Love Straight From Natures Heart

Hello Sweets,

I am sorry I didn't get this post to you yesterday, but I had a pretty bad migraine that had me laid up all day :(  But I really wanted to get this creation out of my head and into the oven so I went to bed early last night in hopes of gaining some headway, now I'm not one hundred percent, but I'm able to do part two of the three part creation (and was smart enough to do part three tonight too!).

So when you think of all the gifts we get from nature what do you see?  If you're from Texas maybe you see beef, if you're from Mexico maybe you think of guacamole, but if you're from Canada every child goes to the sugar bush for fresh maple syrup!  So that is precisely the star ingredient in today's post :)  Maple syrup is delicious in a variety of ways but there is one thing that I have never had, and that is maple infused icing, which made me determined to try and create my own.  This is a very simple recipe as it is a butter icing but depending on your sweet tooth you can play around with the measurements.

Maple Butter Icing

Ingredients

3/4C butter, room temperature

4Tbs icing sugar

3Tbs maple syrup or table syrup

 

Directions:

1)  Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl (I started with a couple of tablespoons of the icing sugar to slowly work to the right taste), and with an electric mixer blend until smooth and creamy.

2)  If needed continue to add icing sugar spoonful at a time.  If not using right away store in the refrigerator (remove 1-2 hours before icing cakes).

 There you have it, a simply sweet icing that can be used on a variety of cakes, muffins, or sweet style breads.  Or you can use it the way I did, but you'll have to come back tomorrow for me to tell you that ;).

I know this is a short but sweet post (see what I did there lol), but my shoulders and neck are really sore :(  so I think it's best to call it a night.  Make sure you come back tomorrow for the conclusion of Canuckette's original creation (is it weird that in my head it sounded like the old school batman announcer lol)  Until next time...........

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

 

Stormtroopers and Pumpkin Seeds

Hello Sweets,


Happy Monday! I know what you're thinking "happy Monday? not quite!" lol  Well I had a good day today (not health wise but I made the best of it), and I did some activities today that made me reminisce back to when I was little.

Now I know I always seem to be talking about what a great man Nathan is, but he really is different from any guy I've ever met, and I hope all the ladies out there find a man that treats you exactly like you should be treated....like a queen!  But really, he does anything to make me smile, especially if I am having a bad health day like today.  Of course he knows I love Halloween, and I had been telling him all about how I love carving pumpkins, and how white ones are my absolute favorite!  So today he surprised me with a trip out to Hall's Pumpkin Farm in Grapevine, where we picked up the VERY LAST carvable white pumpkin!!!

 

Isn't she beautiful? :p 

Needless to say, I was one very happy girl, smiling from ear to ear just like I have every year since I can remember. :D  Now I was in complete and utter shock when Nathan told me had NEVER carved a pumpkin.  I honestly thought that was a right of passage as a child.  So of course I decided to carve a pumpkin that he could be as excited about as I always am lol, and Nathan being the Star Wars fan that he is, I decided on an Imperial Stormtrooper.

Not an easy stencil

Since my shoulders always hurt as it is, and Nathan has never carved a pumpkin before, he helped me with all the difficult carving (le sigh :( ).  So I got him to cut the top open, then I cleaned out all the pumpkin gunk (he had absolutely NO desire to touch the stuff), stenciled it for him, and started the operation!

Be careful when cutting as the pumpkins are thick, and kids always use parental help :)

Now the more detailed the stencil, the more careful you have to be with your cuts as to not leave any weak spots in the structure, or you'll end up with a sad droopy pumpkin, and no one wants that!  After a couple of hours of strategic cuts, and a few more shaves to allow light, our master piece was complete, and might I say "out of this world" lol!

Isn't it great!!

Now as I am sure you are all aware, I do not like to waste anything when baking/cooking, and pumpkin carving is no different!  You can make a deliciously healthy snack from the pumpkin seeds themselves, and it is all very simple and easy.  Actually the hardest part is digging through the squishy innards of the pumpkin.

Healthy Flavorful Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

 Fresh pumpkin seeds, from your freshly carved pumpkin

Seasonings of your choice, I opted for;

Sea salt

Garlic and pepper seasoning

Seasoning salt

Crushed red peppers

Directions:

1)  Preheat your oven to 275F.  Wash the pumpkin seeds free of all pumpkin goop, and towel dry as best you can, and place in a single layer on a baking sheet.

2)  Add your seasonings on top before placing into the oven, so the flavors absorb during the baking process (I had an after thought when they were baking in the oven that you could season them in a bowl to ensure they are completely covered).

Yum!

3)  Bake in the oven for at least 20 minutes.  Periodically shuffle them around with a spatula to ensure all the liquid is evaporating ,and they will all be crunchy.  Enjoy this tasty health snack on the go, or instead of popcorn, munch on these!

So we were a little late in getting up this morning.  Well, just me, since I had a really bad sleep :(, and I had promised Nathan I would make him pumpkin pancakes.  What do you do when you miss the best meal of the day?  Have breakfast for dinner!  I always love making him breakfast, and since discovering pumpkin pancakes, which he happens to now love, that's what we were going to have.  Now I had leftover batter from the last breakfast I had made(Pumpkin Pancakes), which keeps very well in the fridge.  All it took was a couple of stirs, and it was ready to go!  Now the original plan was to serve maple bacon with the pancakes, but Nathan had some maple breakfast sausage so our side dish changed.  This was my first time cooking the round breakfast sausage, so I had Nathan take the reigns on this venture.

Maple Breakfast Sausage 

Ingredients

1 package of round breakfast sausage

5Tbs of maple syrup

Directions:

1)  Cut up the sausage into 1/2" slices, place onto a cold skillet, top with a dollop of maple syrup and cook over medium heat.

Nathan was surprised when he turned around and saw my addition, but liked the final product ;)

2)  Flip continually to brown evenly on each side, cook for about 20 minutes or until there is no pink in the center and the center is 160F.

Yum!

Serve in addition to some of your delicious pumpkin pancakes with butter and syrup, and you've just made yourself the best breakfast supper around lol :)

I crowded the frying pan just a little lol.  Still turned out great!

Needless to say I think Nathan and I had a wonderful Monday, low key, but full of smiles and laughs.  Do you like carving pumpkins?  What is your favorite/hardest stencil you've created?  Better yet, have any of you NOT carved a pumpkin before?  Do you eat the seeds?  If so what seasonings did you use?  Until next time.......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

Another Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

Hello sweets,

One of my favorite meals to make is breakfast!  It's one of the easiest to prepare, and it's the only one you can eat at any time of the day :)  When I'm in Texas I try to make breakfast more often then not, because I enjoy cooking for Nathan so much.  Today was no different, and since I made pumpkin spice cupcakes a couple of days ago, I of course had some left over pumpkin.  Silly and forgetful me,  I forgot to pack my pumpkin pancake recipe.  However, thanks to technology, I just goggled a new one. :p  I have also been thinking about trying a different recipe, because the last one was quite thicker than any other pancake I've ever made.  So today's recipe comes from none other than the queen herself....Miss Martha Stewart!  Of course I put my own little twist on the recipe ;), after all that is just what I do!

Pumpkin Pancakes

courtesy of www.marthastewart.com

Ingredients

1 1/4C all-purpose flour

2tbs sugar

2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp cinnamon

1/2tsp ground ginger

1/2tsp salt

1/8tsp nutmeg

pinch of cloves (I used 1/4tsp)

1/4tsp allspice (my addition ;))

1C milk

6tbs pumpkin puree

2tbs butter, melted

1 egg

lots of ingredients for such little treats ;)

For a special breakfast treat:

1)  Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.

all whisked together, smells so yummy!

2)  In a separate bowl, stir together; milk, pumpkin puree, butter, and egg.  Fold mixture into dry ingredients.

another lovely shade of orange

3)  Melt some butter in a skillet (I use some of the leftover bacon grease if I make bacon too!) over medium heat; pour in 1/4C batter for each pancake.  Cook pancakes about 3 minutes each side (they're thicker, so make sure to really let them cook so you don't get raw centers); serve with butter and syrup!  Makes about 8-10 pancakes.

Nathan's breaky

These are deliciously mild pumpkin flavored pancakes, that make a great staple for any fall or winter breakfast.  Needless to say, Nathan enjoyed his breakfast today, and he will the next few days as well.  I doubled the batch to use up the rest of the pumpkin, and it holds well once the batter is mixed as long as you store it in the fridge.  What do you guys make for your weekend breakfast?  Have you tried the pumpkin pancakes yet?  If so, what did you think?  And if not, what are you waiting for lol?

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo