Kabocha Pumpkin Squash and Potato Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Sounds like a mouth full right?  I was on a quest for a recipe to use both my kabocha squash and potato water (the water you boil your potatoes in).  I found a recipe that seemed like it could work, but I had to make some modifications.  The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen.  I almost always make cinnamon rolls on a day that I make mashed potatoes, because potato water makes wonderful cinnamon rolls!  I also had roasted some of our kabocha squash and thought it would be great in place of pumpkin.  Actually from what I have read, many prefer to use kabocha in place of pumpkin.  I will be trying a pumpkin pie using kabocha soon and will let you know the verdict on that as well.

  

This makes about 16 rolls.        Printable Recipe from Google Drive

Dough

1/4 cup of butter (1/2 stick)

1/2 cup warm potato water (this is the water you boil your potatoes in) If

you don't have any potato water, you can use warm milk instead

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 

4 cups all-purpose flour, you will need some more to roll the dough out

later too

1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2/3 cups pumpkin puree, canned or homemade (smitten kitchen has a good

tutorial on making homemade)

1 large egg ( I prefer duck)

Oil for coating rising bowl

Filling

1/4 cup butter melted (1/2 stick)

3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Make your dough: 

Melt your butter, you can do this in a microwave or on the stove. You

can brown the butter if you so desire. I am however too lazy to use a pan,

I just nuke it in the microwave! You will be melting butter for the filling

as well so keep your bowl/pan for melting handy. Set aside to cool

slightly.

Add your yeast to your warm (not hot) potato water, set aside for 5+

minutes until it becomes foamy.

Combine flour, sugars, salts and spices in a mixing bowl.

Add your butter, yeast mixture,egg and pumpkin, mix until just combined.

Switch mixer to a dough hook and run it for 5 minutes on low. This is a

fairly sticky dough.

Scrape mixture into a large oiled bowl and cover, I used foil, you can use

plastic wrap or a towel too. 

Put the bowl in a warm location to rise for about an hour until doubled.

Line a cake pan and a pie plate or other small dish with tin foil, this

helps get them out once baked.  For me the recipe filled the cake pan and

there were about 4 rolls that went into the pie plate. If you have a bigger

cake pan you may not need the extra pie plate :)

Assembly: 

Place dough on a generously floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it

into a 16x11 rectangle.  This is not a precise measurement, just make a

guess and call it good :) 

Melt the butter (1/4 Cup) and spread it on your rolled out dough.

Mix your filling mixture of sugars/spice together and then sprinkle on

top of the butter. 

Roll your dough up, pinching the dough together at the seam.

Slice into roughly 1" rolls with a serrated knife.

Place the rolls in the pans, don't squish them together they need room to

rise some more.

Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Remove cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy! 

In the original recipe there is a glaze, but these were already rich and

sweet enough so I didn't use the glaze.

Hermity Christine's Elk Chili

Chili is one of our favorite wintertime foods.  Hannah especially loves it, I think she could eat chili for every meal.  We also have an abundance of deer and elk in our freezer so we typically use it instead of beef.  Here is one of my recipes for chili, yes I have many ;)  This recipe is not a hot version, if you want more heat please feel free to add more :) We cut and package our own wild game so the meat that comes out of my packages is ready to use.  To avoid a strong game flavor you want to make sure ALL the fat is trimmed off. With beef and pork you don't need to be so picky though.

Hermity Christine's Elk Chili
Printable Recipe Click Here.
~1 pound elk cut into small bites (beef or deer are suitable replacements)
~1 medium sized onion (diced)
~2tbsp olive oil
~1-2 tsps pappaw's fuego de sal seasoned salt  (special blend made by friends but  you can use about 3/4 tsp regular seasoned salt with 1/8th-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper instead of 1 tsp of the mix.) I included ordering info below for the seasoned salt.
~1 tsp. black pepper
~1 tsp. salt
~1 tsp. garlic powder
~1/2 tsp. chili powder
~1 can of diced tomatoes
~2 cans of mexican style chili beans the kind in a sauce (i was lazy this round and didn't make my own sauce but you can if you want)
~1cup of sweet potato puree (i make my own from roasted sweet potatoes it is a staple in my freezer) you can omit this but it will not make the chili as thick and nice
~2 cups of water
*tortilla chips,cheese and sour cream if desired to top finished chili*

