Day 21 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 30 min
Ice Cream Maker Time: Approximately 25-30 minutes
Makes: 1 1/2 quarts

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup half and half
-------------------
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 broken graham crackers


Directions:

1.Whisk together pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in large batter bowl.
2.Stir in heavy whipping cream and half and half.
3.Strain through mesh strainer to remove pumpkin pulp.
4.Chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
5.Pour into ice cream maker and mix about 25-30 minutes or according to manufacturer's instructions.
6. Transfer ice cream to freezable container. Stir in chocolate chips and graham crackers. You can eat immediately for soft serve or transfer to freezer for more traditional ice cream. Use Pampered Chef's amazing ice cream scoop for the easiest scooping of hard ice cream!

Day 20 Pumpkin Dip and Cinnamon Chips

I made this for a Halloween party I went to last night. It looked really nice with the red and green apples arranged and the cinnamon chips all around the pumpkin dip. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the final product. It must be because in the last 30 minutes before we left I had to nurse my baby, get both the girls in their costumes, get me in my costume and make sure we had everything else we needed for the night. Oh well!

Cinnamon Chips

5 - 7” flour tortillas
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pumpkin Dip

1 cup solid packed pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2cup packed brown sugar
1 cup Cool Whip, thawed



To Make Tortillas: Pre-heat oven to 400°. For cinnamon chips, lightly spray tortillas with water in Kitchen Spritzer; combine cinnamon & sugar in Flour/Sugar Shaker and sprinkle over tortillas. Stack tortillas on Cutting Board and cut
into 8 wedges using the Pizza Cutter. Place in single layer on Baking Stone. Bake 8 -10 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Remove to Stackable Cooling Rack,cool completely.





To Make Dip: Combine pumpkin, sour cream, brown sugar and cinnamon in large bowl with Whisk. Fold in Cool Whip. Pour mixture into hollowed out, V-cut top pumpkin and sprinkle with pecans, if desired. Serve with cinnamon chips.



Thanks to Barbara Duke from The Pampered Chef for the recipe

Day 19 Pumpkin Orange Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls

I made these for breakfast this morning, they are so good! You will want to thaw the dough out and let it rise the day before. You can even assemble the rolls the night before and then just pop them in the oven in the morning.


Roll:
1 loaf bridgford ready dough, thawed
4 Tablespoon melted butter (divided)
1 Tablespoon pumpkin puree
¼ Cup dried cranberry
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Frosting:
2 Cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoon butter, melted
2-3 Tablespoon Orange Juice
2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Take the bread dough out of the freezer and put it in a greased bread pan well covered with plastic wrap the day before. Let the dough sit out all day, it should rise over the top of the bread pan. You can then either assemble rolls and refrigerate over night or you can refrigerate dough and assemble in the morning.

To assemble rolls:
Preheat to 350
1. On floured surface, roll dough into
10 X 12 rectangle.

2. Spread dough with 2 TB melted butter mixed with 1 TB pumpkin.


3. Mix spices and sugar. Set aside 2 TB for later use. Sprinkle mixture over dough.
4.Sprinkle cranberries over dough.
5. Beginning on 12" side, roll dough tightly in jellyroll fashion.
6. Cut rolls into 12 pieces using dental floss.
7. Place pieces into stonemuffin pan (no need to grease if you are using stone.)
Brush tops with 2 TB melted butter, sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture.
8.Bake in a 350 oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool slightly on cooling rack before frosting.




Frosting:
For frosting, mix ingredients adding OJ slowly until it comes to thick but spreadable consistency. Frost rolls.

Day 18 Reduced Fat Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Oh what a day! I had such plans; and actually I did get quite a lot done. But one of my main plans was to make this pumpkin cheesecake for my FPU class tonight. I know, I know - if you were there, you are thinking, "pumpkin cheesecake sounds a lot better than what you brought!" Long story short, once my girls were "napping" I realized I was out of pumpkin puree. I couldn't go to the store since the girls were in bed so I borrowed my daughter pumpkin patch pumpkin to make more puree. I ended up starting the cheesecake too late and it wasn't ready to bring to FPU tonight (sorry everyone).

Here is a hint as you are cooking your cheesecake. The time says 35-45 minutes. It actually took me almost 50 minutes. When the cheesecake doesn't jiggle it just about done. Use a toothpick to check.

Oh, and by the way, this cheesecake is not very thick. If you are looking for a thick recipe you could always double the recipe but you will have to increase the cooking time up to 55-65 minutes.

Ingredients:
2 (8 ounce) packages low fat cream cheese, softened


1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ginger

1 pack graham crackers (one package inside a box)- will make 1 1/2 cup crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.Put graham crackers in a large ziplock bag and crush with rolling pin until fine.
3.Add sugar and cinnamon to bag. Zip and shake to combine.


4. Add melted butter to the bag and stir up with spoon.
5. Press crumb mixture into bottom of spring form pan reserving 1/3 cup for topping.

6. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.



7. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.



8.Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

This cheesecake is delicious and it is low fat except for the crust. If you want to lower the fat you can use half the amount of crust or even none at all. But I highly recommend keeping the crust and just eating a smaller piece ;)




Adapted from the following recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Double-Layer-Pumpkin-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx

Day 17 Pumpkin Bars

These pumpkin bars taste a lot more like cake than bars to me. They are extremely moist and very yummy! I brought them to an event and most people were eating them with a fork. So in that way they were not what I was expecting, but they were very good!

4 eggs
1 2/3 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 15 ounce pumpkin puree
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese,
softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoon milk
2- 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons Pampered Chef Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with mixer. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
3. Spread the batter evenly into Pampered Chef Large Stone Bar Pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven. Cool on cooling rack before frosting.

4. While bars are cooking make frosting. Combine all ingredients in mixer. You can add more sugar to get frosting to the best spreadable texture. It shouldn't be to runny or too stiff. After frosting the bars generously sprinkle with Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle.

Adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pauls-Pumpkin-Bars/Detail.aspx

Day 16 Skinny Pumpkin Spice Latte

This is really tasty. Does it matter that there is actually no pumpkin in it? I made this recipe a few times while I was waiting (FOREVER) for the grocery store to carry my favorite pumpkin creamer. This tastes a lot like starbucks!


Ingredients
3 cups hot skim milk
4 teaspoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
6 ounces double-strength brewed coffee
cool whip
pinch of pumpkin pie spice for garnish

Directions
Combine the hot milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice in a blender or magic buller; blend until frothy. Pour the mixture into 3 coffee mugs to about 2/3 full. Pour 2 ounces coffee into each mug. Garnish each mug with cool whip and pumpkin pie spice.

Adapted from a recipe found on allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Spiced-Latte/Detail.aspx

Day 15 Low Fat Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies

I can't believe I have been doing this for more than two weeks! I really want to make my healthy harvest pumpkin bread again because it is my favorite, but that would kind of go against making a different recipe every day. So I thought I'd try another somewhat healthy recipe. It has very little fat in it and unfortunately you can kind of tell. They are slightly dry but have really nice flavor. They do taste really good warm. Oh, in case your wondering why I used a circular pan; I don't have the Pampered Chef 8x8 stone. I can't cook brownies on metal, they just won't cook right. On metal pans they are well done on the outside and raw on the inside. With a stone they cook completely evenly.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips


Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Use 8 square baking stone.

COMBINE pumpkin, brown sugar, egg, egg whites and oil in large mixer bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, salt and nutmeg. Beat on low speed until batter is smooth. Stir in morsels. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

Adapted from "very best baking" recipe http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/473/Pumpkin-Chocolate-Brownies/detail.aspx




BAKE for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in stone cooling rack. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Day 14 Hot Pumpkin Cider

I was really excited about this recipe. It seems that the flavors of apple cider and pumpkin would go perfectly together. I actually recently tasted a delicious cold bubbly pumpkin cider from Cost Plus. Unfortunately the hot cider wasn't all I was hoping for. I had a few friends over and we all tasted it with great anticipation! Hmmmmmm, was the cumulative response. We couldn't figure out whether we liked it or not. The flavor is actually outstanding but there is somewhat of a grainy texture from the pumpkin. Maybe canned pumpkin would work better with this recipe.

This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled or more for a crowd.

1/4 cup pumpkin
2 cups apple cider
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cinnamon stick

In a large saucepan, mix together all ingredients. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes or until the pumpkin has a liquid consistency. Serve garnished with a cinnamon stick.

Day 13 Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

These flavors go perfectly together! Basically I took my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, took out half of the butter/ shortening and added pumpkin puree. I also changed the spices around a little bit. The golden raisins are so good in this recipe. You could also try cranberries though.

