Pumpkin Bread

 

It's officially pumpkin week. Well not "officially", but I have decided that it is the week to celebrate everyone's favorite winter squash.

During the past seven days I have visited the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, made my own pumpkin puree, made pumpkin cheesecake and this pumpkin bread.

I didn't just start loving pumpkins recently. I was born in October, so from the start I was personally and deeply connected to pumpkins.

 Homemade pumpkin puree

I think the moment I fell in love with pumpkins was when I was a few weeks old and my parents stuck me in a hallowed out pumpkin for a photo. (Looking back it seems endearing, but when I did this to my puppy a few days ago my friends all looked at me like a was crazy...)

When I was seven years old I had my very own backyard pumpkin patch, as did my brother. He grew large pumpkins, some that got to be almost 50 pounds, and I grew the tiny ones. I have always loved tiny things.

The best thing about my patch in comparison to my brothers was that mine produced a far greater yield than his did. I had hundred of pumpkins by October.

With no idea of what to do with so many pumpkins I opened up a "pumpkin stand" in my driveway. It was similar to a lemonade stand except that it was freezing cold out and I was selling miniature pumpkins. Fifty cents each, or three for a dollar.

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake

I am about to share with you my favorite fall recipe of all time.

Get excited.

This pumpkin cheesecake is a modification of a recipe that has been in my family longer than I even have. My mom received the recipe for "company cheesecake" (don't ask me, I have no idea why it's called that) from a coworker about 30 years ago.

It was a recipe for plain cheesecake, but also had suggestions on how to spice it up, such as adding berries to the mixture.

It wasn't until about five years ago that I got the idea to use this recipe to make pumpkin cheesecake. I know, Brilliant, right? I love pumpkin, but don't love pumpkin pie. But I do love cheesecake. Thus, pumpkin cheesecake was born.

Every year the recipe is a little different as we can never seem to find where we wrote down the recipe the year before, but fortunately this cheesecake is very forgiving and you can add more or less or just about anything and it will state taste AMAZING.

Lucky for you, I made it my goal to finally decide on the perfect recipe once and for all. (Ok, maybe I did it more for myself, because now that's its on my blog I will always know where to find it!)

This cheesecake is probably the easiest dessert recipe you will ever find. All you do it add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor, mix, and pour into a crust. That's it! Well, you have to bake it too, of course. 

Butternut Squash Soup

This fall is like so many others, except at the same time it is so different. I went back to school as I have for the last seventeen years, the leaves are changing color as they always have, and the air has a delightful chill to it even with the sun out. But this may be the last fall I go back to school. The last fall I get to quickly walk to class at 8:30 am wishing I had worn more than a sweater with anticipation of afternoon warmth.

Although this fall marks many "ends" for me, it has also held some firsts too. It marks the first time I have my own apartment and therefore my own kitchen. It also marks the first time I have been solely responsible for my own meals. Before this year I was required to purchase a school meal plan which I did not take advantage of nearly as much as I paid for, and before that my mom did most of the cooking.

I have only been in this new cook-for-myself stage of life for one and half months now, but I have already had a total blast learning to menu plan and cook for one.

 

 

I have had the opportunity to try many new recipes and freeze a good portion of my efforts. I have had the opportunity to learn about food dehydration and ways to utilize leftovers. Believe it or not, cooking for one is way harder than it looks! 

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Fall is my favorite season. My reasons include: my birthday is during the fall, I love halloween, I love wearing cozy scarfs and gloves, apple cider is one of the best beverages in the world, pumpkin patches are fun for people of all ages, and apples are plentiful.

 

 

There is a lovely produce stand in Newberg that I have been shopping at since I was a freshman in college. It is always a sad day for me when they close up for the winter (and a wonderful day when they re-open).

This fall I have done a lot of shopping at Ray's Produce, but what i have bought more than anything so far is apples. Fuji, gala, golden delicious, pink lady, jonathan, honeycrisp...apples, apples apples!



First I dehydrated some apples. I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar over apple rings and slices and cooked them for hours in my new food dehydrator (that I scored at a garage sale for $5!).

Secondly, I did something I have always wanted to do: I made applesauce! It ended up being so easy that I wondered why I hadn't made any sooner!

 

I decided not to can any of it and instead made a relatively small batch and froze some. (While making this I can across the suggestion to try some warm homemade applesauce with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top...oh my! was it good!)

With the majority of the applesauce I made apple butter. If you have not had apple butter you need to try some very soon! It resembles jam and tastes like fall! Contrary to the name, there is no butter in apple butter at all. It is just a cooked and reduced mixture of applesauce, spices and sugar.

I hope this post has inspired you to go out and buy or pick some apples and make something wonderful out of them!

Applesauce

Adapted from Simply Recipes

• 7 to 8 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good sweet cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 8 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler
• Juice of two lemons, about 6 Tbsp
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/2 cup of white sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

Apple Butter

• 6 cups applesauce 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Put all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 8-14 hours. Freezes very well.

* Here is a site with some good information about apple butter

Leavenworth Oktoberfest

 

For my 22nd birthday my generous parents took me to the Oktoberfest in Leavenworth WA. I had been hinting around the fact that I wanted to go this year for a while but I think they made the final decision while I was in Austria and Germany in May. 

If you have never been to Leavenworth, you must go! It is a small Bavarian themed town with plenty things to do, eat, drink and see. I've been to Bavaria (a state in Germany) and I can honestly say that Leavenworth does remind me a lot of it. Even the beautiful mountains behind Leavenworth are reminiscent of the Alps. 

Before we left for Leavenworth I packed the latest copy of Northwest Palate in my bag because they had just done a feature on Leavenworth and all the great destinations and restaurants one has to visit. 

Our first meal was at the very popular Munchen Haus Bavarian Grill and Beer Garden. Despite the usually long line, this place is a must on your dining schedule. The outdoor Beer Garden is a loud place full of German charm and they serve up a mean bratwurst. 

The sausages are prepared right in front of you and once you get your sausage you then have to make the very difficult decision of which mustard you are going to use (they have over 20 options!). After much thought I settled on garlic Dijon and honey and champagne mustard. They also have fabulous homemade apple cider sauerkraut which I personally think is a  condiment no sausage should go without. 

The Oktoberfest itself was actually a letdown. I expected a much better selection of German foods, but what I found was a disgrace to Germany itself. There were about ten different food booths inside the festival but they all had the same drab menu: bratwurst, polish dog, hot dog and some sort of pulled pork dog. That was it! 

One only had to be in the festival a few minutes to realize it really was all about the beer. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against beer, especially German beer, but I didn't go all the way to Leavenworth for beer. I was there for the food!

Take my suggestion, if you are going to Leavenworth for the Oktoberfest don't eat all your meals in the tents. Venture out into the charming town and discover all the wonderful foods Leavenworth has to offer. 

 Guava and raspberry gelato at Via Dolce Gelato

With that said I still did enjoy the Oktoberfest, and if anyone reading this wants to go it is still going on next Friday and Saturday October 15th and 16th. 

Here is a list of other great places to eat in Leavenworth: 

• King Ludwig's
• Via Dolce Gelato
• The Cheesemongers Shop
• Schocolat