Pumpkin Pie from scratch

I made a gigantic jack-o-lantern the other night and saved the pulp. I gathered about half a large zip-lock bag full. I made two nine inch pies from use of the large zip-lock bag. Here goes-

Prepare pumpkin-pulp by placing in baking dish and baking on 350 for about an hour, then place in large mixing bowl and 'mix' on lower speed for it to become puree'd.

Preheat oven at 425
needed: prepared; two pie shells/crust

Add to pumpkin:

Two cups sugar

One cup dark brown sugar (loose)

One cup all-purpose flour

Two tablespoons pumpkin-pie spice

Two large eggs

One can evaporated milk

Mix well on medium speed, pour into two prepared pie shells/crust, then bake at 425 for fifteen minutes then lower temperature to 350 bake for 35-45 minutes, cool completely either on the counter or in the fridge, choice is depends on your personal level of patience :)

tRuFfLeS

My first attempt at truffles today. I used a bar of Venezuelan 70% dark chocolate, heavy whipping cream, margirine, Hersey's dark cocoa, and confectioner's sugar. I found myself feeling a bit like a child and the joy of a new contaniner of play-doh. I rolled the cool mixture in my hands into little balls, knowing I am supposed to go as fast as I can before the chocolate begins to melt, however, my hands became darkly gooeyingly smeared. It was a blast. And yummy. I find them to be what I expected, soft, bit firm, bit of a small crunch, then moist gooey dark chocolate-ty goodness on the inside.

DeViL's fOoD pUmPkIn CuPcAkEs

Not so good, i based this cupcake on a muffin recipe I saw on yahoo. I thinned it out with a little oil and water then made a frosting out of an organic mix. So lesson learned with this okay but not so great cupcakes is ADD SPICES NEXT TIME! Plus side, the pumpkin makes the cake exceptionally moist.

Cake mix-

box of devil's food cake mix

quarter cup water

few tbsp oil

can of pumpkin

pumpkin spices to taste

wHiTe ChOcOlAtE fRoStInG

for the frosting (four cupcakes):

a handful of white chocolate chips

a couple of tbsp of butter

cup or so of powdered sugar

a little milk*

melt butter, mix in chips till melted, slowly add powdered sugar.

*if needed

NUTELLA FrOsTeD cUpCaKeS

I used a cake mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen, and since I was using a mix I decided to experiment with the frosting. I bought Nutella for the first time this last week (and I love it) so I decided to try it out in a frosting. It was very good but there is something I will do different next time, use a bit of milk instead of half and half to liquefy the frosting when it gets to stiff.

Nutella experiment frosting (for six cupcakes):

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons Nutella

bit of milk

1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

*melt butter and Nutella, slowly mix in powdered sugar, add milk when needed.

EgG tArTs

My husband asked me this morning, what's the difference between french vanilla and vanilla?
I had no idea so i went to the wonderful world of wikipedia and did a little research. French vanilla is not it's own time of vanilla, items termed 'french vanilla' are called this because they have gone under some preparation using vanilla and now carry a strong taste and/or aroma of vanilla and will also contain the vanilla-bean grains. It began with the french style of making ice cream with a vanilla custard base, soon followed the french vanilla syrup that aside from the rich flavor of vanilla custard (french vanilla's importance is the vanilla custard taste) also may contain the flavors of caramel and butterscotch (wikipedia).

So, the vanilla wiki article had many little links and i was able to look up creme brulee which is my favorite dessert, (besides cake in most forms), and learned as i suspected that creme brulee is the term for burnt cream. I also learned of the egg tart that is popular among China and some European countries. I think i am going to experiment with the egg tart to come up with some sort of interesting compact breakfast food. I was thinking i would try a sweet sausage and tomato egg tart, with a little rosemary too.

FrEnH tOaSt StIcKs

My first attempt at french toast sticks.

I first made a 'basic batter', i used some all purpose flour, sugar, an egg, and milk. I then cut a few pieces of bread into three strips, dipped them into batter, well more like soaked them in batter, then fried them in a small frying pan with warmed olive oil for about a minute/minute and half on each side. Then put the french toast sticks three to a plate and sprinkled with powdered sugar with a side of syrup for dipping.