Apricot Almond Bread

Now that it's cooling off, I'm starting to bake again! It's an exciting time of year. Sadly, I didn't have any zucchini this year (cursed squash bugs!) but I've been baking bread again for a few weeks. So today when I got up and it was one of those lovely fall mornings perfect for baking, I went in search of my trusty Fannie.


This bread was a bit odd, to be honest. I like nuts in bread, but I always use pecans and walnuts. The almonds were just a wee bit odd to me. But the apricots were delicious, and I think I would make it again.

For this, I did change it up a little b/c I only had 1 c. of apricots and Fannie calls for 1.5. So I adjusted the water and flour as well.

Without further ado, here is the recipe I made:

Ingredients:
1 c. chopped dried apricots
1 c. boiling water
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. sliced almonds
1 egg
1 tsp. orange extract

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a loaf pan.
In a medium/large mixing bowl, add the apricots, butter, sugar.
Pour water over them and let sit until lukewarm.
Stir in remaining ingredients, pour into pan, and bake for 1 hr.

I baked for 1 hr 10 minutes, but it was a little too brown on the bottom. So next time I'd cut the time a little. This bread is very crusty on the outside, but an interesting variation on some of the other fruit breads I've had.

Zucchini Spice Bread

Yay, another zucchini bread! I used the shredded zucchini I froze last summer. Thawed and left in a strainer for a few hours and all the water drains right out!

I have a lot of different types of flours, so I used an assortment for this. If you want to go gluten free, you can substitute for the 1/2 c. of wheat flour and use gluten free flour (I love Bob's all-purpose mix). If you're fine with wheat, just use 1 1/2 c. wheat flour.

This is what I used: 

• 1/2 c. buckwheat flour
• 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 c. organic white flour
• 1/4 c. coconut flour
• 1/4 c. garbanzo flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 eggs
•  1/4 cup coconut oil (in liquid form)
•  1/4 cup applesauce, (I used pear sauce), mashed banana or more coconut oil
•  1/3 cup organic sugar
•  1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
•  1 cup grated or shredded zucchini
•  1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

This is what I did:

1. Grease and flour a glass 8 x 4 inch pan. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
3. Mix flours, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in medium bowl.
4. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. 
5. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix well. 
6. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. 
7. Pour batter into prepared pans.
8. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. 
9. Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. 
10. Remove from pan and eat warm or cold with butter, peanut butter, cream cheese or by itself. 

This turned out very dark but tasty. I think it was the buckwheat flour. It also didn't hold together all that well, despite the bit of wheat flour and the eggs. I was hoping that would be enough but it was very crumbly. Despite that, it tasted delicious and everyone enjoyed it. Would definitely make this again.

Slow Cooker/Crockpot Bean and Kale Soup

This past fall, my mom had grown Jacob's Cattle Beans, and we made them several times. They are the most delicious beans ever! Our favorite recipe was one for a bean soup. Over Christmas, she gave me a jar of the uncooked beans, and I've been waiting to use them. I wanted to make a meal in the crock pot, so I threw the same ingredients together and cooked it all together. I used frozen peppers, tomatoes and kale that I'd put up from my garden this summer.

• 2 cups dry beans of your choice (Jacob's Cattle Beans are the best!) soaked overnight & drained.
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 red pepper, chopped 
• 1 green pepper, chopped 
• 2-3 cups chopped tomatoes (canned, fresh or frozen)
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 cup brown rice
• 8 cups water 
• 1 bunch of kale leaves, chopped or sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

Apple Carrot Zucchini Bread

 I am officially out of zucchini, but I had one small summer squash left, so I managed to squeeze out one more zucchini bread recipe!

 

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 c. organic sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour 
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1-2 tsp cinnmamon
• pinch of ground cloves
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2-1 cup shredded zucchini or yellow squash
• 1/2 cup diced, peeled apple
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
3. Blend butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together.
4. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together.
5. Fold dry ingredients into wet along with carrots, squash, apples, and pecans.
6. Pour into prepared pans.
7. Bake until golden brown, approximately 1 hour, or until toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Flaming Pears

I thought I saw this recipe in a cookbook, but then I couldn't find it. So I kind of winged it.

