Mel's Baby Shower (and Planning a Party for Someone Who Can Hardly Eat Anything)

Confession: In the past, I always thought of people with food allergies as being kind of high-maintenance-types, akin to picky eaters.  (Yes, I recognize that this was terribly judgmental of me.)  Then my beloved sister developed intolerances to dairy, gluten, soy, peanuts, sunflower seeds, most tree nuts, and shellfish.  Most of the time, I'm able to alter recipes so that I don't poison her, but this became even more challenging when I wanted to throw her a baby shower.  Given her allergies plus the added food restrictions of pregnancy (no deli meats, sushi, alcohol, raw sprouts, etc.) and I stepped into a veritable culinary minefield.

After an undue amount of recipe searching and deliberation, my mom, sisters and I pieced together this menu that is friendly to the majority of food allergies.

Food
Cowboy Caviar and tortilla chips
Zeek's Wild Green Salad with Balsamic Dressing - cashews and gorgonzola (aka poisons) on the side
Veggie platter and hummus

Lumpia with sweet chili sauce - this is just an example of a recipe, not the actual recipe.  In fact, there is no recipe.  Mom is just magical like that.
Mom's pancit - Again, I won't even bother with a recipe because NOBODY can make pancit like my mom.

Gluten and Dairy-Free Chocolate Layer Cake - I skipped the coffee and instead made the frosting chocolate, then garnished with toasted coconut, which covered a multitude of frosting sins.  I'm really bad at frosting cakes.

Beverages
Spa Water
Seahawks Punch in honor of the Superbowl, which immediately followed the baby shower (Yes, there was Hawaiian Punch in it. Don't judge.)

Party Favors
Coconut Macaroons - I substituted all-purpose gluten-free flour for the white flour and vanilla extract for the almond extract.

Decorations
Lucky for me, the mom-to-be's friend also named Mel handled decorations with the theme of kites and clouds in teal and orange.

Games
I spent way too much time searching for ideas on Pinterest but eventually settled on two games.  One, based loosely off the Newlywed game, I entitled "What Would Nathan Say?"  This is where we learned that Nathan thinks newborns use an average of 3 diapers a day, and yet he still thinks Mel will change most of them.  The next game I entitled "Mel or Nathan," where guests had to guess who played with toilet water at 10 months, who hit his/her baby sister, and who ate a jade plant, requiring a call to poison control (Mel, Mel, and Mel).  Yup, that's my sister!

Less Messy Baking With Kids: Peppermint Fudge Cookies

I love to bake, and I love my kids, so logic would suggest that I love to bake with my kids.

And maybe, one day, I will.  But right now, baking with Anna is usually a 10 minute activity until her attention turns to something else, leaving me with a half-finished product and a trashed kitchen.  I admire her enthusiasm and desire to do everything by herself when it comes to getting dressed in the morning or cleaning up her room, but with baking, independence usually leads to mess and more mess. Did I mention she likes to eat flour?

I have come to terms with the fact that, while imprecise and messy, baking with Anna can be fun if I focus on the process rather than the end result (a much needed lesson for me in many arenas).

When she asked me to bake Christmas cookies together last weekend, this recipe immediately came to mind.  I received this years ago from my MOPS group, and wanted to share it with others who love the idea of baking with kids more than the reality.  These cookies are quick, easy, hands-on, and relative mess-free thanks to the minimal amount of measuring.

Ingredients:
1 box of Devil's Food Cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 box of red and white peppermint crunch Andes mints
sprinkles (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, and oil.

Roll into tablespoon-sized balls with your hands and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Optional step:  At this point, feel free to reshape your kid's slug-shaped dough wads into round balls when she's not looking.

Bake for 8 minutes or until the tops of cookies start to look crinkled.

While the cookies are baking, unwrap Andes mints and try to keep your kid from eating them all.

Immediately after baking, place on mint on top of each cookie.

 After 5 minutes or so, swirl the melted mints with the back of a spoon.  I was hoping for a more swirly red and white frosting look, but they ended up kind of pinkish.  Oh well.  We threw some red sprinkles on there at the last minute to Christmas-ify them a bit.

That's it!  Thirty minutes max from start to finish and only one bowl, spoon and measuring glass to wash.  Merry Christmas and Happy Baking!

For the Love of Dairy, Part 3: Blessed Are the (Goat) Cheesemakers

In the bleary postpartum haze following baby Tess’ birth, I was struck with sudden inspiration.  We would learn to make cheese.  Cheese, you ask?  Cheese?!?  Somewhere between dead-of-the-night feedings of a newborn and endless stories and trips to the park with a toddler, cheesemaking sprung to the top of my must-do list.  Blame it on hormones.

Jeff read an article in Make about making goat cheese, so we decided to give it a go.  Since we weren’t hitting the clubs much those days, we planned the experiment for a home date night.  Yes, pretty wild bunch we are.  Due to our failure to plan ahead, we made the mistake of doing steps 1-4 on our date night, which took a grand total of 5 minutes.  We spent the rest of the date night twiddling out thumbs and struggling to stay awake until a respectable time to go to bed (say, 8:30pm or so).  Then I had to do the more labor-intensive steps 5-9 involving cheesecloth and large amounts of liquids while holding Tess in one arm, when Jeff was at work the next day.  Oops.

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Supplies:
1 gallon goat milk
¼ c buttermilk
rennet (can buy in specialty stores or online)
1 ½ tsp salt
dried herbs (we used garlic and dill)
cheesecloth or clean handkerchief
large stainless steel pot with lid
colander
thermometer

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Instructions:
1. Sterilize the pot by boiling ¼ cup of water for 5 minutes with the lid on, then discard the water.
2. Combine the goat milk and the buttermilk in the pot, and heat to room temp (65F) over a low flame.
3. Prepare the rennet following the package directions, then add to the pot.  Stir well to combine.
4. Let the mixture sit undisturbed at room temp overnight- no jiggling! no prodding!

5. Go to bed.  Pray that the baby will sleep for 3 hours in a row.

6. In about 12 hours, the milk should have formed a curd (i.e. be slice-able with a knife).  If not, let it sit a few more hours.

7. Boil the cheesecloth to sterilize it, and spread it in a colander.

8. Cut the curd into 1” cubes with a long knife, and scoop them into the cheesecloth.

9. Gather the corners of the cloth and secure with a rubber band.  Set the colander over a bowl in the fridge, and let the whey drain overnight.  Be sure a check the bowl before you go to bed, as it might be overflowing.

10. Go to bed again.  Lower your standards and hope for a 2 hour stretch of sleep.

11. When the cheese is done draining, it will be the consistency of whipped cream cheese.  Add salt and herbs of choice.

12. Bring to a party to impress your friends.  Or eat it all by yourself during a middle-of-the-night feeding.  Really, nobody will know.

For the Love of Dairy, Part 2: Yogurt in the Slow Cooker

In the past month, four of my coworkers have joined the homemade yogurt revolution.  Three have become converts.  One continues to waver on the fence after several botched attempts.  She plaintively asked what could be going wrong, as she sheepishly produced a Yoplait from her lunch bag.  Upon further investigation, it turns out that she had strayed from the original formula and was heating the milk in a saucepan or in a rice cooker.  Why?  No jars, she said.  Not even a single empty PB or spaghetti sauce jar languishing in the recycle bin?  No.  Well, never fear, here is a jar-free and foolproof way to make delicious yogurt at home with your trusty slow cooker.



Supplies:

a slow cooker

1/2 gallon of milk (2% or whole)

1/2 cup of yogurt starter (any plain yogurt with live, active cultures)

a beach towel or blanket

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Instructions:

Pour 1/2 gallon of milk  in the slow cooker and place the lid on top

Turn on low for 2.5 hours

Turn off, leaving lid on for 3 hours.  At this point, the milk should be roughly 90-110 deg F.

Gently stir in about a half cup of starter and replace lid

Wrap in a large beach towel or blanket for 6-12 hours, leaving undisturbed



Transfer to containers and chill in the fridge.

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That's it!  Be sure to set aside half a cup to use as the starter for your next batch before digging in.  The yogurt might seem a little soft at first, but after cooling in the fridge, should firm up a bit.  If it's still too runny, you have the option of pouring it into a coffee-filter lined colander to drain some whey off.  This yields thicker, almost Greek-style yogurt, but is messy and cumbersome.  Or next time, I've heard you can add some dry milk powder in at the step when you mix in the starter, though I've never tried this.

This method is super easy and requires very little active time, but I prefer the jars method because it doesn't require scooping out and transferring the yogurt, which I think makes it runnier.  The jars also allows for making different types of yogurt at the same time, like 2% for the grownups and whole milk for the baby.  And you don't have to spend time transferring yogurt and then washing a big heavy slow cooker pot.  Instead, if your baby is anything like our baby Anna was (see above), you can spend that extra time washing off the white hand of Saruman from your baby's hair after she digs into that delicious yogurt you just made.

For the Love of Dairy, Part I: Homemade Yogurt

In my opinion, the ideal do-it-yourself cooking endeavor should encompass at least three out of four traits: taste better, be more nutritious, save money, or be relatively easy.

Example #1: Rotisserie chicken. (insert loud buzzer sound)  Zero out of four.  Even with hours in the kitchen, I could never make one as delicious as the $4.99 Costco kind.

Example #2:  Ravioli. (repeat angry buzzing sound).  Maybe one out of four at most.  Do people really make this from scratch?  Non-Italians, I mean?  If so, props to you.  And feel free to drop by any time to "show" us how.

Example #3: Yogurt. (insert happy dinging sound)  Four for four!  Homemade yogurt is so delicious, healthy, and simple.  Really.  You might be thinking to yourself, "Make your own yogurt?  Next she's going to tell me to milk my own cow."  But before you dismiss me as a granola-loving, butter-churning, commune-living pseudo hippie, hear me out.

I first started making yogurt a couple years ago to save some money, as our little household was going through a good half-gallon or more a week, but soon I found that I really did prefer the taste of homemade to store-bought.  I was shocked at the amount of sugar, often in the form of high fructose corn syrup, companies managed to pack into those little cups.  After reading about yogurt making here, I went to town.  It might sound complicated, but trust me, if you can boil water, you can make yogurt.

------------------------------

Supplies:


3 or 4 glass jars with lids—canning jars are great but any sturdy glass jar will work
a large pot
a dishtowel
a picnic cooler
milk—I’ve had success with 2% and whole, never tried skim or 1% but they might work
1 cup of yogurt starter—basically a plain yogurt with live active cultures.  My favorite is Trader Joe’s European style yogurt.  I've also had good results with Brown Cow, Tillamook, and Mountain High.

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The basic gist:

Heat the milk to 185 degrees to sterilize
Cool to 90-110 degrees
Add yogurt starter (i.e. yogurt with live cultures)
Incubate at 90-110 degrees for 4-24 hours

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The detailed instructions:

Fill the jars with milk, and place them in the pot over a dishtowel, tucking the towel in between the jars a little so they don’t knock together and break.  Fill the pot with water.

Bring the water to a boil and allow the milk to reach 185 degrees.  If you don’t have a thermometer, you can tell it’s ready when the milk forms a skin on top.



Remove the jars from the heat and set on the counter, skim the skin off the milk, and place the lids on.  Place the lid on the pot to keep the water warm.  Take the yogurt starter out of the fridge now to let it warm up a little.

Allow the milk to cool on the counter to somewhere between 90-110 degrees (in our house this usually takes about 60-90 minutes).  Some sites recommend putting the jars in an ice water bath to cool faster, but I have broken more than one jar this way, and a quart of milk exploding in the kitchen really takes the fun out of this whole endeavor.  If you don’t have a thermometer, you can tell the milk is ready when you’re able to hold the jar in your hand without burning yourself, but it still feels pretty warm.

Add the yogurt starter, roughly 2 tablespoons per quart of milk, taking care not to stir too vigorously.  Just a couple figure 8s with the spoon will do.



Place the jars and the pot of water (or at least a big jarful) in a picnic cooler surrounded by a towel for 4-24 hours.  The goal is to keep it at 90-110 degrees for incubation, though I've never measured.  Resist the urge to peek too often; the yogurt sets better if undisturbed, and you don't want your heat to escape.  I usually put the yogurt in at bedtime and pull it out in the morning.   With a toddler and an infant, I’ll let you guess how long that span of time is.  Good thing yogurt is hard to mess up.

That's it!  Now you have pure, unadulterated yogurt to devour.

Note: If you are lactose-intolerant like me, you might be happy to learn that many yogurts have low lactose content and are more easily digested than, say, a cup of cow's milk.  I am still on the quest for a truly lactose-FREE homemade yogurt product, though.  Trial #1 with soy milk was a total fail.  One bite and I nearly threw up in the sink.  Trial #2 with lactose-free milk yielded a yogurt with a delicious flavor but a texture that was alarmingly like mucus.  The quest continues . . .

For the Love of Dairy

Ours was a classic case of opposites attract, a story as old as the Montagues and Capulets, the Sharks and the Jets.  Only the trait that threatened to divide us was not social class, race, nor loyalty, but . . . dairy.  Though, a seemingly minor difference, the affinity to or abhorrence of milk products runs deep in our lineage.

Jeff's dad grew up on a farm in Minnesota, yet even after leaving to earn degrees in education, he continued  to keep company with a bovine crew.  Even to this day, though his day job is far from the farm, he continues to milk cows on weekends.  Mostly for fun.  If one were to peruse my in-laws' magazine racks, one would find not only the requisite Good Housekeeping and Readers Digests, but issues of Hoard's Dairyman, complete with Playboy-esque centerfolds of cows, strutting in their bovine beauty.  Then there is the stuffed cow collection.  But don't be fooled into thinking they only love cows as people, er, as cows.  They love it all: steak, burgers, roasts, milk, cheese, sour cream, butter.  Jeff's entire extended family on his mother's side partakes in the ritual of Saturday night hamburgers.  That's right; they eat hamburgers EVERY week.  Oh yes, that family loves cows.



My family, on the other hand, shares a dairy aversion common to much of the entire continent of Asia.

So when this lactose-intolerant girl met a lover-of-all-things-that-come-from-a-cow guy, someone had to give.  Jeff discovered liquid lactase enzyme, similar to Lactaid pills but in a liquid form that can be added directly to milk to digest the lactose prior to consumption.  For some reason this was unavailable in the U.S. and must be mail-ordered from Canada.  A few drops of liquid lactase into a gallon of milk and presto chango!  Lactose-free milk for a fraction of the price of store-bought.  It was all smooth sailing for a while there, until we received a batch that was undeniably a dud.  The bottled enzyme was no longer functional.  Don’t ask me how I know; just trust me on that one.  After that, I was a little gunshy to try Canadian mail-order pharmaceuticals again.

Eventually, we came to peace with the fact that though cows'  milk and I may never get along, there are plenty of other dairy products to enjoy (with the help of a Costco-sized box of lactase pills).  Over the years, what began for me as an aversion to dairy became a tolerance, then a full-fledged love affair, and now somewhat of a hobby as well.  Nowadays I cannot imagine a fridge without, say, yogurt and gorgonzola cheese.   (As an aside, how many different dairy products can you spot in our fridge above?)  In the next few months we will be featuring a do-it-yourself dairy series sharing some of our favorite homemade recipes for yogurt, Neufchatel, mozzarella, goat cheese, and (best of all) ice cream.  So buddy up with your local cow and stay tuned . . .

The Half-Naked Man Cake

The birthday party was over, the bear cake devoured, and yet the saga of the half-naked man cake continued.  Anna was thoroughly unimpressed by her bear cake, and she didn't forget her original request for a cake of "a guy wearing no shirt, only pants and undies."  I felt a little guilty for denying my eldest daughter her birthday wish (thanks a lot for pointing that out, Brenda!).   I also didn't want to hear requests for a guy-with-no-shirt cake for a whole year until her next birthday.  Jeff's birthday provided a cake do-over of sorts.  Yet as I pondered how to make it work, my brain kept coming up against certain obstacles:

1) I just couldn't figure out how to make a cake of a shirtless man.  A Google image search of "naked man cake" was NOT helpful.  Just take my word for it, people, no need to try it at home.

2) Since we're not having a bunch of friends and relatives over to celebrate Jeff's birthday, any sugar-laden monstrosity would have to be devoured by the three of us alone (baby Tess excluded, unless the grandparents were to be over, in which case our 7-month-old would undoubtably be fed cake).

3) I didn't have the energy to bake and frost another cake.

4) In the grand scheme of desserts, we don't even like cake.  Ice cream or pie any day, please.  Or better yet, a donut.  A Top Pot donut.  A Top Pot apple fritter donut with big apple chunks and sweet crusty glaze.

As I paused from my donut (or should I say doughnut?) reverie to wipe drool off my face, inspiration struck.  How about, not a half-naked man cake, but a half-naked man donut sculpture?

A quick trip to Top Pot yielded the following supplies:



All I really needed was a round donut and two maple bars, but somehow an extra couple cake donuts and an apple fritter made it in the box.  As you can see, only half the apple fritter made it home for the photo.
The end result:  An totally ridiculous, utterly delicious, guy-with-no-shirt-only-pants-and-undies donut cake.  And one very very happy toddler.

P.S. Happy birthday, Jeff!

The Naked Bear Cake

Our big girl Anna turned three last week (sniff sniff).  A few weeks ago, while driving her home from preschool, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted this year.  "A fire truck," she replied.  I reminded her that we did that last year, and perhaps a new type of cake would be nice.  Read: please pick something that requires less frosting, less red food coloring, and fewer toothpicks than this.



"Okay," she mused, "I want a cake of a guy."
"A guy?"
"Yeah, a guy with no shirt.  Just pants . . . and undies."

I had to do a double take to make sure I was still talking to a toddler and not a Bieber-fevered teenage girl.  A half-naked man birthday cake?  Seriously?  At this point, I did what any other mama would do: I pretended not to hear her.  I pulled a classic, "Hey, look at that airplane" maneuver and hoped she would forget by the time her birthday rolled around.  Unfortunately, no such luck.  Anna reminded me over and over that she wanted a "guy with no shirt" cake.  Try as I might, I just could not make myself create a bachelorette party-worthy cake for my daughter's 3rd birthday party.  I know, go ahead and call me chicken.  In the end, I made a likeness of her lovey, Anais bear.



I got the idea here and used a chocolate cupcake recipe sent by my friend Kristin.  Using two metal mixing bowls, I made the bear's head and torso, then used cupcakes for the ears, arms and legs.  He is decorated with coconut pecan frosting, Thin Mints, and Almond Joy candy pieces.



I know, it's no shirtless man.  But hey, at least the bear is naked, right?

Pumpkin Everything, Take 5: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Awesomeglad.com really isn't supposed to be a food blog, but I just can't help myself with this abundance of pumpkin and so many recipes to try.

Goodwill Treasure: $6 espresso machine

This little puppy doesn’t look like much, but it is without a doubt the best $6 we ever spent at the Goodwill. We stumbled upon it several years ago when we were just what we like to call “recreational” coffee drinkers. It has since unlocked the genetic trait of coffee addiction that runs deep in both sides of the family. A certain unnamed member of Jeff’s family has cut down from 20+ cups a day, but certain other unnamed members probably drink at least that much to this day. Jeff, though nowhere that extreme, now drinks a latte each morning, and I partake in a decaf latte a few times a week. I could calculate the savings compared to walking down the street to Starbucks and purchasing a latte a day for four years, but I don’t pretend to deceive myself. If not for this little devil, we probably wouldn’t drink coffee at all.

Which reminds me,  Jeff recently unlocked the recipe to a decadent holiday drink:

• 1/2 cup pumpkin eggnog, steamed


• 1/2 cup milk, steamed


• 2 shots of espresso

Look out, Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Pumpkin Everything, Take 4: Pumpkin Bread Pudding

On the rare occasions when Jeff and I get to go out for dessert, I always request going to the Ram.  Why?  Their to-die-for bread pudding.  In fact, I am nearly drooling just imaging the ooey gooey caramel sauce dripping over the toasty bread.  I couldn't imagine anything tastier.  That is, until I imagined PUMPKIN bread pudding.  After trying a couple recipes, I brought this delicious mass of bready goodness to my family's Thanksgiving dinner.  I made it again for my MOPS group Advent celebration brunch using less sugar and 2% milk instead of half and half, but I called it Pumpkin French Toast Casserole so nobody had to feel bad about eating dessert at 9:30AM (shhh! don't tell).



