Thanksgiving leftovers breakfast bake for one

I've seen a whole bunch of recipes related to Thanksgiving leftovers, but most of them were these tremendously huge pans full of...well....everything.  Some, though, were breakfast bakes that looked really tasty and used eggs to hold it all together.  I had neither super-tons of leftovers, nor a crowd of people to eat them.  But I figured that I could just use small amounts in a smaller pan and it would probably turn out OK.  I was right!

Ingredients

• Already-made stuffing
• 2 eggs
• deli turkey
• cooked carrots
• shredded cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Put stuffing in small casserole container, enough to cover bottom of dish. (My container here is about the size of a cereal bowl.)
   
3. Lightly press down stuffing 
4. Chop up turkey and carrots.
   
5. Add 2 lightly-beaten eggs
6. Add eggs to turkey and carrots
7. Add shredded cheese and then stir
8. Pour over stuffing
   
   
   
   
9. Bake for 30+ minutes, until eggs are cooked
10. Sprinkle top with a bit more cheese and put back in oven for 3 or 4 minutes, until cheese is melted.
    

Mini Crustless Pumpkin Pies: Cute and Tasty

This year's Thanksgiving was a little different from past years.  Usually Thanksgiving is for family, but when I was in school I celebrated with friends, potluck style.  This year was a new experience: my brother's family at his in-laws, my parents in Missouri with my grandmother and aunt, and most of my friends travelling or otherwise committed to family events.  I've never--in my memory, anyway--spent this particular holiday alone until this year.

Early in my lone-Thanksgiving planning, I decided on three things.  The first two were that I would not be "lonely" and that the holiday would be a real holiday.  This meant no laundry, housework, heavy projects, or excessive worrying.  Just rest, relaxation, and some fun.  The third thing I decided was that I would actually make myself a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

The menu became an all-sides, all-deliciousness extravaganza, except for dessert.  I wanted the spirit of pumpkin pie, but not all the trouble...or the leftovers that I would feel guilty about later.  I searched online and found this recipe for mini, crustless pumpkin pie bites.

Mine didn't turn out as crispy/caramelized as in the original, but they were tasty.  Pretty much just like the original Libby's pumpkin pie that mom always made...but cuter and healthier, especially since I used fat free evaporated milk.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup sugar
• scant ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (nutmeg, all-spice, cinnamon, cloves)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15oz) Libby's pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 can (12floz) fat free evaporated milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven 425 degrees F
2. Spray mini muffin tins with Pam spray (or otherwise lightly grease)  
3. Stir together sugar, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in one bowl.
4. Whisk together eggs, pumpkin puree, and evaporated milk in a second bowl.
   
5. In two or three parts, fold the dry ingredients  in the wet until well-combined.
   
6. Fill mini muffin tins with filling.  (Really fill them.  They will puff up, but then sink back down.  Filled to the top edge was good.)
   
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 425.
8. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
   
9. Let cool and then refrigerate.
   
10. Serve with cool whip, if you like it.  I added a dollop of frozen lite cool whip to each, instead of ice cream.  

This made about 36 pie bites.  A serving was really about 4 (3 was more like wishful thinking...)

Blue Ribbon Recipe (literally!): Honey Chiffon Cake

Back in August I wrote about how I entered events and won a blue ribbon at the State Fair, so here (finally!) is the recipe for my blue ribbon.  

Since I'm not usually a person who bakes with honey, I wanted to find a good recipe to work with.  Who better to tell me how to bake with honey than the National Honey Board, right?  So my initial attempt while practice baking was with this recipe for a honey chiffon cake.  That cake turned out tasty, but much, much too dense for a chiffon (I mean, in my personal opinion).  So I decided I needed to work on it.  

Now, it is important to mention that some parts of baking are easy to play with.  Swapping nuts for chips or raisins, usually safe.  Making a full cake into cupcakes, super-doable with changes to baking time.  Making things healthier by swapping out some of the fats for things like apple sauce or smooshed bananas, can be done.  Other parts of baking are very easy to mess up, because baking is CHEMISTRY.  That's right.  Everyone who says that chemistry is boring and un-useful?  They are super-wrong, because the bread we eat, treats we love...they are all just chemistry that happened to work out right.  

So...when I started fiddling with the actual chemistry of the cake, I was a little worried about how it might turn out.  Fairly miraculously, my first try turned out really, really well.  Basically, I used some of the tricks of making angel food cake: using cake flour instead of all-purpose, adding some cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites, using the specific folding instructions to ensure that the egg whites are as undisturbed as possible, etc.  

The final version was delicious, light and fluffy, and garnered me some of the nicest compliments about baking skill (not just taste) that I've ever gotten.  Oh, and I won a whole $15 for my efforts!  (To put that into perspective, though, I spent more than $15 on honey for the practice and final versions. :)  ) 

When I went to see the cake, I was initially with an old friend and her parents, but I went back by myself to visit my cake and take some ridiculous selfies with it.  Because...well, I'm goofy as all get-out.  While there, a woman and her husband were also looking at Honey baked goods.  They gave me a questioning look when I started to take selfies and then asked if I wanted them to take a photo.  I was a little embarrassed, but said no, that I had promised my mom that I would take silly selfies with my cake.  The woman was surprised and asked which was mine, and was so happy for me when I told her the blue ribbon.  We started chatting and she is actually a judge for honey and regular baking (though not the chiffon cake this year).  She was obviously really excited to see someone young (well, young-ish!) competing...and being successful.  The chat was nice and so encouraging!    

Ooooo....look!  Blue ribbon!

Anyway, here's the recipe--the BLUE RIBBON WINNING recipe--if you want to try it for yourself.  

Ingredients:

You have to submit an actual recipe card with Honey entries for the MN State Fair, with your sweeteners highlighted.  

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp cake flour (not all-purpose)
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• heaping 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 5 eggs, divided (whites from yolks)
• scant 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup honey (I used a clover/basswood honey from Pine County, MN)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Bowl #1:
   Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
   Whisk in cinnamon
3. Bowl #2:
   Beat egg yolks with sugar (I used a whisk to beat them by hand).
   Add honey and oil.  Mix well.
   Add lemon juice and vanilla.  Mix well.
4. Bowl #3: Using a stand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form
5. Add contents of Bowl #1 to Bowl #2 and mix well
6. Fold mixture into Bowl #3, using a large spoon or spatula.  Turn bowl and use 15 to 20 complete fold-over strokes.  
7. Pour into ungreased tube pan and even top of cake batter
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick/cake tester comes out clean and cake springs back if lightly pressed,
9. Turn upside down to cool.  Cool completely before removing from pan. 

Entering into the Honey competition at the Horticulture building, before the State Fair opened.

Me outside the Bee and Honey room where the cake was on display.  My 90 year old grandma wondered why I took a picture of the woman behind me.  I don't think she's up-to-date on selfies! 

We're #1 (me and my cake, I mean)!

Pumpkin Cornbread: aka trendy-but-humble-pumpkin-spice-loaf

My work has a Facebook page for social media promotion of the library.  On the page we have an occasional Test Kitchen series, where we make a recipe from the collection and then share it.  In October the Test Kitchen theme was Autumn spices...which basically means that we finally jumped on the Pumpkin-Spice bandwagon.  (There are pumpkin-spice lattes, pumpkin-spice granola...Why not a pumpkin-spice library?)     

Since I'm one of the department's more avid bakers, I volunteered for this month and make Pumpkin Cornbread.  The original recipe came from page 29 of Cinnamon: The Watkins Kitchen Collection, copyright 1995.

The recipe here is the original and in the final product the spices are fairly subtle.  The consensus from tasters was that you can smell them more than taste them. If you want this to be a true "pumpkin-spiced" cornbread, you may want to add more of some/all of the spices. But be careful, a little can go a long way!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ginger
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat until well blended.  (Suggestion: use a whisk to stir together all the dry ingredients and all the spices, then add the wet ingredients and whisk/stir/beat until well blended.)
   
3. Pour into 9 inch loaf pan
4. Bake for 45 minutes
   
5. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out
   
6. Cool completely before slicing.  (It will slice really nicely if you wait!)
   
7. Serving Suggestion: Drizzle with honey, preferably a good local one!
   

Coconut Poke Cake: a tropical indulgence, anytime of year!

Back in the Summer, I wrote a post on making Key Lime Pie Bars for a tropical-themed celebration.  Another of my favorite tropical treats that is super-super-easy and can be made year-round? Coconut poke cake!

My photo isn't the finished, pretty version, but believe me when I say this cake is incredible.  

• Make a white cake mix according to directions for a 9x13 inch cake.
• While it is still hot, poke cake all over with a wooden spoon handle or utility fork.  
• Mix a 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk with an equal amount of coconut cream.
• Pour evenly over the top of the cake
• Let cake cool completely and then frost with cool whip
• Top with toasted, flaked coconut (optional)
• Keep refrigerated.