Some Like it Hot

Last night Pete complained that there hadn't been an update in a while on our blog. I invited him to write his own entry, but he demurred. So instead of cleaning up the house during nap time, I'm writing blogs.

I have kept up the use of my new dutch oven. Sunday night I made the spicy Crab and Vegetable Gumbo from the Dec 2010 issue of Cooking Light. I have made it before and it is very good - but has quite a kick! We usually end up blowing our noses from the heat. I like it because it's really simple and quick. Saute some onion, carrots, celery -

- then add a bag of frozen veggies (before this recipe I never knew frozen vegetables came in gumbo-blend), some spices, chicken broth, and a can of crab meat - presto! Ready to serve over white rice.

Last night I made the Tex-Mex Pork from the Nov 2010 issue of Cooking Light (notice a trend here? I love CL and have a little folder of favorite recipes from past issues).

image from cookinglight.com

This recipe is also spicy but could easily be mild if you omitted the black pepper. I make this little number about once a month because it is fast and requires few ingredients - pork, salsa, rice, avocado. Plus I usually can only find pork tenderloin in 3-pound packages and the recipe only calls for one, so I often have two little tenderloins frozen and waiting.

In an attempt to redeem my baking reputation, I made another recipe I found on Pinterest: Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread.

photo from Pinterest

After reading the recipe and discovering that it called for yeast, I wasn't going to make it because waiting for dough to rise twice can be a drag and I try not to do it more than once a year. But Pete reminded me that I did not make Fastnachts this year so I did not have an excuse. I didn't have big plans for Tuesday afternoon, so while baby girl was napping, I started the process.

Of course Ellie's nap is only an hour and half long so she was awake before the fun had really started. I do enjoy baking with her - it is a good opportunity to talk about fractions, measuring, and cleaning up after yourself :)

After the dough rises you roll it out, sprinkle on a melted butter cinnamon sugar mixture, cut and stack the slices in a loaf pan.

Once the sugared dough is stacked in the pan, it must rise again for 60-90 minutes. Then it bakes for 30-40 minutes. By this time it was evening and I needed to start dinner so there aren't any more pictures. I made the glaze in the morning and Pete and I ate it for breakfast. Pete liked it, I didn't think it tasted pumpkin-y enough. For all the effort, it definitely wasn't as good as a cinnamon-sugar fastnacht would have been. Oh well. Perhaps I will use the leftover pumpkin to make pumpkin pancakes for dinner sometime next week.