Yummy Pumpkin Bread

I found a great recipe for some pumpkin bread that with a few alterations in the recipe makes it super yummy! Try it out yourself!

3 cups canned pumpkin puree (1 large can)

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 cups white sugar

6 eggs

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Pita Bread & Hummus

My kids love HUMMUS! I don't know where they get it from, but since it is a great source of protein for them, I buy it in bulk at Costco and Sam's Club. Both my husband and I grew up in the boon-docks and had no idea that all this Middle Eastern food even existed, but we both also enjoy it.

I went to a Middle Eastern Market last week with a friend of mine who makes her own Hummus. She showed me what I needed to make my own and I quickly snatched up the ingredients so that I could try to make a batch myself.

Today was the day that I finally found some time and felt lazy enough to stay at home to make my hummus. I got my food processor out and added the ingredients into it:

1 can chickpeas
1/3 C. FRESH Tahini
1/2-3/4 C. FRESH squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 C. Canola Oil
1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Cumin

In just a couple of minutes, I had my own hummus. I spooned it into a bowl and this sprinkled it with Paprika and into the fridge it went. Now, I wanted to try to recreate LaShish Pita's and found a pretty good recipe to follow on Recipezaar for Arabian Pita Bread.

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
6 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
Mix yeast, water and sugar.
Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, dried milk and salt.
Pour oil into water and mix well. Add dry mixture to liquids.
You might need to add more flour or water, depending on the absorbency of the flour.

Knead dough briefly, divide into 18 egg sized balls.
Place on a floured surface, cover and let rest for 15-30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes, I took parchment paper and cut it into small squares. I then put one ball onto each parchment square and covered with an additional square of paper. After covering the ball with paper, I rolled the ball flat, removed the top layer of paper and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I used a preheated 475 degree oven with my cooking stones inside the oven while preheating. I slid about 4-5 uncooked pitas onto the stone and cooked for 3 minutes on each side of the pita.I quickly removed them from the oven and placed onto a cooking sheet. I served the fresh pita with the fresh hummus and it was yummy!My oldest son will be home by the time the hummus is cooled in the fridge, so he will be very happy this afternoon!

PINEAPPLE ZUCCHINI BREAD

I even got help grating and mixing this recipe!

A few years ago I decided I wanted a new and improved Zucchini Bread. I searched the web and my cookbooks and came up with several good recipes, but nothing that really made me want to make them again. I decided to take what I liked from a comglomeration of recipes and make my own zucchini bread recipe. I think that this recipe is super good and have had nothing but rave reviews from my family and friends that have tried it. CHILD FRIENDLY is what most of my friends are VERY excited about!!! How many little ones do you know that eat zucchini? Hide it in this recipe and they will no matter the age! Hey, you never know, it might be a hit like at our house and the kids want to help you make it!

PINEAPPLE ZUCCHINI BREAD
3 large eggs
2 C. Grated Zucchini
1 C. Vegetable oil
1 C. Crushed Pineapple
1 C. White sugar
1 C. Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3 C. All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
3/4 tsp. Ground Nutmeg (optional)
1 C. Raisins, Craisins or Dried Cherries(optional)
1 C. Chopped Nuts (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla together until thick, then add zucchini & pineapple
3. Gradually add flour, soda, salt, baking powder, spices, raisins, and nuts into the egg mixture; blend well. Mixture will be running in consistency.
4. Pour batter into two 9x5 inch greased and floured loaf pans. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

Cracked Wheat Sourdough Bread

When I started my sourdough starter a few months ago, I would have never imagined all the recipes that I would make with it. I came across this recipe while I was on one of my favorite recipe websites, Allrecipes.com . For all of you that don't know me, I can tell you that grains are NOT something that I am attracted to. I am a WHITE bread person and don't feel like pushing grainy bread into my mouth nor my children's mouths. The DH rips on me all the time about this issue and I am now trying to turn over a new leaf.

