackberry and Nectarine Pie Filling

This makes a pie to fill a 7 inch pie pan. 

• 2 cups of blackberries
• 3 nectarines, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 TBS tapioca
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• milk (optional)
• sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine ingredients together in large bowl. Let sit for about a half hour to let the juices mix together. Pour mixture into pie pan lined with half of crust.  Top with the other half of crust. Cut slits in center of crust.  Brush crust with milk and sprinkly lightly with sugar.  Use strips of tin foil to cover the edges of pie. Let bake for 25 minutes, then remove foil. Bake for another 25 -30 minutes until bubbly and crust is lightly browned.


Enjoy!

How to Make an Ice Cream Cake

During college, I worked part time to keep from being a starving student.  Some part time jobs aren't so bad, and the ones I worked were actually pretty awesome.  I managed to avoid fast food, though not the food industry altogether.  For four and half years, my second home consisted of freshly made waffle cones, and all natural ice cream.  My roommates loved that I brought home leftover waffle cones, day old cookies and brownies, and often times even ice cream.  I became biased towards all other ice creams because no one had better tasting  ice cream then good ole Ben and Jerry's. 

In my years I did many tasks, including scooping ice cream, blending frozen drinks,  baking fresh waffle cones, and  making cakes.  So today, I thought I'd share a bit of that knowledge with you. 

Have you ever wished you could make an ice cream cake?  Ever wished you didn't have to spend so much money for an expensive one at the fancy ice cream stores?  Well, now you can do it yourself!

I warn you though, I never decorated cakes.   I just did the basics, and the cake decorator did the fancy stuff. 

Let's make an Ice Cream Cake!

What you'll need:
Ice cream (I used 4 pints for this cake)
2 circular cake pans
Cake layer ( brownies usually work the best, but you can use whatever you want)
Frosting (Buttercream or whipped  - we used to use Pastry Pride as a lighter option)
A flat knife
Fun decorating toppings

Plan for this to take at least 24 hours.

• Let your ice cream soften a bit so that it's scoopable.
• Fill  cake pan with ice cream ( you can do it all in one pan, and freeze between each layer, but I recommend using one pan for each layer to save time).
• Spread the ice cream in the pan so it's flat.
• Put layers in freezer  (you want to put the cake in the freezer between each step to help it keep it's shape, otherwise it becomes a goopy mess).

• Bake ahead of time  brownies, cookies, or whatever you want to be your cake layer.
• Cut thin slices of brownie and place on top of each ice cream layer.
• Put layers in freezer to let the ice cream adhere to the brownie.

• After it has COMPLETELY FROZEN   (usually overnight) , it is then time to take it out of the pan.
• Flip your cake upside down and hold one hand underneath it. 
• Run cold water over the top of the pan.
• With your other hand gently twist and loosen the pan from the ice cream.
• As soon as you start to feel it start to come loose, remove from under water.
• Be ready with your plate, still keep your hand underneath,  and as the cake slides out of the pan,  quickly place on cake plate.

• Repeat with second layer. 
• Each layer should be pretty solid, so you can adjust each layer's placement if need be.
• Place cake in freezer to reharden.

• Next, it is time to frost your cake.
•  Using a flat knife to spread your frosting, start with the sides first.
• Then move to the top, and spread frosting on top, smoothing out the edges.
• If at any point in this process, you feel like the cake is starting to loose shape, put in freezer.  Once it begins to harden again, you can then continue to frost. 

• Put in freezer to let the base frosting set before decorating. 
• Decorate!  Have fun with it... even if you aren't a cake decorator, you can use things like brownies, cookies, sprinkles, or candy to fancy it up.
•  DO NOT let cake soften before serving.  Instead take a knife and dip in hot water before slicing. 

SERVE and ENJOY!!!!

I'd love to see what you guys come up with!  Post your masterpieces in the  Creations from Alisha Rose and Friends Flickr Group .

Zucchini Bread - Take 2

I was recently given more zucchinis and decided that it would be a great time to make more zucchini bread.

 
You can check out the last time I made zucchini bread in this post:  July 22nd- zucchini bread .
As I was trying to decide what recipe to use this time, I asked my  husband what he thought of the recipe I had used previously.  He couldn't remember so he looked it up in the past post... and he found out that he thought it needed to be a little sweeter.  Ha ha... good thing I wrote it down!  He then went searching for a recipe that fit his requirements... more sugar... and this is what he came up with. 

 Food Network's Zucchini Bread Recipe by Paula Deen


So we got to work grating the zucchinis:

And no recipe is complete without a little help from mommy's helper:

We also put in chocolate chips instead of the nuts because everything is better with chocolate!  It turned out quite yummy.  He said it was sweet enough this time.  Ha ha.. it better be with 3 cups of sugar!   The baby girl thought it was delicious too.  She thinks it's dessert so it's a good way for me to trick her into eating her veggies. I would definitely use this recipe again.

Rhubarb torte

My Grandma Hunt makes a rhubarb torte as one of her specialties. She grows it in her garden. One of my recent visits with her, I sat down with her and got all her recipes so they would be written down. It was a good thing too, because she would give me the recipe to copy and then show me how to do it and it was always completely different then what was written. I'd never seen rhubarb before. It looks like red celery...very weird.

Well, when I returned home, I decided to try it one day. I bought the rhubarb and while I was in lin the grocery store lots of people talked to me because they had never seen it before.

Here is some pictures of it... It turned out well.

July 22nd - zucchini bread

Today I'm making Zucchini bread. Jon brought home some Zucchini from his boss' garden. I do not like Zucchini, so I thought I'd make it into bread - which I loved when my mother made it as a kid. I don't know if she has a specific recipe she uses... I should ask her.
But I used this recipe today

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Bread-IV/Detail.aspx

I'll post the verdict later tonight...

** ** ** ** **

Jon gave it a 4/5 - He ate two really large pieces, so he obviously liked it. He said that maybe it could be a little sweeter.. it was good, but I'll keep looking for the perfect recipe.

Also, made hungarian goulash tonight, but used hamburger instead of beef. It was good, but more like a real fancy Hamburger Helper.