1.In dutch oven or large pot add the olive oil, onions and meat.  Cook until the meat is browned on medium heat.
1 1/2. *My kids are picky and don't like chunky tomatoes so I run my diced tomatoes through the blender before adding them. You could just use tomato sauce instead but it seems to have a different consistency.
2.Add the diced tomatoes, sweet potato puree and water.  You may choose to add a little more water if you want a more soup like chili, but we like ours thick.
3.Give it all a stir.
4.Add the seasonings, stir and let simmer with the lid on for about 10-15 minutes. Stirring every 5 min or so. You may need to turn it down to Med/Low you don't want to burn your chili on the bottom!
5.Add the chili beans and let simmer for another 5 minutes.
6.Taste test now, you might need to add more or less seasoning to suit your own tastes!
7.Now you are ready to enjoy!
~Hermity Christine

P.S. If you are interested in getting your hands on the Fuego De Sal here is more info.  Pappaw's Seasoned Salt varieties are hand made in the Texas Hill Country.  There are a variety of heats that includes the regular Pappaw's seasoned salt,  Pappaw's Fuego De Sal which is my favorite, Pappaw's Quatro Caliente which is my husbands favorite and Pappaw's Pedos Del Diablo which is pretty dang hot and with a translation of Devil Farts you just gotta love it!  We have been using these seasoned salts for quite some time now and love them!  Ordering information can be obtained by emailing sales@pappaws.com.

Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Bars Recipe

Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Bars

I was given an enormous bar of dark chocolate from my cousin Pete that was left over from his bakery.  I mean this thing is 11 pounds of chocolate heaven.  It is Callebaut brand and let me tell you it isfabulous to work with, well all except while breaking it into smaller pieces I managed to break my favorite glass bowl.  This involved cuss words, and wasted chocolate.  But I am sure that is due to my rudimentary version of breaking the block up, lol.  I am sure there is a more professional way of doing it.  So anyhow I wanted to use some of it and incorporate raspberries which I have fresh and in the freezer that needed used up.  So after perusing pinterest and getting many ideas I knew what I wanted, or at least the starting point.  I really never follow recipes,  I am a rebel, sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't.  I didn't have any oreos for crumb crust and didn't want to make a crust so I checked out the cupboard to see what would inspire me.  Ahhh a bag of sugar cookie mix. Yes, just the ticket, this would be my crust.  So I took out my trusty baking pan 8x10 in size and got started.   ~Hermity Christine

Printable Version Available here.
Ingredients:
~Sugar cookie mix, mine was Betty Crocker, you just add butter and an egg.  You could make your own or use the kind in a tube if you wanted. You follow the directions on the package so you also need butter and egg for my version.
~16 oz of chocolate, a dark or bittersweet is best, chips or cut into chunks
~1 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
~1 tbsp corn syrup (some recipes left this out but I used it)
~2-3 cups of raspberries divided 2 cups for bottom 1 cup for the top; these are estimates I didn't measure how much I used lol.

1. Follow the directions on the sugar cookie mix and then press into the pan and up the sides, its kind of sticky so you might have to butter your fingers.

2. Bake the crust @ 350  until the edges are golden brown the center may still be a little soft but this is ok.
3. While the crust is baking using a double boiler, heat the chocolate and heavy whipping cream until it is melted.  Stirring frequently you don't want scorched cream.  I don't actually have a double boiler so I just use a glass bowl that fits on top of a pan of water.
4. Remove from heat and add corn syrup and stir it in.
5. When the crust is done add a layer of raspberries on top of the crust. If the crust is really puffy in the center you can press it down before putting the raspberries on.

6. Pour the chocolate on top of the raspberries.

7. Refrigerate several hours until it is cooled and firm.
8.Top with remaining raspberries.
9. The cookie crust can make it a bit hard to cut and get out of the pan, so just be patient, they are worth it!

The recipe I used for my base is here.

"Pretty Eggs"

Pansy posted this in response regarding his cooking method for the eggs in the photos.  They are not fried, but rather steamed in butter (how delicious is that?):

"hey katherine yer morran welkom for the fotoz they tranzlayte well in the blogosphere i dod wanna menshun the eggs aren't actually fried though for justa few moments thay do fry in the buttur but once the whites firm up around the outside edges i tayke some scalding hot water & very carefully add very small amounts all around makin shur notto pour the water on the uncooked egg whites once the mass of eggs begins to floppa bout i reduce the heat to very very low (on the stove top in the fotoz that would be about 1&1/2 to 2) place a lid over it all & tippit to let out the steam as the eggs slowly cook when the yolks turn white itz tyme to remove the eggs from the pan yummy my favorite nana who taught me this manner of egg cooking called these her "pretty eggs" my brothur & i still cook eggs this way & i shud add if the eggs are removed quickly much of the buttur remains in the skillit ps. the yolks should not be crumbly or dry dry yolks make me sad :("

And there you have it, from the poet himself.

