Persimmon Bundt Cake (and an almost Beetroot Gnocchi.)

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy.
Crazy running and jumping boys.
Me with food poisoning. Bad enough to send me to the doctor finally...
J working multiple weekend nights in a row.
We all need a break.

On top of trying to stay on top of life, I've been trying new recipes here and there... One still needing a bit of work is Beetroot Gnocchi, or rather I have a boatload of leftover roast veggie-gnocchi. They were ok. But just ok. I'm still working on those. I'll get there damn it!

But this one was a winner! We had a few persimmon kicking around in the fridge recently and while I was thinking of a way to use them as a chutney or something, I ended busting out the old bundt cake mould. I hadn't used it in ages and they always make some pretty cakes. I need to start using them more often. 

So this treat was first found here.

I made it minus the currants, which I just forgot (that happens a lot lately, they were sitting on the bench and all! Ugh.) and minus the nuts as you never know who might have a nut allergy these days. 

It's a pretty basic recipe really. Very similar to a pumpkin cake which is always a happy treat for me!

xoxo

Protein, veggie style!

I saw this recently somewhere on Facebook, and thought it was pretty brilliant. I do try to use most of these as often as I can, but didn't realise that many of them were good sources of protein! I'd be keen to try out chia and hemp seeds.

If anyone has some yummy recipes for them they would like to share, please do!

X

 

Pumpkin & Sage Gnocchi - Meatless Monday!

I have been wanting to make another pumpkin and sage pasta for Meatless Mondays again, but haven't had the chance. I completely intend to make pasta again someday soon. But it will take a lot of planning I suspect. In the meantime, I had this brainstorm...

Get that sage fix, with pre-made gnocchi! Woowoo! 

This goes back to the 'I will make pasta again' idea that parallels the 'I will make gnocchi again' idea. Hmm. Time. It was nice while I had it!

Anywho, here's the go....

Classic Pumpkin Bread

I cannot explain into words how much I love pumpkin in dessert form. Seriously. Pumpkin Pie. *Drool* I know it's probably the good ol' American in me. But I can never pass up a slice of Pumpkin Pie. NEVER! 

(Even though I was HUGELY disappointed with a slice I had over the weekend at one of my favourite places which shall remain nameless for the moment)


But with that, I was happy to know I could come home and dive into some super yummy pumpkin bread! The recipe I found was lovely, but needed a few minor tweaks to make it suitable for metric conversion and for the fact that Canned Pumpkin is something that we can't get here. And BTW, why use canned when making it fresh is SO easy! Seriously!

First off, remove the skin from the pumpkin and cut into small pieces, about 1 cm chunks. Boil in water until tender. Drain the pumpkin and put in a food processor until all the pieces are a lovely puree. See. Easy.

Ingredients : 
425 g pureed pumpkin
4 eggs
235 ml vegetable oil
160 ml water
600 g white sugar
440 g all-purpose flour
9 g baking soda
9 g salt
2 g ground cinnamon
3 g ground nutmeg
1 g ground cloves
0.4 g ground ginger


(I know .4 and 1g of things looks weird. But I use a digital scale when I bake now, and it's spot on! One of the handiest tools in the kitchen! I highly recommend having one.)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans. I used one 7x3 and a few mini bundt muffin tins. 

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

And devour.

Meatless Monday - Handmade Pumpkin Ravioli!!

Yeah, loving our pasta maker right about now! And since we had an extra half of a pumpkin in the fridge and a lovely bunch of sage from the lovely Jess (Thanks!!) I thought I would have a first go at making ravioli! 

I based it off of this recipe, but with a couple tweeks here and there.
For the Raviolis :

• 1/2 pumpkin - halved and de seeded (we used a Japanese Pumpkin)
• a little olive oil
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• While this recipe calls for 25 wonton wrappers, I made a batch of thin pasta sheets and used those instead.
• egg white, lightly beaten

For the Sauce : 

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
Drizzle pumpkin with olive oil and rub it in to make sure all the flesh gets a good coat. Salt and pepper a little bit then put it cut side down on a baking sheet. 
Bake in preheated oven until tender 45 to 60 minutes. I tend to give it a squeeze about half way through and to make sure the raw edge isn't stuck to the sheet. I usually do things like this around lunch time if I'm home so it has a lot of time to cool down. 

So, if it's still cooling, make your pasta. I used a half batch, normally what the recipe calls for will make enough for 6, but if it's just two of you, half it and you'll have some leftovers for lunch! You can look up how to make pasta online or check the instruction that came with your machine. I won't include the particulars here, but it's all about timing... so once your dough for the pasta is resting in a damp tea towel..

Scoop the cooked pumpkin into a bowl, and mash until somewhat smooth. You could puree it if you want, but I always love a bit of chunk and natural textures in my food. Mix in the allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and Parmesan cheese until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If you can work quickly, start to slowly boil the slightly salted water to cook the pasta. 

