Tis the season for Pumpkin Cornbread

Pumpkin Cornbread

Gosh it's been awhile since I last wrote. My oven has been broken for the past month or so, but I have been cooking (perhaps not as much as AJ would like). But now the oven is back and I can start whipping up some fall goodies.

I absolutely love fall, and eventhough the weather has been rather warm in Northern California, we have had hints of that lovely cool weather. I recently went for a walk one evening and could smell the lovely perfume of burning wood and damp leaves. This kind of weather inspires baking, especially with seasonal ingredients. My hands down favorite fall ingredient is squash. I love roasting acorn squash and eating it simply with a dab of maple syrup or pureering butternut squash and apples into a creamy soup. And of course you can't forget the pumpkin.

Mixing together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, and oil.

I use pumpkin as most people do, pureed in muffins, quick breads, and pies. But last night I was looking for a different way to use pumpkin. I had thoughts of making cornbread and asked myself, "Would pumpkin cornbread be good?" Now, you may think I'm crazy, but apparently I am not the only has thought about this unique combination. Recipegirl has a nice recipe for pumpkin cornbread. I decided to give it a whirl!

Mmm pumpkin.

The recipe, like most quick breads is very simple. Sift your flours and spices together in one big bowl. Then mix your wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Then combine in a couple swift turns of a spoon. Pour into a greased pan and bake in the oven. Thirty minutes later you have a somewhat denser, moister, spicier corn bread. I am absolutely in love with this bread. I reduced the sugar by half to get a more savory bread. I think this reduction allows the pumpkin and spices to shine through a bit more. But you could easily add back the sugar if you are looking for more of a sweet treat. The bread is super moist and yet you still get that lovely nuttiness from the corn meal. This is a hearty bread, perfect for serving with a bowl of chili or eating it with a cup of coffee in the morning (as I am right now).

Bottom Line: How could you not make yourself this delicious cornbread?!

More JAM please!

Pro Bono - Palo Alto, CA

Merlot and candlelight - what a lovely ambience.

I have had trouble with Italian restaurants recently. I love pasta, but lately the meals I eat at Italian restaurants have fallen flat. Paying $12.95 for a plate of spaghetti, that I could make at home for a fraction of the cost, seems absurd. However, when my coworker recently raved about Pro Bono in Palo Alto, I decided to give Italian another shot.

Two friends, AJ, and I arrived for a late dinner on a Saturday night. This small, cozy restaurant was packed at 8:00pm. The candlelight tables evoked a warm and homey feeling. We were seated fairly quickly even without a reservation. Unfortunately it took quite a while for the waiter to bring by a basket of bread. Incidentally, the waiter tried to makeup for this inconveniecnce by continuing to bring baskets of bread to our table throughout the night. While I appreciated the gesture, it was a bit of overkill.

Penne with mushrooms, arugula and tomatoes.

We ordered some merlot to start off the evening. Sometimes I love a nice mellow merlot. It goes great with pasta. AJ ordered a penne dish with mushrooms, arugula, and tomatoes. Simply prepared with a little garlic and olive oil, the dish was tasty, but nothing extraordinary.

Susan's Downfall - ravioli in a cheese and toasted almond sauce.

Being a fan of appetizers for dinner (it allows you to sample more of the menu), I order an arugula salad and Susan's downfall. Susan's Downfall is aptly named for its rich gorgonzola and toasted almond sauce. This divinely creamy sauce drowns the cheese and herb raviolis it is paired with. I love how the dish was run under the broiler before presented at the table, giving the sauce a delicious golden top.

Most of the fair is good, but not great. However, a trip to Pro Bono is worth it, if just to sample Susan's downfall.

More JAM please!

Stan's Donuts - Santa Clara, CA

I have been craving sweet, fried dough for the past couple weeks and had yet to find a proper outlet to satisfy this particular hunger. There is a Krispy Kreme somewhat close by, but after reading the Gastronomer's blog post on the Doughnut Plant, I yearned for a doughnut shop with a little more local flavor.

Freshly fried doughnuts.

I went to trusty old Yelp.com for some reviews of local doughnut shops. Stan's Donuts popped up with an average 4.5 stars (out of 5) from over 200 reviewers. The reviewers touted Stan's glazed donuts as some of the best they have ever tasted. I decided to check out what all the hype was about. A 15 minute drive down El Camino and we pulled up to a small shopping center. Stan's Donuts is a hole-in-the-wall joint, serving up fresh batches of yeast and cake doughnuts throughout the day. When we arrived, a small line had formed out the door. Stan's keeps the line moving, so you don't have to wait long for some fresh donuts.

