Pumpkin Cake with cream cheese frosting

Cost: $2.99

Libby's website

I don't have a lot of time to blog today, but that's ok, because this is a simple thing you can bring along for holiday get togethers that doesn't take a lot of time but has much flavor, over and above what you can buy premade from a grocery store bakery.

Bottom Line: Libby's canned pumpkin is a very good choice for the recipe below because it is sweet and smooth but doesn't contain any salt, sugar or spices of any kind.

Ingredients: It's 100% pure pumkin. Other products your going to find already have a lot of the spices already added and thats not a good thing because what gets people raving about this dish and asking for the recipe is fresh ingredients.

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Pumpkin Cake

--Dry ingredients--
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

--Wet ingredients--
4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Icing

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
softened 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
cut into 8 pieces and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake instructions:
1.With the rack in the middle position preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.Grease and flour a baking pan 13"x9".
3.Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.
4.With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat eggs, oil, and granulated sugar until thick and fluffy...about 5 minutes.
5.Reduce speed to low, add pumpkin, and mix until fully incorporated.
6.Slowly add flour mixture and mix until only a few small lumps of flour remain, about 1 minute. 7.Scrape batter into floured pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.
8.Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely.

Frosting instructions:
1.With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and confectioners sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2.Add cream cheese 1 piece at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
3.Add vanilla and mix until smooth.

Once the cake is completely cooled just frost and serve.

Char Crust Dry Rub

Cost: $4.99

charcrust.com

I'm going to share a secret on how to create a restaurant quality steak or hamburger. It's only a secret because very few people seem to have heard of Char Crust.

It was created by a chef back in the 1950's to serve in his restaurant. People went wild for it and when the chef retired in the 1990's, his son started selling it to restaurants. Now it's available in most supermarkets

I keep it in an old oregano bottle and use it when I grill. Just sprinkle very liberally several times while grilling and a nice flavorful crust will develop.

The company makes several different flavors and you'll eventually want to try them all. To date the flavors are: All American Barbecue, Original Hickory Grilled, Hickory & Molasses, Roto Roast, Roasted Garlic Peppercorn, Smoky Spicy Southwest, Ginger Teriyaki, Amazin' Cajun, and Sun-Dried Tomato & Garlic.

Bottom Line: This is a fantastic product. Your family will be amazed at the taste. The ingredients are very natural and I've seen it for sale in several health food stores.

Ingredients: (Roasted Garlic Peppercorn) Processed Wheat, Salt, Roasted Garlic, Sugar, Spices, Onion, Caramel Color, Worcestershire Powder, Paprika, Hydrolyzed Soy and Corn Protein.

Simply Orange Juice

Cost: $3.50 - $6.00
depending on size

simplyorangejuice.com

This orange juice is pure sunshine in a bottle. It's simply the best I've ever had. It even beats squeezing it yourself, if that is possible.

They also make Simply Grapefruit, Apple, Lemonade, Limeade, and other variations of orange juice with mango or pineapple.


Bottom Line: As a test, squeeze a few oranges and taste them against this product. You'll probably notice the fresh squeezed has a slightly bitter taste. I don't know how they do it but simply orange is better than fresh.

Ingredients: Oranges

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Here's a great recipe for orange ice.

2 1/4 cups bottled water
3/4 cup of orange juice
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons vodka
1/8 teaspoon table salt

Mix all these ingredients together in a glass bowl. Fill 2 ice cube trays with the mixture. When frozen solid, put orange cubes in a food processor and pulse until it's creamy.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have.

Pepperidge Farm Breads

Cost: $2.50-$3.00 depending on the style

pepperidgefarm.com

One of the staples of modern life is bread. We buy several brands for many different uses. This one excels at simple sandwiches and as a source of bread crumbs for stuffing.

Some of our favorites from Pepperidge farm is the hearty white, Sourdough, Rye & Pumpernickel swirl. Their hamburger and hot dog buns are really good too.

We've tried many of their breads because they are usually sold out of most flavors at our supermarket. So we are forced into buying a different one than we had originally intended.

One note about the Rye & Pump is that it's a little too thin in my opinion. Be careful when making sandwiches with it, as it falls apart easily. Also it's shape doesn't lend itself well to being toasted.

Bottom Line: We like the texture and the taste of their breads. They are priced right compared to other breads. The ingredients list doesn't have any red flag ingredients other than high fructose corn syrup. Which is something I am concerned about in some products, but I don't detect a lot of sweetness so I'm not as worried about it in this product.

Ingredients: (Hearty White) Unbromated Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid], Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast, Contains 2 Percent or Less of: Salt, Soybean Oil, Butter (Adds a Trivial Amount of Cholesterol), Nonfat Milk (Adds a Trivial Amount of Cholesterol), Honey, Monoglyceride, Wheat Protein Isolate, Calcium Propionate (to Retard Spoilage) and Enzymes.

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One of our favorite tricks is to make panini sandwiches using our George Foreman style grill.

My personal favorite is a Turkey, Bacon, Guacamole sandwich. Here's how we make it:

Guacamole:
3 medium ripe avocados
2 tablespoons red onion - minced
1 medium clove of garlic - minced
1 small jalapeño chile - minced
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons lime juice

Add all the minced ingredients into the bowl first. Then add the avocados and lime juice last. That will ensure that the avacados stay bright green in color. If you want a little more kick to to the guacamole add white onion instead of red onion. It will give it a spicy flavor. Want more Zing! add more lime juice to taste.

Turkey preparation:
Leftover Thanksgiving turkey works best for this recipe. While it's still cold from the refrigerator work it with your fingers and it will easily crumble into bite size strips. Warm it up on the stove with a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan. Stir it till it's absorbed the olive oil and is warm and flexible.

Bacon preparation:
Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay a wire cooling rack in a cookie sheet and lay your bacon out in strips on the wire rack. Make sure they don't overlap. Bake in the oven 7-10 minutes depending on how crisp you like your bacon. (My oven cooks really hot your time may vary)



Sandwich preparation:
Pre heat your George Foreman grill on high. Lightly butter one side of both slices of bread. Build the sandwich the way you want it. Sometimes I add cheese like Swiss or smoked Gouda. Lettuce, tomato, or onion could be a nice addition too. Sometimes instead of buttering the bread I've lightly brushed it with olive oil. That works too. Then just grill them until you get your desired doneness.

Please feel free to comment. The point of this blog is to learn from each other.