Pumpkin Pecan Cupcakes with Cranberry Orange Relish

This week marks many things –

Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Leopold’s gotch-ya day, and my 27th birthday.

These recipes came out of a conversation I was having a few weeks back at my in-laws dinner table. My father-in-law (it’s almost official, right?) whipped out some pumpkin bread he had recently picked up at Wegman’s thinking “why not?” We all agreed the bread was good, but just not the same as “Beth’s Pumpkin stuff”. What was this pumpkin bread-muffin-cupcake and why had I not heard of it? More likely I had heard of them, possibly eaten them, and just forgot about them and their reputation. I made my mother-in-law promise to send me the recipe and later that night it arrived in my inbox.

There aren’t many recipes that I don’t make modifications to. I kept the cake recipe the same, even leaving in the pecans. There are two camps in the “nut” baked good battle; some like the textural contrast of the nuts and some find it offensive and disharmonious. I added the pecans because: 1) I love pecans and 2) I had them in the apartment. My mother-in-law leaves them out and they taste just as good.

In this case, I took my mother-in-law’s recommendation and switched the original recipe’s frosting out for her tried-and-true and award-winning cream cheese frosting. I added in a few tablespoons of pumpkin puree leftover from the cake into the frosting and topped these with some cranberry orange relish, which I had already added a few tablespoons of to the batter.

You might think topping a cupcake with relish is crazy, but pumpkin and cranberry are both flavors that can go savory or sweet. This relish is more like a coulis and the tartness and brightness of the topping really do a great job to keep this treat from getting too heavy. You can even argue that this has fruit and vegetables in it–with cream cheese, it’s great for breakfast! Plus you know there’s going to be leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving.

Salad with Pickled Beets & Feta

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with Turnips 2 Tangerines. After trying out some apple cider garam masala pickled beets at my local farmer’s market, I decided to tweak Lynn’s recipe for pickled beets. Thankfully I was able to find pre-cooked and peeled beets, so this recipe was even easier!

I simply subbed out the vinegar for apple cider vinegar and the spices for garam masala. I used the pickling liquid to make a simple vinaigrette (1 tablespoon pickling liquid, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or to taste, dash salt and pepper, 1/4 teaspoon mustard).

The bitterness of the greens, saltiness of the cheese, and tang of the beets all go well together. The cider vinegar and spices keep the beets from tasting too “dirty”, but they still keep their earthiness.

I’ll have to go back to Turnips 2 Tangerines and look at the other recipes I was having trouble choosing from, including: Spicy Refrigerator Pickles, Surprise carrot cake, pear nut cake, and chocolate pecan coffee cake!

[inlinkz_linkup id=331784 mode=1 pageSize=4]

Marmalade & Pistachio Tea Cake

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with K&K Test Kitchen. One of my favorite things about the site is the design since the colors are so well coordinated and it is appealing to the eye. I am a web designer by day, so thats one of the first things I noticed.

This was another month where it was hard to choose just what recipe to make. I changed up my tactic this time and asked my fiancé to pick a recipe after I whittled it down to Healthy Spinach Dip, Artichoke Dip, Pistachio Marmalade Cake, or Cashew Chicken. Even though he picked spinach dip, I ended up making the cake. Next time I swear I’ll let him really choose!

I figured this would be a great opportunity to use some of my various jams in the refrigerator, as well as my cute gingham mini bundt cake liners from World Market. I did adapt this recipe to use what I had on hand, and it turned out no worse for it.

I had a lovely Japanese Quince jam gifted to me by my friend Stephanie that was just itching to be used in this. I have a problem when I get things that tast good. I actually don’t eat them. They’re so precious to me I always save them for later, but then they end up getting thrown away! I wasn’t going to let that happen to this jam, so I whipped 2 mini cakes up and sent her one as part of a care package.

You can substitute the cider for any juice (orange juice is the original). I also substituted the cornmeal with almond meal, and replaced the orange marmalade with quince jam. I also mixed the pistachios with some chai sugar I picked up at Mitsuwa on a recent trip to New York to echo the cardamom in the mix.

The texture of the cake was a bit crumbly and the bottom was a little overdone (the middle wouldn’t cook all the way). I don’t think this is due to the substitutions since this same issue was noted on K&K Test Kitchen. In the future, I would recommend bumping the cooking temperature to 325 so that none of it overcooks.

Since the cake itself that was not adjacent to the topping was a bit bland, I would definitely add more jam next time so that the flavor is more pronounced.

[inlinkz_linkup id=316354 mode=1 pageSize=4]

Grilled Barbeque Chicken Pizza

My second pair-up with The Secret Recipe Club is Traci from Burnt Apple. There were a few different recipes I was interested in, particularly the German Chocolate Cake Cookies or Bobby Flay’s German Chocolate Cake, but somehow I steered myself away from the sweets and landed on Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza.

This recipe is incredibly easy and adaptable. It is a great snack to whip up for the game(s) that are starting up this fall!

But, like Traci says, choose a barbeque sauce that you like because it is a major player on the palette. I had a pulled pork and bbq pizza yesterday at a local restaurant and the sauce killed the otherwise crunchy crust and gooey cheese.

[inlinkz_linkup id=310311 mode=1 pageSize=300]

Twice Baked Potatoes #SecretRecipeClub

Have you ever heard of The Secret Recipe Club? I found out about it through a few blogs that I follow and thought it was a very neat idea. The way I explain it to people is that it’s like Secret Santa. You get assigned a blog “buddy” and visit their blog to pick a recipe you want to re-create. Once you find a recipe from their blog, you make it, photograph it, and post it. Everyone reveals their assigned blog at the same time and date. It’s fun to go around to different blogs and see who had who. It’s also a great way for smaller blogs to reach out to a different or larger audience.

For my first SRC match-up I was paired with Sarah from Curious Cuisiniere. I was torn between a few different recipes that I wanted to make, but her Twice Cooked Broccoli Cheddar Potatoes called out to me. Baked potatoes are something that I rarely eat now that I’m an adult because I don’t want to heat up a whole oven for 2 potatoes. I had all the ingredients for this recipe in the house after I made some substitutions, including some potatoes that had been lingering in my crisper for far too long. I swapped the broccoli out for some green bell pepper and added some wasabi mayo, barbeque sauce, and breadcrumbs into the mix.

This recipe is easily adaptable and surprisingly filling. I ate 2 halves for dinner and was pretty satisfied. I re-heated one for leftovers and it was revitalized quite well after a minute in the microwave.

[inlinkz_linkup id=296637 mode=1 pageSize=300]

Hapa-tite

edible adventures & cultural explorations

Posted in Recipes