Happy Halloween!

First of all, thanks for being patient with the ever changing blog designs and colors.  I think I have settled, and hopefully everything is readable.

I can't believe it is the end of October already!  Our garden isn't dead yet, but officially the tomatoes and eggplants are done.  Just picked the rest of the hot and bell peppers a couple days ago too.  Now, I need to get in gear to work the soil for next spring...but not now; now I have some baking fever!

There is something about the fall and cooler weather that always puts me in a mood to bake.  I truly enjoy finding new creative recipes to use, and then there are always the old stand-bys that I can't do without.  We have had some of these creations in the past week, but due to the date, and having some festive Halloween cheer, I have tried a new recipe today: Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies.  (Secretly, I made pumpkin puree this week and found mascarpone by the Vermont Creamery company that I was dying to try out...Halloween aside!)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
Brownie Batter 


3/4 cup butter melted or EVOO

1/4 cup honey
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup Sucanat sugar*
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon




Cheesecake Batter
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup Sucanat sugar*
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree - directions on how to make your own at the bottom!
1/4 cup vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch of cloves
*regular sugar can be used instead.

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 inch pan.
2) In a large bowl combine the first 3 ingredients in the brownie batter.  Beat in the 2 eggs until it has a light airy consistency.
3) Add remaining brownie batter ingredients and mix well.
4) In a separate bowl combine all the cheesecake batter ingredients.  Blend well.
5) In the greased pan, pour 2/3 of the brownie batter, spread evenly over pan.  Next spoon all of the cheesecake batter on top.  Finally dollop the remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter.  With a butter knife, swirl the cheesecake and brownie batter by running the knife through the batters.
6) Bake for 40-50 minutes or until center is set.  Cool completely on a wire rack and chill before cutting and serving.
Using Local, organic ingredients WHENEVER possible makes a better recipe!  Not to mention it saves BARRELS of oil from shipping far off ingredients, doesn't destroy the soil and helps support your local farmers and community.  

Pumpkin Puree

1) Choose fresh local sugar pumpkins (these are usually smaller then regular pumpkins).  And since you are taking the time, you might as well do a few pumpkins to stock up.
2) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3) Cut off tops and remove seeds and stringy guts.  Don't forget to make roasted pumpkin seeds later.
4) Cut the entire pumpkin in half, and finish removing any other seeds etc.  Place on a cookie sheet gut-side-up and place in oven.  Cook for 45 minutes or until flesh is soft.
5) Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
6) Once cooled process through a food mill.  If you don't have a food mill, peel off pumpkin skin and run through a food processor.  Store in air tight containers in the freezer.
Two pumpkins made 2 pints of pumpkin puree for me.

More recipes coming like apple cheesecake bars, homemade granola, and maybe even some cookies!  Happy Halloween!

We're Back!

Hello again after a short hiatus!  Marc, Pepsi and I are back from our cross country road trip.  What started out as an idea, turned into an adventure!  We got to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Waste Veggie Oil and then back again with a ton of amazing things in between!  Our goal was to have a vacation, but to have as little footprint on the earth as possible.  The biggest deal was using Veggie Oil as our fuel instead of a petroleum products.  Waste Veggie Oil (WVO), the stuff that makes your french fries, is considered a hazardous waste...why, I have no idea.  We use it to fuel our truck; the ultimate in recycling, and it is considered a carbon neutral fuel because the corn grown to make the oil offsets the carbon from driving.  Pretty cool.  We also composted, brought bulk grains and ate all our Village Veggies along the way which meant not going to the grocery stores for highly processed foods.  I am sure we could have done it better, but it was a small step in the right direction, and definitely a great vacation.  We saw the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountain National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Vermilion Cliffs, tons of state parks throughout the middle of the country and a TON of wildlife.  Couldn't have been better.

This is our set-up in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

That big tank in the back of the truck is full of Veggie Oil and Marc is trying to get rid of the grease smell with some bleach water so we don't attract bears.

Dinner in Utah just outside of Bryce Canyon.

Hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park looking at the Hoodoos.

Once at a camp site we used our bikes to get around, here's mine with a bundle of wood (Marc thought this was funny).

The Grand Canyon, from the North Rim.

Picnic dinner at sunset in the Grand Canyon.

Pepsi making herself comfortable.

Well I have a TON of pictures so I won't post them all, these were just a glimpse of the awesomeness!  Can't wait to do it again!  And since we've been back home it is officially fall!  So we started cooking up some goodness once again.  And surprisingly my garden is not dead yet, so we are lucky to still have some eggplants and tomatoes.  

I was very proud of myself for the dinner we had the other night.  Thanks to this post from Fields and Fire, I made my first roasted chicken (with roasted garden veggies).  It was super easy and tasted AMAZING!

Veggies for the skillet: Kale, Brussel Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Parsnips, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions and Garlic.  Chop these garden fresh veggies and put them in the bottom of the skillet.  Place your chicken on top with some salt and roast.  Seriously, it was that easy.

And this was the end result!

We also got some sugar pumpkins and baked them for pumpkin puree and roasted pumpkin seeds.  It is nice to be home again.  I will be posting more soon about some fall baking and getting ready for my backpacking trip coming up.