Cake donut with vanilla frosting and peanuts.

AJ and I knew we were going to sample the yeast doughnuts, but we also wanted to try some of their cake varieties - we went with chocolate/sprinkles, peanut, and chocolate/coconut. The chocolate/coconut cake doughnut was nice and crisp on the outside, with a nice moist cake on the inside. The chocolate/coconut combination was just lovely.

Glaze yeast doughnut with Red Rock coffee

The real story is the glazed yeast doughnuts. They come out of the fryer warm and fluffy. Watch out Krispy Kreme, Stan's doughnuts will give you a run for your money! And don't forget, doughnuts are best eaten with a hot cup of coffee.

More JAM please!

September was the Month of Birthdays

September is one of the busiest birthday months. I celebrate my mom's birthday, my best friend, Jenny's, AJ's, Natalie's, and Cammy's. And let's not forget important blog birthdays - This Food is My JAM celebrates its 1st birthday, reaching 10,000 hits in under a year! We have had far more readers than I could have imagined, so thank you to everyone who continues to read. I would also like to give a shout out to my friends of Matzo and Rice who recently just celebrated their 1st birthday as well!

Being on the West Coast for the first september meant that I couldn't be there in person for everyone's bday. But luckily I was able to celebrate AJ's birthday during our first year living together! We had some friends over for a dinner party. I served a menu using mostly local and organic produce, per the birthday boy's request.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache.

Caprese salad, paninis, asparagus, watermelon, sweet corn, guacamole, salsa, and chips.

This meal was an amalgamation of fresh ingredients -which was great because it meant I didn't have to do much to make this meal tasty. For starters I made homemade salsa, guacamole, and chips. Chips and salsa are always crowd pleasers. AJ and I also made two great sangria - a risesling/pinot grigio with citrus, peaches and apples, and a cabernet sauvignon with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and apples. We added a touch of vodka, and sugar, which made the fruit quite potent (Note: the key to good sangria is to let it sit overnight.)

The remnants of our dinner.

For dinner I served sweet corn on the cob, asparagus with lemon juice, watermelon with mint, and roasted red pepper, portabello, and zucchini paninis with goat cheese and pesto. We took our plates and ate outside. It was a great way to savor the last warm summer nights.

Even the boys love Sangria.

For dessert I made Georgetown cupcakes' chocolate cupcakes. I froze them and then topped them with mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate ganache. They were amazingly messy and amazingly delicious. I need to figure out the timing for defrosting the ice cream, these were a little melty. But I don't think I heard any complaints. :)

More JAM please!

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche and French Onion Soup

A couple of weeks ago I finally saw Julie and Julia. While the movie didn't blow me away, it was a fun movie about food. And let's be honest I love watching things involving food or cooking or baking. (Also, Meryl Streep is amazing in this movie! She totally captures the essence of Julia Child.)

For those of you who saw Julie and Juila, didn't it make you feel like making something a little challenging? I woke up the next morning with the intention of hunkering over the stove for a couple hours, perhaps even getting down and dirty with some dough. Luckily it was a Sunday, the perfect day to spend some serious hours in the kitchen. I know I am talking up the amount of work, but I was actually looking forward to spending my day cooking, a Sunday tradition that has been lost in the wake of prepackaged meals and the tendency to eat out. While Julia inspired us to cook, food television of late has had the opposite effect, so it seems. (Check out this article if you're interested in learning about how time spent in the kitchen has decreased considerable since the 1960s).

Alright, off of the soapbox and back to the kitchen. Julia inspired me to try out some french cooking. I had some beautiful vidalia onions that I needed to use, and decided they would be a lovely french onion soup. I got the most recent issue of Gourmet magazine celebrating seasonal recipes using produce from the lovely intersection of late summer and early fall harvest. I decided to try my hand at my first quiche - a broccoli cheddar recipe. Two simple yet classic french recipes - would I manage to cook both of these up in one day?

I began with the soup - slicing onions incredibly thin and then sauteeing them with butter and sugar to the point of caramelization. I continued to add wine, mushroom broth, a little balsamic vinegar, and thyme. The room filled with a wonderful aroma - there is something so comforting about making soup.

With the soup simmering on the stove, I began working on the pie crust for the quiche. Gourmet magazine features a rather traditional pie crust using butter. I love butter pie crusts -the flavor is so much better than one made with shortening.

The idea of making a pie crust can be quite daunting, but I think most people find it rather easy to pull together once they get started. A couple of tips: 1) Make sure your butter is very cold - this makes for a nice flaky crust and 2) don't use too much water - you want to use just enough to pull the dough together (too much yields a tough pie crust).

After making the dough you want to let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (Gourmet says 1 hour, but 30 minutes works just fine). Once you roll the dough out, place it in a pie plate and prick the dough with a fork (to allow steam to escape during baking). At this stage, you will chill the dough again for 30 minutes. Take the pie crust out and bake for 20-25 minutes.

While the pie crust was bakin, I began to make the filling for the Broccoli Cheddar quiche. The filling is rather simple as well - a mixture of eggs, broccoli, half-and-half, cheese, garlic, and nutmeg. When the pie crust has cooled, pour the filling into the shell and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. My quiche came out wonderfully -AJ loved it. The eggy custard was light yet creamy. The combination of broccoli, cheddar, and garlic was classic.

The soup was lighter with the use of mushroom broth, but still wonderful with the carmelized onions and salty swiss melted on top. Give French cooking a try, I do think you'll like it!

More JAM please!

Picnic in September

Cheese plate (Manchego, cheddar, grapes), Sourdough, Prosecco, Riesling, and Caprese salad (mozarella, tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar)

I love early September - the air has cooled down, but it is still warm and sunny. Last weekend, AJ bought us a lovely Prosecco and some wonderful cheeses. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather and ate some simple yet delicious food. Wine, cheese, bread and good company - what more could I ask for?

More JAM please!

Mom's Apple-Banana Cake

Apples and ba-nay-nays

Sometimes baking is an excuse to get rid of some fruit or milk that's about to expire. I know that statement isn't entirely logically (you're going to use flour, butter, and sugar just to make sure you don't waste one banana?) I know it's illogical, but sometimes inspiration comes in mysterious ways.

I had originally thought about making plain old banana bread, but it turned out I only had one banana sitting on top of my fridge. I realized that I had two gravestein apples (which are supposed to be great for baking) and a jar of applesauce. A-pples and Ba-nay-nays, I knew I could do something with that!

Apple Banana bread smells like cinammon, spice, and everything nice.

I searched the internet for some recipes involving apples and bananas and came across "Mom's Apple-Banana Bread". When I saw that the recipe involved adding caramelized apples to the batter, I knew it would be a winner. This recipe also appealed to me because it incorporates two treats that my mom and dad make really well - banana bread and apple cake respectively. My dad doesn't put on his baker's hat too often, but his apple cake has become a family staple. And my mom's banana bread just tastes better than any other banana bread I've tried. This recipe is essentially a combination of the two! The bananas and applesauce make for a very moist bread, and the caramelized apples add lovely bites of sweet and tart. The warm spices just scream fall. With the cooler weather approaching, I beg you to try this one.

I tweaked the recipe a little to accommodate the ingredients I had in my pantry (who uses that word?)

Ingredients

1 stick plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter (JAM Note: 1/2 stick butter, plus 2 tbsp, plus 1/4 c applesauce)

2 tbsp dark brown sugar

2 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2 in dice (JAM Note: used Gravestein apples)

1 tsp cinammon (JAM Note: used 1 1/2 tsp)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (JAM Note: used 2 tsp)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves (JAM Note: used 1/2 tsp)

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (JAM Note: used 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed (1 cup) (JAM Note: used 1 ripe banana, 1/2 c applesauce)

1/4 c orange juice (JAM Note: used 1/4 c applesauce)

Directions

In a large skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter with brown sugar. Add the apples and cook over moderate heat, stirring until tender and golden, 4 to 5 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon and 1/2 of vanilla and transfer apples to a plate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5x4 in loaf pan. In medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, nutmeg (JAM Note: allspice, pumpkin spice) and the remaining cinnamon.

In a large bowl, using the handheld electric mixer, beat the remaining butter (half stick) with the granulated sugar (JAM Note: beat in 1/2 c applesauce after). Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time until smooth. Add in bananas (JAM Note: and applesauce), orange juice, and remaining vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Using a rubber spatula fold in apples.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hr and 20 minutes (JAM Note: my bread was done in 50 minutes). Let the loaf cool and turn onto rack to cool completely.

More JAM please!