Thursday, October 27, 2011

pumpkin eller pumpa

Pumpkin is on my mind. It's on my mind...a lot. I went on a wild goose chase the other weekend for canned pumpkin. Yea, that ended up as a nervous breakdown thinking ''how can I celebrate fall without pumpkin!?''. But as luck would have it, I have one of the best moms in the whole world. She is my pumpkin savor. Thank you, mom!
So I got off work early on Tuesday and decided to go all out. I boiled up some cider vinegar and plums, started on a pumpkin yeast dough, and started a pot of coffee. How did all of this end up...
Plum Pork Tenderloin
1 lb. pork tenderloin
1\2 c. apple cider vinegar
1\2 c. brown sugar
1\2 tsp. cinnamon
1\4 tsp. salt
1\4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1\8 tsp each ground cloves, cardamom and allspice
1 pork tenderloin (1 pound)
1\2 tsp. pepper
In a sauce pan bring pitted and halved plums and cider to a boil. Let simmer of medium heat for 10 minutes.
Take away from heat and let cool. Pour into a blender and pulse until smooth. Now you can either strain or leave it a bit chunky. Depends on how you like your sauce.
Place back into the pan and add brown sugar and all spices (except pepper). Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes occassionally stirring.
Place pork tenderloin in a crock pot or a pan and pour half of the sauce over and then sprinkle with pepper.
In a crock pot cook on low for about 2 hours occassionally basting. If in an oven bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.
Serve over rice with saved sauce.
Tastes just like fall!
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
1\3 c. milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1\2 c. canned pumpkin
2 Tbsp. sugar
1\4 tsp nutmeg
1 1\2 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1\2 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1 package dry yeast
2 c. flour
1\2 c. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. melted butter
In a small bowl, microwave milk and butter until luke warm.
In a large bowl combine, pumpkin, sugar, nutmet, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
Add milk mixture, then beat in egg and yeast.
Add half the flour and mix for 4-5 minutes. Add the rest of the flour.
Place sticky dough in a lightly greased bow and let rise until doubled. (What I do, because I don't have a large microwave, I pre heat the oven at about 100 degrees while I am preparing the dough, then turn it off and put the bowl in).
Once doubled, place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out in a 10x12 in. square.
Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
Roll from the long side.
I used fishing line to cut roll into 12 equal rolls. Super easy.
Place in a prepared 11x17 in. pan. and let almost double in size.
Once doubled bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
OMG, these are good. I love the orangey color and holy moly, they smell good from beginning to end!
Pumpkin spice coffee
I started with an entire mix of ''pumpkin milk''.
1. c milk
1\4 c. canned pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. all spice
2 tsp. pumpkin spice
3 Tbsp. sugar
1. tsp. vanilla
I brewed a very strong pot of pumpkin flavored coffee with cinnamon sprinkled ontop of the coffee grounds.
Poured into a glass and added about 3 Tbsp. pumpkin milk and topped off with whipped cream and a little sprinkle of nutmeg. Yea, I almost cried it tasted so good.
Last weekend we celebrated Fredrik's birthday and my birthday with Fred's family. What a wonderful family he has, and now, I have. They are fantastic, kind, fun, loving and just plain amazing. We received some really nice presents and had a really cozy time with them!
In Sweden it is very typical to make your own cake for your birthday. So I made my never fail vanilla cake with butter cream\cream cheese\whipped cream frosting. Yea, it's so good. Unfortunately my decorating skills aren't up to par at 7 am (when I woke up Saturday morning to decorate it). So it's a little bit pathetic, but hey, it tasted fantastic.
We also got to spend some time with Lukas and Agnes, which always make me happy!
I'm a sucker for their big blue eyes!

I also took pictures of logs. Swedish logs are everywhere right now, and they smell good!

This weekend I have no idea what Fred has planned for my birthday. But I am not allowed to make plans for Saturday night. So we will see! Turning 25 feels like a big deal and I don't know why. I guess because in Sweden it is sort of a ''big birthday''. They haven't had a ''big birthday'' since the 20th birthday (the drinking age here). So maybe that is why. But as one of my friends put it I will be ''a quarter of a century old''. Yikes!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

6 comments:

  1. At 25 you can rent a car in the U.S.A.

    And I also love me some pumpkin!!

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  2. P.S. This is also the age after which you actually will have to pause for second to remember how old you are...

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  3. Happy birthday! All your cooking/baking/coffee-making sounds yummy!

    Several years ago I started buying whole pumpkins and roasting them ... it's not really hard, but pumpkins are sure spendy around here!

    Tell me what you mean about pumpkin-flavored coffee (the actual brew) -- is that something you made yourself, or did you buy it?

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  4. Beverly-The pumpkin coffee is actually something my mom sent me ;) but I'm sure you could probably sprinkle pumpkin pie spice on regular coffee grounds and achieve a similar taste. :) I'm obsessed with pumpkin, to say the least. Haha. I would roast a pumpkin (I bought a medium size one at plantagen for 150kr, yikes) and I just didn't have the energy to roast it! Haha!

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  5. I made up a pumpkin spice coffee just now, and you're right, it's heavenly! Thanks for posting the how-to -- I would never have thought of putting actual pumpkin in coffee!

    The pork recipe also looks so good -- I don't really eat meat myself, but I'm sure my family would love it.

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  6. Your Mom is the best :)
    I love all the recipes and I am going to try them!
    Best Wishes for a wonderful birthday and may the next year be full of heart-warming experiences!

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