For this, I used:
About 1 lb pears, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp organic butter
2 tbsp organic sugar
rum

1. Melt butter in skillet.
2. Add pears and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pears are soft and liquid has evaporated, 10-20 minutes.
4.  Pour rum over pears, light on fire, and let the alcohol burn off.
5. Serve while hot, with ice cream or cream.

Drunken Pears, aka, Pears in Port Wine

 This was a wonderful recipe I took to my book club this fall. Our pear tree was loaded this year, so much so that we were giving away pears by the bag-full. Sadly, Fannie only has a few pear recipes. But this one was very good. Would definitely make it over and over!

Ingredients:

• About 1 lb. pears, peeled, cored and sliced in quarters horizontally. I was using drops, so mine weren't perfect quarters, but large chunks. 
• 1/2 c. water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• pinch of lemon rind, or dash of lemon juice
• Port wine/red wine

Instructions:

1. In a sauce pan, combine water and sugar and bring just to a boil
2. Add pears, cover and cook until tender but still firm
3. Place pears in a serving dish (I used my 8x8 pyrex bc I was transporting it to book club. A pie pan would work, too)
4. Pour wine over pears and let sit for at least 1 hr. Fannie calls for port wine, but I didn't have any, so just used a sweet red someone had given us that we had opened and not finished. 

It turned out great! Everyone loved it, even my mom, who doesn't drink wine. The pears really absorbed the flavor and were such a pretty color, too. It looked as good as it tasted. Now if only I can find my camera with the pictures on it...

Roasted Kale and Butternut Squash with Heirloom Jacob's Cattle Beans, Adobo Sauce and Feta Cheese

While researching the book I'm doing for NaNoWrimo, I looked for Puerto Rican recipes on Pinterest. This one, for kale salad, looked really interesting. However, I don't really like raw kale (I know, I know, I'm a freak of nature). I like the health benefits, though, so I thought I'd just cook the kale. The recipe was sort of strange, anyway, as it called for hot squash in a salad.

I have to say, making this was pretty time-consuming. I don't usually do 'fancy.' I do basic. So this made me feel quite accomplished. And it was sooo pretty (hence the photo overload) that I almost didn't want to eat it. It was really good though--and VERY filling. Even my husband couldn't finish a bowl full. It's a very fancy, filling vegetarian meal. The adobo sauce I made was good--I liked it heated up, although I guess it is supposed to be kind of the dressing for the salad. But it was a good seasoning for the dish, and I enjoyed it. I did sort of wing the adobo sauce, so if you're picky about that kind of thing, use canned stuff, or you can follow the link for my basic recipe.


Anyway, I adapted the recipe to make a vegetarian meal instead of a salad. Here's the full meal version.


Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed (1/2-inch pieces)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1-2 tbsp adobo sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 cups cooked Jacob's cattle beans (any other kind would do just as well)
• 1 large bunch kale, stemmed and torn into small pieces
• 1/2 c. feta cheese

Instructions:

Wash, stem and tear up kale and place in a large casserole pan (mine was the big pyrex pan, about 9x14 I think.

Seed butternut squash, peel if desired, and cut into approx 1/2 inch cubes. Mine weren't too exact. Also, I don't peel mine because I grew them and they're organic. But if you're unsure, peel. The skins are very soft and edible, so feel free to skip this step. Spread over kale in the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the squash and kale, as evenly as possible.

Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, until squash is very tender. If you're like me and your pieces aren't uniform, test the largest pieces. When they're done, so is everything else.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together 1/2 tsp. salt, vinegar, mustard, honey, adobo sauce, garlic slices, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper.

When squash is done, pour sauce over it and toss in the casserole pan. Some of the kale may be crispy, and that's fine!

Add beans and mix well. Return pan to the oven for a couple minutes until heated through.

Serve topped with feta or other crumbled goat cheese.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Okay, so these sounded so good in theory...not so much in practice. My son loves pumpkin pancakes, but unfortunately, my pumpkin crop was a big fat fail this year. So I thought I'd make sweet potato pancakes instead. You can imagine my excitement when I found a recipe that even said, "If you like pumpkin pancakes, you'll love these." WRONG!

Don't let these fool you...these are the 'after' pics. See below for the horror story.

While I don't blame the sweet potatoes for the failure, I will definitely NOT be making this recipe ever again. When I put all the ingredients together, the batter turned into a blob of frothy, foaming gelatinous goo. Every pancake, no matter how long I cooked it, was raw in the middle. Even when I left it in the pan so long it was burnt on the outside. It was very reminiscent of the snickerdoodle pancake fiasco I had last year. Remembering that particular pancake disaster, I added a lot of milk to these...about half a cup. And stirred it for quite a while, to get all the foaming bubbles out. Then, the batter was the right consistency (a bit thicker than cream) and the last few turned out okay. The buttermilk made them super sour, though. If I add buttermilk again, I'd probably only use 1/2 c. and 1 c. regular milk, which might make them less foamy and more liquid.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 sweet potato, cooked, peeled and mashed

creepy foamy batter cooking

Creepy foamy pancakes rising way too high while remaining raw inside.

This was the best looking of a dozen, most of which were burned on the outside and raw inside.

Creepy over-risen pancakes with butter and syrup...still creepy.

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
2. Add egg, buttermilk, and mashed sweet potato. Stir in but do not over mix; the batter should have small lumps.
3. Heat a cast iron skillet and drop a dallop of butter into it. 
4. When butter begins to bubble, pour in a bit of batter to the size pancake you want. 
5. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2½ minutes, flip over. 
6. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
7. Serve warm with a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

After beating some of the foam away and adding more liquid, they approached normal.

Pumpkin Bread

I couldn't believe Fannie had a recipe for Pumpkin Bread, but she does. It turned out really well, too.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. white flour
• 1/2 c. organic sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. pumpkin puree
• 1/2 c. coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. allspice
• 1/2 c. chopped  walnuts
• Optional: Fannie calls for 1/4 c. water, but I left this out as my batter was perfect without. If your batter is too thick, I'd use milk instead of water.

 Directions:
preheat oven to 350.

Sift together flour, sugar and baking soda. Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, milk and spices, them combine with flour & mix lightly.

Stir in nuts and pour into a buttered loaf pan.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Pumpkin Banana Nut Bread

Okay, so you know  how I got all obsessed with putting zucchini in every bread possible after I found the post with 50 zucchini bread recipes? Well, the same blog also has a collection of 50 pumpkin bread recipes. So guess what's coming soon? That's right--I'm testing some of them out!

Of course I failed to use my bananas in time again, so the first recipe I made was Banana Pumpkin Bread.

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup organic sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 large eggs

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1 cup ripe mashed banana (about 2 bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 c, whole wheat flour

1/2 cups white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
 

  1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a loaf pan.

2)  In a large bowl, beat together the oil, yogurt, sugar, honey, eggs, pumpkin, banana, orange juice, and vanilla.

3)  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Sprinkle the walnuts over the top, if using.  Fold the dry ingredients into the banana pumpkin mixture, and mix just until combined.

4)  Spoon the mixture into the prepared bread pan and Bake for 53 - 58 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  (I think there's something wrong with my oven, because I baked it for 1 hour and 40 minutes and a toothpick never came out clean so I finally just took it out)  Remove from the oven and cool on rack in pan for 10 - 15 minutes.  Remove from the pan and continue cooling on rack.  When completely cooled, slice and enjoy, or wrap in plastic wrap and store in fridge overnight. The original says it is better after sitting overnight, but I always like my bread warm. 

