Pumpkin Alfredo - Secret Recipe Club

It's Secret Recipe Club time again! Last month, when I said it was my fourth month participating, I was wrong. It was my sixth month. WOW, I can't believe it was June when I started. I've met some great bloggers and cooked up some delicious recipes.

My first month, I was assigned the Hagis and the Herring and made their Crunchy Roasted Potatoes and Carrots. Month two was Creative Culinary and her beautiful Lavender Martini. August was month three and The Wednesday Baker's Wild Blueberry Muffins. September was fellow Omaha blogger Biking and Baking's, Rosemary Squash Soup. Just in time for football season, October brought me Sticky Chicken Wings from Lavender and Lime. November was a delicious holiday breakfast idea, Eggs en Cocette from Searching for Spice.

For December, our hostess Tina of Mom's Crazy Cooking suggested we find a holiday recipe to share. Having not tired of eating pumpkin, I was drawn to Pumpkin Alfredo from Veggie Converter. Kristi has amazing vegetarian and vegan recipes, most of which I found would be easy to change or convert if you aren't vegetarian. Although we aren't vegetarian, we try to eat at least one meatless meal a week. To lighten the recipe up a little, I decreased the butter and increased the milk. The pasta was still rich and creamy.

When Tim saw what I was making, he questioned the peas. I used the small canned peas. They added nice flavor and color to the dish. As I was putting the finishing touches on the dish, I was wishing I had some fresh sage to add. I think sage would add a nice finishing touch. We enjoyed this hearty pasta dish.



Pumpkin Alfredo

1 pound spaghetti noodles
1 cup peas, fresh or frozen

2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter (I used 1/2 stick)
4 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk (I used 1 cup of skim milk)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste


Directions
Boil spaghetti noodles according to package directions, add peas into the boiling water with 5-7 minutes remaining.

Meanwhile, brown garlic in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add butter and cream cheese, allow to melt partially. Add pumpkin and stir. Mix cornstarch with a bit of the milk to create a slurry. Add slurry and remaining milk to pan. Cook a few more minutes, stirring regularly, until thickened. Add Italian seasoning and House seasoning, to taste.

If serving immediately, mix sauce with noodles and peas. If serving later, package noodles and peas separately from sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Chocolate Nutella No Bakes - Cookie Exchange

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a virtual cookie exchange over at Di's Kitchen Notebook. Reveal day was December 4th. As it seems with most of my posts these days, I am running behind. What's my excuse this time? Not moving, not Thanksgiving but putting up the Christmas decorations! Di was kind of enough to say it was okay for me to go ahead and post late! Thanks Di and thanks for hosting!!!



When I was growing up, Christmas always meant lots of holiday goodies. One I remember helping my mom make was Chocolate No Bake Cookies. Hers were gooey and oh so full of chocolate. Unfortunately, I don't have her recipe. I did some searching and found several versions. Although I don't remember the ones we made having peanut butter in them, most of the recipes I found contained peanut butter. I settled on a recipe I found on Food Network and decided to use Nutella instead of peanut butter. The cookies I remember as a kid were very gooey, I wanted to make one that was a little firmer. After reading the reviews, I decided to cook the mixture for five minutes instead of one minute. I think five minutes was too long, these weren't gooey at all. What they are though, is delicious. The Nutella flavor pairs beautifully with the chocolate.


Chocolate Nutella No Bake Cookies
Adapted from Food Network

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup Nutella
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups oatmeal
• Waxed paper

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add Nutella, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

I am also linking this to Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday and Sweet Tooth Friday.

Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme - Chocolate With Francois

Here I am again, at the last minute, baking Chocolate With Francois. We've been in our house 6 weeks, so I can't play the moving card. We did just return from spending Thanksgiving in Los Angeles with my son Justin, so I am going to say I am baking at the last minute because of traveling. Really I am baking at the last minute because I procrastinated before we left for LA.

I love all things chocolate which must be why I chose to start Chocolate With Francois. One of my favorite chocolate desserts is a simple Pots De Creme. When I saw this recipe for Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme, I was intrigued and chose it for this months recipe.

I halved the recipe and ended up with four 5 ounce ramekins. A little hesitant about using too much pepper, I used a scant 1/4 teaspoon. I think I would increase the amount slightly next time. I loved these silky, chocolate desserts. This recipe is a keeper, so many possibilities for adding different flavors to the base recipe.


Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme
3 1/3 cups heavy cream
7 ounces 72% chocolate (I used dark chocolate)
1/2 teaspoon pimete d'espelette* (I used red pepper flakes, finely ground)
1 large egg
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons of sugar

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 300.

Combine the cream and chocolate in a large saucepan over medium low heat and heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the piment d'espelette.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Whisk the mixture into the chocolate cream. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher or a bowl.

Pour the liquid into six 6 ounce ramekins. Place the dishes on a rimmed baking sheet and pout about 1/2 inch of hot water into the bottom. Cover the dishes with a large sheet of aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour, until the custards are very lightly set.

Remove from the oven and let cool, without removing the foil. Once cool, transfer the dishes to the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

These can be made ahead and kept, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

*Piment d'espelette is a type of pepper used in Basque cuisine. Payard says it has a distinct, yet delicate, heat which is perfect for dessert. You can substitute finely ground red pepper flakes.

I am linking this to Full Plate Thursday and Foodie Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nutella Banana Bread

I am late getting on the baking with Nutella bandwagon. There's so many recipes out on the blogsphere. I imagine I have a dozen or more in my bookmarks to try. We don't seem to have bananas left for baking very often, so when we do I quickly take advantage of them.

It's hard to decide whether or not to make my favorite banana bread recipe or a new one. I decided to substitute Nutella for Peanut Butter in this recipe. Unfortunately the flavor of the bananas overpowered the Nutella. The bread was still delicious. I think next time, I will use less bananas and more Nutella.


Nutella Banana Bread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F . Grease and flour a large or two smaller loaf pans.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir in nutella, bananas, flour and baking soda until blended. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday, Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday.

Buckeyes - Club Baked

I am really enjoying baking and cooking in my new kitchen. Although I didn't set them up this way intentionally, the layout of my cabinets just seems conducive to baking. As I was reading over the recipe for the Buckeyes, I was reminded of these Peanut Butter Balls.

I halved the recipe and ended up with 26 buckeyes. Because it was what I had on hand, I used milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate. My buckeyes have their eyes closed. I am anxious to read the other Club Baked members secrets for dipping these. The first three or four, I dipped were a just a mess. I decided to continue, like I do with the peanut butter balls, and cover the entire surface with chocolate.

Peanut butter and chocolate, does it get any better than this? Nope not really. While these are delicious, I can't get past the grittiness of the graham cracker crumbs.



You can find the recipe at Karen's Cookies and More and the links to the other Club Baked bakers here.

Eggs en Cocotte - Secret Recipe Club

This is my fourth month participating in Secret Recipe Club. It's a fun group. Each month our hostess, Tina, assigns us all a blog. We get to pick from our bloggers recipe collection and post about it on reveal day! If you'd like to join, you can find the details here!

This month, I had the pleasure of choosing a recipe from Searching for Spice. Each month when I receive my assignment, I can't wait to check out my assigned blogger. It's hard to decide which recipe to make. I was torn between this soup and the eggs. We're still trying to get everything done around the new house. Sunday morning when I realized I hadn't made the recipe yet and needed something for breakfast, Eggs en Cocotte or Baked Eggs it is. I've never made Baked Eggs before. I decided to add mushrooms, Parmesan Cheese and Bacon to the eggs. I didn't have any cream, so I substituted skim milk. I wouldn't recommend skim milk, although the eggs were still good, they were a little runny. This recipe is a keeper and would make a great breakfast for company.


Eggs en Cocotte

Ingredients – makes 2

2 slices of bread (I omitted this and served toast on the side)

2 eggs

8 tsp cream

Salt

Black Pepper

Option 1

2 tsp grated parmesan

A few leaves of rocket (argula)

Option 2

2 tsp grated cheddar

1 mushroom

I used Bacon and Sauteed Mushrooms

How to Make Eggs en Cocotte

1. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin.

2. Grease the insides of 2 ramekins

3. Make 4 cuts through the bread starting from the middle of each side, stopping half-way to the centre.

4. Put the slices of bread into the ramekins so the sides that have been cut overlap each other.

5. Put the cheese in the bottom of each ramekin. Put some rocket on top of the parmesan one and some sliced mushroom on top of the cheddar one. Add 2 tsp of cream to each ramekin then add the egg. Top with another 2 tsp of cream, some salt and pepper.

6. Bake in the oven at about 350 for about 25 minutes. If you like a soft egg it will be ready sooner, but I prefer a harder egg.