Bread pudding

• 2 cups half and half


• 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin


• 1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar


• 2 large eggs


• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice


• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 10 cups 1/2-inch cubes egg bread, about 10-ounces (I used a day-old loaf of French bread from the breadmaker)


• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Caramel sauce

• 1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar


• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter


• 1/2 cup whipping cream

• Powdered sugar

For bread pudding:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in golden raisins. Transfer mixture to 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare caramel sauce:
Whisk brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over bread pudding. Serve warm with caramel sauce.

Pumpkin Everything, Take 3: Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

When our Full Circle Farms CSA newsletter featured this recipe, I knew it would be a hit in our family. But I had no idea our 2-year-old would devour FIVE whole pancakes in one sitting. What's not to love about pumpkin, oatmeal, AND pancakes all in one?



Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats


• 1 cup yogurt


• 2 eggs


• 1 tbsp oil


• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree


• 1/3 cup milk


• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour


• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour


• 2 tbsp wheat germ


• 3 tbsp ground flax seeds


• 1 tbsp sugar


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp cinnamon


• 1/2 tsp nutmeg


• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1) In a large bowl, combine oats and yogurt. Let mixture stand for 15 minutes to soften. Add the eggs, oil, pumpkin puree and milk, mixing well.

2) In a separate bowl, combine the flours, wheat germ, flax seeds, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices, mixing to combine.

3) Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing them until the batter is fairly smooth. Add more milk if the batter is too thick.

4) For each pancake, grease a hot griddle or pan with a small amount of butter and spoon about 1/3 cup of the batter onto the hot surface. Flip the pancakes when their undersides are golden brown and the tops begin to bubble.

Pumpkin Everything, Take 2: Harvest Pumpkin Cupcakes

Call me a spoilsport, but I've never been a fan of cupcakes.  I am neither a huge cake or frosting  person, and even if I were, the frosting to cake ratio of a cupcake seems highly skewed.  However, I was called upon to rise to the occasion when my boss invited the fam to a Halloween party and cupcake exchange.  Much to my surprise, these cupcakes were delicious!  The recipe made two dozen, so we had plenty for the party and enough to bring to our neighbors as well.  Confession: I was short on time AND powdered sugar, so I used a can of cream cheese frosting instead of the frosting recipe below.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 4 eggs, slightly beaten


• 3/4 cup vegetable oil


• 2 cups sugar


• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin


• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 1/4 cup cornstarch


• 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened


• 3 tablespoons butter OR margarine, softened


• 1 tablespoon orange juice


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel


• 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. To make cupcakes:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Blend the eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl; set aside. Stir together dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and beat until well blended. POUR into lined muffin tins. Fill about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until center springs back when touched. Cool 30 minutes. Spread with frosting.


2. To make frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cupcakes.

Pumpkin Everything, Take 1: Pumpkin Spice Bread

Fall is here, and with it comes my annual foray into all things pumpkin.  What is it about pumpkins that are so irresistible?  Is it their cheery orange color or their empty slate ready for the carving?  Do they bring to mind fall leaves, warm sweaters, and cozy fireplaces?  Or memories of hayrides and apple cider and traipsing through the patch in search of the perfect specimen?

Maybe all of the above, but mostly, I just think pumpkins are delicious.  And if not the pumpkins themselves, then the  sugar and cinnamon that comes with them.  My plan this glorious autumn season is to make as many pumpkin-flavored goods as possible, either until my family revolts or Costco stops carrying the seasonal canned pumpkin mega-pack.  It's anyone's guess which one will happen first.

Today's offering is a classic: good old pumpkin spice bread.  But who am I kidding?  It's so sweet and delicious, it's really pumpkin cake, and that's what we call it when we serve it to the toddler as a special dessert (poor, sheltered toddler).  I did make a few changes from the original recipe to make us grownups feel better about eating cake for breakfast.



Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar


• 1 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• 1/2 cup applesauce


• 4 eggs, lightly beaten


• 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin


• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves


• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice


• 1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, combine sugars, oil, applesauce, and eggs.

Add pumpkin and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients.

Add to pumpkin mixture alternately with water

Pour into two greased 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until done.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks.