Monthly Archives: February 2011

SECO Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

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It feels like winter and pumpkin seems to soothe the cold away. So, a  pumpkin recipe it is!

I found several of these recipes so I took some basics from it, added my own, minor changes, and dibbed it “SECO“.  DH devoured 2 and he’s not even feeling well.  So, here is our very own, SECO Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Muffins.

Next time I make this recipe, I may put all the  cream cheese and less batter, in the muffins, and just turn remaining batter into a small load pan. I also want to try mixing the cream cheese into the batter. If you try either one of these changes, please leave a comment (send the recipe to my e-mail below), and I’ll post your efforts.

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

  • 1 8-oz pkg cream cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1.5 tsps vanilla
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • ***************
  • 1 C white flour
  • 1 C whole wheat flour
  • 2 C sugar
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 15-oz can pure pumpkin
  • 1/4 C veg oil
  • 2 to 3 tsps vanilla
  1. Preheat oven to 375
  2. Grease & flour muffin cups and other pan ( square or loaf).
  3. Medium bowl: For filling, beat cream cheese until soft; add vanilla & sugar; set aside
  4. Large bowl: Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice & salt
  5. Using small serving/large soup spoon, fill muffin cups about 2/3 full.  (Fills 12  count muffin tin plus small loaf pan or square pan). Add several tblsp cream cheese mixture to each muffin – enough to cover top of muffin.
  6. Bake: 375/20 to 30 minutes, until thin knife inserted into middle – down to bottom, comes out fairly clean.
  7. Also, muffins & bread seem easier to remove by letting them ‘rest’ in their pans about 5 minutes.

Note; I did not over-mix batter and muffins were very light – even with whole wheat flour addition.

My e-mail is daniellesimone0@gmail.com.  Let me know if you try this and any changes you might make.  If you have any muffin or an other recipes to share, feel free.  we’ll try and get them made and posted.

As always, Nature prevails.

Paprika Stuffed Peppers

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Okay – I promise, after this recipe…no more peppers, for awhile.

Stuffed pepper recipes can be as varied as pasta recipes, so I allowed some creativity to rule the kitchen last night; paprika, bacon, etc. The result was indeed…yummy.  DH wasn’t too thrilled with the extra heat, but then…his newly pulled molar was a bit cranky, poor thing.

Paprika Stuffed Peppers

-4 green bell peppers
-1 C. cooked brown rice
-1 small can tomatoe paste
-1 can stewed tomatoes, finely chopped
-1/2 large onion
-1+1/2 C water (beef or chicken broth would work well.
-2 slices peppered bacon
-1/2 pound ground turkey
-2 to 4 tbsp paprika
–Generous sprinkle Parmesan/Asiago/Romano graded cheese (Graded cheddar or other cheese will work)
-sprinkles of garlic powder, onion powder, parsley flakes,salt, whole ground black pepper, red pepper flakes

  • -Mince and fry bacon; drain, pat away remaining saturated fat with paper towels.Set aside.
  • -Fry and break up turkey into small pieces. Mix in with bacon. Set aside.
  • -Saute onion and a little green pepper finely chopped from cut-off tops.
  • -When cooked al-dente, add in tomatoes, paste and cooked meats; add seasonings and water (or broth); simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes to blend flavors. Put about 1/3 of this veggie, tomatoe mix aside.
  • -Add in cooked rice to remaining 2/3 veggie mixture; mix well.
  • -Fill peppers to overflowing.
  • -Put into deep dish; cover with remaining tomatoe/veggie sauce mix.
  • -Bake 400 degrees about 30 to 45 minutes.
  • -About 10 minutes before removing from oven, sprinkle Parmesan/Asiago/Romano graded cheese over peppers. For a more southwest flavor, graded cheddar or other cheese would be yummy.

There are many other stuffed pepper recipes out there.  Send us your favorite or maybe a new one you found at a recent pot-luck or barbecue.

I recall reading somewhere that a stuffed pepper recipe called for pre-cooking the peppers before stuffing; if you have knowledge or experience  with this, please let us know.

Enjoy!  Tell us how you fared with this recipe. Leave a comment; send us an e-mail.

Thanks for stopping by.

As always, Nature prevails.

“Preparing” your Recipes

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“Preparing” your recipes involves not only putting the ingredients together in a palatable manner; more importantly, the ingredients must be grown and harvested in a manner conducive to uploading the maximum healthy ingredients from the soil – and -  a growing/harvesting method that guards against poisonous  pesticides, fertilizers and other top-dressing of unhealthy chemicals and additives.  Sustainable, organic gardening methods allow  the “ingredients” that become our food/recipes to also become the best foundation for our nutritional health.

I vowed when beginning this site to be fairly narrow-focused on food alone; there are endless other blogs covering every imaginable subject.  But… there was a recent USDA agreement that now allows genetically modified alfalfa seed.  We may not eat alfalfa, but the meats we eat and the bees that pollinate our veggies…ARE involved.  I believe that information is directly related to the recipes you and Jan and I create here.  Some of that information can be found through some of the blogs in our blog roll to the right.

There is a grassroots push nationwide over the past few ears to allow poultry raising; even cities such as New York, Seattle, etc are giving in to the growing need for us to feed ourselves home-grown, healthy food. The economics behind this push certainly aid the cause!

Jan and I hope for an interactive site here; if you have other websites that fit into these categories mentioned above, please, comment or send us an e-mail:

daniellesimone0@gmail.com.

Paprika Peppers…coming up.

As always, Nature prevails.

No-Time to Cook – Chili Dog Dinner

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Those nights when you’re pushed for time, running late and can’t get dinner over quickly enough — we’ve all been there.

The solution is easier than you might think. Here in the big city, we keep a few staples on hand for just such a night. You could cook these things and have them ready in the freezer, but if you’d had time to plan ahead, you might not be in a pinch to begin with… The solution is in your pantry, if you always keep these things on hand.

Hormel Chili with beef and beans
Diced Mexican Style Tomatoes
Fresh Onions (chopped fine)
Hot dogs (from the freezer)
Grated cheese
Hot dog buns.

Dump the Hormel chili with beef and beans into a pot to warm, turn on the burner. Add the diced Mexican Style Tomatoes to the pan, stir well and let them heat through.

Warm the hot dogs in the microwave or in a pan of water on the stove – either way, they’re bound to be delicious.

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Recipe by Jan Verhoeff

Southwest Chili Stew

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As the temperatures slide into negative numbers the kitchen warms the heart. Or at least, it is so here in the Denver Metro cookery.

Ingredients:

2 LBs ground beef
2 large onions chunked
2 large potatoes chunked
2 large cans stewed tomatoes
2 cans red kidney beans
1 large can hot tamales in wraps
1 can black beans
1 can corn (drained)
1/2 cup sliced jalepenoes
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano (I know, just do it!)
1/2 tsp garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

Cook ground beef until browned, add onion, stir to soften. Add all ingredients except tamales, simmer until potatoes are well done. Remove tamales from wrappers and chunk in bite sized pieces. Stir into stew. Simmer a few minutes to warm tamales. Serve with grated cheese and sour cream. More peppers is always a good addition.

This stew came about by accident… I had a can of what I thought was pinto beans to add to the pot and they turned out to be tamales. I only had one large can and decided it couldn’t possibly hurt the stew so I added them in chunks. The stew was such a hit, we now keep tamales on hand for this purpose. The kids love ‘em.

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Recipe by Jan Verhoeff