And Here Come the Holidays

Well, goodbye Halloween;  welcome November.

Or, more to the point:

Actually, I don't mind all the Christmas decorations in the stores.  That's probably because I don't have to do much shopping so my exposure is limited.  (But I admit, I do love the glitter of Christmas decorations.)

Anyway, I'm sticking with the November/fall/autumn theme a bit longer.  And here are some great new recipes I made last week.

Who doesn't love a stuffed pumpkin?  I made two of these "veggie" per the recipe and cooked up some sausage to add to the other two for the meat eaters.

I substituted small pie pumpkins for the carnival squash in this recipe.  It worked great, just extend your baking time a bit.  And try to find pumpkins of all the same size.  (Hint;  I didn't)

My daughter brought over some appetizers that we consumed while waiting on our pumpkins to finish up.

And for dessert, Italian Spiced Chocolate Cream served in tiny espresso cups.  It was yummy.  I smeared corn syrup on the lips of the cups before I dipped them into the Demerara sugar because my DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT and I didn't want to risk raw egg exposure on her.

Oh, did you catch that?  Yes, MY DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT!
I'm going to be a Grandma again, and I can't wait.  They're having a boy and he is due in March.

And if when reading this you said to yourself, "Just exactly what is Demerara sugar?" Well, here you go;   "Demerara is a light brown, partially refined, sugar produced from the first crystallization during processing cane juice into sugar crystals (this process is similar to what happens with naturally evaporated cane juice).  Unlike brown sugar, which has the added molasses flavor, Demerara has a natural caramel-like flavor that hasn't been refined out.  This lends warm caramel notes to whatever you add the sugar.  Also, Demerara sugar is also referred to as Turbinado sugar in many markets, which has more to do with how the sugar is processed in turbines, than where it originates."  

You can read more about Demerara sugar here.

And if you know me, you know I nearly always make two desserts.  I blame that on the chocolate lovers versus the people who aren't in love with chocolate.  (Yes, I know!  Turns out they DO exist!)

Anyway, I tried this new bread pudding recipe and we all loved it.  One thing I would do next time;  double the apple topping.  And maybe serve it with just a bit of whipped cream on top.

I didn't get a photo of it, but believe me, it's worth the effort.

And I'll end this post with some pictures of my friend Jeanne's Halloween display.  I did make it to her house and it was worth it as usual.  You can see some of her creative process here.

And my granddaughter and daughter in law - Curious George with Professor Wiseman.