Gearing Up for Holiday Baking!! Perfectly Pumpkin Pie Spice & Baking Blend!!

You asked for it!  Here it is!  I have recently used my homemade pumpkin pie and baking spice blend in a few recipes and the response to share was overwhelming!  

This is super easy to throw together with spices you already have on your spice rack or pantry shelf.  This gives you another opportunity to run through your spice supply and always have something fresh and delicious available for holiday baking!  This spice blend will not disappoint!  It is the perfect combination for using in pumpkin pie, but so many other things like pumpkin bread, muffins, butter, latte, you name it!

I also have a very special announcement to share with you.  I have been keeping this a secret for several months.  6 to be exact.  I will soon be published in my first nationwide publication.  Molly Green Magazine contacted me and invited me to write an article and share recipes in their winter edition which will be on new stands at the beginning of December!

I was invited to write about "gifts in a jar"  I focused on homemade spice blends for both sweet and savory preparations.  These are some blends that I have already shared here on my channel and some that are brand new and I will be sharing in the future.  The pumpkin pie spice and baking blend is one of those that will be featured in the magazine.

If you are not familiar with Molly Green Magazine, they are focused on homesteading and homeschooling.  They are a Christian publication and strive to help people make a better, self sufficient life for themselves.  I hope that you will seek out their magazine and see if it will help you in your own life!  You can find them on their website to learn more about what they are all about! http://bit.ly/2cTAqMh

I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you for being a part of this community and my journey.  For eight years I have shared videos, recipes and myself and my family with you.  We have become our own version of a family, right here on the internet.  I have shared triumphs and failures with you all.  Many of you have gone out of your way to share your life with us as well.  I appreciate each and every one of you and what you bring to our, ever growing table!  Keep it up and who knows where the journey will take us all!

I hope you will enjoy making the pumpkin pie spice and baking blend for yourself and using it in your holiday baking and cooking!  I think this is also an excellent holiday gift or pre holiday gift for the foodies in your life so they will be already for their marathon baking sessions for Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything in between!

I hope you give this spice blend a try and I hope you love it!

Happy Baking!

Get a printable version of this recipe on my website:

http://bit.ly/2dzBpDh

You can see how I made this in my YouTube video here:

Noreen's Kitchen

Perfectly Pumpkin Pie

Spice and Baking Blend

Ingredients

4 tablespoons ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon ground ginger 1 tablespoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground clove

Step by Step Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar and give a good shake.  This will make approximately ½ cup of spice. 

Keep in a dark, cool, dry place.  Use as you would when a recipe calls for pumpkin pie spice.

Enjoy!

Pick Your Produce! How to Pick the Perfect Avocado!

Today we begin a new intermittent series called "Pick Your Produce".  In this series we hope to help you understand how to best pick particular produce that may be baffling you or maybe you just never understood how to choose the best one of something or other.  Today we begin with avocados!

Avocados are often associated with Mexican food and are best known as the main ingredient in Guacamole.  It is the fruit, actually it is botanically a large berry, of the avocado tree which is native to Mexico.    The avocado tree has a long history of cultivation in central and south America and there is some evidence that this history may go back as far as 5000 B.C.!  There are many varieties of the avocado, including heritage varieties.  In America the most popular variety hails from California and is widely known by the "Haas" name.  Avocados are grown the world over in tropical and sub tropical climates.

Picking the perfect avocado is easy, if you know what you are looking for and just like with everything else, there is a learning curve.  This isn't rocket science, but there are a couple of tips and trick to help you on your way to getting the best avocado you can for your meal. 

First you have to decide if you are going to want to eat the fruit immediately or if you are going to wait a day or two.  This will determine the ripeness of the fruit you choose.  Pick avocados that are heavy for their size, they should fit in the palm of your hand.  If they are on the bright green side, this is an indication that it is not fully ripe and when you give it a gentle squeeze with your finger, and it feels heard and does not yield easily to that pressure, your avocado is not good for eating today, but it will be in a day or two. 

