The pumpkin, fall/winter squash and sweet potato recipe thread

[travelmel]

Is it just me or does he remind you of Groucho Marx? Maybe it's just me..... Anyway, he's the best lawyer I could find. He's never lost a case...........and never won one either. A perfect record. (OK, I admit it. I stole that line from an Addams Family episode. I hope the show's writers won't sue me. )

I'm glad you appreciate my wacky sense of humor.

LOVE IT!!

By the way, what's the story behind your new signature? It's really freaky. I love it!

It's a Twilight Thing.

You'll learn ALL about it in my TR - if you haven't grown ghastly tired of it yet!

Keep up the good work!
EDIT: just got your post that you finished my TR!

 

[MazdaUK]

I have two Disney recipe books - I did find some of the recipes had to be scaled down, and were a bit complex if you don't have a commis-chef and sous-chef doing half the work But I have used them as a basis for other stuff and that worked well.

 

[tiggerfan1]

I've never tried it, but if you do ever get to meet him I've heard he'll give you bouncing lessons if you ask him.

I've heard that, too! I'm definitely going to do that when I get to meet him......I mean, if I get to meet him.

Oh I just remembered something that I had thought about posting last night - have any of you cooks bought one of the Disney cookbooks they sell in the parks? We bought one during our last trip . . . we've only tried one recipe so far, and it was for Tonga Toast from the Polynesian. I believe we had to improvise a bit because the ingredients were a bit pricey, but it still turned out AWESOME.

I don't have a Disney cookbook, but I have read through the Disney recipe exchange thread. You should check out that thread if you haven't already done so. It's here on the cooking board, but I'll give you the link anyway. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1575103 I've tried the Tonga Toast and made BBQ rub and BBQ sauce based on Flame Tree's recipes. They turned out really well! I'd like to get a Disney cookbook one day.

It's a Twilight Thing.

You'll learn ALL about it in my TR - if you haven't grown ghastly tired of it yet!

Keep up the good work!
EDIT: just got your post that you finished my TR!

Thanks for your kind words. By the way, did you make that signature yourself or did someone else make it for you? It's really cool. Sorry if you already mentioned this in your TR.....I may have missed it.

I have two Disney recipe books - I did find some of the recipes had to be scaled down, and were a bit complex if you don't have a commis-chef and sous-chef doing half the work But I have used them as a basis for other stuff and that worked well.

Hi, MazdaUK! Long time no see. I hope you and your family had a great St. Nicholas' day. Did you get sweets or sticks? I celebrated St. Nicholas' day for the first time this year. It was, um, well.....that's kind of a long story. You can read about my first St. Nick's day on page 13 (last post). (Warning: In order to read that post, you must have a high tolerance for nonsense.)

By the way, which Disney recipe books do you have? I know that there are several and it'd be nice to have a recommendation. Oh, and which recipes have you tried?

 

[tiggerfan1]

Hey, did you guys know that this was a recipe thread? I had no idea! I wish I had a recipe to contribute.


Oh, hey, here's one!



Mashed Potato, Rutabaga, And Parsnip Casserole With Caramelized Onions (from allrecipes.com)


7 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 pounds rutabagas, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 pounds parsnips, peeled and cubed
8 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 onions, thinly sliced
salt and ground black pepper to taste


-Combine chicken broth, potatoes, rutabagas, parsnips, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and cover partially. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes. Drain.

-Transfer vegetables to large bowl. Add 1/2 cup butter or margarine . Use an electric mixer, beat mixture until mashed but still chunky. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer mashed vegetables to a buttered 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish.

-Melt remaining 1/4 cup butter or margarine in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions. Saute until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Saute until onions are tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Spread onions evenly over mashed vegetables. Casserole can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes, or until heated through and top begins to crisp.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Butternut Squash and Creamed-Spinach Gratin (from epicurious.com)


3 pounds fresh spinach, stems discarded, or 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen leaf spinach, thawed
5 tablespoons unsalted butter plus additional for greasing pan
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (1 small)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
4 pounds butternut squash (2 large), peeled, quartered, and seeded

Special equipment: an adjustable-blade slicer



-If using fresh spinach, bring 1 inch water to a boil in a 6- to 8-quart pot over high heat. Add spinach, a few handfuls at a time, and cook, turning with tongs, until wilted, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water.

-Thoroughly squeeze cooked fresh or thawed frozen spinach in small handfuls to remove excess moisture, then coarsely chop and transfer to a bowl.

-Melt 3 tablespoons butter in an 8-inch heavy skillet over moderately low heat, then cook onion and garlic, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add onion mixture to spinach along with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cream and stir to combine.

-Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a 3-quart shallow baking dish (13 by 9 inches; not glass).

