Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream, Recipe rewind, because some things are too good to miss!

Recipe rewind, because in the beginning there is a blogger who has no readers. She still posts great food in hopes that the readers will come..........you can also view it here in the archives, Wednesday October 13, 2010.

Tuesday we had a family potluck dinner to celebrate two October birthdays. The lovely Jess, my beautiful daughter and Miss Olivia, granddaughter of the cutest order!

Cooks wisdom:  Note, this is dairy free for those that prefer.

We had a wonderful dinner of roast turkey with stuffing, a variety of vegetables and of course cake and ice cream for dessert. Now I had it in my head, turkey dinner needs pumpkin. But I did not want to make pie, I love pie, as I have confessed, but we needed birthday cake with this dinner. So I made this....

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
adapted from:
http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/thoroughly-chilled/

1 15 oz Pumpkin
1 14 oz Coconut Milk
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c real maple syrup
2 T Bourbon - left this out, will use next time
2 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/8 t ground cloves
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla


Combine all ingredients, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Pour into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturers instructions.

When churned, pack into a freezer container and freeze until serving time.

Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving, to facilitate easy scooping!

Makes approximately 1 qt.

The ingredients for this are so easy to keep in the pantry, this will be made often, as I love pumpkin pie. 

As always, thanks for taking a minute to stop and say hello. We appreciate your time and your wonderful comments!

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full plate thursday @ miz helen's
foodie friday @ rattlebridge farm

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Prunes Poached in Red Wine, or "I like prunes, how about you?", Recipe rewind because some things are too good to miss!

There are many shared traits between my husband Terry and I, but none more delicious than the love of prunes. So with that, I  no we offer you.......

Recipe rewind, because in the beginning there is a blogger who has no readers. She still posts great food in hopes that the readers will come..........you can also view it here in the archives, Saturday May 29, 2010. 

Prunes Poached in Red Wine

Sometimes I think we need to concentrate on the funny foods. Like prunes. Prunes are the laughing stock of food, and such a pity. I read a recipe years ago that tried to address that issue and then went on to give the the recipe a more glamorous name. Dried Plum whatever, instead of Prune whatever. I remember the content was aimed at younger cooks and the goal was to get the cook, cooking with prunes, I mean dried plums.

The nutritionist wrote about the great food value in dried plums; the minerals, the fiber, the great taste, and the convenience.
But.....can't we just say prunes?
And mean prunes?
And know that they are delicious, available in your pantry at all times (unless you forgot them at the store, which would be such a pity) and make for great foods, both sweet and savory?

We can?! OK, great.

Today I am making Prunes Poached in Red Wine, for Sunday Cafe. The recipe states to simmer and serve, but I wanted to make this a day ahead and let the cinnamon sticks add more flavor. I only made one change I used 3 cinnamon sticks, instead of only 2. I used Merlot as the dry red wine, it is what I had open.

Prunes in Red Wine
adapted from Kitchenography

1 pound pitted prunes (about 40)
1 1/4 c sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
2 1/2 c dry red wine

2  8oz containers Mascarpone cheese

Combine in a large covered pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Transfer to a dish, cover and chill until serving time.

To serve place a large spoonful of the cheese on a rimmed plate or shallow dish, add prunes and drizzle syrup over.

Serves 8

More than delicious, rich, silky and deeply flavorful. You won't be sorry and you might need to double the recipe next time!

As always, thanks for taking a minute to stop and say hello. We appreciate your time and your wonderful comments!

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Re-purpose an Entertainment Center into a Dish Storage Cupboard

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another frugal and worthy project from our home to yours. Today I have another project that is a little different for us to offer, but I think you will like it...

When we set up the family dining room, we wanted a small entertainment center to hold the television. My preference is anything with doors, to close off the television when it is not being watched. We were very lucky and found one (for free, a very good price!) on Craigslist. The only problem? The previous owners did not like the doors and they were long gone......

But free is a very good price and we knew it would work until one we liked (with doors) would be available. Fast forward a few months and we found one, a tall unit that fit the space very well and it has doors. Now what to do with the one we have? The obvious would be to offer it for free on Craigslist and we were going to do that, until we looked on the site and everyone was offering a free entertainment center. With so many folks going to flat screen televisions, there is a glut of free entertainment centers available. What to do....