If you want to eat your avocado today, then look for fruits that are greenish black to black in color and again, hold in the palm of your hand and apply gentle pressure.  If the flesh yields and leave a bit of a dent then you are good to go.  If you hold the fruit and it feels mushy like a water balloon, then leave it, that one is not fit for anything but the compost. 

To ripen an avocado you can simply leave it on your counter and wait a couple of days or some people like to put them in a paper bag with either an apple or a banana and close it up and the next day they should be ready to eat.

When your avocado is ripe you can cut it around the middle and give it a gentle twist and it should separate from the pit easily.  If you are only going to eat half, eat the half without the pit.  Leave the pit in the other half and put it in a plastic bag or sealed container with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.  Leaving the pit in the other half will help it to retain its freshness.  At least that is my personal experience.  Store any ripe avocados in the fridge till you are ready to use them.  Don't buy more than you can eat in a few days.

Avocados are a love it or hate it type of fruit.  In our house we have two who LOVE them one who HATES them and one who can take them or leave them.  I could personally eat avocados all day long.  The are often seen on the side of a sandwich, or in a salad or on some hearty toast for breakfast.  They are also known to be thrown into a smoothie every now and then to add rich creaminess without adding dairy.

Avocados are nutrient dense super food that everyone can benefit from enjoying.  They are the only food to naturally contain good monounsaturated fats.  That is good fat for you and I!   They are naturally cholesterol and sodium free! Nutrient dense avocados provide a substantial amount of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients with relatively few calories. One-fifth of a medium avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a great nutrient dense food choice.  Avocados act as a “nutrient booster” by helping  to increase absorption of fat-soluble nutrients like Vitamins A, D, K and E.  So in short avocados are awesome for your health!  Avocados are also an excellent "first food" for baby!  The smooth creamy texture is something that most little ones will enjoy and with all the nutritional benefits contained in that little green fruit, how can you go wrong! 

So I hope this is helpful information about how to pick the perfect avocado for you to enjoy today tomorrow or the day after!  I hope that you will use it well and enjoy avocados more often!  While they are available most of the year, the spring/summer season is the time they are most plentiful and at their peak of deliciousness.  So that is how you pick your produce in avocados! 

I hope you give this method a try and I hope you love it!

Happy Eating!

You can see my demonstration of how to choose a great avocado in my YouTube video here:

A Taste of the Keys! Key Lime Pound Cake! The Perfect Summer Dessert!

Spring has arrived for many of us, even if I did see my friends in Flagstaff, AZ receiving snow and below freezing temperatures on May 1st!  UGH!  Today I wanted to share with you a recipe for a delicious key lime pound cake that is sure to chase the winter doldrums and put you in the mood for a tropical holiday! 

This pound cake is sweet, but not too sweet, it is tangy and refreshing and perfect!  I am a pound cake fan!  An aficionado, if you will.  We love it plain and with flavor.  My grandmother made a five flavor pound cake that was to die for!  This one is a close second!  This key lime pound cake is just delicious.  A few weeks ago, a friend from church tagged me in a post on Facebook for a recipe for a key lime pound cake with a cream cheese frosting.  She told me how good that it looked and suggested that I be the one to make it for an upcoming potluck supper at church.  So how could I refuse?  She would love it and so would everyone else.  However I did not use the recipe from the post.   I used my own pound cake recipe and I boosted the flavor by making this a key lime pound cake.

Like all good pound cakes this one starts with an entire pound of butter!  Yes, an entire pound.  Remember, this makes a large cake or two standard size loaves of pound cake, so this is going to serve a lot of people.  In all, this should serve between 24 and 30.  You don’t need a large slice to be satisfied.  This is rich and buttery and delicious.  Be sure to use good quality butter and not margarine which is nothing more than whipped oil and will give you a very disappointing, substandard outcome.  So use the butter you will be glad you did.  I prefer to use locally produced roll butter if I can find it, but I also love Cabot Cooperative Creamery butter.  That is the one that I regularly reach for in the grocer's case. 

