Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

My camera must have been knocked unconscious yesterday. I dropped it taking a photo of pumpkin bread. I couldn’t see anything in the frame and the camera wouldn’t turn off.

I started to research new cameras. Several hours later though I looked again and the light was off, I pressed the button and — a miracle — the thing was working again. So here’s what the pumpkin bread looks like. It is so fabulously moist and nicely spicy. Great with coffee or tea as a snack or even for breakfast. Give it a try. I’ve reprinted the recipe.

If you don’t have yogurt use buttermilk or milk plus a tablespoon of lemon juice. You can add raisins or dried cranberries and/or chopped nuts if you like (half cup of each).

Pumpkin Bread

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• finely grated rind of one orange (about 1-1/2 teaspoons orange part only)

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup orange marmalade

• 2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x5” loaf pan. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or use a hand mixer or sturdy whisk) combine the sugar, brown sugar, orange rind and pumpkin puree and beat at medium speed for about 1/2 minute to combine ingredients thoroughly. Add the yogurt, vegetable oil, marmalade and eggs and beat at medium speed for about 1/2 minute or until well blended. Add the dry ingredients and blend them in thoroughly, beating until smooth, about 1/2 minute. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Slice with a serrated knife.

Makes one loaf

Pumpkin Yogurt Bread with Orange and Spices

I spent the entire day inside, writing in between baking pumpkin breads. I tried several different recipes basing each one on an original recipe for applesauce spice bread. Changed stuff here and there. Had no applesauce so used pumpkin. Had no buttermilk so used yogurt. Tried different spices and seasoning combinations until I got it right.

I love pumpkin bread. It’s moist, spicy and makes my tongue tingle. Great with coffee or mint tea. Or milk I guess. Here’s the version I liked best. I wanted to take a photo but my camera fell and it broke. Now I can’t turn it off. Or on. Anyway, the bread is a soft amber color and looks lovely.

Pumpkin Yogurt Bread with Orange and Spices

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• finely grated rind of one orange (about 1-1/2 teaspoons orange part only)

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup orange marmalade

• 2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x5” loaf pan. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or use a hand mixer or sturdy whisk) combine the sugar, brown sugar, orange rind and pumpkin puree and beat at medium speed for about 1/2 minute to combine ingredients thoroughly. Add the yogurt, vegetable oil, marmalade and eggs and beat at medium speed for about 1/2 minute or until well blended. Add the dry ingredients and blend them in thoroughly, beating until smooth, about 1/2 minute. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Slice with a serrated knife.

Makes one loaf

Zombie

Hallowe’en used to be kid stuff but these days it’s become an entire industry of food and costumes for both children and grownups, in a “season” that lasts for weeks and only culminates on Hallowe’en, which is this weekend in case you’ve been visiting outer space and had no clue.

I don’t know about anyone else but when my kids were young we took them trick-or-treating and somehow Hallowe’en was always the night when then weather broke and it was suddenly cold and often rainy so the costumes were hidden below heavy sweaters and raincoats and no one really saw the princess, ballerina, vampire or witch underneath. By the time we got home everyone was cold and shivering and needed something hot to drink. Hot chocolate the way my Dad used to make it (recipe elsewhere on www.ronniefein.com) or hot mulled cider (a recipe also on the site).

Occasionally something stronger would be needed after the kids were asleep. I’m sure things like this are no different today, so for those of you who are in need of a tasty libation to warm you up when Hallowe’en moves into the later hours, here’s a recipe for a Zombie, a fitting drink for the occasion.

Zombie

• 2 ounces dark rum
• 1 ounce light rum
• 1/2 ounce apricot brandy
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon confectioner’ sugar
• ice

Place all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker or blender, shake until well blended and pour into a tall glass filled with ice cubes.

Makes one

The Farmer’s Cow Hot Mulled Cider

Hey locavores and anyone with a great family recipe — help promote local Connecticut agriculture!

The Farmer’s Cow, a group of 6 dairy farms in Connecticut that produce hormone-free milk and other dairy products (and great apple cider) is looking for your recipes. They’ll post their favorites on their website. Get them in by November 12th. Send recipes to recipes@thefarmerscow.com

For more info go to: www.TheFarmersCow.com.