The wood was lovely and even though it was veneer over particle board it was still in very good shape. This unit also had a nice leaded glass door to the component storage and I have a serious fondness for leaded anything, so the thought of just cutting it up was unthinkable.......

"Hey Honey, I know why don't we make a dish storage cupboard out of the side with the leaded glass door?"   Now I have always been very honest about the whole we thing in this house. Often, Or usually , actually, pretty much always when I say we, it really means my dear husband........  But look what we made!

We are still putting things away, (note the yellow level to the left) but it holds a lot. Which is a good thing because with dishware for 12, we have a lot!

Each piece of furniture will be different, but basically you need to do the following:

Remove the door

Remove the trim pieces

Cut away the part you don't want

Re-attach the wheels

Sand and fill crevices

Re-attach trim, cut to fit

Stain to match

Let your wife fill it with dishes!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will use and enjoy. 

And now, it is very easy to sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email. You will find the form located in the left sidebar, thank you for subscribing!

PS, you may also enjoy our Homemade Household page, it can be found right at the top of the blog!

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catch as catch can 143  @ my re-purposed life

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How to Re-purpose a Sweater into a Slouch hat in 5 minutes.....

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another frugal and worthy project from our home to yours. Today I have another project that is a little different for us to offer, but I think you will like it...

There were several reasons I came up with this hat, if you will. Possibly it would be better named if it was call a snood, but according to the dictionary, this isn't quite a snood either.

This is not glamorous headgear. This is part hood, part ear-muffs and part turban-esque. Yep, like I said, this is not glamorous. This is warm, this is comfortable and this is frugal.

If you have long hair like I do, synthetic fabrics do not work well, due to static electricity. For some reason my hair is a magnet for static electricity. Also I wear my hair up, otherwise I have to move it out of the way while shopping and running errands, so I needed a warm hat that allowed room for a rolled up bun of hair.

But the biggest problem I have had in finding a warm cap, is that they are never large enough. I don't mean that they don't fit, but for my preference, they did not fit comfortable enough for me. I like a very loose hat.

After finding and felting* a man's (small) wool sweater vest, the rest of the job takes about 5 minutes.

Lay the vest on a flat surface, smooth is so there will not be any surprises found after you make your cut.

About 1 inch below the arm, cut in an arc, from side to side.

When you take a close look, you may need to trim, so there is a (very) close match to the edges.

Match up the side seams and whip stitch where they end.

Lay the piece flat once again (side seams to the sides) and smooth out the top. Add 2 buttons to close off the end a bit, and cut some slits for a fringe effect, if desired.

Fold the waistband up and off to the side, add a third button. And that is it!

* I felt by washing in very hot water and then drying in a hot dryer. If it appears that the fibers were reluctant to "felt" I will boil the item and re-dry.

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will use and enjoy. 

And now, it is very easy to sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email. You will find the form located in the left sidebar, thank you for subscribing!

PS, you may also enjoy our Homemade Household page, it can be found right at the top of the blog!

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Festive Winter Banana Bread with cranberries, chocolate chips and walnuts

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Festive Winter Banana Bread, fresh out of the oven.

Our Thanksgiving was interesting this year. It was just us, "us" being my dear husband and I, and that was new for me. Fortunately my grown and wise children have other folks to enjoy holidays with and now alternate between "home" and "in-laws", so as to not miss anyone. And while I like and encourage this concept, this was the first year, and thus Thanksgiving was just a bit different with the two of us.

And to top it off, the turkey was not thawed, you see........

I had stayed long at work on Wednesday, to bring one of my tenants home from the hospital. She had the opportunity to be discharged on Wednesday and home for the holiday. But no ride home, so I volunteered. Usually I am free to leave early when my tasks are complete and this is especially appreciated before a holiday. But it is important to be home for the holidays, so I stayed.

Discharging from a hospital and all the necessary checks and balances, does take a lot of time. While this gave us the opportunity to talk and get caught up, the clock was ticking, and ticking. Finally 3 hours later, we were on our way. Of course once getting her settled and happy to be home, I have a commute across the bridge, on the start of a holiday, and it appeared that everyone else had waited to leave from where they were to go to where they needed to be, at the same time.......

Pulled into the driveway at 6:30 having left that morning at 6:45. A bit tired and off my game, I did not check on the turkey. Fast forward a few hours to Thanksgiving day and let's get cooking, and what do we have here, but a frozen bird. Now this bird had been in the refrigerator for a week, and was still solid frozen. I don't understand it, but on Sunday when we did roast the thing, it still was a solid block of ice in the breast cavity.

