Not ready for this

I was out on the porch this morning, getting things cleaned up and put away, when I realized someone was staring at me.

Me: Can I help you?
Finch: Do you have a computer in that house?
Me: Yes – why do you ask?
Finch: Did you look at the weather this morning?
Me: Yep.
Finch: Did it really say it may snow later today?
Me: I’m afraid so, yes.finch2Finch: I am so not ready for this.
Me: I don’t think any of us is ready for it, but that never keeps it from coming.finch3Finch: You won’t let the birdfeeders run out will you?
Me: Never!
Finch: Great – I’ll see you out back then.
Me: I’ll be the one with the camera.finch1

Just another ordinary morning encounter here at casa dlyn…

Posted in garden, interviews, photos, Seasons | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Beet and Horseradish Relish

This post has been updated and moved to my new blog.

You can now find it here:

Beet and Horseradish Relish on The Creekside Cook

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Candied Ginger Pumpkin Cake

smpgcIf I live to be a hundred years old, I will retain this one specific memory of walking in the back door of my grandparents’ house and and being nearly knocked over by the enticing aroma of something Grandma had made with pumpkin. I don’t remember what it was, but I am transported to that place in time when I catch the scent of baking pumpkin. This smell of this cake as it baked, had me right back in Grandma’s kitchen, teasing her for a sip of her coffee and hearing her tell me I had to wait till after dinner for a piece of whatever treat she had just conjured up. That alone would be worth the trouble of making this cake, but there are other benefits as well, like ending up with something totally delicious and wonderful.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me dreaming up this cake this past Saturday. I had a lovely little pie pumkin to cook up, so I looked through the pantry for something that would go well with it. Candied ginger would add a nice deep flavor that would complement the pumpkin. Spicy fruit flavored cakes always go well with cream cheese frosting and for a richer flavor, I decided on a brown sugar cream cheese frosting. And to top it all off – toasted, salted pecans.

So, I had my plan – first though, I had to get the pumpkin ready to use. Wash the outside, and take off the stem. Cut in half from top to bottom, and scoop out the seeds and pulp. The seeds are very tasty toasted if you want to go to the trouble. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper – you don’t want to skip this step, because the juice from pumpkins or squash turns into a nearly impossible to remove lacquer as it bakes. Place the halves cut side up , and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes to an hour. The time will vary greatly depending on the size of the pumpkin, so go by doneness, not the timer. Dump out any liquid that accumulates in the centers. A knife inserted in the thickest part should meet no resistance at all – you want this very soft.1pgc Allow to cool enough so that you can handle it without burning yourself. Scoop all of the insides into a bowl, and discard outer shell. You can now mash the pulp with a potato masher, run it through a food mill, process it with a food processor or blender, or as I did, run through it with an immersion blender. It should be smooth with no big chunks. Set aside for a bit, while we get started on the rest of the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease two 9 inch cake pans with solid shortening. If pans aren’t nonstick, you may want to trace the correct size circles onto parchment paper, cut out and place parchment circles in bottoms of pans.

Beat until creamy
3/4 cup soft butter

Add
1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
And beat until fluffy

Beat in, one at a time
3 large eggs, at room temperature

Add, and beat well, until completely incorporated
1 & 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup light molasses
1 & 1/2 teaspoon put vanilla extract
4 tablespoons candied ginger, finely chopped [sprinkle with granulated sugar to keep it from sticking together as you chop]

In another bowl, whisk together
2 & 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

You also need to measure out
1/2 cup buttermilk

Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, beating well between each addition, and scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Divide batter evenly in the cake pans and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, rotating pans after 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, with no crumbs sticking to it. It is easy to under-bake a moist cake like this, so don’t take it out too soon. When done, [don’t turn the oven off yet] cool for a couple minutes in the pans, and remove carefully, running a clean knife around the edge to loosen, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Toast the pecans – about 3/4 cup whole. Lay in a single layer on baking sheet and drizzle with about a teaspoon of vegetable oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Toast in 350 degree oven – they will take about 8 or 9 minutes – stir a couple times so they cook evenly. Remove and when cool enough to handle, chop very coarsely – roughly in thirds.

Make the frosting:
Beat together
4 ounces soft butter
6 ounces soft cream cheese
Add, and beat for several minutes
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup at a time, beat in
4 cups 10x powdered sugar
Add, 1 tablespoon at a time
heavy cream
It took 2 tablespoons to get it to a good spreading consistency.

To assemble the cake
Carefully brush crumbs from sides and bottom of cake layers. Place the first layer, bottom side up on cake plate, being careful to center it. Spread with half of frosting, trying to stay about 1/2 inch from edge. Place second layer on the frosting, this time with the top up, and make sure it too is centered. Spread remaining frosting on top, and then sprinkle the top with the toasted pecans.2pgcCut in wedges to serve3pgcThis is pretty rich, so it will probably give you 12 servings. It will keep at room temperature for a couple days, but after that it should be refrigerated.

I could not be happier with how this turned out – the mixing method yielded a cake that was quite light compared to many pumpkin cakes and the pieces of ginger are like little flavor firecrackers going off in your mouth. The salted pecans are a wonderful counterpoint to the sweet flavors. A keeper I would say!

Posted in recipes | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Food-Centric

Don’t you love it when people use catch phrases like Food-Centric? Yeah – me too. It makes us all sound so hip and with it, don’t you think? Anyway, I wanted to give regular readers a little of bit of a heads up about some differences you will notice around here over the next little while.

I am going to change the schedule around to some extent. You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting on the weekends very much lately, and that is likely a permanent change. I just don’t have time to do seven posts a week these days, so I would rather post 5 really good entries than 7 just okay ones. The biggest change though, is going to be in the number of recipe and food related posts as opposed to humor, photography, gardening and other subjects. Those things will still be here, but only twice a week – the other three posts will be devoted to food. I love taking photographs, but I’m a much better cook than I am a photographer, so I’m going to let the food take center stage.

Part of the reason for this is purely mercenary, I’ll admit. Recipes draw more readers, more hits and more page views than any other content. Hits and page views pay the bills, but they also highlight where my readers think my strengths lie. If 500 people visit on a day when I have nice garden shots, and 1500 show up for a muffin recipe, what does that tell you?

Beyond that though, is something even more important to me. That is the satisfaction of seeing other people discovering the joy of cooking their own food. Not a week goes by that I don’t get emails from people who were inspired to try their hand at makingcbrd real food because of a recipe they found here. Food made from real raw ingredients – fresh vegetables and herbs, meats and dairy products. The stuff that you find around the edge of the grocery store, not the prepackaged mixes and cans you find in the middle aisles.  There’s nothing wrong with eating that stuff if you want to – here is the only place you will ever find a mention of my secret life long affection for Chef Boyardee Ravioli.  But it’s obvious from the ever expanding proliferation of food blogs and other related web content that cooking is of great interest to a whole lot of people. 

What is it that makes food and cooking so important to people? And, seemingly more important as time goes by? Food is elemental – a basic thing we all need every day. It is very satisfying to take a few simple ingredients, create something delicious and feed it to people you love. To be able to do so with confidence, knowing that the end result is going to be enjoyable, makes life easier and more relaxed. The world is a stressful place, so it just makes sense that we would be drawn to an activity that relieves us of tension and brings us a sort of communal pleasure.

That level of competence in the kitchen can only be attained one way – with practice. I’ve been cooking since I was 10 years old, and I was a pretty cook before, but cooking for my blog the past two years has improved my skills ten-fold. When I hear from a visitor that one of my recipes gave them the courage to try cooking something they had never made before, it thrills me right down to my toes. In addition, we are all more interested in where our food is coming from, and anyone who hangs around here much at all, notices that I am usually posting about food that is seasonal, and more often than not, local. I try to provide you with ideas for preparing the food you might be seeing at your local farmer’s market this week, or maybe even in your own back yard.

So what does this all mean? Like, is she ever going to come to the point? The point is that you will see more food related posts here now. My goal is three recipes a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday will be the same photography-garden-nature-family type posts that have been more common up till now. I mean, if a blue jay starts talking, who am I to ignore him?

I can’t put up a post like this without including my thanks to those of you who stop by here every day – far more than one would guess from the comments. I’m grateful too, for the great emails I get from all of you [dlynk (at) htva (dot) com], as well as my Twitter followers, friends on Facebook and for all theStumbles on my posts. [if you love a blog, Stumbling the posts are the biggest favor you can do for the author – it drives an amazing amount of traffic to them, not to mention helping you find more web content that you will enjoy] As always, I am open to feedback and suggestions, and I hope I can continue to bring you all kinds of stuff that you will enjoy. Now – go cook something!

Posted in Blogging, me | 7 Comments

Garden Chicken Chowder

250gcDon’t you get the urge to make soup this time of year?  In truth, I always want to make soup, but when the weather begins to cool, the urge is particularly strong.  What a great feeling to have a bubbling pot on the stove when your family comes in for dinner, and then to sit down together and share a meal from a communal pot, in the center of the kitchen table.     

 I admit that I nearly forgot this recipe, which I actually made a couple weeks ago. It is not too late for it to still be seasonal though – all of these vegetables are still available fresh here. At other times of year, you can substitute whatever is fresh at the moment. And even in the dead of winter there is always the supermarket. I mean – we eat what we grow plus what others around us grow for a large part of the year, but we don’t want to get scurvy, so in the winter our fresh veggies come from places a lot further away. Beans and corn don’t grow very well in snow after all. My point is – while the vegetables I chose here are a great combination, use what you have and what you like.  We better get started if we want this for dinner tonight.

In a heavy stock pot, brown
4 strips bacon, diced
Remove bacon and reserve. To the bacon drippings in the pan, add
½ cup chopped celery
Pinch of salt
5 scallions, divided
Saute until the celery begins to get translucent – about 4 minutes.
Add, and saute another minute
1 large clove garlic, minced1gccAdd
1 cup corn kernels
1 & ½ cups sliced carrots
1 cup green beans, cut in ½ inch pieces
12 ounces new red potatoes, cut in 1 inch pieces
2gccSaute over medium heat for 6 or 7 minutes
Increase heat to high and add
½ cup dry white wine
Cook and stir gently until wine reduces by about half3gccAdd
4 cups strong chicken stock
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, until carrots and potatoes are just tender. Remove thyme stems.4gccStir in
½ lb skinless, boneless chicken, cut in 1 inch cubes
4 or 5 sprigs flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped5gccBring back up to a simmer for a couple minutes and add
2 cups half and half
Reserved cooked bacon
Bring back to a simmer, stirring occasionally
Serve with a sprinkle of the green onion tops for garnish.6gcc A perfect blending of the seasons: Late season summer-like veggies satisfying your fall craving for a hearty soup. There’s nothing better than that!

Posted in recipes | Tagged , | 10 Comments