Pumpkin Cranberry Sourdough

'Tis the season! This hearty loaf is filled with pumpkin and cranberries, with a hint of sourdough starter to balance out the sweeter dough and pumpkin spice @nakednutrition Naked Shake. Baked in a pie pan, it's low rising but a showstopper nonetheless.

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I'm currently sitting here watching my 2 year old nephew experience pumpkin carving for the first time. While he is less than amused by the sliminess of the innards in the pumpkin, he has fallen in love with separating the pumpkin seeds from the stringy webbing and putting them into a bowl - which 100% works for me, since I'll be roasting them for rodent snacks after everyone finishes theirs! 

Personally, I cannot carve my own pumpkins anymore - arthritis precludes trying to saw my way through a 2 inch wall of pumpkin flesh - but I do get into the spirit of things by using pumpkin in a variety of treats! This bread was born out of inspiration from King Arthur Flour and a bevy of spices which arrived from Selefina Spices - the freshness and aroma of them is unmatched. Combined with a handful of dried cranberries and of course, the pumpkin, the dough smelled heavenly. Of course, with all the pumpkin pie elements, baking it in a pie pan fit well - and helped the relatively soft dough keep it's shape. Sliced into wedges, it was a perfect accompaniment to breakfast or mid afternoon tea!

Chocolate Banana-Zucchini Muffins

These vegan muffins are chocolatey, moist and perfectly sweet due to the addition of roasted banana. If you have picky people in your life who balk at a speck of green, just Peel the zucchini before shredding - they'll never know!

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Well, we've hit the official time of the year where we realize we have far too much stuff in the freezer. This is usually bags of produce we prepped and froze over the growing months - though I've gotten more realistic with my stamina when it comes to mass canning. Zucchini, shredded and packed in individually wrapped 1 cup bundles, has a more or less permanent spot in amongst the nuts, seeds, bread and meat, but since this summer featured all of the household cooks going on vacation for 2 weeks at a time, the hoard was getting a little unwieldy.

Enter the second round of zucchini-based baking. Of course, along with the standard (and previously posted) plain zucchini bread, I took the opportunity to use up some of the roasted bananas I froze as well in the treats. These muffins arose out of not only ingredients but a house-wide craving for chocolate, and boy do they deliver. Perfectly moist (yes, I used the word moist) and tender, each bite is packed with chocolate and banana flavour. I've made a few batches of these over the last few months and froze any that we couldn't finish in about 3 days - popping a still frozen one in a lunchbox allows it to be thawed and not dry by lunchtime, and if you're really desperate a quick burst in the microwave heats it just enough to where it feels like it was fresh from the oven.

Maple Walnut Bread

Maple Walnut Bread with sour cream and Canadian maple syrup is perfect on its own, or toasted with butter. I've heard it even makes fantastic French Toast!

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 Happy World Bread Day! I almost missed it (joys of life piling up around me) but luckily I remembered that I had made this loaf a while back for the express reason of sharing it for the event! 

One of the best things about the cooler temperatures here is that cranking up the oven or the stove isn't as much of a bother to the rest of the household. As a result, we've been eating a lot more hearty meals: stews, soup, even hot cereal some mornings when there's a threat of frost outside. I'm trying to ignore the fact that in a few short weeks we will have snow on the ground! Lately, the go-to breakfast for my mom has been porridge with flax seeds and a spoonful of amaranth, topped with diced apples or blueberry compote, and that meal combined with the weekend favourite of pancakes with maple syrup and chopped nuts inspired this loaf's creation. 

This bread is so simple to put together that it's easy to dampen your expectations of it's flavour. To be honest, I've had hit and miss results baking maple syrup into bread when it came to the taste coming through, so I wasn't too sure what would happen. As soon as I opened the oven door to pull this out though, I didn't have to wonder: the aroma of toasted nuts and unmistakable maple filled the kitchen. Cutting into it an hour later (sometimes, we just can't wait for these things to cool completely), my mom remarked that it was the perfect addition to teatime - subsequent days saw slices topped with butter, cream cheese, slices of Cheddar and raspberry jam. The heels of the bread became French toast, which - covered in maple syrup  - smelled heavenly.

Since we are headed into the holiday period which practically guarantees extra bits and bobs of nuts and dried fruit around the house, I can't wait to see what variations I can make to this moving forward.

 

Mom's Cabbage Soup

Now that Fall has arrived, it's officially soup season! My mom is known for her cabbage soup, a simple, hearty meal we traditionally serve with a side of bread and cheese. Not only is it fairly quick to whip up, it is one of the cheapest meals out there - perfect for today's economic climate.

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Happy Fall everyone! My mom hearkened the new season this year by making a huge batch of her famous cabbage rolls to share with family and friends. We always have the inner part of the (very large) cabbage left over from the process, and being the frugal person she is, it never goes to waste! Mom's been making this soup for as long as I can remember, and while incredibly simple, it is also the perfect addition to a lunch spread when coupled with good cheese (she likes aged Cheddar) and whatever hearty, artisan-style bread I happen to have made lately. As it is rather bare-bones, it is also the perfect jumping off point for additions (like chopped carrots, chunks of ham or chicken, cooked beans or potatoes) if you want something more well rounded and "full meal" like. 

This is also the soup I think of when I think of recovery or recuperation, not only from the persistent Fall colds that seem to run through the neighbourhood but from the exhaustion that comes with the changing pace and routine. Kids (even big kids, like my sister) are back to school, the garden is wrapping up, birthdays and Thanksgiving are on the horizon and there seems to be a never-ending ping pong game of back and forth to appointments, the store, and people's houses. Coming home for a few moments to savour a home cooked meal re-centres the soul and gives it just that little bit of fortification to keep going, like a little hug in the chaos. Whatever this soup does for you, I wish you nothing but the best for this season!

Mongolian-Inspired Stew over Black Sticky Rice

Homely but delicious, this Mongolian-Inspired Stew over Black Sticky Rice is a healthy, filling meal packed with vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. Cleaning out all the frozen veg from the freezer never tasted so good!

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The end of Summer brings with it quite the collection of harvested goodies, and in my mind there really is no better way to transition into Fall than with a hearty, yet fresh-forward meal. We are huge fans of Asian-inspired flavours here, with jars of hoisin, bottles of tamari and toasted sesame oil lurking in the pantry and fridge at all times, so I wanted to blend the two into something that would keep mom powered through into the fall filled with parties, child-minding and endless chauffeuring.

I leaned into cleaning out the fridge for this stew, taking out all the vegetables we still had lurking, and wound up with so many of them I had to break out the big Dutch oven to house it all. In the end I had a delightful smelling bowl of stew - which admittedly isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but the taste more than made up for it. Sweet, spicy and savoury notes blended in the sauce that blanketed the vegetables and ground meat substitute and soaked into the black sticky rice ever so slightly. 

If you're going to make this as a make-ahead lunch, I'd keep the rice and stew in separate containers and mix them after heating. That way, nothing gets soggy and the heating is more even!