Eggs, flour, milk and sugar round out the basics and then the flavorizers to boost this cake and make it an amazing tropical, treat reminiscent of a vacation in the keys and a reminder of what Papa himself, Earnest Hemingway may have once enjoyed on a balmy, breezy afternoon on the veranda while writing one of his classic novels.  A bit much?  Maybe, but who cares?  Key limes are very small and sometimes hard to come by so I usually use Nellie and Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice.  Since you need a half a cup for the cake and over a quarter cup for the glaze, that is a lot of tiny little limes to squeeze.  So use the juice in the bottle.  It is really good quality.  I have it on hand all the time.  However, you will still need to use fresh limes to grate 4 tablespoons of zest for the cake and an additional two for the topping.  So about six limes will give you that amount.  You can use the limes for other things like your tea or your gin an tonic if you are so inclined.  They won't go to waste!  I have also used vanilla extract as well as lime extract and lime crystals.  If do not have or cannot find the latter two items, don't sweat it, your cake will be delicious with or without.  The extract and the True Lime powder simply boost the lime flavor and tang of this cake and take it over the top!

I have used a mixer to make the batter, you should be sure to take the time to cream the butter and the sugar until they have become nearly white in color and light and fluffy.  Then add the eggs one at a time and the flavorings and then alternately the flour and milk.  You always want to end with the flour.  Be careful not to over mix and not to whip any additional air into the batter once the flour and milk have been added.  You want your pound cake to be dense not full of air. 

This cake goes in for a long slow bake.  I have used a tube pan.  You can use that or a bundt pan or two standard loaf pans 9 x 5 inches.  The tube or bundt pan bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 40 minutes while the loaves take just 1 hour and 15 minutes.  You will want to do the toothpick test to be sure that they are done properly.  Remember, no moisture on the pick or it goes back to finish for a few minutes longer.  Remove the cake and allow it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

When cooled, simply make up your glaze, drizzle on top and sprinkle with the remaining lime zest.  Voila!  A beautiful tropical treat perfect for any summer gathering or celebration!

This is delicious on it's own but dare I say, topped with a dollop of homemade whipped cream will really take this memorable cake over the top!  I promise people will be asking for the recipe!

I hope that you will give this key lime pound cake a try some time soon and I hope you love it! 

Happy Eating!

 Key Lime Pound Cake

Ingredients

4 sticks (1 pound) real butter, softened     Do not use margarine!! 3 cups granulated sugar 6 eggs at room temperature 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lime extract (optional) 4 cups all purpose flour (not self rising) 1/2 cup key lime juice 4 tablespoons fresh lime zest

1 teaspoon lime juice crystals (optional) 1/4 cup milk 1/4 cup heavy cream Glaze 2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar 5 tablespoons key lime juice 2 tablespoons fresh lime zest for topping

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Beat butter with mixer until light and fluffy.

Add sugar to butter and cream together until light and fluffy, at least three to five minutes.

Using the mixer on low speed, add eggs one at a time waiting 30 seconds between each addition to make sure the eggs are well incorporated.

Add extracts, lime juice, lime zest and lime juice crystals if using.  Stir to combine. 

Add flour and milk in three additions.  Alternating between 1/3 flour and then 1/2 milk, then another 1/3 of the flour, the remaining 1/2 of the milk and ending with the rest of the flour.  Blend just until well combined.

The cake can be made in a large 10 cup Bundt pan or 10 cup tube or Angel Food cake pan or in 2 standard 9 x 5 loaf pans.  Spray the pans well and if desired, line with parchment paper to ensure good release.  Make sure to spray the parchment paper as well.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes for the loaves or 1 hour and 40 minutes for the Bundt or Tube pan.  The cake is done when a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean and free of any visible moisture.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove from pan and place on a rack to cool completely.

Mix powdered sugar and lime juice together to create a glaze that will drizzle nicely off the spoon.  Spoon over the cake evenly and allow to drip down the sides of the cake.

Sprinkle lime zest over the glazed cake.

Allow glaze to set completely before cutting the cake. 

Store cake in airtight containers, tins, or wrapped well in plastic wrap to retain freshness.


Here is a printable PDF version of this recipe:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_AD4OtxsqvmZ01ESkRwOHVyaE0/view?usp=sharing

See how I made this in my  YouTube Video: