Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yes it's another pumpkin recipe...what can I say it tis the season for pumpkin!

This is another recipe from my sister Rebekah.

And sorry for the bad pic...I mistakenly put them in my silicone muffin tin without a liner and I had the hardest time trying to get them out in one piece, so I decided I was just going to have to take a picture of them still in the tin.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
14 oz pumpkin (1/2 a large 29 oz can)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
12 oz bag of milk chocolate chips, or raisins or pecans *optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl or Kitchen Aid, cream the butter or margarine, then add in the sugar and cream well. Beat in the eggs then add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Add in desired amount of chocolate chips, raisins, or pecans.

Line muffin tins with liners and spray Pam on the top of the muffin tin (helps with removing the muffins from the tin). Fill the muffin cups almost full if you like a nice big crunchy muffin top or a little less full if you don't want a big muffin top.

Bake for approximately 20 - 30 minutes (depending on how full you filled your muffin cups) until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Note: the fuller the cups, the more the muffin top will spread on the top of the tin, if that makes sense!

Note: You can also make this into pumpkin loaves, bake time will be approximately 60-65 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies

This is one of my sister Rebekah's recipes. I haven't made them for years, but as I've been wanting to make some pumpkin recipes for weeks I finally made them last week! I ended up taking them all the Church for my Relief Society lesson so I didn't a picture, but I will next time!

Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of pumpkin (14-16 oz can of pumpkin) **
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 cups flour

1 bag of milk chocolate chips (12 oz bag)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the margarine/butter and sugars in a large bowl / KitchenAid. Then add the eggs and vanilla and cream till well mixed. Then add the pumpkin and mix well. In separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together, then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well mixed. Add the chocolate chips and mix well by hand.

Spoon onto ungreased non stick cookie sheets (if not non stick, then spray PAM on the cookie sheet).

Cook for 15 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

*Note: Makes approximately 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on size of cookies.

*Note: You want the cookie batter super thick, so you might want/need to add a little extra flour. The cookies should be nice and thick (almost like a mini muffin) when they're done baking. If they flatten too much you'll want to add a little more flour!

**Note: If you have a large can of pumpkin (29 oz) that you'd like to use you can double the recipe.

Enjoy!

Easy Cheese Quesidilla Appetizer

This is super easy and surprisingly yummy! I had the idea while trying to make a quick lunch one day. I was making a simple cheese quesidilla and saw some left over brushetta topping in the fridge and thought it would probably taste good on top...I was right...it's delicious!

So this is very simple and not too much of an actual recipe as I don't use exact amounts, but to help give you a bit of an idea I've guesstimated amounts here to make 2 quesidilla's.

Easy Cheese Quesidilla Appetizer

2 un-cooked flour tortillas (or cooked flour tortilla)
3/4 - 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 large tomato, diced
1-2 green onions, chopped
1 tsp olive oil, approximately
1 tsp minced garlic
pinch of salt

Dice the tomato, green onions and mix together with olive oil, minced garlic and salt. Let mixture marinate while making the quesidilla.

Cook one side of the tortilla over medium heat in a large frying pan. Flip it over and sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on half of the tortilla, then fold the tortilla in half. Cook the tortilla for a few minutes and then flip it over and cook the other side. Remove the tortilla to a plate and spread a thin layer of sour cream on the tortilla and then put the tomato mixture on top.

*Note: The amount of tomatoes, green onions, olive oil, garlic and salt will depend on the amount you'd like to make. The mixture will keep well in the fridge for a couple of days if you'd like to make extra and then use it as needed.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup

A friend of Chris's made this soup at work for one of their potluck Sunday lunches and Chris liked it so much he brought some of it home for me. I was happy because it's delicious!

The original recipe was from RecipeZaar, I made a few small additions.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaping tbsp minced garlic (or 1 clove fresh garlic, minced)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 of a large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (about 1 1/2 lbs or 5 cups of cubed squash)
1 large carrot, diced
1 tsp ground dry sage (or 1 tsp fresh sage, chopped)
pinch of rosemary leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth (or 3 cups water plus veggie/chicken bouillon or base)
Parmesan cheese to garnish (or shredded cheese)

*Note: I just ran out of ginger and nutmeg, but if I had any I think I might add a pinch of one or both of these in the soup as well. Maybe in place of the rosemary leaves and maybe in addition to.

Add oil, garlic and onion to a large pot and saute over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

Add sage, rosemary leaves, (ginger, nutmeg,) salt, pepper, broth, squash and carrots and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until squash is cooked through.

Remove from heat and puree in blender (puree half or all of the soup, depending if you'd like to have any chunks remaining in the soup).

Return to medium heat and continue to cook for a couple minutes before serving.

Serve garnished with cheese and fresh sage if desired.

Serve in bread bowls, with fresh breadsticks, etc.

Enjoy!

*Note: This recipe makes about 8 cups of soup, so if you want a nice big pot to feed a lot of people you'll want to double it and use a large butternut squash!

Hot Fudge Sauce

So I've been a slacker and haven't posted a recipe in over a month...I've got lots saved in my drafts, but I just haven't gotten to posting any of them. But since I've been seriously obsessed with this hot fudge sauce for the last couple weeks I thought it was only fair to share the wealth and post the recipe!

I have been searching for a good hot fudge sauce recipe since I started making "The Bomb Brownies"...I've tried a few, but haven't been happy with them, then I remembered reading this post and I decided to try it.

The original recipe called for Carnation Evaporated Milk, but since I didn't have any and it was late at night and we just had to have hot fudge sauce on our vanilla ice cream I decided to improvise! I'm going to have to make it with the evaporated milk to see which one I like better, but let's just say I'm LOVING it just the way I made it...in fact I can't get enough of it and I've been craving it every day since - so much so that I had to run to the store to get some store bought ice cream when we ran out of the good stuff! Sadly it's not as good with the store bought ice cream, but I'll take what I can get;)

Hot Fudge Sauce
1 1/2 cups of butter (3 sticks for those of us in the US of A)
1 1/2 cups of whipping cream (or 1 - 12 ounce can of Carnation evaporated milk)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa
7 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or 2 lb. bag of powdered sugar)

Combine the butter, whipping cream & vanilla in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until butter is melted. Then add the cocoa & icing sugar & mix well on low heat. Once it is mixed well (meaning you can get rid of as many of the little chunks as you can), pour it into a blender and puree it for a good 3-4 minutes. If all the little chunks haven't disappeared, puree it for a couple more minutes. (Beware not to fill the blender too full as the heat of the sauce will increase the pressure in the blender and if it's too full the top may pop off and make a huge mess...so you may just want to puree it in two batches to avoid this. Chris also suggested not putting the lid on too tightly as that will let the pressure escape, but I'm too nervous the lid will pop off to try this method and just stick with doing 1/2 batch at a time.)

Serve over vanilla ice cream...homemade is definitely the best;)

Note: I like it made with the whipping cream better!

Enjoy!