Delectable Pumpkin Holiday Soup Surprise

For friend's thanksgiving this year, Darren was inspired by the lesser known, yet surprisingly potent aphrodisiac, pumpkin. We whipped up this soup, borrowed line by line from The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison.

STOCK

Seeds and scrapings from inside pumpkin or squash

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 celery stock + leaves, diced

1 turnip, peeled and diced

2 bay leaves

½ t. dried sage leaves or 5-6 fresh sage leaves

4 parsley branches

3 thyme branches

½ t. salt

8 cups cold water (we could have used more stock, the soup was really thick, I would add more water here)

Combine stock ingredients and bring to boil, simmer for 25 minutes. Strain, saving stock.

SOUP

1 pumpkin or squash weighing about 2 ½ pounds. They suggest sugar pumpkins or any non-stringy squash with a delicious flavor

3 T. butter

1 medium yellow onion, diced

½-1 t. salt

6-7 cups of previously mentioned stock

½-1 C. light cream

White pepper (we used black)

3 oz. Gruyere cheese, finely grated

Thyme leaves for garnish

Preheat oven to 400. Bake pumpkin face down on lightly oiled baking sheet until skin is wrinkled and flesh is soft. About an hour. Remove from oven and when cool enough to handle peel off skin. Reserve any carmelized juices for the soup. Melt butter in soup pot, add onion and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add cooked pumpkin, juices, salt and stock. Bring to a boil, simmer covered for 25 minutes. Pass soup through food mill (or use an immersion blender) to blend to desired consistency. Add cream and more stock if necessary to thin soup. Salt and pepper to taste, stir in cheese, garnish with thyme and voila! Girls, eat your heart out.

Serves 4-6

Birthday Cake!

In response to the post from MS, here is the recipe for the birthday cake I brought to Bret, Katy, and Andrew's birthday. Actually, I took this recipe, but changed the frosting to cream cheese and added funny chocolate decorations. But I have made this cake as described here and it's quite good. (Source - LA Times)















Cake:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup safflower or canola oil
2 cups pumpkin purée

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) springform pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt. In separate bowl, stir together the eggs and sour cream. Stir in the brown sugar and then the oil until just combined; be careful not to overwhisk. Gently stir the flour mixture into the batter just until incorporated and there are no lumps. Stir in the pumpkin purée. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for about 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (the cakes are moist and there may be a few crumbs on the toothpick, but there should be no batter). Remove and allow the cakes to cool, still in the pans, on a wire rack to room temperature.

Sour cream ganache and assembly
12 ounces semisweet chocolate or 6 (3-ounce) bars, coarsely chopped*
2 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a bit less)
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

*For the ganache, a less bitter, lower percentage chocolate will best complement the cake (preferably 60% to 65%)

Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Remove from heat. Gently fold the sour cream into the chocolate until incorporated and uniform in texture, then stir in the salt. Remove the cakes from the pans and place one on a cake stand or serving plate with the flat-bottomed side up and spoon one-fourth of the ganache over the cake. Spread the ganache evenly over the top. Place the second cake, domed side up, evenly over the first and spoon one-half of the remaining frosting over the cake, evenly covering the top and sides. Add additional frosting as needed to coat the cake evenly.

Press the pecans into the sides of the cake. The cake can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Each of 16 servings: 612 calories; 8 grams protein; 59 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 43 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 73 mg. cholesterol; 355 mg. sodium.

Novelicious Pumpkin Butterscotch Chip Cookies

It's crazy, right? Pumpkin and butterscotch? Yes, it's a novelty cookie. But it works.

These little gems end up being more like bite sized cake-breads thanks to all the moisture (pumpkin and oil), but they have a fantastic flavor thanks to the surprising little butterscotch bits.

2 C. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 C. white sugar*
1/2 C. canola or corn oil**
1 C. canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 C. butterscotch chips

* (could reduce a tad?)
** (try butter instead for crunchier cookies?)

Rack in middle of oven. Preheat to 325 degrees.

Sift flour, powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until smooth. Mix oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in flour mixture until incorporated. Mix in butterscotch chips.

Scoop out 1/4 C. mounds at least 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Smooth out the mounds with a spatula before baking to get a prettier cookie (they end up coming out about how they go in).

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the top are firm and toothpick just comes out clean -- about 16 minutes. Cool, and dust lightly with powerdered sugar.

Strangely, these cookies only get more and more moist the longer they sit around. Experiment with butter to keep that in check. Or just eat them up faster.