To make the ravioli, put your pasta sheet on clean, flat surface. Since I had long sheets, I was able to make about 4 at a time by cutting strips of the dough and then placing about 1 teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture in the middle of each section. Then brush the edges of the pasta with the egg white and fold over. Make sure you give the edges a nice squeeze and pinch them together.

And as I was at this stage, my camera had an issue. So I got it a tissue and we moved on. Sorry about that :)

Thanks camera. :( But hopefully you get the idea!

Put the raviolis into the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes, when ready drain and put it back into the pot. In the meantime, make the sauce!

This is the easiest thing ever. Throw the butter and the chopped sage into a little skillet and cook until the sage gets crispy and the butter browns just a touch. Toss it every once in a while so it doesn't burn.

When the sauce is ready, pour it into the pot with the ravioli and make sure it all gets a good coating. Serve up on warm plates with some veggies, and add a little extra rock salt, fresh pepper and a good grating of Parmesan cheese. 

Good golly Miss Molly! The leftovers are a score!

Happy Monday!

Happy Halloween!!!

Some quick pics from our pumpkin carving party over the weekend...

Have a very very very happy Halloween and sweet Samhain!

Be safe and eat candy!

*happy halloween!

It's finally Halloween!! Not that we celebrate it much here in Australia, especially like we used to back in the States, but that's ok. Yesterday I saw quite a few kids dressed up with capes and green scary faces walking to the Primary School next door... There is hope yet!!

Last weekend we had the 1st Annual Pumpkin Carving Party - good times! Jacob, Duncan and I went early to the Vic Markets to find any orange pumpkins we could... $35 and $20 later, we had two. We then vowed to never spend that much on pumpkins again, save the seeds and grow our own for next year. I excited to find two pumpkins, but the cost of them was quite a buzz kill. 

My Martha Stewart Decor. They turned out ok. The Pumpkin was a little to on the large size - but the cat and owl came out as good as I could have expected! Yay for glue guns!!

Let the carving begin!!!

Jacob and Erin

Pumpkin Guts!! Ewwww!

Tim and Bryan

And finally!!! The Finished Pumpkins!! Bad spirits - Be Gone!!

Erin and Jay's pumpkins

Bryan's and my pumpkins

Bootsy Pumpkin by Duncan and another by Erin

Jacob and Erin's

Julie and Jo's lovely anime lady ;)

Tim's 12kg grey pumpkin. Even without the guts, it's still heavy as!!

Happy Halloween!!!

xo

*what's hot & not

I've given in to Loobylu's blog!!

What's Hot :

New yummy fabrics purchased from Dancing Queen and zippers a-plenty!

Aida finally getting a Holga! And me getting to photograph her new exhibition opening at 696! Woohoo! I'm such a good sponsor ;)

Pumpkin carving - Thanks to everyone that came Saturday night to the First Annual van Hulst Pumkpin Carving Night. I'll upload photos very soon! I promise! There was heaps of pumkpin guts everywhere and spooky glowing faces sitting on the porch... Good times!

Erin and Duncan's quickest portrait session ever! Seriously it took less than ten minutes. Sweet!

What's Not :

Realising that I missed the gallery opening for Sarah Louise Jackson at Obscura Gallery. I will get there soon! Fingers crossed!!

Allergies.

Racism on Public Tranport. Seriously. Bad news.

True Blood Season 3 isn't on until June 2010????? Very Not! Argh! Withdrawls!

*pumpkin carving and cats

One more week until our pumpkin carving party!!! It's the first annual in the van Hulst family with hopefully many more to come!

Of course, here in Australia, those lovely big orange pumpkins are very hard to come by. We did however find some really lovely pale green/grey pumpkins with a similar shape. And we always have the option of doing some awesome carvings with butternut squashes and such... Time to get creative!!

Also, I received an email from my mum this morning. Our cat, Lucy, passed last Tuesday. :( She was such a gorgeous little girl. We got her and her sister, Ethel, when they were tiny kittens, back when I was just going into High School. Ethel disappeared after a couple years, maybe less - she liked her indepence and kitty kat freedom. But Lucy always stuck around, even after moving to a new house. She was mainly an outside cat except for the few times I was able to sneak her into the house for a short time - Sorry Mom! She had mostly white fur with a random splatter of red and black splotches, a black nose, and one side of her bum was black as well. She was adorable.
Just recently, in the last few years, she stayed outside in the cold for too long and the tips of her ears were frostbitten and soon fell off... despite the horridness of this, she looked cute with her little round ears - like a teddy bear. She was lovey with everyone and always enjoyed the head scratches and the big back pats.

My mom was there with her when she passed, which must have taken so much courage for her. And a lot of allergy meds, but you do what's important in those times.

Lucy was just about to turn 20. I can only imagine the amount of kitty adventures she had in her 140 cat years... She will be deeply deeply and dearly missed.

Love you Lucy! xoxo