at home with ann

Perhaps you are ready for a little post-Christmas detox.  If you are like me, you ate about 200 cookies in the past 2 days.  This soup is low in fat and high in vitamins and fiber.  Just the thing to help you recover.   We had three pumpkins for Fall decorations this year, one for each of us.  Two sugar pumpkins and one mini gourd for our mini guy.  In years past, our pumpkins mysteriously ended up with bite marks in them from the various animals we have prowling around at night out here in the country.  I was pleasantly surprised that this year they made it through the season unscathed, and when December rolled around, I declared it time to bring in the pumpkins and roast them up. Since my lunches are usually spent inhaling my food while trying to keep up with my little - eating/hurling hummus around the room - machine, I like to keep it simple.  A big pot of soup I can eat all week is perfect. I made a roasted butternut soup with apples and ...

These cookies are so good, and perfect for the season!  I admit I jump all over the pumpkin bandwagon come fall.  I usually use the canned version from the market, but it's very easy to roast your own sugar pumpkins.  I have high hopes that our pumpkins will last through Halloween so I can cook them, but they usually get chewed up by some animal in the middle of the night.  Life in the country.  Pumpkin Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Frosting Original recipe modified from Food Network Yield: About 20-25 sandwich cookies Ingredients: Cookies: 1 cup sugar 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 2 Tablespoons maple syrup 2 eggs 1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or fresh) 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated is best!) pinch ground cloves pinch salt Frosting: 2 (8 oz) packaged cream cheese, softened 1 cup confectioners sugar 1...

This recipe could also be known as: things in my fridge that really needed to be used up.  Such things included: homemade pumpkin puree that had been in the freezer since last winter, a really sad, wrinkly apple, and a few cups of recently defrosted chicken broth.  That's one of things I love about soup, though.  You can throw anything in the pot, and if you add the right spices and cook it long enough, it's delicious.  Pumpkin Apple Curry Soup 1- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (butternut would work here, as well) 1 apple, peeled and chopped 1/2 medium onion, chopped 1-2 stalks celery, chopped olive oil 1 Tablespoon curry 1 teaspoon cumin salt and pepper 2 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add in apple and spices (curry, cumin, salt and pepper).  Stir and cook for one minute. Pour in pumpkin puree and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, redu...

I had half a can-worth of pumpkin puree in my refrigerator after making last week's muffins.  There were so many possibilities, I didn't know where to start.  In my Google reader alone, I have 47 recipes starred that feature pumpkin.  While they all sound delicious, I knew I wanted to take a little break from traditional baked goods (this weekend will mark the third baby shower in as many weeks, I have not been deprived of cookies).  The Pumpkin Granola from Baked Bree was especially appealing because I had all the ingredients on hand, and I've been craving cereal lately. I ended up having still a little leftover, so I made a pumpkin pie smoothie, which you've already seen if you Like my Facebook page.  If you haven't already seen it, you should Like my page.  In addition to linking to all the recipe posts, I also share random comments, mini recipes, and awkward kitchen moments.  Pumpkin Granola recipe from Baked Bree I halved the original rec...

Day two of muffin recipes.  I love pumpkin baked goods, and this is the time of year when every market has a huge canned pumpkin display.  Of course if you are ambitious, you can use fresh pumpkin for this, but I wait until later in the fall to hack up and cook my pumpkins.  Yesterday morning when we left the house, I noticed that some animal had made quite a meal out of half of one of my pumpkins.  This might explain the mysterious noises I heard outside on Halloween night.  Due to the snow storm, power outages and downed trees, our town changed Trick or Treating from Monday to Friday.  I left the lights off Monday night and did my best to exercise control with the giant bowl of candy.  I worried the mysterious noises were disgruntled children egging the house. Creepy animals on the front steps are so much more comforting.  This recipe took hardly any time to come together, and I didn't even need my mixer.  I've mentioned before how much...