3 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons butter flavored shortening
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup golden raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, pumpkin, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by medium cookie scoop onto large Pampered Chef stone.


3. Bake 14-16 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Cookies continue baking 1-2 minutes after they come out of oven.

Day 12 Easy Pumpkin Pancakes

On day 5 I made Gourmet Pumpkin Waffles, they were delicious but very time consuming. I wanted to have another option that was a little easier. I found this recipe in my family cookbook. It was contributed by my cousin Kim and are her son Nate's favorite!

They were really yummy and we ate them with powdered sugar, homemade pumpkin butter and Pampered Chef Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle. YUM!

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 cups bisquick
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice substitute below if you don't have pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
3/4 c water (you may need to add a little more water 1 tablespoon at a time if mix is too thick.)


****substitute for pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
***** you can also use this for easy pumpkin waffles by adding 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Batter should be thick for waffles.




Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour 1/3 c mixture onto lightly buttered skillet preheated to medium high. Or if you use Pampered Chef's professional nonstick cookware, you will not need to use any butter.
Flip when small bubbles appear throughout pancake.

Day 11 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are orange and black - perfect for Giant's fans!! :) I got this recipe from my friend Michelle from high school. She loves to cook and has an amazing blog full of great looking recipes and tons of them are PUMPKIN!! I plan on trying many of them here on this blog. Go check it out: http://michellesfavoriterecipes.blogspot.com

So I have been wanting to try these cookies ever since I heard Michelle talking about them last fall. But last fall I had gestational diabetes and I couldn't eat stuff like this (maybe that is why I am going a little crazy with one pumpkin recipe a day now!)

These cookies are delicious and they will make your house smell WONDERFUL!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min

Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 small can pumpkin puree
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 small bag of milk chocolate chips, not semisweet

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. I recommend using a Pampered Chef cooking stone for all your cookies. You do not need to spray them and the cookies cook evenly and perfectly! If you don't have one, you should use parchment paper on a regular cookies sheet or lightly spray with cooking spray.

3. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
4. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.
6. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.


7. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Do not overmix. Stir in the chips.


8.Scoop the cookie dough using a Pampered Chef small scoop onto the stones and bake for 13-16 minutes, or until the cookies are very lightly browned around the edges.


9. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes.
10. Allow cookies to cool on cooling rack.

Note: These cookies are best served room temperature (versus warm).

Day 10 Fast and Easy Cooked Pumpkin for Puree

Sorry there are no pictures on this. I have them but can't upload today. Hopefully I can add them tomorrow.
My very first post was how to cook the pumpkin in the crockpot. I have done this twice now, it works well but 4 hours is a long time to wait if you are planning on cooking with your pumpkin the same day. Yesterday I planned to make the reduced fat pumpkin ribbon cake (which turned out awesome!) I was out of pumpkin Puree and was too stubborn to go to the store to buy canned pumpkin. I thought I would try out a creative new way to cook my pumpkin. We have an AMAZING product called the Deep Covered Baker (Pampered Chef.) For those of you who love our stoneware, did you know that you can cook with it in the microwave?? Well you can but most pieces are too big to fit. The Pampered Chef designed the DCB specifically to fit in the micro and cook DELICIOUS dinners in 30 minutes or less. I use mine ALL THE TIME! Monday I made Mexican Chicken Lasagna (15 minutes in the micro!) I always give me customers 70 recipes when they purchase it. Some examples are 12 minute chicken Fajitas, 15 minute Loaded Potato Chowder, 3 recipes for easy microwave lava cakes! There are way too many to name. So I thought I would try cooking the pumpkin in the microwave. It came out PERFECTLY!! Here is the recipe:

Fast and Easy Cooked Pumpkin for Puree

Wash 2 Sugar Pumpkins
Cut in half with sharp knife (Pampered Chef has the best!)
Take out seeds and save for roasting (see day 2 for recipe)
Slice into any size pieces that will fit in DCB
Put into baker, top with lid, microwave on high 15 minutes
Let sit 10 minutes
Allow to cool, remove skins with fork. Puree in food processor.

Day 9 - Reduced Fat Pumpkin Ribbon Cake

OH MY GOSH!! I can't believe how good this turned out. I am so excited!! In Los Gatos there is a bakery called Icing on the Cake. It is my FAVORITE bakery. We have gotten our birthday cakes there for years and they even made our delicious and beautiful wedding cake! In the fall, they have an amazing cake called Pumpkin Ribbon Cake. We served it at Willow Street, the restaurant I worked at for many, many, many years. Normally only about 15-20% of my tables would order dessert, but when we had pumpkin ribbon cake, I would say at least 50% of my tables would order it. Probably because I told them they had to! Basically it is pumpkin cake with a layer of cheesecake in the middle and cream cheese frosting.
I don't live there any more, it is October and I am having withdrawals from Pumpkin Ribbon Cake! So of course I tried to recreate it. And since I am baking so much I have a really hard time adding all the butter, etc that most recipes call for. The nice thing about pumpkin cake is applesauce doesn't alter the flavor like it does in say, brownies. I would never recommend completely replacing butter or oil with applesauce. It is not worth it to ruin the flavor and texture. But taking out half of the butter and replacing it with applesauce does work. And you can even take out some of the sugar since applesauce is naturally sweet. Some of the other things I did to lower the fat and calories were to use 1/3 less fat cream cheese. I always use this, to me there is no difference in flavor. I also used egg substitute. So here is the recipe. It is really good. It is definitely not exactly the same as Icing On the Cake but it is very good. ENJOY! You are not going to believe it is reduced fat!! Oh and p.s, if you are one of my weird friends who is disappointed that this is reduced fat, all you need to do is replace the applesauce with butter and full fat ingredients for the low fat ones - and wala - a nice fattening dessert that you can feel happily guilty about later.

Cake
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 + 1/8 c butter
1/4 + 1/8 c applesauce
1/2 c egg substitute
1 egg
3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1 tsp vanilla

Filling

1 pkg (8 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Frosting
1 pkg (8 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup Powdered sugar


OR if you want it to be even less fat, leave off the frosting and dust with powdered sugar.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking dish or if using a stone you do not need to spray. I used Pampered Chef's 11 inch Deep Dish Baker

Combine flour, baking powder, spices, baking soda and salt in small bowl. In large bowl beat sugar, applesauce and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, egg substitute, pumpkin,milk and vanilla. Beat well. Slowly add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture just until moistened. Set aside.

Filling- Whisk cream cheese, egg and sugar until well blended.

Smooth 2-1/2 cups cake batter on bottom of pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture over cake batter using a large spreader. Pour remaining batter over top and spread evenly.

Bake 45-50 minutes. Cake tester will come out clean. Allow to cool completely on cooling rack.

Make frosting. Combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Slowly add sugar until smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

Day 8 Spicy Pumpkin Soup

I took a lot more pictures than the one above, but I am not going to bother posting them. This recipe was no good. I am only posting it because I spent all the time making it and we had to eat it for dinner and I have nothing else to post for today. Don't make this recipe!!!
Ingredients
1/2 onion chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Sugar Pumpkin cut in half and roasted (see below)
3 cups chicken stock (see below for recipe)
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
Directions
1. Cut pumpkin in half, de-seed and roast with olive oil salt and pepper. 350 degrees 1 hour. Cool pumpkin slightly remove peel.
2.In a 12-inch skillet, saute onions in olive oil until tender. Add pumpkin, stock, cream cheese, marjoram, black pepper, pumpkin pie spice and cayenne pepper. Take off of heat.
3.Puree pumpkin mixture in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to skillet, and heat through. Do not allow to boil. Throw in garbage - soup is very bad!

Day 7 - Sweet and Sour Pumpkin Side Dish

I am having so much fun looking through all the websites, blogs and recipes that people have been sending me! The possibilities really are endless with pumpkin. I am sure that I will have plenty of recipes to choose from during the 40 days or so I have left until Thanksgiving. I am also pretty amazed at how much I have made with the 5 pumpkins I bought about a week ago for $5!

So tonight's recipe is the first savory pumpkin recipe that I have made (besides the pumpkin seeds.) After sauteing the pumpkin with garlic and olive oil, I was pleasantly surprised at the subtle earthy flavors. I was expecting it to be a lot sweeter like butternut squash. Pumpkin is so commonly seasoned with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon that I did not even recognize the pumpkin without these flavors. It also had a very nice hearty texture that is different from other squashes.

Adding the Sweet and Sour sauce made this a very unique dish. It was simple but almost elegant.

I found this recipe on pinchmysalt.com The recipe was actually for grilled pumpkin but also had a modification for sauteed. I choose to saute mine and did a few other alterations which I will indicate in the recipe below. You can go to the link if you would like to see her original recipe.

http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/24/sweet-and-sour-grilled-pumpkin-recipe/comment-page-1/

Sweet and Sour Pumpkin Side Dish

1 – 1 1/2 pounds sugar pumpkin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, pressed
kosher salt
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons sliced green onions
1 thinly sliced garlic clove




Cut pumpkin in half and peel it. (Peeling the pumpkin is the only step that is somewhat difficult.) I actually ended up only using half the pumpkin since I was only making it for me and my husband. This quantity was plenty. I made the entire amount of sauce but did not use it all.

Cut pumpkin into 1 inch cubes

Heat skillet to medium high heat. Add olive oil and warm for 1-2 minutes.




I use the Pampered Chef Garlic Press to press the fresh garlic right into the skillet. You don't even need to peel it first! Stir about 1 minute.

Add pumpkin and a generous pinch of salt, saute until tender (about 7 minutes.)




In a small bowl, mix vinegar and sugar. Drizzle sweet and sour sauce over the pumpkin and stir 2-3 minutes.

Add sliced garlic, stir and remove from heat.

Garnish with sliced green onions.

Day 6 Pumpkin Butter

I have to admit, I was saving this recipe for a day I didn't have time to make a pumpkin recipe. I actually made this about a week ago before I started this blog. The funny thin is - I have made two pumpkin recipes today! Pumpkin Ice Cream and Sweet and Sour Sauteed Pumpkin. Well, my ice cream maker is not being very cooperative and the sweet and sour pumpkin is not quite done. And, since I am stuck on the couch with a fussy baby (who was woken up by her daddy's excitment with the Giant's win), I thought I would go ahead and post the pumpkin butter recipe.

I love pumpkin butter. Trader Joe's has it this time of year but I had never thought of making it myself. It is similar to apple butter but obviously made with pumpkin instead. It is not fattening as it sounds with the word butter in it. It can be used as a spread on toast or bagels or even for an ice cream topping.

If I make this recipe again, I think I will try using canned pumpkin instead of the fresh puree. I think it would have a nicer texture. This recipe is from Gina's Skinny Recipes

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/10/pumpkin-butter.html

Pumpkin Butter
Gina's Skinny Recipes
Servings: 14 • Serving Size: 1/4 cup • Points: 1.5 pts
Calories: 88.2 • Fat: 0.3 g • Protein: 1.0 g • Carb: 27.3 g • Fiber: 2.5 g

3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree, or 1 (29 ounce) can (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup apple cider or juice
1 cup packed brown sugar
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1-2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
Combine pureed pumpkin, vanilla, apple juice, spices, cinnamon sticks and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 - 40 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently. Adjust spices to your taste.

Day 5 Gourmet Pumpkin Waffles

I am now on day 5 of making a different pumpkin recipe until Thanksgiving. The funny thing is, I started this on a whim, without really thinking about what 46 days of pumpkin recipes would mean. And this week being the first week, well I am a little limited on ingredients and can't go to the store until tomorrow. So I have been picking recipes based on what I have the ingredients for. (This is the reason I have not yet made the much requested pumpkin chocolate chip cookies - I am out of chocolate chips!) I have plenty of pumpkin and that is all that really matters!

So last night I decided I would be making pumpkin waffles this morning. I went on a search for the best pumpkin waffle recipe I could find. One of the most fun parts of this for me is finding recipes and playing around with them to make them my own. For example, yesterday I used a plain scone recipe and modified it to become a delicious pumpkin scone recipe.

I did not find any fantastic looking pumpkin waffle recipes on any of my favorite cooking websites. (Allrecipes.com and cookinglight.com) So, I did a google search. At the top of the search was this website:
http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe-metric/

Yes, that is right, an entire blog devoted to this one recipe! When I first looked at the recipe I almost moved on in my search. It is very complicated - for waffles! I mean, you have to separate the yokes and egg whites, fluff up the egg whites, etc. Basically you need 3 to 4 bowls to make this recipe. And that would normally be just too many dishes for me. But then I started reading the comments. 373 comments raving about this recipe! Well now I just needed to see what the fuss was about and I was not going to be "playing around" with this recipe. The creator spent way to much time perfecting it. I did do a few things different but that was because of ingredients on hand, etc. I will note what I did differently at the bottom.

These waffles are delicious! They have fabulous spicy pumpkiny flavor. They are INCREDIBLY light and fluffy in the middle and crispy on the outside. I just wish I had a better waffle iron. I know they would have been AMAZING if I had a Belgian waffle iron. (I have the George Forman one, it is pretty good - but to get them crispy - it takes FOREVER!)

So here is the recipe and the link again that I got them from. The blog has much better pictures than I do so feel free to visit the site. They also have some yummy looking syrup recipes. I just stuck with butter and powdered sugar on mine, my husband had maple on his, and our 2 year old butchered hers with her request for purple (blueberry) syrup.

http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe-metric/

"Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm

*Grated and lightly packed into the spoon, use 1/2 tsp. Grated and loosely scooped, this is about 1 tsp. of nutmeg. If you have to use pre-grated, dried nutmeg, use 1/4 tsp.

DIRECTIONS


1. Lightly oil the waffle iron with vegetable oil, and set it to the desired temperature.

2. Combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk together to break apart the cornstarch. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend.


3. Separate eggs: yolks go in a medium sized bowl and whites get set aside in a smaller bowl.
4. Add pumpkin and milk to the egg yolks. Whisk to blend and set aside.

5. Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form – about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Set aside.



6. Pour melted butter into the yolk/milk/pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine.

7. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix them together until just combined. A little lumpiness is fine. That will smooth out when the egg whites are added.



8. Slide the whipped egg whites out of the bowl and onto the mixture you just prepared. Gently fold them in until no white bits are obvious.

9. Once the waffle iron is heated, you’re ready to pour the batter! In my Presto FlipSide waffle maker, cook time is exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds."

The only changes I made were: I use nonfat milk (all we had), I meant to use jarred nutmeg but then forgot to put it in, I also used margarine instead of butter since I am out of butter. Oh and lastly, I whipped my eggs up with a whisk because I couldn't stand to get one more bowl dirty and I would have had to put it in my kitchenaid mixing bowl. It was really quick and easy to do with a whisk.

Day 4 - Pumpkin Scones with Brown Sugar Maple Glaze

When I was in high school I worked at a local coffee shop. We had daily deliveries of DELICIOUS pumpkin muffins. The best part of the muffin was the AMAZING sauce/glaze/gooo that was poured on top. When all the muffins were gone, my co-workers and I would take the pan in back and clean it with a spoon. Needless to say I was very well caffeinated and sugared for the day when I worked those weekend morning shifts. I am feeling pretty similar today because I tried my hardest to recreate that gooo for the scones I made today. I would love to get my hands on that recipe but I did my best to recreate it. My recreating required a lot of taste testing. Good thing I am training for a half marathon and had to run 8 miles this morning! I also took a simple scone recipe and modified it into a pumpkin scone recipe.

I have to admit, this is the first time I have baked scones. I don't normally enjoy scones because they are usually quite dry. But I found out recently that scones are intended to be smothered with other things like lemon curd, jam, devonshire cream and in this case brown sugar maple glaze! Of course those other additions would also taste nice on these scones, especially the cream and lemon curd. (I love lemon curd on almost anything!)

Note: I do recommend using a food processor for this recipe. It makes it very easy and I am not sure how you would blend in the frozen butter without it.

Pumpkin Scones with Brown Sugar Maple Glaze

Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen and cut into pieces
1/2 cup your choice: golden raisins, dried cranberries, butterscotch or white chocolate chips
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2.In a food processor, mix dry ingredients and butter. Process a few times until well blended.

3.Add wet ingredients and pulse until well blended.
4.Add raisins or any other fruits or chips you like, just pulse it a couple of times to mix. The batter will not be smooth. It will be crumbly and sticky.
5.Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into an 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place about 1 inch apart on a Pampered Chef Large Round Stone. If you do not have one, you can use a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and pour glaze evenly over the top. Glaze recipe below.

Brown Sugar Maple Glaze
1 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons shortening
2 Tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1-2 teaspoons water

Combine all ingredients in microwave safe bowl. (I use the Pampered Chef small batter bowl.) Stir until smooth. Consistency should be a thick glaze. Microwave 45 seconds or until glaze is melted and bubbling. Stir. Glaze should not be gritty from sugar, if it is, return to microwave in 10 second increments. Cool 1-2 minutes before pouring over scones.