Gooey Pumpkin Buttercake

The Sunday after Henry was born President and Sister Matthews brought over these luscious little pumpkin bites. They were beautiful and just as delicious. I wish I had taken a picture. I'm pretty sure that if I recreate them the way she did, they will pale in comaparison. But, I did call and get the recipe because I was pretty sure that I would one day crave them again. {and my mom really wanted the recipe too} Sure enough, I just happened to have a can of pumpkin on hand and...would you believe it...a yellow cake mix. So, I whipped up the recipe in the quick 9x13 pan format. {baby boy creates tight time demands} I didn't even have the whipped cream to put on top, and we had it gone in no time. It's rare to find a treat that everyone will eat. Everyone ate this. I'm thinking Thanksgiving for sure. I don't know if I will eat pumpkin pie again.

Gooey Pumpkin Buttercake

Cake
1 pkg yellow cake mix
8 Tbs butter melted
1 egg

Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
15 oz can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
8 Tbs butter, melted

3 1/4 C powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cake: Mix together cake mix, butter, and egg and pat into bottom of greased 9x13 pan.

Filling: Beat cream cheese until it is soft. Add pumpkin and mix until well blended. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and butter. Add sugar and cinnamon and mix until smooth.

Pour filling over crust.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 min. Be careful not to overbake. {my crust got a little dry}

Fun options:

Make this in mini muffin tins {that's what Cindy did}

Line mini-muffin tin with paper liners. Spray liners lightly with Baker's Joy. Press a small scoop of cake mix into paper liner. Fill with filling just below top. Filling will expand some with baking. Bake at 350 for 16-18 min.

If you want to make this with standard sized muffin cups, follow the same procedure, but allow 26-28 min for baking.

Top each cake/piece with a dallop of whipped cream and freshly grated nutmeg.

Chili & Corn Bread

Cold, grey and snowy days beg for soup for dinner. I'm pretty sure of it, because every time we get a day like that I start going through my soup recipes to find one I have all the ingredients for. Most of the time, I have everything I need for chili.

I had never really liked chili all that much. I don't like my food too chunky. But, several years ago Nate concocted a recipe to take to a ward chili cook-off. If I remember right, he won. The problem has been that the ingredients were not measured that first night, and usually we just throw in a bit of that or a little of this or lets try this in it tonight. So, last night I measured, just so I could post an accurate recipe. It turned out great for my tastes. And it hit the spot last night.

Nate's Prize Winning Chili

1 lb bacon

1 1/2 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped finely

1 pepper {use your favorite color}, chopped finely

12 oz can pepsi

12 oz ketchup

4-15 oz cans tomatoes

2 cans chili beans

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp cajun seasoning

Cut bacon into bite-size chunks and brown. I don't thaw it all the way, and then cut it right in the wrapper. It's so much easier. {use your raw meat cutting board}

Remove from pan to paper towel. Pour off all but 1-2 Tbs grease. Add onion and pepper, and brown until onion is translucent. {I had an orange pepper, so that is what I used this time} You want the vegetables to absorb that yummy bacon flavor. Add the ground beef and spices. When beef is done, pour off grease. Add pepsi and ketchup. Stir together and simmer while you're opening cans.
I think the key to a good chili is in the tomatoes. If I could, I would use them straight from the garden. Some brands taste really tin-cannish. This is a brand that I really like. They used to sell them at WalMart. I'm going to have to find them elsewhere because last time I went to buy some they didn't have them anymore. Another thing to consider about the tomatoes is how chunky you like your chili. Like I said before, I don't do chunky, and neither do my kids...entirely my fault I'm sure. So, I just threw three of the cans {the contents of the cans, silly}into the Vita-Mix and pulsed it on low a couple of times to decrease the chunk value of the ingredients. You could also just use tomato puree. I just really like the flavor of these tomatoes, so that's how I adjust. Now you can add the tomatoes and chili beans.
Stir everything together and simmer for a couple of hours. If you don't have the time for it to simmer, simply add the spices to the sauce and not to the meat. When you add the spice to the meat, you have to give it time to infuse the spice throughout the sauce. Add the bacon and stir it in before serving.
And there you have it. Go make some cornbread.

Now here, I will give credit where credit is due. This is a recipe from the Lester Chicks Cookbook. It is had by only a handful of ladies, and it is one that I reference more than Martha Stewart. I never really liked cornbread either until I tried the cake mix variety. And then I ventured out from there. Again, one of my favorites. Moist. Yummy. Serve with lots of honey.

Corn Bread

{Marci DeWitt}

1/2 C butter, meleted

2 eggs

2/3 C sugar

1 C buttermilk

1 C flour

1 C cornmeal

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375.
Mix together butter, eggs, and sugar until smooth. Stir in buttermilk. In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add dry mixture to liquid mixture and beat until smooth. Pour into greased 9x9 pan. {I like to use my stoneware pie pan} Bake 25-30 min, just until set in middle.

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

I think that I have been browsing one too many food and baking blogs lately. I'm pretty sure that this format will be reminiscent of many of those. Although the photography may be lacking, it was fun to document, and to actually make the bread in order to photograph it. However, I am asking myself tonight...why do we call this bread and not cake? Just because we bake it in a bread pan? And then we add the zucchini to make us think that it is good for us? Right.

For anyone who has zucchini coming out of their ears.{I do} This is hands down the best recipe I have found to use this great vegetable. I have altered it a bit to fit my tastes. I have two other recipes from Chris {traditional} and from Jenny{Lemon} which are very good. I will post them eventually. But, fall evokes a feeling of needing to eat pumpkin. I tried it and my family is hooked.

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 C brown sugar

1 C pumpkin

1 C butter, melted

1 Tbs vanilla

3 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1 C zucchini, grated or shredded

Mix together eggs, sugar, pumpkin, butter and vanilla until mixture is smooth.

Sift together dry ingredients and then add to pumpkin mixture. Mix until smooth.

Stir in zucchini until it is well incorporated.

Bake in 2 loaf pans for 40+ min at 350.

Or, if you have this wonderful pan, bake it in this, you'll have leftover for another little pan.

Oh yeah, add chocolate chips...it's really not good for you anyway, so go for what tastes good. You could stir them in, but I just sprinkled them on top. {afterthought}

As with any quick bread, bake until the center is no longer jiggly, but just barely. It goes from moist and delicious to dry in just a couple of minutes, so watch it carefully after the 40 minute mark, checking every 2 -3 minutes for doneness. Do the toothpick trick if you can't tell by looking.

Freeze it for later, if you can. Mine is always gone in a matter of days.