Easy as Pie Test Kitchen

Punkin' cake

Loyal reader Krista told me awhile back that she makes cake from a mix using pumpkin instead of the usual eggs and oil you are supposed to add. If you are a regular reader, you will know how much I LOVE pumpkin, so I jumped at the chance to try it out in a new and simple way. Basically, you combine a 15-ounce can of pumpkin with a box of cake mix, then follow the baking directions on the box. I did this with gluten-free vanilla cake mix, added a little nutmeg and cinnamon, and iced it with some dairy-free frosting (with almond milk instead of soy milk). Mmm... I ate a piece (Yes, even though I am not supposed to eat sugar. Then I took a nap. The sacrifices I must make for this blog!) Then left the remainder at home alone with my burly Alaskan husband. It was gone the next time I checked.

Have trouble finding cake mix? 1-2-3 Gluten Free will ship a variety of cake mixes that are friendly to all kinds of allergies. (They don't pay me to say that. They just make good cake mix.)

Thanksgiving is just around the corner

Are any of my readers allergic to turkey? Just curious. Here's the first in a series of Thanksgiving-y recipes to help you through the holiday. Not hosting? Volunteer to bring an allergy-friendly recipe of whatever is worst for your diet in its natural state.

One of the biggies, of course, is stuffing, what with its eggs and bread and everything. And it's such an essential part of the holiday meal. The sneaky thing about Thanksgiving food is that what makes it Thanksgiving-y isn't the main ingredients, but the spices. Think sage, nutmeg, cinnamon. Mmm... Are you getting that warm feeling in your tummy without even eating anything? If not, go take a whiff of the sage, nutmeg, and cinnamon from your spice rack. Then come back when you're *really* in the mood. Those are the essential ingredients for making something taste like down-home Thanksgiving. Bacon or sausage always helps, too, of course, but that's more of a general, year-round principle and not exclusive to Thanksgiving.

Here's my rice stuffing exploding from a chicken, since I didn't want to make a whole turkey quite this early. I have roasted game hens (tiny chickens) with rice stuffing in them, but I suspect it's too heavy to try cooking in the bird when you're using a turkey. You really don't need to put this in the oven at all, unless you want to heat it up right before eating. If you really want the look of it in the turkey, put it in afterward.

Cranberry Rice Stuffing

3 tablespoons oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 cups rice (I used brown rice)
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 cup wine
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried ground sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup cranberries

Heat the oil in a large pot. Brown the onion pieces in the oil. Add the rice and stir until it has soaked up the oil. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice has soaked up the wine. Throw in the cinnamon stick. Add the chicken broth, 1/2 cup at a time, waiting to add more until the rice has soaked up the last 1/2 cup. When you add the last 1/2 cup of broth, also add the sage, salt, walnuts, and cranberries. Serve hot, of course.

Extreme leftovers

I sometimes write about meals I've made with week-old vegetables. It's time for me to come clean. Sometimes they're even older than that. I have a personal rule that I think of as the "Little House on the Prairie Rule." If I can remember (or imagine) Laura Ingalls Wilder or her sister Mary fetching a piece of food from the root cellar in the winter, I figure it's probably okay to let it age awhile before I cook it.

Earlier this week, it was time to break out the butternut squash I bought in early September. (I won't say how early in September. I have to preserve SOME dignity, folks!) I bought it to make soup, but I made a lot of soup in September. In October, I've just been tired, and I've been nuking spaghetti squash and eating Jack-in-the-Box salad instead. (More on nuking spaghetti squash later. It's great.) I was finally feeling better, and up to the challenge of cutting up squash. Maybe aging helps, because it actually wasn't all that hard to cut. Here's the squash before I prepared it. It has a little character from being on my counter for, um, awhile:

I cut it open, and it seemed a little dry but mostly okay.

To roast:

I cut it in 1" cubes, put them on foil on a baking sheet, sprayed with cooking spray, and roasted at 450 for 25 minutes.

Then I whisked up a quick mustard sauce:

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

And drizzled it over the top. I love mustard with anything sweet.

It was not dry or tough or rotten tasting. In fact, it was very good. So eat old squash without (too much) fear, faithful readers!