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Butternut Squash Soup

• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 butternut Squash
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 pear
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 spring rosemary
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tb lemon juice

Peel the skin of the butternut squash with a potato peeler or carefully with a knife
Cut in half and clean out the seeds and discard the seeds
Cut inside flesh into 2 inch pieces.
Peel the pear , seed and cut into 6 pieces
Saute the onion in olive oil
Add the butternut squash pieces and the pear pieces
Add the chicken stock and rosemary.
Cook until the squash is tender
Let cool a bit and remove the rosemary sprig
Puree with an immersion blender or in a food processor
Put back into the pot and season with salt and pepper, and lemon juice. Add water if it is too thick at this time.
Serve hot with a sprinkling of fresh chopped herbs or some grated parmesan

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Cupcake Batter:

• 7 ¾ ounces all-purpose flour
• 2 TB cocoa
• ½+1/8 teas baking soda (sifted)
• ½+1/8 teas salt
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• 6 ½ oz sugar
• 2/3 cup
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ teas red food coloring
• 1 ¼ teas
• 1 TB vanilla

Frosting

• 6 oz salted butter
• 6 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1Tb vanilla

Prep.:
Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and into a bowl and set aside.
In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring vinegar, vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.

Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

For the buttercream frosting:

Whip the butter with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Frost cooled cupcakes with the frosting

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Scone-cakes

Adapted from Albers Corn Bread

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 teas salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teas vanilla

Combine all the ingredients, whisk together.

Pour into a greased 9” cake pan.

Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.

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Scone-cakes

Adapted from Albers Corn Bread

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 teas salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teas vanilla

Combine all the ingredients, whisk together.

Pour into a greased 9” cake pan.

Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.

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Mom’s Banana Coffee Cake

My mom has this coffee cake waiting everytime I visit her Oregon. Breakfast is always ready to be served when I walk down the stairs of her lovely home. I know that this coffee cake will accompany whatever other delectable breakfast treats she has prepared.

Adapted from Carol Steel’s Aravaipa Farms Morning Banana Cake

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup pecans, slightly toasted
• 1 cup dried cranberries, or dried strawberries
• 1 teas baking powder
• 1 teas baking soda
• 1 teas salt
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana
• 2 teas vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup melted butter (salted)
• 1 cup buttermilk

Mix the flour, pecans, cranberries,baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate large bowl mix the sugar, banana, vanilla, and eggs until blended.

Add the butter and the buttermilk. Mix this into the egg mixture. Add the flour mixture and fold together until incorporated.

Butter and flour a nonstick decorative tube pan.

Bake for approximately 1 hour at 350F or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake then release the cake out of the pan and serve.

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Puako Tacos

• 1 package of McCormicks Taco Seasoning
• 1 1/2 lb of ground chuck
• 2 TB water
• 1 package (24) white corn tortillas
• 2/3 cup corn oil

“Fixings”

• 1/2 bunch minced green onion
• 1 avocado sliced
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 8 leaves of lettuce finely shredded
• 1 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Fry the ground beef and when done spoon the drippings out of the bottom of the pan and discard. Add the taco seasoning and the water. Stir into the cooked meat until well distributed and absorbed.

Have all the “fixings” prepared and placed in separate bowls.

Pour the oil in a saute pan and heat until hot, not burning. Add the corn tortillas one at a time. Using a pair of metal tongs fry on one side for approximately one minute and then turn over and fry a half minute on the other side. At this point fold the tortilla in half to form a half-moon. Fry until tanned. Take out of the pan and set open side down on a paper towel lined tray. The shells should be stiff and stay standing up. They will harden more as they cool, this is good.

When you have finished frying all the shells, pick one up at a time and fill with meat, then the desired “fixings”. Place on a plate and serve. A good serving is three to four per person. One warning is to not over fill with meat. They are not to be hearty. The meat and the ‘fixings” are delicate and not too much of one or the other.

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Orange Chiffon Cake

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated magazine

• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teas baking powder
• 3/4 teas salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 6 yolks
• 1 1/4 cups orange juice
• 1 TB orange zest
• 10 egg whites
• 1/4 teas cream of tartar

DO NOT BUTTER two Bundt pans, it is important not to use butter, the cake needs to be able to grab onto the side of the pan

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.

In a small bowl whisk together the oil, yolks, orange juice, and zest.

Mix together the yolk mixture and flour mixture until smooth

Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar in an electric mixer with the whisk attachment until the yellow of the whites changes to foamy white, then add the sugar slowly. Whip until the egg whites are a firm meringue. You will know that this is done when you place a rubber spatula in the egg whites and it stands up without having to hold it.

Fold in the yolk mixture into the meringue.

Pour into the prepared pans and bake 325 for 25 minutes

After the cake is done, take it out of the oven and set it upside down on an upside down small bowl without removing the cake from the pan. This will allow the cake to hang and not sink down and loose its airy quality. Make sure the middle of the Bundt pan is resting on the bowl so that air can circulate around the bottom of the cake.

Icing

• 6 Tablespoons salted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teas vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and then spread on the cooled cake with a spatula.

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Humble Rice Pudding

Serves 12

Adapted from Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding by Molly Wizenberg

• 3 cups of water
• 1 1/2 cups basmati rice
• 1/2 teas salt
• 6 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 TB vanilla or one vanilla bean

Simmer rice, water and salt in a large deep pan. Let simmer no more that 7 minutes. Add the sugar, milk, cream and vanilla bean cut in half and the seeds scraped out if using. Simmer for 25 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the rice so that it breaks apart. If you are adding liquid vanilla, let the pudding rest 10 minutes after cooking and then add the vanilla.

Pour a small dab of the Toffee Sauce from the preceding recipe in the bottom of a glass custard cup. Reserve 1/2 cup toffee sauce for decoration. Pour the rice pudding on top of the toffee sauce. The Toffee sauce will be pushed up the sides a bit and it will look very pretty. Cover by pressing plastic wrap onto the top of the pudding, this helps prevent the forming of a skin. Let chill for at least 5 hours. Before serving whip cream and sweeten with 1 TB of sugar and 1/4 teas of vanilla to each cup of cream . With a pastry bag and a star tip, pipe a pretty rosette on top of the pudding and drizzle with a bit of the reserved toffee sauce.

You will need approximately two cups of toffee sauce for this entire recipe.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding/Toffee Pudding Fondue

• 2 cups of date pieces
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 teas baking soda
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teas vanilla
• 1/2 teas salt
• 1 teas baking powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Heat the water and add the dates and the soda. Let stand 20 minutes
Cream the butter and the brown sugar, add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the butter mixture, Scrape down the bowl and make sure the bottom is incorporated. Add the date mixture. Mix on medium until incorporated.
Set oven to 350. Put a baking tray bigger than the muffin tin in the oven. Pour water into the pan to halfway. Grease muffin tines, fill, 3/4 of the way full and put the tin over the water bath. Bake for 35-40 minutes until done. They will feel moist but will spring back to the touch when done.
Let cool and gently take them out of the tins.Place them on the plate you will serve them on. Poke them with a skewer and pour the toffee sauce (recipe follows) over the tops. Served best warm.

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Toffee Sauce/fondue

• 1 cup salted butter melted
• 3 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups cream
• pinch salt

Heat the butter and the brown sugar Add the cream and bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer 6-8 minutes.
For the fondue just put it in the pot warm and have some things like strawberries, sliced apples, and cubes of cake to dip.

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Spicemerry cookies

• 1/3 cup sugar plus 1/3 cup for dipping
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 6 oz unsalted butter,softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp grd cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp grd ginger
• 1/2 tsp grd cloves
• 1/4 tsp grd allspice
• 1/4 tsp grd black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.
Set 1/3 cup sugar aside in a dish for rolling.

In a standing mixer mix the butter and the sugars together until fluffy (about 3 min). Reduce speed and add the yolk,vanilla;increase the speed and beat 20 seconds until incorporated. Reduce speed and add the molasses; beat until fluffy. Stop the mixer add the dry ingredients that have been measured together in a bowl. Carefully turn on the mixer so not to spray the flour everywhere. Mix until incorporated. Do not overmix. Make sure that there are no flour pockets. Using a tablespoon scoop out balls, roll them in your hands and roll them in the sugar. Press them lightly down onto the tray, 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time. Bake for exactly 10 minutes.They will be brown and still a bit puffy looking, don’t be fooled they are done, they will harden up a bit when they cool.

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