Fall Preview

  Call me crazy, but I’m loving this little fall weather preview we are having!  The cool crisp air coming thru the windows presented a perfect opportunity to do some baking yesterday.  So I put on my cool new apron (thank you Anne!) and we got to work on some Pumpkin Scuffins (a cross between a muffin and scone).  I had opened a giant can of pumpkin recently to make pumpkin pie overnight oats (which are AWESOME by the way) so we had to use up the pumpkin before it went bad.  I got this recipe from the lovely Angela over at Oh She Glows (one of my favorite foodie blogs). 

Here is the recipe, should you like to try and make them yourselves.  Be prepared for your house to smell heavenly!!! 

Pumpkin Scuffins

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cloves 
• 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread (Or use non-hydrogenated margarine)
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (you might be able to use maple syrup)
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar (or regular sugar)
• 1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
• 1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water, mixed)
• 1 t vanilla

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients (spelt, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves). Set aside. In a different bowl mix the butter, sugar and agave until smooth. Melt the butter a touch so its easier to work with. Now add pumpkin, flax egg, and vanilla. Beat well. Carefully mix in dry ingredients being sure not to overmix. Spelt is broken down very quickly when mixed and you can end up with a tough batter if you overmix it.  The batter will be very moist and sticky, but don’t worry. Drop the batter onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 17 minutes or until the scuffins slightly bounce back when touched. 

I had to bake mine for longer tho because my oven is whack.  An oven thermometer is on my list of things I need to buy.  I will not stand for one more pan of ruined popovers!  Here are the scuffins on their way into the oven:

And here they are after:Nom, nom, nom!  Dylan got first tastes and said, “Mom, you’re awesome!”  Why thank you Dylan!  I know!
And then, cuz I was on a roll, I decided to make my mom’s tomato salad for lunch!  I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing the recipe here! 

Grandma Puppy’s Favorite Summertime Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

2 bunches green onions (I never seem to have these on hand, and it tastes just as delicious without, so don’t worry if you don’t have any or if you don’t like onion)

1/4 cup stuffed green olives (sliced)

8 to 10 small tomatoes (or if you have bigger tomatoes, use fewer) – cut in quarters
1 large cream cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat tub of it and then just scoop out little spoonfuls when it comes time to add them to the salad)

Dressing:
6 TB vegetable oil (I use canola oil)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 TB dill weed
1 TB dill seed
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 clove of garlic minced
2 TB chopped jalapeno peppers

All you do is throw your tomatoes, onions, olives and cream cheese into a bowl.  Mix up your dressing and pour it into the tomatoes and mix it all up.  Thats it! 
Aren’t my tomatoes purdy!?  I think so!   Cut in quarters. The dressing. Finished product!  I want to eat this picture! I know what I’m having for lunch today! Dinner last night was a semi-fail.  I had good intentions though I think.  I was attempting to loosely follow a recipe from Clean Food (which I don’t yet have, so if someone was wanting to do some early Christmas shopping for me – feel free! ) and apparently I followed it a little too loosely.  I definitely know how to fix it next time.  Anywho, this is the Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchilada.  I won’t type out a recipe until it becomes perfected.  Here’s what went wrong though.  First, the tortillas I was using were just too soft.  The ones I usually use are not as soft as these and I think they would work better for these enchiladas.  Second, having 2 ingredients that are kind of “soft” (refried black beans AND mashed sweet potato) made it too mushy.  Especially combined with the super soft tortilla.  I think it would be better with whole black beans and maybe some brown rice.  You are supposed to use corn, but we aren’t big on frozen corn (or canned for that matter) so I didn’t even consider that option.  They look nice all rolled up in there! I mashed the sweet potatoes with lime juice, so since I had a lime out – clearly, I had to have a Corona with a lime!  Its nice to drink and cook, right Mom? So then I put my favorite salsa of the moment on top and sprinkled a little cheese on top of that. After I put them into the oven, I noticed the onion I had chopped up to put inside of them.  DANG IT!  So I used the onion to make a little guacamole and it was all good.  They really don’t look too bad!  And it wasn’t that they tasted bad – they were just too mushy.  Next time they’ll be better. 

Well, clearly Avery was wanting me to finish this post because she is still sleeping and its 20 minutes to 8.  I better wrap it up before she wakes up!  Have a lovely day!

OH – and before I forget – I installed a new comment feature, so I can now reply to your comments!  Yay!  So comment away, people!  (just click on the comments thingy at the bottom of the post and the comment box will appear)