It has been a bit cold here.....

We had a unique Thanksgiving dinner to say the least! But now lets talk about this banana bread. It is delicious. I first made it several years ago and the flavor combination is wonderful. The banana flavor is soft and pairs well with the chocolate and cranberries. It is not specific to Christmas and yet is very festive, let's get started shall we?

This bread is full of flavor, yet not too sweet, making it a delicious choice to share and enjoy anytime.

Festive Winter Banana Bread with Cranberries, Chocolate and Walnuts.

Festive Winter Banana Bread
by the seat of my pants
350 degree oven

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c oil
2 eggs - beaten
1/3 c milk
1 c (about 3 bananas) mashed banana

1 c dried cranberries
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips
1 c chopped walnut pieces - these should be about the same size as the cranberries, for easier slicing

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, breaking up brown sugar if needed. 

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, mixing well. (you can use a two bowl method for wet and dry ingredients, if you prefer)

Fold in the cranberries, chocolate and nuts. 

Turn batter into a prepared loaf pan or several smaller pans, bake 40-50 minutes or until done in your oven. 

Let cool in the pan 10-15 minutes, turn out to finish cooling. Wrap and store for 24 hours before serving.

Makes 1 large loaf or several small loaves for sharing. 

Festive Winter Banana Bread, ready for slicing.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will enjoy and use for yourself and your family. 

You can also sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email, thank you for subscribing!

this post is shared with:
full plate thursday @ miz helen's
food friday @ carol's chatter
foodie friday @ rattlebridge farm

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Sweet Potato Muffins

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Sweet Potato Muffins.

Remember that great dinner you had with the fresh baked sweet potatoes? And maybe you had one left over? If so, you will want to remember this muffin recipe.......or next time you make roasted sweet potatoes (in their jackets) throw an extra one in the oven so you can make these muffins.

Sweet Potato Muffins
adapted from:  Mostly Muffins
400 degree oven

1 3/4 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg

2 eggs
3/4 c mashed baked sweet potato or yam - one medium sized potato, baked, cooled and mashed
3/4 c pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
1/4 c butter or coconut oil melted and cooled
1/4 c oil
2 T water
1 t vanilla

In a medium sized bowl, add dry ingredients, combine well.

In a large bowl add eggs, beat lightly. Add remaining ingredients, mix well.

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until no large pockets of dry or wet ingredients remain. Do not over mix, there will be small lumps.

Stir in walnuts, divide between 12 prepared muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes or until done in your oven. Cool 5 minutes on a rack, remove muffins.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will enjoy and use for yourself and your family. 

You can also sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email, thank you for subscribing!

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food friday @ carol's chatter

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Curried Pea Soup

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Curried Split Pea Soup.

Tonight I cooked. That is a fun sentence to write because I have been so out of sorts with this stomach disorder. But finally I am feeling better, and food is once again enjoyable to cook, eat and blog about. It took awhile to find the right medicine to allow my stomach to heal and function at the same time. And while I am not a "medicine" sort of person, I am grateful to have the help!

So let's talk about this soup. I noticed the recipe in this little book of bean recipes, this book printed on coarse paper with no photos, this little paperback cookbook that is but one book upon my shelf of over 700 (and counting!!!) cookbooks. And we are glad I did. This soup is very delicious!

Curried Split Pea Soup
adapted from:  EASY BEANS
serves 6

olive oil, start with 2 T
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T curry powder (if you are a seasoned curry fan, by all means, add more, if desired)
1 c dried split peas
6 c chicken bone stock
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced*
2-3 stalks celery, diced
1-2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 t sugar
1 t salt
1 bay leaf

2 T flour
1/4 c cold water

In a large soup pot, add the oil, onion, and garlic. Saute until onion is softened. Add curry through the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer 1 hour and 15 minutes or until peas are very soft and falling apart. Remove bay leaf.

Increase heat to high, stir flour into cold water until smooth with no lumps. Stir into soup, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will use and enjoy. 

And now, it is very easy to sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email. You will find the form located in the left sidebar, thank you for subscribing!

* diced vegetables is my preference rather than sliced. Often times sliced carrots are so large, the only food on your spoon is a slice of carrot.....

