First Taste of the Season: Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

I am happy to announce that canned pumpkin is back on the shelves at the grocery store! Halloween decorations are popping up all over the neighborhood and to celebrate autumn, and the return of canned pumpkin, I decided to make the first pumpkin pie of the season.

When we bought our house, I was excited to be able to decorate the outside for all the holidays. Since fall is my favorite season, I took particular interest in jazzing up the house’s curb appeal with pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks. However, my excitement was short lived when I discovered what a ruckus the décor would cause among the local squirrel community. They began by scaling the corn stalks in search of leftover ears, which they then threw to the ground and began to fight over. But that was only the beginning of the commotion. Next, they set their sights on my pumpkins. They chewed a hole into the side of each pumpkin, large enough for their rotund little bodies to fit through, then sat inside the bulbous food pit and ate it from the inside out. 

Sucking the Last Juices From Summer: Individual Peach Dumplings

 

Technically, it may be fall, but in the Twin Cities the past week or so has felt like summer. Last week we even had temperatures in the 80s for a few days. If it wasn’t for all the bare trees and leaves piling up in the yard, you’d think we were still making our way through the summer months.

All of these warm, sunny afternoons have left me craving those delectable summer treats and when I dove into the box to find a recipe to satisfy my taste buds, I came out carrying a pamphlet for Colorado peaches. The pages contain several different peach recipes, but as soon as I made my way to the store and discovered how hard the fuzzy summer fruit would be to find, I decided to settle for just making one…if I could ever find fresh peaches.

One afternoon, Murphy and I began to make the rounds of all the local grocery stores in search of the main ingredient. Finally, at our last stop, we discovered a heaping pile of beautiful autumn-colored peaches. And they just happened to be from Colorado – how fitting! The smell floating up from the mound of ripe fruit was intoxicating and was the perfect match to the blue skies and rising mercury outside. 

A Chocolate Do-Over: Chocolate Cake

I apologize again for the delay in posting. My mom came to visit and we were busy running all over the Twin Cities in search of antique treasures (more on that to come). Then I got knocked out with a cold that kept me prisoner on the couch for several days and left my head in a near constant haze. But I am slowly on the mend and eager to get back into the kitchen!

The thing about being sick is that it leaves you with that feeling at the end of the day of being behind. I know I was sick and needed to rest, but I still felt like there were so many things that needed to be done and I didn’t accomplish any of them. Most importantly, I left another huge gap in posts on the blog. We’ve all had those days – the ones where you wish you could rewind and start over from the beginning and maybe, just maybe, things would go differently.

There are experiences in the kitchen that leave us with the same longing for a do-over. A few weeks ago when Ryan and I went down to visit friends and their new baby, I had planned on making a chocolate cake from the box. Only, when I began to pull ingredients from the cabinet, I realized that I was lacking one main ingredient – cocoa – and didn’t have time to run back to the store to pick more up so I had to switch to the Southern Fudge Cake (which proved to be a very delicious substitution). This taught me a valuable lesson: even when you think you have everything you need, double check before starting a recipe...just in case.

During a recent trip to the grocery store, I restocked my cocoa supply and decided it was time for a recipe do-over. This chocolate cake, when you have all the ingredients, is very simple to make. I chose to do cupcakes instead of a cake and I have to admit, I didn’t make the frosting on the card. I cheated and bought a can of pink frosting with funfetti (I love that stuff! It makes whatever you sprinkle it onto look “happy.”) Everyone who tasted these cupcakes agreed: this is possibly the most rich and moist cake anyone has tasted. And I suggest having a fork close by, even if you make the cupcakes. They can be quite crumbly, but in a very delicious way! 

It would be nice if every day had the opportunity for such a rich and tasty do-over. But at least now I have a recipe to pull out for those days when nothing seems to be going right. I guess the moral of the story is: when it all appears to be crumbling away, pull out your fork and enjoy all those delectable morsels. Because things are always a little better when chocolate is by your side.

Take the Long Way Home: September Birthday Cake/Brown-Eyed Susan Cake

This weekend we traveled to Illinois to celebrate my dad’s birthday. This is such a beautiful time of year – the leaves are just beginning to change and the landscape seemed to glow all the way through Wisconsin. As Ryan steered us through the illuminated scenes, I stared out the window seeking inspiration from the autumn palette. Listening to the hum of the tires on the road and counting rows of pine trees in structured groves along the side of the highway, I realized that every ounce of the experience reminded me of my dad.

