Recipe Review and Pantry Challange!

Date: 11-12-07


Mission: Recipe Review and Pantry Reduction
To find that forgotten, misplaced, buried, long ago forgoten pantry item and find a recipe to use it up!


This weeks items:
Pumpkin (frozen 10/05)
Squash (1 of 29 harvested from this year’s garden. I’ve given away about 10, time to start using the rest)
Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup


The Recipes:
Pumpkin Pecan Pie (Penzey’s Spices Catalog, Holiday 07) 8
Okay, maybe this was cheating a bit starting with frozen pumpkin, but it’s Fall and nothing goes with a Fall Sunday dinner better than a fresh baked pumpkin pie. And this was a really good one. Super simple to assemble - mix pumpkin, sugars, spices, egg and put into a pie crust. Bake. Meanwhile, mix brown sugar, pecans and chilled butter until crumbly. Add to pie and bake 25 more minutes.


This turned out really good. The streusel topping was one of the better toppings I’ve had, though the Hubby felt there was a bit too much. A bit of fresh whipped cream would have tempered the sweetness a bit, but as it was, delicious!


Mashed Potatoes and Root Vegetables (Cooks Illustrated, Nov/Dec 07, pg 9) 8
Can’t have a Fall Sunday dinner with out some kind of mashed potatoes. I had some parsnips and carrots in the crisper so I just needed a few potatoes. This was another easy and great dish (thinking Thanksgiving worthy here!). In a large saute pan, melt butter until foamy, add diced parsnips and carrot and saute until browned. Add a bit of chicken broth and potatoes and steam (yes! steam!) until done (about 25 minutes). Mash with warmed ½ n ½. Serve. The only way I deviated from this recipe was I didn’t peel the potatoes. This makes a lovely, slightly chunky mashed potato that’s just a tich bit different. Yum!


Pinner’s Pork Roast (Penzey’s One, Vol 1, Issue 5) 8
And of course, the meat! A 3.5lb roast is seasoned with olive oil and a dry rub mixture consisting of Penzey’s Northwoods Seasoning, thyme, cracked rosemary, garlic powder, and onion powder. I let this sit for about an hour, then baked at 325*/350* for two hours with a splash of chicken broth in the bottom of the pan to help keep it moist. Not only was it nice and moist, but I had enough drippings to make a pork gravy (I am gravy impaired and this actually turned out!). Lot’s of yummy leftovers for the week.


Butternut Squashed - Baked.
Peel and cube 1 butternut squash. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake 45 min at 350*. Eat! This has become one of my favorite ways to prepare squash. It bakes up so nice and you can season it anyway you like. Super simple and super tasty.


Sesame-Whole Wheat Bread (The Bread Bible by Beth Henspergers, pg 82) 6
I needed some bread for the week and the Hubby requested something whole wheat. Often I find, when picking a bread recipe, so much depends on what I have available in the cupboard - it seems like I am always missing one little ingredient or another. The first recipe I picked out I didn’t have any sunflower seeds. For this one I had everything necessary. A pretty basic recipe that had three different rises: one for the slurry, and two for the dough. There was an error in the recipe where I had to wing it a bit, when making the ww slurry, it called for milk in the instructions, but gave no amount in the ingredients. I estimated one cup and it worked okay, I made note that if I make this again to perhaps do ½ -2/3 cups. What was unique about this bread was the cornmeal and sesame seeds called for.


Overall, this made a decent loaf, a bit on the dry side but that could have been due to milk quandary (and perhaps a bit over baked).


Swiss Chard and Lentil Soup (reviewed previously on my old Yahoo site) I pulled this out to have with grilled cheese. Quick, simple, warm. Also happens to be my lunch today.

Next weeks mission: goat cheese and dried pinto beans!