It is just a road map.........

I like to bake and cook but I rarely follow a recipe. I think one time I heard Paula Deen say that "a recipe is like a road map". You can take the interstate (and follow the recipe exactly), but if you take a few detours the trip may just be a lot more interesting and that makes the recipe fit your family.

So when I cook I make some detours here and there. Some of the detours are simple - for instance I do not like bell peppers, so I either leave them out or I substitute hot peppers. Sometimes I come up with something that my family thinks is a real winner. Only once or twice have a made something so inedible that they would not eat it and even them it was not wasted as we fed it to the pigs or the chickens.

A recent winner with my family and friends is Sweet Potato Cookies. They started out as an oatmeal spice cookie recipe from a friend but some additions and deletions they have been reinvented to be Sweet Potato Cookies.

Sweet Potato Cookies

¾ Cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup finely shredded sweet potato, uncooked
4 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups oatmeal
1 cup flaked coconut (I make it a generous cup!)
1 cup chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, sweet potato and orange juice concentrate. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Slowly add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Mix in the coconut and pecans until just combined.

Drop by the spoonful 2 inches apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on racks.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do. If you make some detours of your own I would love to hear about them.

Carol - Wyomingmom

Pumpkin Roll

I love living in Germany.  I really do.  We've been able to see so many neat places and share in so many cultural traditions since we arrived.  It's been an amazing experience.

There's always That Thing, though.  You know?  That one Thing that you wish was just the way it was when you grew up.

I can deal with the rain.  I don't mind that the kids only go to school until 1:00.  It doesn't bother me that I spend half my time driving going 5 mph behind a bicycle.  But I really wish my oven was bigger than two cubic feet inside!

I told you all that I've been all about pumpkin recently.  So naturally, I peeled the label off the Libby's 100% pure pumpkin to see if there were any yummy recipes on the inside.  Lo and behold, I found the recipe for a pumpkin roll!  Oh my word!  Pumpkin AND dessert!  Two of my most favorite things in the world!!!  I dutifully went out and bought a jelly roll pan, so excited to get to make my first roll cake.  I carefully collected all of the ingredients at the commissary and assembled them on my counter.  I was ready.  This was going to be good.

Step 1.  Preheat oven to 375*F.  OK, so I have to translate the temperature into Celsius.  I'm used to that.  No problem.  Check.

Step 2.  Grease 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan; line with wax paper.  Grease and flour paper.  YAY!  My new jelly roll pan!  ...  But wait. ... Why are the edges of my jelly roll pan sticking out over the edges of the stovetop?  Huh.  If the jelly roll pan won't fit on the stovetop...  DARN IT!  I tried to fit that pan in front ways, back ways, tilted, and upside down.  (OK, so I really didn't try to fit it in upside down, but I tried everything I could think of.)  There was no fitting that thing in that oven.  

Step 2a.  Find a new way to bake the roll cake so I can still make the dessert.  Two casserole dishes?  OK.  Might work.  Let's give it a shot!

And so this is how I came to know that not only can you bake this cake in a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan, you can also bake it in a larger-than-13x9 inch casserole dish plus a smaller-than-13x9 casserole dish.  Sorry I can't be more specific, but that's about as clear as I can make the sizes of the dishes I used. :)

Here is a link to the recipe and directions.  This cake was SO worth the effort.  It got rave reviews at the church meeting where I took it to share.  I hope you can enjoy this recipe!

Libby's Pumpkin Roll - http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32372

Please welcome our Guest Mom, Kara!

Thanks for letting me be part of your blog, Mandy! I have really enjoyed getting to know you through the Unassisted Childbirth board on iVillage. You have done such a wonderful job leading that group, and I'm excited to see what a fantastic blog you have put together!

I am Kara, wife to Tom and mom to Connor Thomas (8), Kadyn May (5), and Avery Claire (3). I live in Germany and work part time for our church. Tom and I have been married ten years and have lived
in nine different houses over three continents since we said, "I do." My life is one big adventure!

One of my favorite parts of the fall season is the wonderful comforting foods that go along with autumn! This year I have been all about pumpkin. You can tell from the color alone that pumpkin is packed with nutrients. One cup of raw pumpkin contains only thirty calories and just a tenth of a gram of fat yet it boasts levels of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, K, iron, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and Vitamins C, B6, B12, A, and E! I have been adding pumpkin to everything lately - oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, cake, soup...the list goes on. I thought I'd share my pumpkin pancake recipe, which has been a huge hit here.

Pumpkin Pancakes
Mix:
1 1/4 c buttermilk (I use low-fat.)
1 egg
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
2 T oil (I use canola.)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves
2 T honey
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c ground flax seed
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour

We love these pancakes with whole wheat flour but I'm sure they would work with all-purpose flour as well. The flax seed is optional, but gives the pancakes a good nutty flavor and adds some Omega 3s to the mix. You can add in nuts as well - pecans are fantastic! - but my kids don't care for nuts in their pancakes.

