Pumpkin, Bean, and Chicken Enchiladas

Yes, it's only September 5th and it's still hot outside in Tennessee, but I'm pretty ready for fall. Ready to pull out the colorful leaf wreaths and buy some funky pumpkins and drink some chai tea. Oh, and try new pumpkin recipes! Yes, please.

This is a different sort of pumpkin recipe than I usually try - it's a savory one. And I loved it! It messed with my husband's mind a bit ("I keep wanting it to be sweet!") but it was a total win for me. It's a pretty healthy recipe, too, though I added a bit more cheese and salt than the original recipe called for. I mean, you want it to taste good, right? ;)

Oh, and don't be looking for "pumpkin beans" at your farmer's market like my mom's cousin was going to do. It's pumpkin comma bean. =)

Pumpkin, Bean, and Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted from Ladies' Home Journal Family Favorites Volume 6
Makes 4 servings
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2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped onion (1 medium onion)
1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (optional - I left this out and added more chili powder)
1 15-oz. can pumpkin
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 c. water
1 tsp. chili powder (use more if not using jalapeno)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt (may need to taste and add more)
1 c. red kidney beans, drained
1 1/2 c. chopped or shredded cooked chicken breast
1 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
8 6-in white corn tortillas, softened
Pico de gallo or salsa (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add onion and jalapeno, if using; saute' until tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir in pumpkin and add 1 1/2 c. of water. Cook and stir in chili powder, cumin, and salt. If needed, add more water to reach desired consistency.

Soften tortillas in the microwave between paper towels - or heat them individually in a nonstick pan. My tortillas were already soft and extremely pliable, which made them become too soft when the enchiladas were cooked, so I found it necessary to heat them a pan to crisp them up slightly.

In a large bowl, slightly mash the beans. Stir in half of the pumpkin mixture, the cooked chicken, and 1/2 c. of the cheese. Spoon a generous 1/3 c. of the bean mixture onto each tortilla. Roll them up and place them seam side down in the prepared dish. Pour the remaining pumpkin mixture over the tortilla roll-ups.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 c. cheese. Bake 10 more minutes, making sure that cheese is melted. If desired, serve with pico de gallo. (A quick pico de gallo is made with equal parts chopped tomatoes and onions - I used green onions for this recipe. Add jalapeno, or not - I didn't this time. Throw in some chopped cilantro and sprinkle with salt and lime juice. Easy and flavorful!)

Cranberry Pecan Pie

I haven't blogged in sooo long, but I just had to put this very excellent recipe out into the universe on this day before Thanksgiving. Those of you who are last-minute internet recipe gatherers need look no further. ;) But truly, it's a great Christmas recipe, too. Great for gifts, great for freezing! Honestly, it's super easy, just like a traditional pecan pie...except there's something better here. It's prettied up by the addition of fresh cranberries, becoming ever-so-festive - and the tartness is perfect. Because isn't regular pecan pie a little too sweet anyway? This adaptation just *works.*

I've made this pie many, many times over the last few years (I've even sold some) - and given out the recipe many, many times, too. Make it. You're gonna love it.

P.S. I always make a homemade pie crust, except for this one time last week when I was a little under the weather and decided to buy a pre-made one, as evidenced by the pictures in this post. But, seriously, my pie crust recipe is super easy and totally worth about 15 extra minutes of time to make it. I'm sharing it below, too.

Cranberry Pecan Pie
Slightly adapted from Taste of Home magazine
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3 eggs
1 c. corn syrup
2/3 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. fresh (or frozen) cranberries
1 c. halved (or chopped) pecans
pinch of salt
deep-dish unbaked pie crust (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Wash the cranberries and pat them dry. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, and vanilla - add the melted butter. Stir in the cranberries and pecans and pour into an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 30-40 minutes longer or until filling is *almost* set. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight before slicing.



Easy Oil Pastry
Adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook
Makes one deep-dish pie crust
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2 2/3 c. all-purpose flour*
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. canola oil
4-5 Tbsp. cold water

Measure flour and salt into a medium bowl. Add oil and mix until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, mixing until flour is moistened and dough almost cleans the side of the bowl. Press dough into a ball.

I don't roll out this dough - I just press it into the pie plate. (If you're using this dough for a different recipe that calls for a baked pie crust, just prick the crust all over with a fork and bake it at 475 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.) For this cranberry pecan pie, though, just press (or roll out, if you prefer) the dough, then pour the filling into it, and continue following the baking instructions above.

*From years of testing, I have decided that I prefer to use a mixture of White Lily flour and King Arthur flour (about half and half). I adore the lightness and taste of White Lily (it's my favorite flour) but the crust will be extremely crumbly. King Arthur gives it some needed togetherness. If this conversation seems somewhat fussy to you, I give you full permission to use whatever all-purpose flour you desire. ;)

Autumnal Cheer: The Recipes

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I know it's "officially" O.K. to start celebrating Christmas, but here I am with a straggler. One more Autumnal Cheer post. To be fair, I had it almost ready to go the day before Thanksgiving, but Blogger was acting all crazy and throwing up an error message over and over again, so I finally had to quit. By the way, that's why this post may have a different font or funky spacing. Copying and pasting from a Word document seems to do that and won't ever let me fix it properly. Anyone know how to keep this from being such an annoying problem?? Also, one more thing - I alllmost had this post ready to publish yesterday and Blogger started giving me an error message again. It didn't save my last few changes and it wouldn't let me even log in anymore until this morning! Are any others of you having the same problem? Help!

Enjoy one last hurrah with the autumn flavors, everyone! You can still cook/bake some of these things even when the twinkly lights are up...


(Here's where the post was supposed to start)

When the weather starts turning cooler and the leaves start to fall, I gather up my autumn candles (the three-wick Pumpkin Spice one from Wal-Mart is my favorite. Thanks to my friend Kevin, who introduced us about five years ago) and pull out my scarves...and dream of pumpkin-flavored things. And food spiced with cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg and cloves. Delicious, right? Ahhh...

We've already talked about Chai tea, which definitely falls into this category, but I just can't believe that I've waited until the day before Thanksgiving to pass along some actual recipes! In the future, I will try to do better. I promise.

Since today is the day before Thanksgiving, spare time is especially spare, so if nothing else, I wanted to give you the links to several recipes that I tried and enjoyed this season. 

One of the very first cooking blogs I began to follow was Joy the Baker. I've tried quite a few of her recipes and I've always been pleased with them. The first fallish recipe I made this year was her Chewy Ginger Chocolate Cookies. I had previously been unsure about ginger and chocolate together, but I'd heard of the combination several times recently and was intrigued. Let me say that I'm unsure no longer. Chocolate is an excellent foil for ginger! 

Jeremy and both loooove sweet potato fries - and truly, I make these year-round, no matter the season. But now is a good time to share them with you. The seasoning on these is fantastic and the baked fries are actually crispy (if you don't crowd the pan) since the instructions say to heat up the baking sheet before you put the fries on to cook. Now, I will warn you - we don't do the curry mayo dipping sauce. I like curry, but Jeremy does not. Even I was not a fan of the sauce, though, so we drizzle honey on the top of the baked fries instead. Or do honey mustard dipping sauce. Completely yummy!


Speaking of yummy, you'll find lots of that on Tasty Kitchen in general. I totally enjoy dropping by to see what's new. The Pioneer Woman strikes again! ;)

There's a little Amish grocery store not far down the road from us and they have wonderful pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting. Dare I say that the recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Sweet Pea's Kitchen is even better than theirs?? I think the maple cinnamon cream cheese filling puts it over the top. You heard me. It's fantastic! I made this for an event not long ago and got three or four requests for the recipe. 

I first found Sweet Pea's Kitchen when I was searching for a sweet potato pancake recipe. I'd had sweet potato pancakes at the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg last year and thought they were the best pancakes EVER. Try them - they are light and fluffy and quite delicious!

And while I'm here, let me put a plug in for Sweet Pea's Kitchen. This girl is a prolific poster of delicious recipes! And pretty, pretty food photography. I don't know how she does it. And she's super nice - she's come to visit my blog after I posted on hers and left sweet comments here, too. The next recipe of hers that I'm planning to try is Pumpkin Cornbread because it sounds completely amazing. =)

Let me finish up with a crazy good recipe that I discovered at my mom's cousin Andrea's house last Thanksgiving. She served it as a side dish, but you could totally use as a dessert also. I'm planning to make it tomorrow. =) (Note: I did - and it was fantastic! Got several requests for this recipe, which - besides the report from my own tastebuds - it totally how I gauge a recipe's success.)

Cranberry Apple Crumble

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2 c. whole fresh cranberries, rinsed and patted dry

3 c. chopped golden delicious apples

2 Tbsp. flour

1 c. sugar

3 pkg. cinnamon spice instant oatmeal

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. melted butter

Combine apples and cranberries. Toss fruit in 2 Tbsp. flour; add sugar and stir. Pour fruit mixture into a 9x13 pan. Mix up topping and sprinkle onto fruit mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. If serving as dessert, this is wonderful topped with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Autumnal Cheer: Happy Anniversary to Us!

Dinner at The Olde Pink House - Savannah, GA

On the tails of a nice, relaxing vacation to historic Savannah, GA last week, we are now celebrating our second wedding anniversary today. Though, obviously, we've already been celebrating by vacationing last week to begin with. =) The week held many fun times and as always, we weren't ready to come home until that last plane ride from Charlotte to Nashville, in which both of us declared we were "done with planes" for awhile. Amen. I know that other fellow travel lovers can attest to this phenomenon. I'll be posting more about the vacation later...for now, I've got lots of cleaning and laundry-putting-away and surprise-planning to do before Jeremy gets home.

Anyway, Happy Second Anniversary to my sweet, funny husband! I truly cannot believe it's already been two years and that we've been together for three. Thank you for whisking me away to Savannah to celebrate. =)

Much love,
Kristen

Autumnal Cheer: Leaves, Mums, and Pumpkins

Sure, sure...those are the obvious ones and I didn't start out with them because they were so very obvious. But I get great pleasure out of seeing the colorful leaves, the blooming mums, and the plump orange (and green and white and striped!) pumpkins so they were a MUST to include in my "Autumnal Cheer" posts. One of my very favorite moments of autumn each year is seeing the results from a gust of wind gently scattering some leaves through the air. It's especially fun to drive along a winding, tree-lined road during the fall. Agreed? That's what I thought. That's why you're here, right? We're on the same wavelength.

Jeremy knows I love mums and he surprised me with a pot of yellow ones at the beginning of the season. It was happy. =) I recently bought some yellowish-orangeish-reddish ones at Wal-mart for $3.33 each. They were a good size and the colors together are amazing! I just couldn't pass them up.

When did those cute white pumpkins start popping up? I don't remember seeing them when I was growing up, but we used quite a few of them in our wedding and reception decor two years ago. And I just can't resist a funky green and white striped one! Incredibly fun to mix and match all of the colors together. And with Halloween coming up this weekend, I'm facing the same conundrum I have to face every single autumn. Do I carve them? Or do I let them be? If I dooon't carve them, they'll stay pretty for the rest of the season - and it's still fall, all the way through November. Last year we carved two nice-sized orange ones on Halloween night. I hadn't carved a pumpkin in years (if you read between the lines, there's the usual answer to my conundrum) and I cannot lie...it was difficult and messy, but so much fun! We may carve a couple more sometime this week and keep the rest to sit pretty on our porch.

We love pumpkins so much, I have to show you something. 

This is our front yard. 

It takes HOURS but it's totally worth it. Or I'm just kidding about the whole thing. Hmmm...which is it?

Well, we do love pumpkins. But we don't love them quite that much. This incredible display is found at the UT Agricultural Center in Jackson, TN. It's different every year and always very over-the-top and very, very cool.

Back to our house, though...In addition to the regular natural decorations that grace the outside of our house, I must always bring the autumn inside, too. 

Those pictures are actually from last year. I am just noticing that I never do exactly the same display on our mantle or our table. But I haven't taken pictures in our house yet this year, so you'll just have to trust me on that one. 

Get out and enjoy the falling leaves today! Happy Autumn!

Autumnal Cheer: NaNoWriMo

I first discovered the wonder of National Novel Writing Month (lovingly shortened to NaNoWriMo) back four or five years ago. Wait, four. Here's how I know. I found out about it riiight as it was about to start and I didn't have a computer so I couldn't really participate. Sigh! And then I was ALL SET to participate the next year and then ended up being "introduced" to Jeremy on Facebook at the end of October three years ago. And though I started my novel, I actually spent all my spare novel-writing time in November writing to Future Husband instead. Which I do not regret at all. =) Then we got married the next November. So, with wedding planning, honeymooning, moving into a new place, and getting ready for Christmas, well, that novel-writing business had to fall by the wayside.

Because, look, it's no joke. These crazy people found out that you can write a whole novel in a MONTH. But there's no dilly-dallying around, man. Well, they do have a place on their website called Procrastination Station, but still. If you haven't tried it and you like to write, you should TRY IT. I've started it three times, I think, and didn't get all that far, but I was fired up about it each time! I was absolutely swept away by the idea and their website. It's totally amusing and many times, laugh-out-loud funny. You must read the information about it (What is NaNoWriMo? and How It Works) - oh, and the intriguing History. Here's the link to the main page of the website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Have you written any bits of November novels? Have any of you actually finished one? I'd love to hear about it. =)

Autumnal Cheer: Chai Tea

Before the sumac starts turning red and the first pumpkins are spotted for sale on the side of the road, this girl longs for autumn. Not simply because of the sweet relief it brings from the stifling summer humidity, though, that's a large part of it...but because of an exceedingly large amount of small pleasures that the season brings. I could write my longest post yet about my love of all things autumnal (small pleasure number one = the word "autumnal") because there is so much material. I have discovered that I'm not the only one. Yes, if you wax poetic about your love of fall in your Facebook status, I will be clicking the "Like" button. There's an enormous amount of people who adore autumn and I revel in the shared anticipation and, finally, the actual beginning of the season.

I have made the executive decision that instead of one loooong post which would define "verbose," I'll be making many short posts on the small pleasures of autumn. The first of which will deal with my way of summoning the season while it was blatantly summertime. It was stubborn but it must have worked. I have a feeling that God delights in seasonal changes that bring us so much pleasure.

Alright, I have to admit that I started my ritual of drinking hot chai tea every morning while it was still...gasp...very, very hot outside. There is such a thing as air conditioning, so the experience was entirely doable. Try not to freak out. If you've never tried chai tea...well, you must. Unless you don't like gingerbread or pumpkin pie spice or other marvelous things like that. There are some people who don't, you know. But I don't know any of them. Probably because they'd be too afraid to admit it to me; I can be very opinionated when it comes to tea and also, things that make my tastebuds rejoice. Especially my autumnal tastebuds. Which brings us back to chai tea. It's a black tea with ginger and cardamom and other spices. It's traditional to use half tea, half heated milk or cream to make this concoction. It turns out to be a very light-colored tea because of this major addition. And when you take a sip, you won't be able to deny that it tastes like fall. How happy is that? Very.

Of course, there are loose teas or chai tea bags you can use to great effect, but here lately, I have tried something new. Tazo tea has a boxed liquid chai tea - a chai tea concentrate - that is truly stunning. It has an excellent spicy taste, even more so that the loose tea I also frequent. It's already sweetened and you can drink it hot or iced. Both are equally good. Just add the milk or cream. Super simple. I believe I bought it at Target, but I think I've also seen it at the Wal-Mart.

Give it a whirl. And let me know what you think. =) And also, do you have any other favorite brands I should try? I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Autumn!
Kristen

An Ode to Kindergarten

I'm pretty sure it was never quite this hot each fall when I started school. I suppose it's a combination of the fact that we actually started school later in August back in the "good old days" (I think, right?) and the fact that it's consistently hotter outside now than I've ever remembered in my life. I mean, I've always known the summery feeling of climbing inside a hot car. A car that's been parked outside in the sun for awhile. It's hard to breathe because the air is so thick with heat. It's difficult to even touch the steering wheel for fear of getting burned. But this year seems so much worse. How is that even possible? I don't know, but the miserable heat is going to be super fun on the playgrounds, I'm sure. Bless their little hearts! They're going to have to have a snowcone truck parked outside and require two mandatory trips per play period.

Thoughts of school always come back each fall. There's no two ways about it. And I miss it, in a strange and wonderful way, each time. Jeremy and I have lots of little school-age friends and nieces/nephews, especially those going into kindergarten. And I've been alternating teaching/helping with the kindergarteners at church on Wednesday nights in the last few months. These kids heading to school all been on our minds a lot lately. We wonder how they'll react...how they will like it...what will be their favorite part(s)? And we think back to our own days of starting school.

My friend Ashley's daughter Ella is starting kindergarten...she's been praying all summer to get into the "castle room." A room with a huge castle inside it - where the children go inside to read their books. Tell me that doesn't sound awesome. Well, simply put, prayer works! She, lover of all things Disney princess-related, was thrilled to find out she had, indeed, been assigned to the teacher with the castle room.

By the way, this is the same Ella who was ecstatic to find out that they would be having music lessons. She said, "I've been wanting to learn to play the violin!!" =)

Ella's mom Ashley has been known, through the years, to say, "I smell kindergarten" at random moments. I think it's a mixture of aromas found in a kindergarten classroom that conjures up such a memory for her: crayons, markers, glue sticks, construction paper (wait, can you smell construction paper?) And it's a good memory. These kids heading to school now will, hopefully, have some wonderful memories of their own of kindergarten someday.

Here are a few of mine:

1. My teacher - Mrs. Cherry. Isn't that the perfect name for a kindergarten teacher? I still marvel at it. She was always very sweet and liked me. I did get in trouble once, though, because I was under one of the tables, trying to get the markers. Or something. Memory is very fuzzy on the details but somehow she reprimanded me and said I wouldn't get to go outside to play that day. I think she either forgot she said it...or maybe remembered how sweet and good I was 99% of the time and just decided to let it slide. ;) And I never got in trouble again! In kindergarten anyway. Not that I remember.

2. I remember my new friend Andrea (that I haven't seen in YEARS and I'm blanking on her last name) and at some point syncing my breathing with hers...we thought we'd always breathe exactly together from then on. Both of us are rocket scientists now, oddly enough.

3. My first crush was on this boy named Cam. He was never my little boyfriend, though. I was too shy. But I had chicken pox in kindergarten and Mrs. Cherry had everyone in the class draw me a get-well picture. I remember looking through them and looking at Cam's picture longer than everyone else's...

4. We had a Christmas play and I was a doll. I had long curls, so I guess that Mrs. Cherry thought I was perfect for the part. My grandma made my dress and pinafore. My cousin Beth was in a different class...I think she was an elf.

I've heard that our favorite little kindergartners are excited about school and are loving it so far. I've been excited and nervous for them. And for their moms, who report tears or almost-tears on their part.

May kindergarten bring the kind of good memories...of craft projects and reading castles and new friends and playtime...that they will think about fondly for years to come!