-Cut squash to separate bulb section from solid neck section, then cut pieces lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick slices with slicer.

-Layer squash and spinach mixture in baking dish, using about one fifth of squash and one fourth of spinach for each layer, beginning and ending with squash. Sprinkle top layer of squash evenly with cheese and dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter, then cover directly with a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Bake until squash is tender and filling is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove paper and bake gratin until browned in spots, 10 to 15minutes, or broil 3 inches from heat, 2 to 3 minutes.

Makes 8-10 servings.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Pumpkin Gingerbread (from allrecipes.com)


3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder



-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

-In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.

-In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans.

-Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

 

[travelmel]

Caramelized Onions (from allrecipes.com)

Onion.. the other white root.

 

[mel63]

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin, chilled
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk, chilled
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup (1 small) sliced banana
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
optional
ice cubes
ground cinnamon

Put pumpkin, evap. milk, oj, banana & sugar in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour over ice, sprinkle with cinnamon.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Caramelized Onions (from allrecipes.com)

Onion.. the other white root.

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin, chilled
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk, chilled
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup (1 small) sliced banana
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
optional
ice cubes
ground cinnamon

Put pumpkin, evap. milk, oj, banana & sugar in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour over ice, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Thanks for the pumpkin smoothie recipe, mel63!

 

[tiggerfan1]

Pumpkin Custard Profiteroles with Maple Caramel (from epicurious.com)


Maple caramel

1 cup maple sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


Pumpkin custard

3 cups whipping cream
2 1/4 cups canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
9 large egg yolks


Profiteroles

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk



For maple caramel:

-Stir sugar and butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until blended and smooth. Whisk in cream. Bring to boil, stirring until caramel bits dissolve. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in bourbon and vanilla; simmer 1 minute. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)


For pumpkin custard:

-Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk cream and next 6 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Whisk sugar and egg yolks in medium bowl. Gradually stir hot pumpkin mixture into egg yolk mixture.

-Pour pumpkin custard into 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish; cover with foil. Place dish in 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Fill baking pan with enough hot water to come halfway up sides of dish. Bake until custard is set in center, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely. Cover and chill until cold, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)


For profiteroles:

-Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring 1/2 cup water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to boil in heavy large saucepan. Stir in flour; cook over medium-high heat, stirring vigorously, until dough is smooth and pulls away from sides of pan, about 1 minute. Transfer hot mixture to standing mixer. Beat dough with paddle attachment at medium speed until slightly cool, about 3 minutes. Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in egg yolk until blended.

-Spoon 16 mounds of batter about the size of large eggs onto prepared sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Beat remaining egg in small bowl to blend. Brush tops of profiteroles lightly with beaten egg. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 375°F. Continue baking until puffed and dark golden brown, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer to rack to cool completely. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container in freezer. Remove from freezer a few hours before continuing.)

-Rewarm caramel sauce. Using serrated knife, slice profiteroles horizontally in half. Spoon rounded 1/3 cup filling into bottom half of each profiterole. Cover with top halves. Drizzle with sauce. Spoon dollop of whipped cream atop profiteroles. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and serve.


Makes 16 servings.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Happy Saturday! For a Saturday treat, I made you...........sweet potato cinnamon rolls!!

These cinnamon rolls (recipe on page 9) were really good. They were more cakey than your average cinnamon rolls, but I won't hold that against them. The sweet potato taste is very subtle, so you'd probably still enjoy them even if you don't care for sweet potatoes. The recipe called for chilled butter in the filling, which helps to make the filling really gooey. I ended up having to double the filling in order to have enough to sprinkle on the dough. Unfortunately, the chunky filling made it a bit difficult to roll up the dough. Even though chilled butter makes the filling really gooey, I think that I'll use softened butter next time. I know, I'm crazy, right? Anyway, I also left out the pecans and raisins. I don't have anything against them, but no one in my family likes nuts and raisins in their cinnamon rolls. I also chose not to use the glaze that the recipe called for. Instead, I made a simple powdered sugar icing (powdered sugar + a little milk) and added a little maple syrup to it. I was so excited to eat these, that I almost forgot to wait for the rolls to cool before adding the icing. These rolls were a hit with my family and I will definitely be making them again.

 

[MazdaUK]

Ooooh! I would LOVE to try these Or, i could just stick them on my a** and cut out the middle man

 

[travelmel]

Thank you! Those look spectacular and smell delicous (said while chewing and sniffing loudly).

I know it's just wrong but I'm going to make CRANBERRY Salsa tonight. It's SOOOOO OT but can/should I post the recipe anyway??? I could post it on my thread if it's tabor taboo....???

 

[tiggerfan1]

Ooooh! I would LOVE to try these Or, i could just stick them on my a** and cut out the middle man

Don't worry, Mazda! These cinnamon rolls are completely fat-free. I promise! (said Tiggerfan1, as she crossed her fingers behind her back)

Thank you! Those look spectacular and smell delicous (said while chewing and sniffing loudly).

I know it's just wrong but I'm going to make CRANBERRY Salsa tonight. It's SOOOOO OT but can/should I post the recipe anyway??? I could post it on my thread if it's tabor taboo....???

CRANBERRIES??? Just kidding. Go ahead and post your recipe if you want. Cranberry salsa sounds really good. I've been tempted to post some OT recipes, too. I should have made this a holiday recipe thread. I'm going to do that next year, unless somebody starts one first. Hey, if you're interested and if we're both still on the DIS this time next year, we should do the sister thread thing again. You can have your holiday picture thread again and I'll have a holiday recipe thread. We can start in early-mid October for Halloween! Holidays with the Two Hot Pepitas!!

 

[travelmel]

CRANBERRIES??? Just kidding. Go ahead and post your recipe if you want. Cranberry salsa sounds really good. I've been tempted to post some OT recipes, too. I should have made this a holiday recipe thread. I'm going to do that next year, unless somebody starts one first. Hey, if you're interested and if we're both still on the DIS this time next year, we should do the sister thread thing again. You can have your holiday picture thread again and I'll have a holiday recipe thread. We can start in early-mid October for Halloween! Holidays with the Two Hot Pepitas!!

Sounds perfect!

Well, I won't post a recipe, per se (now I have to laugh at the per se comment)... Ok, so if you happpened to have a bunch of cilantro, a bunch of green onions, and two seeded jalapeno peppers and you just noticed that your food processor was out on the counter top and then all of those green items jumped into it and got mangled up that would be, co-incidentally, that the begining of cranberry salsa. Of course you would then dump out the green stuff immediately. Then.. if by SOME crazy form of interesting luck you happened to have an entire package of raw cranberries which you could bounce (yes, they bounce) into the same food processor and pulse then you could stir up the green with the red and make a mush of the two.

Now here's the kicker. This would never happen, of course, but.. if... if you could get a 1/2 cup of sugar, two tablespoons of olive oil, and the juice of a lime to somehow stir themselves into the green/red mixture then VOILA! Cranberry sals would be finished, done, finito. That's all folks. (let set for 3 hours). HA HA!

See, that was more of a chat then a recipe post. Very casual chat. No recipe exchange whatsoever. OT be gone! We don't need no steenking OT posts around here!

 

[tiggerfan1]

That, my friend, was pure genius. Now you don't have to pay my $20 "off topic recipe" fee.


OT recipe? What OT recipe? I didn't see any OT recipe. You was just talking about how cool cranberries are. They're all bouncy 'n' stuff.

Your cranberry non-recipe sounds really good. Thanks for sharing!

 

[travelmel]

Hee hee hee... it's a good thing cause money is tight around these parts!

OMG that cranberry salsa that made itself was SOOOOO darn good! It's so pretty and festive looking AND tasting. This is a MUST DO. Seriously.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies (from dianasdesserts.com)


2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canned 100% pure pumpkin
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips



-Preheat oven to 350°F (180 C). Coat a 9-inch-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

-Combine sugar, pumpkin, egg, egg whites and oil in large mixer bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, salt and nutmeg. Beat on low speed until batter is smooth. Stir in morsels. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

-Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into 2-inch squares.

-Makes 16 (2-inch) brownies.

 

[tiggerfan1]

Pumpkin Empanaditas (from dianasdesserts.com)


Filling:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice* (see note below)
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/8 oz./226g) cold butter
8 to 10 tablespoons cold water

Glaze:
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

Decoration: Coarse decorator sugar (optional)


-Combine pumpkin, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened (8 to 12 minutes). Cool completely (45 to 60 minutes). Stir in pecans.

-Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

-Combine flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl; cut in 1 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough water until flour is just moistened.

-Divide dough in half. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter. Place rounded 1/2 teaspoon filling in center of each circle. Fold one side of circle over other to form crescent-shaped empanaditas. Pinch together lightly to seal. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet; press edges together with tines of fork to seal.

-Whisk together egg and 1 teaspoon water in small bowl. Brush egg mixture lightly over tops of empanaditas; repeat. Sprinkle with decorator sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.


Note: Substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and cloves for the pumpkin pie spice.

Tip: Filling can be prepared ahead, covered and refrigerated.


Makes 4 1/2 dozen

 

[travelmel]

The brownies sound good! Have you tried them? I bet you haven't otherwise there would be a lovely pic with a bite missing!