Some of my earliest memories are of cruising around in cars with my dad. He has always had an affinity for “cool” cars, especially the classics, and I can’t remember a time in my life when there wasn’t a car sitting in our driveway that made men salivate and my mom threaten to put a “for sale” sign on it. Much to my mom’s dismay, I inherited the car gene and was always intrigued by these vehicles. When I was little, I’m not sure if it was the car that was so fascinating or the fact that it meant uninterrupted time with my dad that was the appeal. But I’ll never forget the feeling of driving around town in my dad’s dark green Trans-Am with the windows down, letting the summer air swat my hair into tangled knots, listening to songs that will forever be embedded into my heart, and looking over and smiling at my dad. Ironically, the songs that are the most dear to me from that time are on Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America” album – how fitting that food is mentioned in the title.

Welcoming Autumn: Sugar Cookies

Last night at 10:09pm the seasons officially changed from summer to fall, although, around here it has actually felt like fall for the past few weeks. The temperatures have been dipping into the 40s at night – which would be great sleeping weather if my dog would stop stealing the extra blanket I threw on the bed! And the colors of the leaves are fading fast, creating a layer of camouflage across the back yard the color of a Golden Retriever, perfect for Murphy to hide in while sneaking up on his squirrel enemies and completing his mission of destroying every pinecone that falls in the yard. There are piles of pinecone carnage everywhere.  

Delivering Bundles of Joy: Southern Fudge Cake & Strawberry Chiffon Pie

The other day, while wandering through the aisles of the grocery store with a grumbling stomach and rising level of agitation at not being able to find anything (they’re currently renovating so everything has been moved to a temporary location that the search into a game of “Where’s Waldo”), I started to pay more attention to the people around me rather than the food. Sure, there were those who were just as frustrated as I was that a ten minute “quick” run to the store had turned into a quest more daunting than Frodo’s trip to Mordor (my husband is a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan, I haven’t yet read the books, but the story still keeps finding its way into my life regardless). But then I noticed something else: the bleary-eyed, glazed-over look that seemed to have taken possession of so many of the faces around me. Many grabbed aimlessly for meals in a box or frozen bag that required little to no preparation. Others seemed totally disconnected from the experience all together and as their arms reached out to grab items and toss them into the cart, I wondered if they would even remember doing it when they got home and unloaded their bags.

After locating the few items I needed, I made my way back to the growing lines at the checkout. Instead of scanning tabloid headlines like I usually do to waste time in line, I began to contemplate how much thought we actually put into the food we make. So many of us are too worn out at the end of the day to care enough to put our few remaining scraps of energy into a well-planned, home cooked meal. To be honest, until I started this project, I didn’t pay as much attention to my weekly menu as I do now. Before, my husband and I planned meals that would provide enough leftovers for the rest of the week or, if we hadn’t had time to run to the store, we’d piece together the remnants of the freezer, fridge and pantry until it resembled something edible.

Saying Goodbye to Summer: August Birthday Cake/Banana Cake

The end of August is a bittersweet time in Minnesota. On one hand, the sudden appearance of school buses practicing their routes through neighborhood streets is a reminder that school, and the end of summer, are right around the corner. But on the other hand, we have the Minnesota State Fair to look forward to. A few years ago, my family came up to attend the State Fair for their very first time. They instantly fell in love and it has been a tradition ever since. And this year was no exception.

At the first hint of summer, my mom began asking when they’d release the list of new food items for the fair this year. It’s always exciting to see the unique ways people invent to prepare and serve food (did you ever think you could eat an entire Thanksgiving dinner in one glorious lump served on a stick? Well you can!) We had to wait for what seemed a lifetime, but soon enough the papers and news programs began to discuss the latest foods to be deep fried and skewered. The hot item this year was camel on a stick and it was instantly placed at the top of our “to-try” list. After weeks of collecting articles, mapping out where our favorites were being served and crossing the days off the calendar, my parents finally arrived and it was time to hit the fair. Here are the photos of everything we tried along with our reviews: