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Looking for more of my random foodie adventures? I've moved to a new site due to some problems with comments that we just couldn't seem to resolve. Find my new blog (along with all of these old posts) at the following new address:

www.dollopofgoodness.wordpress.com

have fun fellow foodies!

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Season!!

I just got my new mixer and I was excited to put it to use! Baking around the holidays is so much fun; I couldn't resist. Given the time of year and that I had just gotten 3 great little organic pumpkins, I decided that it must be time for me to track down a delicious pumpkin cookie recipe. I did some searching on Pinterest for something that looked yummy. Of course there were all sorts of options but I picked two to try. Oh - I should mention here that one of my friends at work had jokingly suggested I should make vegan cookies to share with her. I was up for the challenge! One of the recipes I picked was vegan but I did still make some modifications. I really just wanted to be able to use ingredients I was familiar with and still get a tasty result! Here's what I made: (1) Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies and (2) Vegan Iced Pumpkin Cookies. Oddly enough - I LOVE the Vegan Ice Pumpkin ones!! They're 'deelish. 

BUT FIRST, It's time to make the pumpkin puree! I bought 3 beautiful little organic pumpkins to make puree from so I'd be ready for all sorts of holiday treats. To make these, I cut them all into quarters, cleaned out the inside (note - if you just slide your spoon along all the strings on the inside, the seeds will pop right out and you can save these to bake into snacks!) Um... just remember to either bake them right away or put them in the fridge because before I could get to baking up some delicious pumpkin seed seasoned snacks... my seeds became sprouts! I had a pan full of baby pumpkin plants before I knew it. Oops. Anyway - moving on - I cut them in quarters, scooped out the inside, put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I had pre-heated the oven to 375 and was ready to go and then I came to the devastating realization that I was out of foil!! Eek Eek Eek. 

Foil - for those who don't know, helps to a) hold in the moisture and heat so the pumpkin doesn't dry out and cooks quickly, b) keep the pumpkin from being in direct heat and burning, and c) be shiny. Girls all like shiny things. :) 

So now what do I do??? Well, rather than run out for foil late at night in my PJs and slippers... I opted to take the risk and NOT cover my pumpkin in foil (I know, I'm such a thrill seeker). I checked on it a couple of times and it was definitely starting to dry out and it was taking longer to cook so I added some water to the cookie sheet (thankfully mine had a decent size rim) to help 'steam' the pumpkin and keep it moist. That seemed to work. Awhile later, when I could stab each with a fork without too much effort, I took them out of the oven and let them cool. Once the pumpkin had cooled, I scooped out all the pumpkin and ran batches through my food processor to get the puree that so many wonderful holiday recipes call for. All set! Ready for Cookies!!

 Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies
I saw this recipe and it was love at first site...until I made the cookies, then I was ready to 'see' other cookies. :)  Yes, that says it all doesn't it? I wasn't all that impressed with this recipe but there were some people at work that seemed to like them. I brought them lots! I'll share the recipe anyway. If I did make them again because I had nothing better to do, I'd put WAY more cream cheese in the middle and I'd cook them a few minutes longer. Hmm, I'd probably add more pumpkin spice seasoning too and just a touch more salt. They didn't seem very flavorful to me. But I can't hold out - Here's the recipe: 

Filling: 

4oz cream cheese

2 tbl sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cookie Dough: 

  2.5 cups flour

   1 tsp baking powder

   1 tsp baking soda

     2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cups sugar

       1/2 cup butter, softened

      1 cup pumpkin puree

    1 large egg

       1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: 

Mix the filling ingredients and chill in fridge.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, salt. 

Beat sugar and butter together until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg, vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes. (Chilling is important to make stuffing them easier!)

Grease Cookie Sheet or line with parchment paper. 

Put scoops of dough (about 1 tbls) on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Make an indent in the middle of each and add filling. Place another teaspoon of dough on top and seal the edges or roll into balls. Put these in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up before cooking. Then, bake 18-20 minutes until edgers are firm, cool on wire racks.

On a side note, that whole 'stuffing process' described in the oh-so-simple recipe is NOT so simple. I had pumpkin cookie dough sticking to everything! It was all over my kitchen and ME! Ugh. Not so fun. Through mess, I learned a couple of tips. (1) put more of the cookie dough on the bottom and just a little 'cap' of cookie dough on top - none of this silly half and half stuff! (2) Spray a little PAM or oil into a little bowl. Dip your fingers in it now and then as your making indents otherwise you or whatever utensil your attempting to use are going to get eaten alive by cookie dough.

<--- These are my beautiful cookies! The ones in the top of the picture are the cream cheese stuffed version that I just mentioned. The others are coming up next after this quick commercial break... uh oops... never mind. Just see below. :) 

Next up are the super yummy vegan (shhh..) cookies! I swear that if you don't tell people these are vegan they would NEVER know. 

Vegan Pumpkin Cookies with Icing *My New Favorite*
These come out really soft - a bit like a muffin top. : )

Ingredients: 

2 cups white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons almond milk

Preheat oven to 350. 

Grease baking sheets or use parchment paper.

Combine flours**, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt. Set aside. 

Beat sugar and coconut oil (softened) until well blended. 

Beat in pumpkin and vanilla until smooth. 

Gradually mix in flour mixture.

Drop by round tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until edges are firm.

Cool on wire racks. 

**Note: I have used more wheat flour and less white flour but it does make the cookie a little bit more dense, 1 cup white and 1 1/2 cup wheat seems to work but I'm not sure I would go further. If you want to try the cookies with all wheat flour, you might try switching out the coconut oil for apple sauce to add extra moisture.

While cooling - make glaze. Mix 3 tablespoons almond milk into 2 cups powdered sugar (more or less to desired consistency). The glaze should be thick. It will thin out when you put it on the cookie. Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies. 

Last but not least - Enjoy and share with a friend for the holiday!! Hey... I said share. :) I have to say these are one of my new favorite cookies, vegan or not! I love how soft and almost cake-like they are. These little 'dollops of goodness' are making my favorites list. 

Goat Cheese Veggie Galette (Puff Pastry Style)

Goat Cheese Veggie Galette (Puff Pastry Style)

This week I saw puff pastry on sale at the store and thought it might be a fun match for some of the veggies I got this week. I've never made a sweet or savory galette before and I know it's supposed to be more pie crust style than puff pastry but this seemed like the perfect 'easy' substitute so here goes...

Following the directions on the puff pastry pack, I let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator. I decided to use zucchini, tomato, onion, garlic, and goat cheese in my galettes. The first step was to slice all of the fresh veggies and get them ready to go. Next up, I unrolled the puff pastry on a lightly floured counter so it wouldn't get too sticky (as much as I love having pasty dough all over my fingers). Then I put the pastry on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. 

The puff pastry box noted that you should brush only the top of the pastry with an egg wash but I have seen other recipes that call for an egg wash on the whole thing (as in before you top with ingredients) so I tried one of each. I really didn't notice any difference so I'm thinking just doing the egg wash on the very top that's open to the heat should be good enough. This should help it brown nicely. 

Once I had my pastry ready to go, I did a layer of zucchini then tomato and topped with goat cheese. To make a galette, you'll need to leave about 2 inches of pastry uncovered to roll up over the toppings. I also sprinkled some chopped onions and minced garlic over both. Can't forget the seasoning! I added some Italian seasonings to one and some paprika to the other for a hint of spice. 

Once both were topped, I rolled up the edges and brushed each in the egg wash. I popped them in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they came out pretty tasty! I was a little worried about all the moisture in the zucchini preventing the puff pastry from crisping up. The bottom did turn out pretty soft but the taste was there and  would definitely make these again. Plus - it would be so easy to put any sort of toppings on these!

Delish'.

 

Goat Cheese Peppers

Roasted Goat Cheese Peppers

This one was fun, very easy, and DANGEROUSLY good! 

I love goat cheese to start out with so if you don't, this probably isn't for you! To make these delicious puppies, I picked up a bunch of the little sweet peppers and some goat cheese from the store (not the hot pepper kind - the baby bell pepper or sweet pepper kind). Here's a quick run down of the steps: 

Getting the peppers ready:
1. Cut the top off of each pepper and clean out the seeds. 
2. Lightly coat the peppers in olive oil (a spray olive oil works great too). 
3. Put the peppers in the broiler (or on the grill) long enough to soften them up just a bit and until you start to see them turn a little brown in spots. 

Goat cheese prep: 
You can do so many variations with the goat cheese! Really, you can mix in whatever flavors you think you'll like. I made two varieties this time; one with jalapeno and one with Italian seasonings. Here's what I did: 

1. Chop half a yellow onion, mince 1 clove of garlic, and cook these in a little olive oil until the onions are translucent. 
2. Split the goat cheese (already softened/at room temp) between two plastic zipper bags (I used two since I made two types of peppers and the ziplic bags make it really easy to fill the peppers.)
3. Split the onion/garlic mix between the plastic bags (be sure you let it cool for a few minutes or you'll melt your plastic bags)
4. Add any seasonings you want to the goat cheese mixes. In one bag, I added some chopped jalapeno and in the other I used basil, oregano, and parsley if I remember correctly. 
5. Use your hands to squeeze the ingredients around in the bag until it's mixed well. Then use scissors to cut off the tip of one corner on the bag. Then you can squeeze the mixture out of the ziploc bag into the peppers easy and clean!). 
6. Once all the peppers are filled - you can either pop them back in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes to warm through before serving or you can put them in the refrigerator to reheat and serve later. 

These were fun to make and so tasty. It was hard to not eat all of them at once!! These are good for a big group so you HAVE to share. :)

Horned Fruit

I love seeing new and unusual fruits/veggies at the store. I don't go crazy and get them all but I like to get one or two that I've never done anything with before just to check it out. This time... horned melon (a.k.a kiwano) and passion fruit.

I've tasted so many passion fruit flavored things and loved them so it was time to see what the actual fruit was all about. I had never seen the inside of a passion fruit before but I have to say it looks pretty disgusting! It made me laugh to think about who on earth was the first person willing to put this in their mouth? The taste was pretty good but mine was very tart. This is the kind of fruit where the good stuff is bound around the seeds so you have to break it free or eat the seed with it.

The horned melon was a whole story all it's own. I cut open this yellowish-orange horned monster to find it filled with green slime! Similar to the passion fruit, the flesh (if you can call it that??) is bound to the seeds. The flesh is bright green and slimy and oozes like some toy a little boy would love. The taste was pretty strange too: pretty much a cross between a cucumber and a banana (the not too ripe version of a banana). I can see now why there really aren't many 'horned melon' recipes out there.

Hmm... what to do with these two peculiar fruits...I spent some time flipping through Pinterest for inspiration. The passion fruit had several options but I only one so that limited my recipe abilities. For the horned melon, the best thing I saw was some sort of a salad dressing out of the 'gel'. The salad dressing had potential but I wanted to make something more interesting than that. Finally, I decided my best option was a sorbet where I would use the passion fruit AND the horned melon mixed with pineapple. Let's see what happens....

First, I needed to find the easiest way to break the flesh of these fruits off of the seeds. I had read that just trying to push the 'gel' from the horned melon through a strainer was a tedious process because it did not want to leave it's precious seed behind. So, I decided to clean out the flesh and seeds of both the passion fruit and horned melon and run them through the blender for a 30 seconds or so to break everything loose. It worked!!! Ha... I bested you GREEN SLIME!

From here, it was pretty quick to put the mixture through a fine strainer and separate what was now basically liquid from the seed particles.

Once I had my passion fruit/horned melon 'juice', I put it with some pineapple juice and 1 cup of sugar in a pot on the stove and let it simmer until the sugar was all melted and I could tell the consistency was starting to thicken just a little bit. Oh and I almost forgot, somewhere along the way I added a little almond milk to add to the creaminess (maybe 1/3 cup or so?). When this was finished I put the mixture along with about 2 cups of chopped pineapple in the blender and let it run until it was smooth.

I had read that you could blend a sorbet mix about every hour as it's freezing to help give it that airy consistency and keep it from freezing rock solid. Well... I started out with this in mind and I did blend it after each of the first few hours but then I got tired and decided to go to bed instead. It would end up however it ended up!

And - TahDAH! While a bit more solid than the kind you buy at the store, my horned melon/passion fruit/pineapple sorbet turned out pretty tasty! The one catch... it tasted pretty much like pineapple sorbet. :) Oops...

What would I do differently next time? I would use about half the amount of pineapple and about a third the amount of pineapple juice to make this mix. Also, if I'm being honest, I might just skip the horned melon and use more passion fruit! It was fun to play with this new fruit but I just didn't see much benefit in it. It probably would still make a good salad dressing so maybe someday I'll give that one a try.

On to the next foodie adventure...

Rosemary Scallops and Quinoa

Someone once said I should collect my pictures and recipes on a blog. I see two problems with this. 1 - I rarely use recipes! :) and 2. People might think I should actually know what I'm doing in a kitchen if I put it out there for all to see. I do, however, love the idea of having a place to collect things that I find and things that I make in one place. So... here I go. I certainly don't profess to be any sort of a chef. I'm simply a girl on a mission to have a little fun with healthy foods (okay... usually healthy foods :) ). So for today:

Rosemary Scallops with Roasted Red Pepper and Quinoa

Somewhere in my browsing I traipsed upon a picture of some scallops that had been cooked on rosemary sprigs. I loved the idea and had to try it! I added a little old bay seasoning to the scallops, speared them with the rosemary and plopped them on my George Foreman for about 4 minutes. I also sliced some red bell pepper (the dish needed some color and a little more variety in flavors), spritzed them with some olive oil and put them under the broiler until they started to brown. As a foundation for the dish, I made quinoa. Before starting the quinoa, I caramelized a little onion and garlic in olive oil and then cooked the quinoa in this same pan with the delicious caramelized onions.  Oh and for the liquid in the quinoa, I used chicken broth. That's all! Pretty easy actually.

This could be made into a vegan dish by using tofu instead of scallops (just be sure to season with Old Bay and put on the Rosemary) and by using water or a vegetable stock for the quinoa. The tofu should pick up some good flavor this way.