A Kitchen Keeper Original - Pumpkin Pudding Cake with Pecan Sugar Crust

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Years ago, I kept my freezer stocked with treats for friends who dropped by for a quick visit. These days, those same friends, who, by the way, are some of the best looking seniors in Oregon, usually avoid sweets. As a result, my freezer is heavy on vegetables and fish, and desserts and snacks are kept to a bare minimum. We do, however, make an exception during the holidays, and this weekend I began to feed the freezer for Thanksgiving and Christmas visitors. This pumpkin cake is one of Bob's favorites. It is spicy and moist and has a texture much like that of an apple pudding cake or fudgy brownie. I cut the cake into serving size pieces, individually wrap and freeze them, then reheat them when needed in the microwave. I love to serve this cake warm with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of ice cream. The pumpkin make it seasonally appropriate, but it is different than most of the desserts that are served at this time of year. This is a very rich cake, so you'll want to keep serving size reasonably small. If you do not freeze the cake, keep it in the refrigerator for safe keeping. I know those of you who try this pudding cake will love it. Here is how it's made.

Honey and Soy Glazed Carrots

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The Silver Fox and I rarely eat sweetened or glazed vegetables, but with the holidays coming, I thought it prudent to test at least a few recipes of this type to use as potential fillers for our holiday table. I also had promised to share a low-cost holiday dish with a group whose meetings I occasionally sit in on, and these carrots allowed me to kill two birds with one stone. The group, originally sponsored by a local church, has become more informal over the eight years since it was formed, but the gals still get together 3 or 4 times a year to share low-cost recipes and cooking techniques. I thought this inexpensive side dish would break the unremitting beige of the Thanksgiving holiday table and add some much needed color without breaking the bank. The source recipe for my version of these carrots came from Food and Wine magazine. I liked the ingredients they were using, but thought the dish ended up being too salty for my taste. I played with the recipe a bit and came up with the version you see below. Tamari is a thicker, lower salt version of soy sauce that is used in Japanese cooking. I find it more robust and use it to season dishes that require soy sauce for flavor. It is more expensive than regular soy sauce, so I've recommended low-sodium soy sauce for use by anyone for who has to watch their food budget. If you are looking for something fast, colorful and inexpensive you might want to give this recipe a try. Here is how the carrots are made.

Honey and Soy Glazed Carrots...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite inspired by Food and Wine magazine

Ingredients:
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 2-by-1/2-inch sticks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon Tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoons honey or real maple syrup

Instructions:
1) Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add carrots and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain.
2) Melt butter in a large skillet. Stir in carrots and Tamari and cook over high heat until carrots are browned in spots, about 2 minutes. Stir in honey and cook until carrots are glazed, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer to a platter and serve. Yield: 6 servings.

                    

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Cranberry Bread Pudding with Orange Hard Sauce - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Cranberry Bread Pudding with Orange Hard Sauce

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I'm probably a member of the last generation raised in kitchens where nothing was wasted, including stale bread and leftover rice. Rice and bread puddings were fixtures of my childhood. Bread pudding, both sweet and savory, has a long history in the annals of cooking. It can be traced to peasant kitchens where frugal and often hungry cooks refused to discard stale bread. The earliest recipe for bread pudding can be traced to a book called "The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy" by Hannah Glasse. It was published in 1747. Her recipe, save for instructions written in old English, is quite similar to those in use today. She adds butter, eggs and milk to stale bread and steams (boils) her pudding to completion. I prefer to bake mine.

I have a sentimental attachment to Cranberry Bread Pudding. It is, of course, delicious, but it's also one of the first recipes I entered into amateur recipe competition. It didn't embarrass me and it's stood the test of time. I make the pudding several times a year and it has become a fixture on my holiday dinner table. While the original recipe was made with croissants, and  I do, by the way, urge you to use them, other sweet breads can be used as a substitute. The pudding shown in today's post was made with a raisin sweet bread because that is what I had on hand. Pumpkin pie spice is used to keep the number of ingredients used in the recipe under control. That's important in competition recipes, but less so in the confines of your own kitchen. I'm inserting a list of spices within the recipe that can be used in case you don't keep pumpkin pie spice in your pantry. This pudding is packed with down-home flavor and it's a wonderful addition to the holiday dessert table. The hard sauce is to die for - really! You can find the recipe here.

                    

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Celery and Potato Soup - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Celery and Potato Soup

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While this soup is very inexpensive to make, it is less substantial than most of the dishes that have been featured on Frugal Foodie Friday. I decided to share it with you because I know there are times when even those on restricted food budgets want something special to start a holiday meal. I thought this soup would be lovely to serve as a first course on Valentine's Day or Easter Sunday and I wanted to post it so those of you who are interested have ample time to do a trial run. The soup was developed by Martha Rose Shulman for The New York Times, and the first time I skimmed through her recipe, I knew it was a keeper. I was not, however, prepared for how delicious the soup would actually be. It is a winner on many levels. The soup is a light celery puree that is thickened with a single potato, and while the combination may sound mundane, I think you'll find it works wonderfully well and will get your meal off to a festive start. If leeks and the walnut oil are not available don't stress. Replace the leeks with another small onion and bypass the use of walnut oil altogether. How do you rate a recipe that is inexpensive to make, easy to prepare and a delight to the palate? I guess that depends on the reviewer, but I can tell you this soup made my socks go up and down and its been a while since that happened. I do hope you will try this soup. It is really good stuff. The recipe for this treasure can be found here.

                    

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