 

This one was still gummy even after the crazy amount of baking time, so I think my oven is wrong or I need to drain the bananas after mashing or something! It tasted okay, but I don't think I'm very crazy about pumpkin bread. I may make a few of the recipes on the list, but definitely not as many as the zucchini bread list. My husband and son really like this one, though, and it ended up being eaten up before I got around to making frosting for it, which I'd tentatively planned.

Three Bean Salad with Mustardy French Dressing

Okay, so the other day (Thursday) is the first day I've missed a post. I was so busy this week with work, family, car trouble, etc, etc, and any spare moment I had (spare moment--haha, what's that!?), I spent working on my novel. So I apologize. I was really hoping I'd get a post done every day for a year, but life happens.

To make up for the missed day, I'm posting two recipes that go together today. Although of course you can use the French Dressing recipe for salads and other things, I used it on this, so I'm posting both recipes to catch up.

This three-bean salad is actually an adaptation of a recipe called "Kidney and Green Bean Salad." But I wanted three-bean salad, and I happened to have both kidneys and garbanzo beans in the closet at once (miracles happen) so I went ahead and made it a three-bean salad.

For this, you will need:
1 c. red kidney beans, cooked and drained
1 c. garbanzo beans, cooked and drained
1 c. green beans, cut into pieces roughly the length of a kidney bean, cooked and drained
1/2 small red onion, minced
1/3 c. mustardy French dressing (recipe below).

Toss ingredients together in a bowl and let sit at least an hour, preferably overnight or make in the morning and serve at dinner.

Mustardy French Dressing:
Combine in small jar and shake well: 
2 tbsp. vinegar (I used apple cider)
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (or throw a crushed clove in the jar if you're going to let it sit a while...I made mine at the same time as the salad, so I used garlic powder)
1 tsp. ground mustard (or 1.5 tsp. Dijon if you don't have dried mustard in your spice cabinet)

Bean and Vegetable Soup with Kale and Jacob's Cattle Beans

 

This is another recipe I found on Pinterest when we were looking for recipes using Jacob's Cattle Beans. This one was soooo delicious, much better than the pureed bean soup. It was so good I got up in the morning and went to eat the leftovers, only to find that someone else had gotten there first. That's how good this recipe is!
 
 Like always, we adapted to use the things we had on hand. Below is our version. 

• 4 cups cooked beans of your choice (Jacob's Cattle Beans are the best!)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 can tomatoes, or 2 c. fresh chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 cup brown rice
• 4-6 cups water 
• 1 bunch of kale leaves, chopped or sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat a large soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, and carrots. Saute about 5 minutes. Add a little water if they start to stick.
3. Add the peppers and garlic and saute until softened.
4. Add the tomatoes, thyme, basil, rice, beans, kale, and water.
5. Simmer about 30 minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Applesauce Walnut Bread

This is one of the few quick bread recipes in Fannie Farmer that calls for 'fresh' fruit or vegetables. I say that, but in actuality, it doesn't. But since I used fresh apples to make the applesauce for this, it's about as close as Fannie gets. A real disappointment, too, because I love making breads and cakes with fresh fruit or zucchini (that goes without saying at this point, right?)

What wasn't a disappointment was this bread. It was quite delicious, much better than the apple bread I made before. Again, I couldn't taste the apples at all, but my husband took one bite and said, "Wow, you can really taste the applesauce." So I guess my taste buds weren't working right! However, it was still very good, and highly recommended.


For this, I used:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 c. applesauce
• 3/4 c. walnut pieces

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 & butter a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar

Add eggs & vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture and stir to combine well.

Stir in applesauce & walnuts and pour into loaf pan. Bake 55-75 minutes, watching closely at the end. I always have to add extra time to the baking time suggested. I think I cooked this for 60 minutes, maybe 65, and it was perfectly done.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Slice and enjoy. I like mine slightly warm, with butter and perhaps honey.