So, while the search for ways to create new "Herman" creations was underway, I found this recipes for Cracked Wheat Sourdough bread. It was given 5 out of 5 stars and almost every review just raved about the wonderful taste and texture. I thought to myself, "Hum, this might be a way to butter up the husband". I printed the recipe and went on a little trip to the grocery store. Well, the trip turned out to be a long one because I didn't know where to buy 2 of the items on the list. I needed cracked wheat and RAW sunflower seeds. I went to the health food store here in town and the lady had never even heard of the cracked wheat (real rocket scientist, huh?) and didn't have the raw sunflower seeds. After 4 stores, I went home and started calling places. I finally found the cracked wheat at a market that is just north of town. The brand of the Wheat was Bob's Red Mill and it was called Cracked Wheat Hot Cereal. The raw sunflower seed I found at a health mart about 15 miles from home. Well, this bread better be worth it is what I was thinking when I had to travel to several different places just to get the ingredients!!!!

All ingredients were now all purchased and waiting for me to whip up this beautiful grainy bread that wouldn't probably pass through my lips. I got the ole' bread machine out and started adding all the ingredients into the loaf pan. I then selected the dough cycle and pressed START. Well, since this bread machine had never seen anything but white flour I didn't know how hard the machine was going to have to work.....needless to say, I transferred it to my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and used the dough hook. It really worked well in the Kitchen Aid mixer, so I will steer away from the machine for heavier breads next time. I got all the flour mixed in and then had to allow the dough to rise twice and then transfer the dough into two 9X5 loaf pans and allow to rise again. After all the waiting, the bread dough was ready to bake. The smell that was coming out of the oven was very pleasant and made me feel like I was in a bakery. I pulled the bread out of the oven after about 30 minutes and transferred to wire cooling racks. I left the loaves for the husband to enjoy the next morning.

The next day when I woke, I found a note from the husband telling me that the bread was GREAT! I even ate several pieces....can you believe that???

My new friend, HERMAN (Sourdough Starter)

About 2 months ago I came across a recipe that called for HERMAN for one of the ingredients. I mentally dug back into the achieves of my childhood and remembered my mom doing something with a substance named Herman. I asked her about it and then all my memories of Herman became vivid. Herman is a sourdough starter that she used to make bread, coffee cakes and other baked goodies. She would stir it everyday and "feed" it every five days. Then she would also take some out and pass it along for her friends to "grow" in their refrigerators too! One time Herman was a little neglected and decided to grow out of his bowl and make a complete disaster out of our clean fridge. These are the memories that became so vivid to me about Herman. So, you ask what I did next? Well, I searched the web for the recipe to begin my own Herman, of course! What was I thinking? I was thinking that all the work that she put into making this starter proved to be worth while since everything that she made with it was awesome.

After searching for the recipe I came across the Herman Sourdough Started Recipe on Allrecipes.com. I quickly whipped it up and eagerly waited for the starter to be ready, this took only 15 days....imagine my anticipation!

15 Days later my starter had "brewed" with an alcohol content that is probably more than a normal bottle of beer has! Now it was time to start feeding and looking for recipes to turn Herman into. The feeding schedule is quite easy:

DAY 1: (Day you receive Herman) Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 cup milk. Stir well. Store in refrigerator and cover lightly. Stir every day.
DAY 2-4: STIR
DAY 5: Add the same as above and stir. Stir every day.
DAY 6-9 STIR
DAY 10: Remove 1 cup of Herman for yourself and one cup for a friend. Give your friend the above directions on how to care for Herman.

Well, it all seems easy until you open your refrigerator and say to yourself, "When did I stir (or in my case, squish the Ziploc bag) or feed Herman last? Herman is very forgiving, so I am lucky for that!

I have had Herman for over 2 months now and have made so many awesome baked goods with it. The recipes range from coffee cakes, pancakes to lots of great bread recipes. Next week I will post some of the great recipes that I have used with Herman.

Let me know if you want a cup of Herman to get you started!!!