Welcome to my food blog! 🍳 Discover easy recipes, home cooking videos, honest food reviews, taste tests, and new food products worth trying. From homemade meals and delicious comfort food to trending snacks and taste-testing new finds, I share real opinions, cooking inspiration, and fun food discoveries. Follow along for recipe ideas, food recommendations, kitchen inspiration, and plenty of delicious things to try!
Alexa is my gardening, cooking, craft making buddy
AND best friend!
First, the important tying on of the apron.
My Mom is such a good teacher. Very, very patient and hands off. She lets you figure things out for yourself. I think that's the best way to learn how to cook.
Mom and Alexa measuring out the squash. Notice: No canned squash/pumpkin here! This is all home grown.
Alexa adding the squash.
Alexa separating the eggs.
My Mom gave her 3 eggs explained how to separate them and then went to the other side of the kitchen to whip up a different kind of bars.
I have to tell you about Alexa making me scrambled eggs.
It's our funny story.
Granted this happened when she was much younger (like 8).
She told me she was really good at scrambled eggs.
So, she made them and we started to eat them.
Finally, Alexa turns to me, "I think there is something wrong with your chickens. 'Cause these eggs are crunchy."
The chicken's eggs were fine, including the shells that she had dropped into them.
I was excited to see the ingredients in the Foodie Fights challenge were pumpkin and bulghur.
As a child, I ate more bulghur than white rice, so I'm very familiar with the toasty grain.
Yes, I was that weird kid in school with homemade fruit leather and a thermos of chicken noodle soup at lunch.
And soup with fat, homemade noodles, not the skinny, trademarked noodles.
After much thought and cookbook research I decided to make a variation of Topig (Little Balls), an Armenian appetizer, and a sparkly Mexican pumpkin-lime soup.
Some flavors, like cinnamon, ginger, lime and pumpkin, are meant to be together.
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Bulghur (wheat)Balls
1 cup raw bulghur
2 cups boiling water
3 med. potatoes, peeled and quartered
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1 med. onion chopped
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ginger
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup raisins
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1 Tbs honey
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1 egg beaten with a dash of salt and cinnamon
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Cover bulghur with the boiling water and let it steam, covered, until the bulghur is tender and the water is absorbed. Boil the potatoes until tender.
Meanwhile, saute the onions in 1/3 cup olive oil. When they are translucent and soft mix in the nuts and spices. Add the raisins and saute, stirring, until the mixture is hot. Remove from heat.
Drain the potatoes and reserve the potato water for the soup. Mash the potatoes. Combine them with the bulghur, onion-nut mixture and the honey. Add more salt and spices to taste. When cool enough to handle, form the mixture into little balls, about 2 inch in diameter.
Let bulghur balls rest for 20mins.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Dip each ball into the egg, salt and cinnamon mixture. Place on a greased or Silpat covered cookie sheet and bake for 15-25 mins., until balls begin to toast on top.
Pumpkin-Lime Soup
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cup potato water
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3 cups peeled and diced firm pumpkin or butternut squash
1/2 cup lime juice
2 Tbs olive oil
1 med. onion, chopped
1 spicy dried chile or 2-3 fresh, diced chiles
28oz can of diced tomatoes
Add to taste: Hickory salt or 1/8 tsp liquid smoke, salt and pepper.
Saute onion with olive oil in a large stockpot. After a few minutes add chiles. When onion is translucent remove from heat and add minced garlic.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and return stockpot to the stove. Turn up heat to med-high. Cover the pot and let simmer until the pumpkin is fork tender, 15-20 mins.
Adjust salt and pepper to personal taste and serve. Offer soup with fresh or dried cilantro, toasted pumpkin seeds and sliced limes.
To serve: Ladle soup into bowls, add bulghur ball and optional toppings.
Notes and Confessions:
Unless you had an unconventional childhood like me, you might not know about bulghur. Bulghur has a very high nutritional value. It's high in protein, fiber and is low in fat and calories. It is also rich in B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, phosphorous and manganese. Its B vitamins complement the folate in vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, broccoli or brussels sprouts. Furthermore, Bulghur does not lose much of its nutrients from its minimal processing (steaming). It retains its high protein and vitamin count.
Yummy! And good for you!
Bulghur is wheat berries (seeds) that have been precooked, dried and cracked. Bulghur should never be boiled like rice or pasta. Simply, pour boiling water over bulghur, cover and allow to steam.
So in this recipe I used:
Honey - from my Grandfather's bees. He died when I was 4, so this honey is a non replenishable commodity
Egg - from Butter, my pet chicken
Sage - from my garden
Pumpkin - from my garden
Onion - from my garden
Chile - from my garden, dried by me
Potato - from my garden
Garlic - I used one big clove of elephant garlic, from my garden
I love this soup!
I ate 4 bowls. Honestly, I couldn't eat it fast enough. It has so many flavors and textures: Nutty bulghur, rich pine nuts, sweet, creamy pumpkin and sparkly lime. The pumpkin and lime really complement each other well. The tart lime brings out the sweet pumpkin flavor. The spices are just decadent.
Multiple layers of flavor and texture. Yummy!
And the bulghur balls are delicious in the soup or just eaten on their own. I'm eating them straight out of the refrigerator!
Yum! Yum!
This was so much fun!
Check out all the competitors entries and then vote!
So, Orange: pumpkin or squash - Black: Dark ale or cola - Sugar
I have to be honest, before this recipe I'd never bought beer.
I know nothing about beer.
At first it was a struggle to think of a recipe that used pumpkin, beer and sugar.
But then I thought of pumpkin waffles.
After that, the only thing left to do was to buy the beer.
Whew! Who knew that there were soooo many types of beer?
I stood in front of the cooler for a long time.
Finally, the clerk asked me if I needed help.
"Yes! Do you have any dark beer? Besides Guinness?"
"Ummmm, noooo. Just Guinness."
Ok then. Out of a million types of beer I went home with the only dark beer - Guinness.
Now to the recipe!
Perfect Pumpkin Waffles
1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup oatmeal flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp cloves 1 1/2 cups pumpkin (canned or cooked) 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed) 6 Tbs. butter, melted 4 large eggs 1 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 Tbs lemon juice added) 1/2 cup dark beer
Mix together in a large bowl dry ingredients. Stir in Pumpkin, butter, brown sugar and eggs. Add milk and beer, mix until thoroughly blended. Scoop batter into a preheated waffle iron. Bake until waffles are golden brown. Serve with butter and warm maple syrup.
I made oat flour by grinding whole oats in my mini food processor.
All of the ingredients. Look at those bright orange yolks! Thanks for the eggs Ladies.
I made the buttermilk by adding 1 Tbs. bottle lime juice to 2% milk. Then let it stand for a few mins. and add the beer. Why do you even need to use buttermilk? The acidic buttermilk reacts with the baking soda/baking powder and results in lighter waffles with a higher rise. Have you ever made a baking soda/vinegar volcano? Same idea - poof!
I threw a few chocolate chips into the batter.
Nice and golden.
What do they taste like?
Well, do you like pumpkin bread or cake?
They taste just like that.
However, because there isn't as much flour they don't taste starchy, the spicy pumpkin flavor can really shine through. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
And they re-heat well too.
Just follow the same refrig or freezing directions
First, the important tying on of the apron.
My Mom is such a good teacher. Very, very patient and hands off. She lets you figure things out for yourself. I think that's the best way to learn how to cook.
Mom and Alexa measuring out the squash.
Alexa adding the squash.
Alexa separating the eggs.
I have to tell you about Alexa making me scrambled eggs.
I have to tell you about Alexa making me scrambled eggs.
I was the official taste tester.
I was the official taste tester.
Best friends forever!
Best friends forever!