Hermity Katherine

Holiday Tuxedo Bars

My friend Sunny used to make such good tuxedo brownies.  This is a variation on that old fashioned recipe, jazzed up for the holidays.

Click here for printable recipe through google docs.
Brownie base:
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon rum
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Melt chocolate chips and butter in microwave (remember not to fully melt, partially melt then stir until the rest melts). Cool slightly.
Beat eggs and sugar, and rum and gradually add chocolate mixture.
Add flour, baking powder and salt.  Beat well. Pour in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan.  If you want to remove these from the pan ensemble to cut on a board, you may line your pan with aluminum foil, leaving enough on the edges to lift the brownies out when they are finished.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Do not underbake as the layers will fall apart.  Remove from oven and cool.
While brownies are cooling, make...
Rum/Eggnog filling
3 oz. softened cream cheese (not the whipped stuff)
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 Tablespoons eggnog
1 Tablespoon rum
4 cups confectioners sugar (more if needed)
Beat first 4 ingredients well, gradually add sugar until consistency is like super-thick and fluffy frosting.  Spread on cooled brownies.  Refrigerate while making...
Chocolate Glaze
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup eggnog
Gently heat eggnog in saucepan.  When it's hot enough to melt chocolate, remove from heat, add chips and stir vigorously, briefly returning to low heat if necessary.  Spread over chilled brownies and filling.
Chill for another hour, then slice. If you cut them sort of small (and you will want to, because they are rich), you can get 48 bars.

These are an all-afternoon sort of affair, so if you make them while you have other projects going (oh, say, wrapping packages or shopping online or entertaining your 5 year old grandson), it will make for a lovely afternoon of yumminess and joy.

Cranberry/Pistachio Cookies

Printable recipe click here.
Ingredients:
1 package Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix (in the cake mix aisle)
1 package (4 serving size) instant pistachio pudding mix
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries (sweetened)
1 cup vanilla baking chips
Oven 350 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients, beat in melted butter and eggs.  Stir in pistachios, cranberries and chips. Mix well.  Drop by teaspoon full onto pammed cookie sheet.  Bake 11 minutes.  Cool on rack or board.

This was a recipe my granddaughter and I found in a magazine.  It called for more cranberries and nuts, and no chips; since we are allergic to following recipes exactly, we decreased the cranberries and nuts and added the vanilla chips.  It suited our taste perfectly.  These really are very good cookies.

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe for Freezing

Click here for printable recipe!

We had a bunch more tomatoes ripen up so I needed to make something with them.  I decided I would make them into spaghetti sauce.  The recipe is not exact measurement but gives you a place to start.  Feel free to add or subtract your favorite spices.
2 tbsp Olive Oil
6-8 pounds of tomatoes (peeled) directions below.
6 garlic cloves minced
1 smallish onion minced
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tsp curry
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4- 1/2 cup minced bell pepper
1. To peel the tomatoes bring a pot of water to a boil. Wash tomatoes then cut the top out of each tomato including the stem area.  I skipped this step for the little roma tomatoes.
2. Put tomatoes in the boiling water 1-2 min then remove and put in a bowl of cold water.  I did a handful of tomatoes at a time because they blanched easier, if you put them all in the pot you might have to boil longer to loosen all the skin.
3. In a large pot add your olive oil and saute the garlic, onion and bell pepper.
4. Lower the heat, you want to slow simmer the sauce.
5. Peel and add your tomatoes to the pot, takes a while to peel and add them all, so make sure to stir every once in a while.
6.Add the rest of the seasoning and stir.
7. To get the most out of the flavor simmer on low heat about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Test the flavor and add spices as needed.
8. If you like a chunky sauce then use a potato masher and mash everything to the consistency you like.
9. For a smoother sauce, process everything in a blender or food processor.
10. Put in freezer safe jars or containers.
11. For use, thaw in the fridge overnight and use like any other pasta sauce.

The possibilities are endless for this sauce, add meat, add other veggies, it is all up to you.  This recipe suites my tastes.