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weekend cooking @ beth fish reads

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Three Grain Date Muffins

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Three Grain Date Muffins

Dates, whole grains, molasses and buttermilk. What is not to like? These are really good, and make a great "grab and go" breakfast if need be.

Three Grain Date Muffins
adapted from:  Mostly Muffins
375 degree oven

1 c bran morsels. (like bran buds)
3/4 c boiling water
1/2 c corn meal
1/2 c oat meal

The next time I make these, I will add some chopped walnuts.

1 c buttermilk
1/4 c molasses
1/4 c butter or coconut oil melted and cooled
2 T honey
2 T oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 t vanilla

1 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

3/4 c chopped pitted dates

In a large bowl, combine bran morsels and boiling water, let stand 5 minutes. Stir in oats and corn meal. .

Add buttermilk through vanilla, stirring well.

In a medium bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, soda and salt. Add to the wet mixture, stir to combine well. There will be small lumps, do not over mix.

Stir in dates.

It only looks like the cups will bake over the top, this hearty muffin batter does not rise much, yet the muffins are not heavy. They have a chewy texture from the oats and dates.

Divide into 12 muffin cups, bake 20-25 minutes or until done in your oven.

Cool 5 minutes, remove from muffin tin or tip on their sides to avoid a soggy bottom.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will enjoy and use for yourself and your family. 

You can also sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email, thank you for subscribing!

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cook your books @ kitchen flavours
full plate thursday @ miz helen's

2

Roasted Savory Cabbage

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Cabbage is good for you. Yes it is, but the days of being told something is good for you, by a loving parent are long gone for me. And since I am not your parent, those words won't have much value to you, but I hope the cabbage recipe will! Because cabbage is good for you and this dish tasted good as wall.

Roasted Savoy Cabbage

Right now I am having a bit of a problem with my stomach, and fortunately cabbage is real good for me right now. This is also very simple, it does call for a bit of the Vegetable Bouillon for part of the seasoning, but you could leave that out - but only until you make some! The vegetable bouillon is a wonderful homemade ingredient to have in your kitchen.

Roasted Savory Cabbage
by the seat of my pants
350-degree oven

1 large cabbage, about 2-3 pounds
1 or 2 T Vegetable Bouillon
1/2 c dry white wine
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese

Cut cabbage into 8 wedges, removing some of the core if desire. Place in a large covered casserole or baking dish, drizzle with the olive oil.

Combine the vegetable bouillon and white wine, stir well, pour over the cabbage. Sprinkle with the cheese.

Cover and bake 1 1/2 -2 hours.

I really enjoy cabbage when it has been cooked to that soft and silky stage. It is not necessarily pretty, but it is so delicious!

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will use and enjoy. 

And now, it is very easy to sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email. You will find the form located in the left sidebar, thank you for subscribing!

this post is shared with:

full plate thursday @ miz helen's

4

My husband said " I love muffins."

We were sitting sharing a breakfast of scrambled eggs and muffins. The carton of muffins had been a gift from a tenant, for us to enjoy.  The carton contained three different flavors and we each had selected the same flavor to enjoy with our eggs. I was sitting there quietly munching eggs and sipping coffee when my husband declares...

" I love muffins".

Well now, who knew? But after that statement, the list of those who knew, now included me.....

I have a few good muffin recipes here within the pages of the blog, along with a few hundred more there, within the pages of all the cookbooks. But historically I have not been a busy muffin maker. Truthfully not a serious muffin fan, at all. But you know when your husband makes a statement like that.......and I have noticed that muffins just taste better when sharing a meal with him.

His declaration of muffin love turns out to be good information, often I have been at a loss of what to bake. This will make future baking so easy! Plus I remembered seeing all these wonderful recipes that sounded so good.

Let's take a look at the ones from your blogs that I have wanted to make.....

Photo courtesy of Sage Trifle.

Fresh Blueberry Muffins with easy Blueberry Jam and Tangerine Sugar Topping

Photo courtesy of Alaska from Scratch.

Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins

Photo courtesy of sidewalk shoes.

Cranberry Rosemary Muffins

Photo courtesy of Octoberfarm.

Bacon Cheddar Muffins

Photo courtesy of Tasting Spoons.

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

Photo courtesy of  Seasonal Ontario Food. 

Carrot Bran Muffins

Now which one first? 

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments! 

If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is to share relevant information that you will enjoy and use for yourself and your family. 

You can also sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts by email, thank you for subscribing!

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