It’s Pumpkin Time!!

The pumpkin.  It has become a symbol of harvest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and can be found in a variety of colors: orange (the one everyone knows), white, tan, and rarely seen red, and blue.  But what exactly is a pumpkin?  According to Wikipedia, “a pumpkin is a gourd-like squash…and is native to North America.”  The University of Illinois published a list of facts about pumpkins, which includes how they “…contain potassium and vitamin A….are used for feed for animals….Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.”  And so, the tradition continues with stores everywhere displaying bountiful arrangements of pumpkins signaling the upcoming holidays.  Growing up, I always looked forward to this time of year with the smells of baking bread, cinnamon, cloves, apples, and pumpkin greeting me as I arrived home from school.  Weekends were spent playing with friends, running and trudging through piles of orange and yellow leaves or visiting family. 

Baking Powder – in a pinch!

Ever have one of those days were you are in the mood to bake but you can not find any baking powder in your home?  Or you don’t feel like getting dressed and heading out to the store to pick up some?  Or you’re in the middle of a baking frenzy and you run out?  Me too!  To help you out of this situation I have listed below how to make your own baking powder from ingredients right in your kitchen.  

Homemade Brown Sugar

Mmmmm, brown sugar.  Just the words conjure images of baked deliciousness.  So many recipes use this wonderful brown sweetness – from bacon to desserts to chicken.  Try to imagine your favorite chocolate chip cookies without it.  Horrifying!  But what exactly is brown sugar?  I found a couple interesting links.  One, from www.ehow.com states that it’s “made from sugar cane or sugar beets…cut and squeezed for their juice, which is boiled until it thickens to molasses.”¹  It is then stripped and dried.  Foodtimeline.org is another site that always has such interesting information as well.

The Brownie Project

Brownies.  The name alone conjures images of a mouth-watering moist and fudgy chocolate delight.  Almost everyone has a favorite recipe (unbelievably – there are people who do not like brownies).  For those that do, there are literally hundreds of variations out there that all contain the same basic ingredients:  sugar, butter, chocolate, flour, eggs, nuts, and salt.  This is where the similarities end.  Some variations call for cocoa powder, honey, chips (white – milk chocolate – peanut butter or mint), pecans, cinnamon, cayenne, coconut, raisins, orange peel, marshmallow, and cream cheese, to name a few.  Other variations simply have different measurements of the basic ingredients.