Spiced Pumpkin Gingerbread Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Caramel Drizzle

I have been working on using up all the leftover bits and pieces out of my fridge.  I had an open can of pumpkin pie filling that I needed to use up, but I was not wanting to make a pumpkin pie.  I have been thinking about coffee cakes for the last day or so, and this is the result!  It is super moist and wonderfully flavoured with classic gingerbread cookie spices.  Plus the cinnamon caramel drizzle just sends it over the top!!  Plus, I figured it was a bonus that the kids really liked it (I didn't mention the pumpkin haha!).

Ingredients:

1 generous cup pumpkin pie filling

1 egg

3 tbsp oil

1 tsp vanilla

2.5 cups flour

1 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cardamom

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large mixing bowl, blend together pie filling, egg, oil, and vanilla.

2. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl until fully combined.  Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.

3. In a small bowl, blend sour cream and baking soda together well.  Mixture will begin to expand.  Add half of this mixture to the pie filling mixture and blend well.  Add the remaining dry ingredients and blend, then add the remaining sour cream mixture and blend until everything is fully incorporated.

4. Grease and flour bundt pan.  Fill the pan with mixture and place in the centre of the oven.  Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into coffee cake comes out clean.  

5. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then insert over drying rack to cool further -or- place directly onto serving plate if serving warm.  Pour 1/2 cup cinnamon caramel sauce over top of coffee cake.  Reserve other 1/2 cup for drizzling over individual servings.  Enjoy!!

For cinnamon caramel sauce:

In small saucepan over medium heat, melt 1/2 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Whisking the whole time, cook until bubbly then cook 2 more minutes.  Slowly add 1/4 cup milk and keep whisking.  Cook until sauce is smooth and all sugar granules have dissolved.  Yum!

Yield: just over 1 cup sauce.

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Piña Colada Smoothie

After a green Christmas and a green New Year’s, our weather has finally decided to be normal and bring on some snow.  Hubby is outside shoveling for the second time today, and I am sure it is going to be all hands-on-deck shoveling in the morning if the weather channel is right.  So I guess that means a 50-50 chance, right? Ha ha!

Even though it is the middle of winter, I wanted to feel a bit of summer today and, as such, decided to whip up a smoothie reminiscent of hot summer nights!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 banana

1/2 cup pineapple

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup coconut milk

6 ice cubes

DIRECTIONS

Pulse in a blender until ice is crushed.  Super yummy!

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Turkey Stuffing Recipe

Ingredients:

Day old bread, cut or ripped into bite size pieces (1 loaf for chicken, up to 2 for turkey)

Butter, all but 2 TBSP melted (1/2-3/4 cup for a chicken, 1+ cup for a turkey)

Onions, chopped (1 for chicken, 2 for turkey)

Celery, chopped (1 stalk for chicken, 2 for turkey)

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Salt & pepper to taste

Extras:

Fresh or dried cranberries

Diced apples

Raisins

Diced carrots

Nuts

Directions:

1. Place bread pieces in a large bowl and drizzle with butter.  Pour 1/4 of the butter over the bread and stir to mix.  Repeat 3 more times.  This ensures all the bread gets evenly coated.

2. Mix in the celery and onions.  Add any extras as well.  It should be smelling good already!

3. Add in 1 TBSP each of the herbs.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper as well.  

Mix until everything is well blended.  Take a little taste and adjust herbs as desired.

4. Make sure the bird is cleaned out.  The chest cavity should be empty.  

Stuff the stuffing mixture into the cavity and don't be shy about pressing it in!  

Extra stuffing can go in the other end where the neck was.  

5. Tie up the legs and wings if desired (I didn't) and place bird in a roasting pan.  Rub all over with remaining soft butter.  Bake!

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Lavender Vanilla Laundry Detergent

INGREDIENTS

1 bar organic lavender castile soap, grated

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

10 drops vanilla essential oil

DIRECTIONS

1. On the stove, place 4 cups hot water in large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in grated soap.  

I used Dr. Bronner's Organic Magic Soap in Lavender. 

 

image source

2. Stir gently until soap has dissolved.  Remove from heat.  (Note: I used a wooden spoon but I should have used a plastic one.  The wooden one absorbs too much so it has now found a new home in the garbage can.)

  

3. Add washing soda and borax to soap-water mixture.  

Stir until powders have dissolved and there are no clumps left.  The texture is like medium thickness gravy.  Haha, not too watery and not so thick that it can stand alone.

Cool slightly, then blend in vanilla essential oil completely.  (I left mine to make some phone calls, and it had gelled a lot before I got back to it and left lots of clumps {see below}.  I added the essential oil, gently reheated it, and the mixture went back to the smooth texture shown in the picture above.)

4. Pour 3 gallons warm water into a clean, large plastic bucket.  Use a 5 gallon bucket if you have one.  I didn't so this 4 gallon storage bin is doing double duty for me!

Add soap mixture and mix thoroughly.  Fill to the top with water.  Cover and let sit for 24 hours. 

5. Fill your containers with your fabulous new laundry soap!  I like my clothes extra clean smelling, so I use 1/2 cup (top load washer) per load, or 1 cup per load for hubby's stinky work clothes.  I used to have to wash his work clothes twice but I haven't had to with this recipe.  Plus it has been gentle on my skin and I have noticed that I have less skin irritation with this detergent than with others.  Also, I was a bit apprehensive using this as I was unsure as to whether or not my whites would become dingy, but I am happy to report that they are still bright!

The soap may gel and clump a bit, so give it a good shake before pouring.  There still may be some clumps but they have always dissolved completely in the wash for me.

(Note: some recipes like this call for an extra dilution ratio of 2:1 which will result in 8-10 gallons of laundry soap.  I didn't want to dilute that much so I left my soap as is with 4 gallons, still a hefty amount!)

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