recipe 18: Starbucks pumpkin bread

Someone who knows how much I love Starbucks sent me a can of pumpkin and this recipe.

Starbucks pumpkin bread

1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground clove
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup canned pumpkin
¾ cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
¼ cup pumpkin seeds, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and 
salt, set aside. Beat eggs, sugars, and vanilla in large bowl on 
high speed for about 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients and mix. Add pumpkin and oil, mix. Pour batter into 
a greased loaf pan. Bake approximately 70 min. or until the top of the bread begins to brown. When the bread is cool, slice into approximately 1 inch slices. Serves 8.

Great flavor and very easy to make!

cards, wine, and I can't believe what I see

After I left the hospital, I walked over to the grocery store to buy a bottle of wine for a dinner party tomorrow night. I was early (alcohol isn’t sold until 10:30am), so I walked to the card store to buy birthday cards. Unfortunately the cards aren’t marked with prices, just codes. So yeah, $16 for two birthday cards ::rolling my eyes:: and they aren’t big or particularly fancy. I paid for the cards and headed back over to the grocery store. You couldn’t have imagined my surprise to find


That’s right, “I can’t believe it’s not Butter”. This is getting strange, I think someone from Tesco really is reading the blog. I might just start doing a weekly blog post of products I’d like them to carry ;)

tofu
Tide laundry detergent
Neutrogena sunscreen

free service? I don’t think so

My GP is out of town and I needed more blood work this week, so he’d given me a referral for the local hospital. I walked into the hospital to find antibacterial hand sanitizers lining the walls with information about H1N1 above them. I know that the government is taking the swine flu very seriously over here, but I wasn’t expecting that everyone who enters the hospital would have to use hand sanitizer. Anyway, hope it works.

The lab area kind of reminded of a post office or department of motor vehicles in the U.S. You take a number and when the number is displayed, you enter the lab. Seems efficient. The woman who took the blood was very friendly, quick, and she only took one vial. Yay! Then things got interesting. I asked where I should go to pay and she said it was a free service. I told her that I wasn’t Irish. She still claimed that it was a “free service”. I about fell out of the chair. Our health insurance doesn’t offer infertility coverage, so there is no way a blood draw is free, particularly in another country. I told her I was sure I needed to pay the hospital, again she said it was a free service. I’ll definitely be following up on this one because I guarantee, I owe somebody some cash.

recipe 17: healthy sautéed spinach

Another great and really easy recipe from the “Nordstrom Entertaining At Home” cookbook.


healthy sautéed spinach

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 bunches spinach
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic, stir frequently for about 1 minute. Add the wine, raise the heat to medium-high and cook until the wine evaporates. Add the broth, cook until nearly evaporated, 3-4 minutes. Add the spinach and stir, tossing to coat with the liquid and garlic, about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, serve immediately.

We had it with Northwest salmon and mashed potatoes. We thought it was delicious and it will be in regular rotation on our menu.

The Dublin Horse Show starts tomorrow

Dublin is proving to be a wonderful place for me to indulge in all of my hobbies. First the Volvo Regatta, now a horse show!

The Dublin Horse Show runs Aug 5-9 at the RDS. I had planned to attend all five days, but even the general admission tickets are a little pricy, so I think I’ll just go one day and buy good seats in the main arena. Should be a great time!

For more information http://www.dublinhorseshow.com/

PS- To my parents, I know I didn’t say it often enough, thank you for buying Sweet William for me, and paying for the years of riding lessons, stable fees, and other misc. horse related expenses. To my friend who will remain nameless in blog land, thank you for sharing your horse with me in Germany and Belarus. I hope you will visit next summer so we can attend the horse show together :)

insanity, shopping related

Nothing shouts insanity like a €15 shipping charge on a €20 item that weighs about 10 ounces and is 10 miles away from my house. I guess I’ll take the DART and pick it up myself (there's no parking anywhere near the store).

A grocery store in the area has a small display of American items (stuffing, Poptarts, cookies, pancake mix, things like that). While I’m generally not a fan of processed foods, I was quite pleased to see the familiar looking box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (hey, I haven’t been in the U.S. in almost a year). I was contemplating the purchase when I looked down at the price, €4.95. In the States this stuff sells for what, 80 cents, $1? Needless to say I didn’t buy the macaroni & cheese; my body and my bank account thank me. I came home and did the conversion, $7.12 for a box of pasta and a pouch of dried, processed cheese, no thanks.

recipe 16: roasted sweet potatoes with cumin and cilantro

I recently planted cilantro in my herb garden, so I decided to make this recipe as a side for our homemade veggie burgers. This recipe is another great one from the “Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking” book.


roasted sweet potatoes with cumin and cilantro

2 sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat the oven to 400F/ 200C. Cut the potatoes lengthwise into slices ½ inch thick. Stack half of the slices and cut lengthwise into strips ½ inches wide. Repeat with the remaining slices. Rinse the strips with cold water and dry with a kitchen towel or paper towel.

Place the potatoes in a bowl, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with cumin, toss to coat. Preheat a nonstick pan in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the hot baking sheet. Roast the potatoes, turning every 10 minutes, until evenly browned and tender when pierced with a knife, 30-35 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes to a serving dish, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt, a grind of pepper, and cilantro. Toss gently to coat.

I baked them for 45 minutes hoping that they would crisp up, but they were still a bit soft. However, the flavor was great and I will be making them again!