smooth like orange velvet

Mmmm, there's not much more that I love on a blustery day than some good homemade soup. Today was so windy that when I ran a few errands in Chinatown most of the electricity in shops and many of the traffic lights were down! Thankfully, just 4 blocks east in our cozy little apartment, things were business as usual. All of this crazy weather we've been having lately (from torrential downpours to snow and now blustery winds) makes a hot bowl full of soup seem extra nice.

After using only half a can of pumpkin puree for yesterday's pumpkin loaf, I knew that soup was on the agenda for tonight's meal. I looked about and found a gigantic sweet potato (or a "big, fat, hairy tuber" as Cornelius refered to the hideous beast), a couple of carrots and a few other random veggies and got down to business. After a bit of peeling, chopping and a nice rapid boil, soup was on! This soup had the right amount of sweet and heat and really felt luxurious and rich in my mouth. So creamy and full of flavour that after every bite I exclaimed, "oh wow, this is good!". Seriously good and smooth like velvet.

winter vegetable soup
1 T butter (or olive oil for a vegan soup)
small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, diced
water or vegetable broth
salt & pepper
1 t cumin
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t chipotle powder
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 can of pumpkin puree
1 T maple syrup

1. In a large pot, heat oil or butter and add in vegetables. Sautee until fragrant. Add salt and pepper and enough water or broth to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. When vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes or so, add in spices, pumpkin puree and maple syrup. Stir well and continue to cook another 5 minutes.

2. Puree with an emersion blender until no lumps remain. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary, and serve.

smooth like orange velvet

Mmmm, there's not much more that I love on a blustery day than some good homemade soup. Today was so windy that when I ran a few errands in Chinatown most of the electricity in shops and many of the traffic lights were down! Thankfully, just 4 blocks east in our cozy little apartment, things were business as usual. All of this crazy weather we've been having lately (from torrential downpours to snow and now blustery winds) makes a hot bowl full of soup seem extra nice.

After using only half a can of pumpkin puree for yesterday's pumpkin loaf, I knew that soup was on the agenda for tonight's meal. I looked about and found a gigantic sweet potato (or a "big, fat, hairy tuber" as Cornelius refered to the hideous beast), a couple of carrots and a few other random veggies and got down to business. After a bit of peeling, chopping and a nice rapid boil, soup was on! This soup had the right amount of sweet and heat and really felt luxurious and rich in my mouth. So creamy and full of flavour that after every bite I exclaimed, "oh wow, this is good!". Seriously good and smooth like velvet.

winter vegetable soup
1 T butter (or olive oil for a vegan soup)
small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, diced
water or vegetable broth
salt & pepper
1 t cumin
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t chipotle powder
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 can of pumpkin puree
1 T maple syrup

1. In a large pot, heat oil or butter and add in vegetables. Sautee until fragrant. Add salt and pepper and enough water or broth to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. When vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes or so, add in spices, pumpkin puree and maple syrup. Stir well and continue to cook another 5 minutes.

2. Puree with an emersion blender until no lumps remain. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary, and serve.

now, that's an order!

Ever since returning from my trip last week, it's been slow going in the blog-reading department. However, I made sure I got all caught up on my blogroll this morning. So many impressive recipes caught my eye, including Honey Roasted Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies from Joe at Culinary in the Desert, Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies at Kaji's Mom, and this not-so-humble Tuna Salad at Cumin & Coriander. Yummy!! But drooling onto my keyboard is one thing, getting breakfast ready was another. When lo and behold, I spotted this lovely Chai Pumpkin Bread at the always wonderful 28 Cooks. I whipped up this simple recipe and in no time my kitchen was smelling like the holidays. Now, not only do I have some delicious pumpkin bread to keep me company this afternoon, but I've got a feeling I'll be making some soup for dinner with the leftover canned pumpkin. Stay tuned!

now, that's an order!

Ever since returning from my trip last week, it's been slow going in the blog-reading department. However, I made sure I got all caught up on my blogroll this morning. So many impressive recipes caught my eye, including Honey Roasted Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies from Joe at Culinary in the Desert, Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies at Kaji's Mom, and this not-so-humble Tuna Salad at Cumin & Coriander. Yummy!! But drooling onto my keyboard is one thing, getting breakfast ready was another. When lo and behold, I spotted this lovely Chai Pumpkin Bread at the always wonderful 28 Cooks. I whipped up this simple recipe and in no time my kitchen was smelling like the holidays. Now, not only do I have some delicious pumpkin bread to keep me company this afternoon, but I've got a feeling I'll be making some soup for dinner with the leftover canned pumpkin. Stay tuned!

whole lotta love

Funny how most boys can play Led Zeppelin on demand. I took an afternoon nap today because I'm feeling a bit under the weather and when I woke up, I had a strange need to hear some Zep. I told Cornelius: I'm going to make some icing for these cupcakes and I want to hear that song that goes "I come from the land of the ice and snow...", you know the one. Yes, he did and he was able to have it up on his itunes in seconds. Boys can be quite reliable that way.

pumpkin cupcakes
I'm having friends over for some pumpkin carving and I figured I'd make some seasonal treats, which means, more damn pumpkin! I don't think my friends will mind. These cupcakes turned out incredibly moist and delicious. I wanted to decorate them all scary like, but as I was feeling under the weather, I didn't want to head out and search for gummy worms, black shoelace licorice, candy corn or gummy teeth. So these are just pretty orange perfection.

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 c butter, softened
1 1/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
3/4 c milk
3/4 c chopped walnuts

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs. Blend in mashed pumpkin. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth; stir in chopped walnuts. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin pan cups.Fill about 2/3 full. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Frost with cream cheese frosting, whipped cream, or leave plain. Makes about 24 cupcakes.

thanksgiving pt. 2

It seems that good food and good boardgames go hand in hand at my house. I'm sure my downstairs neighbours never want to hear "Corner on wheat!!!" at 2am ever again, but a good, roaring (and perhaps drunken) game of Pit rounded out a great Thanksgiving meal.

I love this recipe! It's the perfect compliment to any meal and I get rave reviews everytime I make this. This Thanksgiving meal was meatless, but this chutney tasted great alongside the richness of the baked macaroni & cheese and a couple of people used the chutney to top their greens instead of salad dressing. Oh yum.

cranberry chutney
1 12oz bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1/3 c cider or red wine vinegar
2/3 c packed brown sugar
juice of 1 orange
grated orange rind from 1 orange
½ t salt
½ t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves

1. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, orange rind, celery, onion, apple, and orange juice in a medium saucepan. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce heat to a simmer, and stir in the cranberries. Cook until the skin begins to pop, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 4 weeks.

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Seeing that I was busy on one side of the kitchen making the chutney and preparing the brussel sprouts, I had Cornelius make this delicious recipe. I have no idea where I found it (it definitely was online somewhere), but I'm making this again. Too delicious for words! I also planned on taking a photograph of this beauty (Cornelius baked it in a pretty bundt pan), but it went really fast. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Pumpkin Chocolate chip cake

1 ¾ c flour
1 t baking soda
2 t pumpkin pie spice*
½ t salt
½ c margarine
1 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¾ c pumpkin purée
¾ c semisweet chocolate chips
¾ c walnuts, finely chopped

* If pumpkin pie spice is not available, use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon each of ginger and cloves.

Grease bottom and sides of 9 x 5-inch loaf pan*. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour with baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Cream margarine in large mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar and cream at high speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs; beat well. Turn mixer to low speed and add dry ingredients, alternating with pumpkin. Begin and end with dry ingredients; blend well after each addition. Stir in chocolate morsels and chopped walnuts and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched in center. Cool, then glaze with Spicy Glaze.

Spicy Glaze
½ c confectioners' sugar
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 to 2 tablespoons light cream

Combine confectioners' sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Blend in cream until the consistency desired (should be thin).

* We greased and floured a bundt pan.

pumpkin

When autumn rears it's head, I like to be prepared. A warm sweater and a scarf for the evenings is usually necessary and I try to carry my red & white polka-dot umbrella where ever I go, just in case. This is also a season for treking out to a pumpkin patch, carving jack-o-lanterns and eating hearty, warm meals. What's not to love? Yesterday I had some left over canned pumpkin and decided that this morning I would make some pumpkin waffles for breakfast. Sure, it's decadent eating homemade waffles on a Tuesday morning, but Cornelius has the day off and I work from home, so I couldn't really see a problem! Perhaps if it were the weekend, I'd substitute the vegetable oil in the recipe for melted butter. Guilding the lily just seems to work better on a lazy Sunday morning.

Pumpkin Waffles
1 3/4 c milk
3/4 c canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
6 T oil
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1/4 c ap flour
1/4 c brown sugar
4 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon (I used more and I also threw in a bit of ground ginger & ground cloves)
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Place milk, pumpkin, oil and eggs in a bowl and stir to blend. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and whisk until smooth. Let the batter rest 5 minutes before using. Prepare waffles the usual way.

pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

The great thing about working from home is that I've got cookies in the oven and I'm finishing up an ad for a client all at the very same time. Nice! These cookies are actually Cornelius' favorite cookies and he talks about them all the time. Since fall is here and I'm enamoured with everything pumpkin, I figured now would be the perfect time to share these beauties!

2 c flour
1 c quick or old-fashioned oats
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 c cooked and pureed pumpkin (I use canned)
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I usually use more)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.
3. Cream butter. Gradually add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, leaving room for cookies to spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until tops of cookies are dry and spring back when touched lightly. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.