Every Monday is Pancake Day for us and this recipe has been gobbled up for the last two weeks. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Trying Carol's Pumpkin Pie Smoothies

Little Mama and I got down to some business yesterday afternoon and tried out Carol's yummy sounding Pumpkin Pie smoothies. Any excuse to be in the kitchen is good for her. She isn't wearing it here, but she usually begs me to wear my apron while cooking. Little does she know that she has her own custom made apron wrapped up at the top of my closet, waiting for Christmas!


And here we have our tasty ingre- dients, all ready to be blended. Plain yogurt (we will try vanilla next time), cinnamon, canned pumpkin, brown sugar, nutmeg and something else which I can't remember without looking back at the blog. It even looks good there, doesn't it? Look at all that brown sugar...you just can't go wrong with brown sugar! Now to mush it all up.

Ready for the sampling. Baby Doll, what do you think? She loved it and sucked down half her cup so fast I'm surprised she didn't suffer from a severe case of brain freeze. Then she sat for a moment, let out a great belch and announced that she was full. She decided she didn't like it (I think because she drank it too fast and got a very full tummy) but yet still requested it again for breakfast this morning.


Z-man, what do you think of it? Woah! That good?! Great big thumbs up from my pickiest eater. This stuff has gotta be good! Thanks again, Carol, for sharing with us! If any of you try this, please do leave a comment to tell us what you think!

Introducing our first Guest Mom!

Mandy asked me to be a guest here to celebrate her blog launch. Let me start by saying I am honored that she thinks I have anything important to say. It is also funny that she thought I would know how to post to the blog. You see, when she told me that she was starting a blog and asked me to take a look I did. Then I had to ask how to follow her. So when I got logged in to follow her, I discovered that some time back I had started an account for a blog, but I never published anything because I just could not figure it out. Maybe if Mandy helps me out one day I will have my own blog and she can be my guest.

I am a home schooling mom of 3 great boys. My oldest boy, JJ, is 11 and involved in 4-H and several sporting activities as well. McP is a wild 4 year old that wants to do everything his older brother does. Most of the time that is a good thing. Then there is my surprise little 6 month old Hamster who can't wait to mix it up with his older brothers. We have a small acreage property with a few animals and we enjoy gardening. In addition to my love of gardening, the boys also enjoy cooking with me and we like to experiment in the kitchen a bit.

I lived for 36 years in Florida and we moved to rural Wyoming 3 years ago. It is a slightly shorter growing season in Wyoming and gardening here has been a challenge, but I think we are making headway. For the last 3 years JJ has tried growing pumpkins. He wants to grow all kinds of pumpkins and winter squash but especially the elusive Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin. So this year we planted seeds and as a back up we also planted a few started plants from the local garden center. Plus over the winter of 2008-2009 the dogs scattered some seeds of a pumpkin that my husband had just chucked out the back door when it started going bad. So this year we had lots of pumpkin plants and a bumper crop of pumpkins - including a 55+ pound Giant Pumpkin. Certainly not a record breaker, but the biggest we have ever grown and good enough for JJ to win the biggest pumpkin at the farmers market! Just to brag McP entered a winged gourd that he grew and he won for best squash (non-pumpkin).

I will be honest here that my experience cooking with pumpkin has been limited to opening a can of Libby's real pumpkin and baking a pie. I was not even sure how one prepared fresh pumpkin. Thanks to the internet I found that cooking a pumpkin was really quite simple. My preferred method is baking, but it can also be boiled or even microwaved. SO are you ready to cook a pumpkin or several?

The trickiest part of preparing pumpkin (or any winter squash) is cutting it! You can use a sharp knife or run out to the garage and get your husbands electric saw (I will wait for you!). Just wash off the blade when you are done, we won't tell him you used it. Now that the pumpkin is cut in half, scoop out the seeds and set them aside. You can eat the seeds raw or roast them. Or if you do not want to eat them at least put the out for the birds.

Find one or more shallow dishes in which to bake your pumpkins. Place the pumpkins cut side down and add about 1 inch of water to the dish. I like to cook several at one time. Set your even at about 350 and go put your feet up for a bit - I like to check in on my pumpkins about every 20 minutes and add additional water as necessary. How long it takes to cook in part depends on how large and how many pumpkins you are cooking. When the shell feels soft it is done. Take it out and let it cool. Once cool you can scoop out the yummy pulp, puree in the food processor and use it for soup, baked goods and even a healthy smoothie. I am finding that freezing in 1 or 2 cup increments works great for later use.

So how about that healthy, but yummy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie. Your kids will think it is dessert, but you will fool them!

2 cups cooked fresh pureed pumpkin
2 cups yogurt (Plain or vanilla)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Dash of ground cloves
1/3 cup brown sugar (or to taste - probably would use less if you use vanilla`yogurt) or honey
A few ice cubes

Blend in blender and enjoy.

Now you tell me that you did not grow pumpkins this year and you did not pick one up at the farmers market. Well that is okay too, just grab a can of pumpkin off the pantry shelf. You smoothie will still be nutritious, but it may be a little thicker than above. Just add some extra ice or a splash of milk. I hope you enjoy and if you have any interesting ways you use pumpkin I would love to hear them as I have many more pumpkins to cook yet. I need to get some cut now though before my husband gets home and discovers that I am using his saw.

Til next time -----

WYOMOM (aka Carol)