Sep9

Pumpkin Poppers

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I woke up this morning really in the mood to bake!

So I looked in the fridge and the cabinets to see what I had.  I really did NOT want to go to the store for any ingredients.  I remembered that I made vegan pumpkin cupcakes last week (blog to be posted soon, I promise), and I had some pumpkin puree left over. PERFECT – I saw this recipe all over Pinterest lately, so  i thought I would try it out.

I am not sure who to give credit to, as I have seen it on three separate blogs, all of whom say that they have found it around as well. So to be fair,  I will list and link the 3 blogs that I looked at for this recipe – they all are great blogs by the way:

  1. Craving Chronicals
  2. Clever Housewife
  3. Domestically Speaking

These little pumpkin diddies taste so much like doughnut holes, that you are going to forget that they are not fried, they are baked in those cute little mini muffin tins. They still have calories and fat, but hey, there’s pumpkin it them, and pumpkin is  a vegetable, so how can they be bad for you right?!

There is only one problem that I see with these Pumpkin poppers, and that is that I can’t stop eating them. That’s when I remind myself that they are mostly a vegetable.

baked doughnut holes - pumpkin

Pumpkin Poppers

Popper:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin (fresh or canned, just not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup low-fat milk

For Coating
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted (all I had was salted butter, worked out fine)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray your muffin pans.

Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and whisk till combined.

In another bowl, mix together the oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix till it’s just combined (you don’t want to over mix).

Fill your mini tins till almost full.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

While they’re baking, melt your butter and in a small bowl combine your sugar and cinnamon.

Let the poppers cool for a few minutes before rolling them around in the melted butter and then dipping them into the cinnamon sugar.

Sep8

Poppyseed Cake that’s off the charts!

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I love to cook and bake. When it comes to cooking vegetarian meals, I can create recipes on my own and seriously tweak other recipes that totally alter the original recipe.  However when it comes to baked goods and sweet treats, I usually leave the recipes to the pros.  One of my favorite PROs is Deborah Madison. She has created a poppy seed cake with so many poppy seeds,  that eating this will make your urine test positive for opium – there should be a warning on the label – do not eat before a drug test!  JUST KIDDING – seriously, I didn’t test my urine afterwards so I cannot validate my claims.

So let’s just say your urine doesn’t test positive for opiates, one thing I can promise, is that you will feel incredibly content, happy,  satisfied, and peaceful after eating this decadent dessert!

Decadence disguised in poppy seeds

Okay, not to keep you waiting any longer – here’s the recipe you’ve all been waiting for – from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone (this is a cookbook worth buying, I own over 50 vegetarian cookbooks and this is a MUST HAVE) :

Ingredients:    ( ) Parenthesis indicate my changes of the original recipe

 

1 cup poppy seeds, stirred into 1/2 cup hot (soy) milk

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp salt

3 eggs, separated

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream or buttermilk ( I used sour cream)

Directions:

Put the poppy seeds in the hot milk to soak, the longer the better. It’s best if the poppy seeds soak up all of the milk. If not, you can drain whatever milk is left. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray or butter and flour a 9 inch springform pan.   (I don’t own one of those so I just used my handy dandy 9 x 13 Pyrex glass baking dish – worked like a charm! )

Beat the egg whites until they form firm peaks -( this takes a little while, but worth the effort)

In another bowl cream the butter and sugar until creamy, light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat the egg yolks in one at a time until smooth.  Now add the sour cream or buttermilk and the drained poppy seeds.

Now it’s time to add the dry ingredients. Deborah Madison suggests adding them in thirds – who am I to argue – so I followed her instructions to a tee (other than the springform pan). I used a hand mixer on the low speed.  Mixed it up  real good!

Here’s where we get really fancy, time to add the previously beaten egg whites- only stir in a quarter of the beaten egg whites before folding in the rest.  You know I would really love to just dump them all in at once, who would know?  I am a rebel and rule breaker after all…but when it comes to baking, I am just a scared-y-cat.  Deborah Madison YOU WIN!  Well, perhaps I win because the cake came out fabulous!

Time to smooth the batter into the pan, bake until golden, firm, and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 50 minutes. (Since I did not use the 9″ springform pan, I used a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, I cut the time to about 25-30 minutes and just used the good ole toothpick test – worked great!)

I let the cake cool and added whipped cream and strawberries for a beautiful and delicious dessert! Thank you Deborah :)

Aug2

Scrap Together Pasta Sauce

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Now I really hate to admit this but…I buy my pasta sauce in a jar. I am 100% Italian (only second generation American), my grandparents were right off-a-the-boat!

Scrap together Pasta - The West Coast Muse

Scrap Together Pasta ~ The West Coast Muse

My parents would never, ever buy spaghetti sauce from a jar, and they are probably ashamed that I would admit to buying sauce.  Then what in the hell is wrong with me?  I love to cook, I must own about 50 cookbooks, in addition to having a couple binders stuffed full of recipes, not to mention the countless recipes in my folders stored in my computer.  Perhaps the reason I do not make homemade sauce that often, is due to the length of time it takes for the sauce to cook. Six hours is about right.  I don’t have six hours in any given day to stay in the kitchen.

So, I buy my sauce.

As previously mentioned, I just moved to a small little coastal town, and yes it does have a small grocery store with 2 shelves filled with jars of tomato sauce – see, there are lots of people like me.  Anyway, I only buy organic sauce, a little difficult to find in our tiny little grocery store, but much to my surprise – there was one of the brands that I like!  But when I looked at the price…HOLY MEATBALLS…I can’t bring myself to spending over $6.00 for a jar of organic sauce, when I am accustomed to paying no more than $3.69 a jar. $3.69 is my absolute limit for organic tomato sauce!  After living in Portland, Oregon for a few years, and getting used to the great sales at our local chain of natural grocery stores – New Seasons Market, I just cannot, and WILL NOT pay $6.00 for a jar of organic pasta sauce.

So I decided to make my own, a quickie version, the kind that doesn’t have to cook for 6 hours on the stove. I suppose if I let this one cook for 6 hours it really would have kicked butt, but this one came out pretty darn good anyway.
Here’s what I bought (both for less than $3.69 I might add!)    SCORE!!!!:

1 can of organic tomato sauce (8 oz)

1 can of organic chopped tomatoes (15 oz)

Ingredients:  (measurements are rough estimates)

1 can of organic  tomato sauce, 8 oz

1 can of organic chopped tomatoes, 15 oz

1/2 cup soy creamer

1/4 cup of red wine (I had a Merlot sitting around)

1+ large handful of crimini mushrooms, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp dried basil

1 TBSP organic olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

I cooked the oil, garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano for a few minutes on low – medium heat. Added the mushrooms. Sauteed for a few minutes until the mushrooms were a little soft.  Then I added the can of chopped tomatoes, I let the flavors blend in the pan for a few minutes, while in a separate bowl I mixed the can of tomato sauce and the soy creamer.  Then I added the creamed sauce mixture to the sauce in the pan, I let that cook for about 5-10 minutes, then added the wine. I let that cook another 10 minutes and viola -

Scrap Together Pasta Sauce in less than 30 minutes!  Spooned it over al dente spaghetti ~ Now That’s Italian!

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Jul27

Holy Hog!

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As you know, I just moved to this quaint little coastal village called Yachats (pronounced Ya-hots). It’s along the Central Oregon Coast.  We get travelers from all over the world visiting this little town of 690 people, make that 692! I have never seen such great people watching, well maybe I have, along Hawthorne Street in Portland, Oregon – but that’s an entirely different story.

If you have never been to Oregon, you must visit, especially if you’re an animal lover. This has to be one of the most animal friendly states on the map. Dogs are allowed on beaches, in hotels, running trails, hiking trails, outside eating areas of many restaurants, and apparently, even on the back of a Harley!

I’m too sexy for my goggles

The pooch was no stranger to stares and gawks, as he quietly and unassumingly posed for the camera like any well-trained chick magnet would. To be honest, I have seen doggies on side cars before, but never riding on the back. My first concern was for the little guy’s well-being. As I took a closer look I noticed him harnessed in and secure. He didn’t seem to mind being a passenger on the Hog! My next thought was, this was just a cute stunt and the owner only lived one street away and perhaps after exiting the grocery store, he would whip out the leash and walk Fido home. Since I didn’t stick around to see the owner of the Hog, I thought I would never have my answer.

Unexpectedly the next day, as I was driving down 101 – I hear a grumbling rrrr, that sound only reminiscent of a Harley. It came up along side of me; as I look to my left, I see this Harley passing me!   And wouldn’t you know it was the same bike, same dog, just cruising along highway 101. This time the canine passenger had on a leather cape that was billowing in the wind, he was obviously enjoying the ride without a care in the world.  I now had my answer, this was no ordinary chick magnet, no cutesy stunt, this was the real deal -  this had to be the coolest dog on the West Coast!

Jul14

Not Your Mama’s House Anymore

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Remember the days when wood finish was in? I couldn’t resist the knotty appearance of pine in my bedroom, while basking in the glow of the oak that surrounded me in EVERY other room in the house.

Well I am so happy that it’s now the IN thing to paint OVER those wood finishes. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a natural girl – I eat organic, I hug trees, and I vote democrat – you would think that I’d be covering 98% of the walls in my house with wood paneling.  But no not this girl. Give me some color!

The fine line for me is to create a space that is classy, with a hint of hippy, artistic, and just enough funk to really speak to who I am without shouting. That is going to be my challenge.

While I was stumbling around the web, I came across Pinterest, I am truly addicted to that site, I spend many hours mesmerized by all the pins, I dream about pinning and I obsess over category titles.   Did I say I am a little neurotic too?  Anyway,  I have been finding some really cool ideas and how to’s . You can even paint over existing wood furniture without sanding, how amazing is that?  I have never sanded anything in my life, and frankly, I am not sure that I want to start now.

Here are some gorgeous pieces of furniture that other people have created – ( I will post mine, all in good time.  ) – these all fit my description of classy, hint of hippy, artistic with just enough funk to speak to The West Coast Muse:

From I create with love blog

From Sarah M Dorsey Designs

From All Things Thrifty

Jul13

Color!

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I love color – and wouldn’t you know, we just purchased a house in a quaint little Oregon Coastal town, which has 1500 square feet of white walls, some old furniture that will have to do for now, and  lots of windows to see the Pacific…but you know what, I am absolutely craving color…real bad.

It’s my goal to design the space to be colorful, fun, welcoming and warm, all at the same time. I don’t mind a little funkiness to it. I have the soul of an artist, and I am really hooked on stumbling upon new ideas to refurbish old things, design new things and simply to CREATE!

If you are familiar with the Oregon Coast, you will know that it rains about 176 days a year, so we have plenty of gray skies. With that being said – I would love some color on the walls in our great room that would compliment the blue of the ocean, the green of the surrounding trees – and a color where I could have splashes of all colors in accessories and furnishings. Advice welcome!

Future posts will show the transition of our new home, as well as all my crafty projects! I promise lots of color splashes throughout. Don’t let this photo scare you.