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Real Pumpkin Pancakes

Sunday pancakes are a bit of a family tradition. I can remember Dad yelling "PANCAKES" and all of us rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, and running down the stairs to plates full of warm, stacked pancakes. The first one down could usually claim the Sunday comics, and first dibs on the syrup. Brothers being brothers, we also competed to see who could out-eat the others. Fortunately, I think Dad usually ran out of batter.

Last week, a co-worker brought in a pumpkin pie - a real pumpkin pie, she noted. Not one of those pumpkin-in-a-can pies. After I got her notes, I was excited to try making real pumpkin. The idea for pumpkin pancakes quickly followed.

Getting out of bed on a cold Sunday morning is never easy. But these warm pumpkin pancakes certainly helped!

WHAT TO GRAB:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs, separated
1 cup shaken buttermilk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (recipe follows)

HOW YOU DO IT:
PUMPKIN PUREE
Pie pumpkins - unlike their carving cousins - are smaller and have a thicker skin. A good pie pumpkin is around 6 to 8 inches in diameter. The pumpkin should have a good orange color and no soft spots.

1. Rinse the pumpkin off, and cut the pumpkin into quarters, vertically. This is probably the hardest part of the whole recipe. These guys have a thick skin! I recommend a serrated knife and patience. Scrape the strings and seeds out of the pumpkin, and place the segments, rind-side up, in a large baking pan.

2. Bake the pumpkin at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to 1 hour. The pumpkin meat will be tender to a fork when it's done, and the rind will be a nice golden brown.

3. Scoop the meat into a large mixing bowl and blend until smooth. I used an immersion blender for convenience, but a food processor would work equally well. You can freeze the leftover puree until needed.

4. Set aside a 1/2 cup of the puree for our pancakes!

HOW MUCH YOU GET:
From two pie pumpkins, I got six cups of pumpkin puree. I measured the remaining amounts in 1-cup bunches (a huge convenience down the road), and froze them.

HOW YOU DO IT:
THE PANCAKES

1. Sift together the dry ingredients - the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices, in a medium mixing bowl.

2. Whisk together the egg yolks, buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter, in a large mixing bowl, until smooth. Whisk in the dry ingredients, in batches, until well combined.

3. Beat the egg-whites until soft peaks begin to form. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter until just combined.

4. Grease your griddle, and pour the batter! I used about a 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. I cooked them for about 90 seconds on one side, and then 60 seconds on the other.*
*If you're making a bunch of pancakes - and why wouldn't you - you can keep the pancakes warm in a 250 degree oven, until ready to serve.

5. Drizzle with syrup and serve!!

HOW MUCH YOU GET:
This recipe will make about 10 to 12 pancakes.

Sweet Potato Bundt Cake

Like any good American, I often buy things I don't necessarily need. And I'm particularly susceptible to this urge when I'm around kitchen gadgets. Exhibit 1 would be my recently purchased 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan. Fortunately, the Food Network came to my rescue.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved sweet potatoes. In grade school, our class was putting together a cook book, and we were all asked to bring in our favorite recipe. All the kids brought in recipes for typical kid fare: grilled cheese, ice cream sundaes, macaroni and cheese - normal kid stuff. My recipe involved a root vegetable: sweet potato pie.

After typing 'Bundt Pan" into the Food Network's search engine, I stumbled upon a recipe involving sweet potatoes. I figured I'd give it a try, and make good on my recent purchase. This recipe turned out really well, so I'd thought I'd share. Credit goes to Dave Lieberman.

WHAT TO GRAB:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups of cooked sweet potato meat (3 sweet potatoes)
3 eggs
3/4 cup water
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

FOR THE GLAZE:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 to 3 tablespoons spiced rum
1 cup confectioner's sugar

HOW YOU DO IT:

1. Bake the sweet potatoes at 420 degrees for 1 hour 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and grease your Bundt pan.

3. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

4. In a separate, and LARGE mixing bowl, lightly mash the sweet potato. Whisk in the eggs, warm water, sugar, oil, and then vanilla extract (in that order).

5. Stir the dry ingredients into the sweet potato mixture, until well combined. Fold in the walnuts and raisins, and spoon into the prepared Bundt pan. Give the pan a good tap on the counter - it'll help get rid of air bubbles.

6. Bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. (I needed an extra ten minutes - so don't begrudge the cake a few extra minutes). Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20 to 30 minutes. Once cool, invert onto a cake stand.

7. Once cool. make the glaze: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and combine with the rum. Off the heat, whisk in the confectioner's sugar until smooth.*
*I halved the amount of butter and sugar, because I thought the original amount overwhelmed the cake. Also, do not make the glaze ahead of time - it will congeal into a gross lump!

8. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, slice, and serve!

Baba Ghanoush

As near-eastern dishes go, baba ghanoush is the quiet sibling to the more popular hummus. Both recipes revolve around a similar mix of ingredients, and both dishes are all-but ubiquitous in your pita-bread establishments. And yet, for whatever reason, hummus always seems to get top-billing. It practically co-starred with Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

It needn't be this way any longer.

I prefer grilling the eggplants, but I've noticed that some recipes bake them. I've made this recipe a few times now, and I've found the best flavor seems to come from picking small, firm eggplants, and really letting them get nice and charred on the grill. I go about 20 to 25 minutes, rotating every so often.

WHAT TO GRAB:
3 medium size, firm eggplants
3 to 5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons tahini sauce (available in most grocery stores)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (1 and 1/2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons, diced flat-leaf parsley


HOW YOU DO IT:

1. With a knife, make thin slits in the skin of the eggplant, about a 1/2 inch deep. I make about three slits in four or five spots around the eggplant.

2. Wedge the slices of garlic into the slits in the eggplant. You may have to thin the garlic a little bit as you go, but don't get frustrated. In the end, you'll be glad you added the garlic.

3. Grill the eggplants until the skin is well-charred all around. Like I said, I go about 20 to 25 minutes at around 450 to 500 degrees.

4. Let the eggplants cool and let the liquid drain. Remove the skins. I also like removing some of the chunks of seeds, but I'm not too fastidious about it.

5. Give the eggplant flesh a good whirl in the food processor. Add the tahini sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Whirl again. Taste and see what you think. You may have to experiment with these four ingredients to see what combination works best.

6. Add the diced parsley and pulse for a second!*
*If you pulse for too long, you'll turn your baba ghanoush green.

7. Toast some pita or baguette slices and serve!

Graveyard Brownies

Last night I had a Halloween party, and in keeping with spirit of the party, I decided to try a themed dessert: Graveyard Brownies. I thought about laying some Lego men around the tombstones for added effect, but ultimately decided to stick with an all-edible item. Then I thought about trying to make marshmallow spider webs or adding gummy worms, but there's something to be said for simplicity - especially with a first effort.

Next year I might try and make something more intricate or build further on this idea. But that's a little while away. In the meantime, I'd welcome comments or ideas for building a better (graveyard) brownie, or other spooky dessert.

WHAT TO GRAB:
2 sticks of butter, plus a tablespoon for greasing
8 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

FOR THE GRAVEYARD:
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
Green food coloring
Large block of white chocolate
Black icing.


HOW YOU DO IT:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 1.5 (optional). If you're using the walnuts, I find cooking them for about 10 minutes helps accentuate their natural flavor.

2. In a double-boiler, melt the butter and chocolate together, then let it cool.*
*When working with chocolate, make sure you don't get any water in the chocolate. It will freeze up and be unworkable!

3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the salt, sugars, and vanilla. Finally, whisk in the chocolate mixture.

4. Fold in the flour in batches, and stir until just combined. If using the walnuts, stir them in now.

5. Butter a 13 by 9 inch baking pan, and line it with buttered parchment paper. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes - or until the top is shiny and beginning to crack. Let it cool.

6. Soften the white chocolate in the microwave - but only just a bit. Carefully carve out small 2 by 4 inch rectangular pieces. Then make angled cuts to the top, and round it out as best you can. Repeat, fifteen times.*
*This step really takes a lot of patience and practice. The chocolate tends not to cooperate.

7. Make a small cut into the brownie, and insert the tombstones, in five rows of three.

8. In a small mixing bowl, combine the shredded coconut with one drop of food coloring.* Mix well, and then sprinkle the coconut around the tombstones.
*Food coloring is mighty stuff. Any more than two drops and you could be eating green brownies - save that for St. Patrick's Day!

9. Squeeze the icing on a fingertip and dot the tombstones. (At first, I thought I'd be writing out "R.I.P." on these tombstones. But that just wasn't going to happen in a one or two inch space of chocolate).

10. Cut 'em up and serve!

Grilled Quesadillas

Of late, grilling has become one of my favorite cooking methods. Unfortunately, as the sun is quickly setting on this warm St. Louis weather, so too are my grilling days. So before I have to shut the propane off for good, I decided it was time to grill some quesadillas. These are so fast, so easy to make - and just so good. They're bound to be a hit.

Quesadilla literally means "little cheesy thing," in Spanish. So some form of cheese is required. But after that, the beauty of quesadillas is in their elegant simplicity. They're a blank slate on which to experiment. Throw whatever you want at them -- and just see what sticks.

Speaking of sticking, I've discovered that the soft, sticky quality of goat cheese acts as a perfect seal for the tortilla. So here's my approach.

WHAT TO GRAB:
2 or 3 flour or corn tortillas (again, see what works for you).
Sliced cheddar cheese (preferably from a block)
Goat cheese
Black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon fresh italian-leaf parsley, chopped
Sliced tomatoes
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
slices of cooked chicken (optional)


HOW TO DO IT:

1. Working from the bottom half of the tortilla, simply spread a thin layer of the goat cheese around the edge of the tortilla, running your finger from 3:00 to 9:00.

2. Throw all your ingredients in the middle of the tortilla - but try and thin them out to prevent bulging, which could pierce the tortilla.

3. Close the tortilla, pressing the sides together, as you would a Ziploc bag. Here is where the goat cheese does its magic.

4. Fire up the grill. As you wait, brush the side of the tortilla going grill side down with the softened butter. As it's grilling, brush the other side.

5. For those presentation points, angle the tortillas at 45 degree angles to the grills. After about a minute, rotate them 90 degrees, to create a beautiful grill pattern.

6. Slice 'em up in thirds and serve!

WORD TO THE WISE:

*Depending on the heat of the grill, these burn very quickly! When I make them, it's a minute, rotate 45 degrees, another minute, and then flip over for another minute to ninety seconds! You have to watch them!

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

This is my pick-me-up drink. In law school, I used to reward myself with one of these at the end of every final exam. Now that I'm working, I don't make this drink nearly enough. But when I am feeling, lethargic, grumpy, or just plain sick, this does the trick. There's just a certain comfort that comes with drinking a cold smoothie out of a tall glass.

Keep this recipe in mind the next time you're having one of those days!

WHAT TO GRAB:
1 cup of plain, non-fat yogurt
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice (1 orange)
2 to 3 tablespoons of honey
2 bananas, broken into quarters
1 pint of fresh strawberries (about a cup full)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 to 3 cups crushed ice



HOW YOU DO IT:

1. Before you get started, put two glasses in the freezer - you'll thank me later.

2. Crush your ice. I have one of those Hawaii Ice machines. It's invaluable and I use it all the time.

3. Throw everything in your blender, mix it up, and serve in your chilled glasses! For extra presentation points, you can garnish with a left-over strawberry.

HOW MUCH YOU GET:
This recipe will make about 48 ounces, or four to six servings.