In the meantime, if you’re going trick or treating for Hallowe’en and you need something warm to drink when you get back home (the weather always turns cold on Hallowe’en night doesn’t it?) try their mulled cider recipe:

The Farmer’s Cow Hot Mulled Cider

6 cups Farmer’s Cow apple cider

1/4 cup Connecticut maple syrup

2 cinnamon sticks

6 whole cloves

6 allspice berries

1 orange peel cut into strips

1 lemon peel cut into strips

Pour apple cider and maple syrup into a large saucepan. Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel and lemon peel into a square of cheesecloth, tie the cheesecloth with kitchen string and place in the cider. Heat the cider over medium heat until it is hot but not boiling. Discard the spice bag and serve. Makes 6 servings

Pre-opening Tour of Stamford, Ct Fairway

Got a personal pre-opening tour of Stamford’s Fairway Market. Howie Glickberg (he’s the guy in the photo), grandson of the man who started the original store on Manhattan’s upper west side, showed me the enormous 85,000 square foot space — the largest of all the Fairways.

It’s not finished, but people were busy stacking shelves and checking equipment.

All I can say is — I’m impressed. I already have a shopping and lunch date with one of my friends, just to fill up on all our regular groceries plus great olive oil, hand-rolled bagels, fresh fish for dinner, gluten-free almost everything you can think of, an enormous selection of produce and all the Thanksgiving products you need, either regular or organic.

But then there’s the Cafe. A place to get lunch and sit in the glassed-in atrium and have some social time. My first thought about the Cafe was that it reminded me of the cocktail hour at a wedding or bar mitzvah. Honestly, there’s going to be a carving station with things like prime rib and kobe beef, salmon and pastrami,  a “wokery” and pasta station where you get to pick your personal stirfry ingredients or pasta additions and a chef will cook up your food right then and there, a salad station (of course), soup station, pizza (from a brick oven), sandwiches and paninis, and sushi. There will also be a chef cooking fresh burgers, hot dogs and Philly cheesesteaks (fries with that!). And the snack and dessert stations: smoothies, gelato. A barista bar with different coffees and pastries.

Can I spend the whole day? Hmmm. Forgot to ask about wireless internet service. Have to make a quick phone call…..

Agreed. Those costumes were lame, cheap and uncool. And they were worn at *least* twice.

Submitted by cookiequest

The new Fairway in Stamford, Ct

Fairway market is just about to open in Stamford. There’s been a lot of hoopla here in town because the store was built in a once-thriving section of the city, a part that has seen better days, and this will be the beginning of a huge revitalization not only for one neighborhood, but the entire city. So bravo, for the foresight and good luck to all those who are part of the Harbor Point Project!

I, for one, who shops in several of the other Fairway stores in New York, hope — and believe it will — be a big winner for everyone.

The shop is almost ready — the photo shows one part of the store that has a hand-drawn mural depicting Stamford streets (there are other painted murals throughout the place).

Some festivities are planned before the official opening on November 3rd. One is a Hallowe’en party at the Boys & Girls Club of Stamford (347 Stillwater Avenue, Stamford, CT.), on Friday October 29th at 6:00 p.m. Stamfordites — you’re invited. Actually, the event is open to the public, and only costs $10. There will be entertainment, crafts and games and lots of food donated by — of course — Fairway market. All proceeds go to benefit the Boys & Girls Club, which helps underprivileged kids in the area.

My Pathetic Hallowe'en Costumes

My daughters are still po’d at me because I was so inept at Hallowe’en costumes. Even though it’s many years later and they are both now working moms with kids.

I hate to sew. And I am awful at it. And when they were little kids Hallowe’en was not the huge zillion dollar 2-month celebration it is now. Unless you wanted to spend a fortune (I didn’t) the only costumes were the ones you could buy at the local drugstore. Lame, cheap and uncool. There were mothers then who made nice costumes for their kids.

I wasn’t one of them.

One year I took white pillowcases, cut out holes for eyes, nose and mouth, plopped them over my daughters’ heads and they went trick-or-treating as ghosts.

I have to say, to confess, it was lame, cheap and uncool. And if my daughters are reading this, I apologize. But even now I think, I’m just not good at costumes.

Nevertheless they are still po’d about it and it’s one of those things (every family has these) that comes up regularly as conversation.

They still believe I made them wear those costumes for YEARS but it was only one year.

Okay, maybe two. AT MOST.

There were always nice things to eat when they got back from getting their candy stash. Usually my father’s recipe for hot cocoa (recipe’s here at www.ronniefein.com) and caramel corn or some other kind of popcorn or cookies.

I do hope they remember that part.

Heavenly Hash Popcorn

2 quarts popped corn

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup peanut, cashew or almond pieces

2 4-ounce plain chocolate bars (such as Ghirardelli 60% or 70% baking bars) or 8 ounces chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the popped corn on a large baking sheet with rims (jelly roll pan). Scatter the marshmallows and nuts over the popped corn. Break up the chocolate bars and place the pieces over the popped corn. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. Cool slightly, then toss ingredients. Makes 2-quarts+