Pumpkin Ravioli

Ingredients:
8 Tbs unsalted butter
1 can pumpkin puree
2 cups heavy cream
1 bay leaf
2 Tbs fresh sage, minced plus extra leaves for sauce
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper
6 sheets of fresh pasta or wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten for egg was
1/4 cup flour for dusting
2 cups Vegetable stock
2 shallots or 1 small onion.

Directions:
1. Heat a medium saucepan over low heat and add 4 tbsp of butter. When butter is foamy, add pumpkin and add half of heavy cream and half the herbs, cook over low heat for approximately 30 minutes , or until puree is thick and the liquid has evaporated. Stir occasionally.
2. Whisk in the beaten eggs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool. (I put it in the fridge)
3. Lay out 3 sheets of pasta. Using a pastry bag or teaspoon, place 8 equal mounds of pumpkin puree on each sheet dough, about 2 inches apart. Brush around each mound with egg wash. Cover mounded dough sheets with second of pasta and press around mounds to seal the dough. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out the ravioli. Dust a with flour and place the ravioli on it.
4. If you don't have time or not brave enough for fresh pasta, like me, purchase some wonton wrappers. Place a small dollop of the pumpkin mixture, wet edges and seal with a fork.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil while you make the sauce.
6. To prepare the sauce, in a medium saucepan, add in the stock and shallots/onions and bring to a boil to reduce to 1/2 cup. Add remaining heavy cream and reduce by half.
7. Over low heat, whisk in remaining 4 tbsp butter, a little at a time. Strain the sauce into a clean saucepan and add remaining sage and thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Add ravioli to rapidly boiling water and cook for 4 to 5 minutes for fresh pasta or 2-3 minutes for wonton ravioli. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add ravioli to the sauce and bring just to a boil. Correct the seasonings.

Note: I didn't have unsalted butter so the salted butter did make this a little saucy. Also, I could have used a fresh pumpkin if I had the time. Also this made a lot more filling than I anticipated and ended up freezing some of it so I did not have 300 raviolis. The wontons were good but had the consistency of, well, wontons and not really pasta ravioli. With that being said, it was delicious. I ended up putting some extra leaves of whole sage in the sauce and that also was a nice touch. I am going to see if I can make it with fresh pasta next time...in my free time.

Curry Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded (3-4 lbs)
2 large onions, peeled and quartered
1 medium head garlic
2 cans vegetable broth or more depending on the consistency you want
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup plain yogurt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. Place squash halves and onion onto the prepared baking sheet. Wrap garlic in foil and set with other vegetables. Brush with olive oil and dash of salt and pepper.
3. Roast in the center of the oven for about 60 minutes, until the squash is tender. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
4. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skin like paste into a food processor. Scrape the flesh from the squash and place into the food processor along with the roasted onion. Puree until smooth. Add vegetable broth as necessary.
5. Transfer the pureed mixture to a stockpot and stir in any additional vegetable broth depending on how thick/thin you would like the soup. Season with the bay leaf, brown sugar, curry powder, oregano, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.
8. Remove bay leaf and serve hot.

Note: I didn't have a whole head of garlic so I just added some minced garlic to the food processor with the squash and onions. I also was having trouble making it smooth in the food processor so I used a blender and added cream instead of yogurt. I think I will try yogurt next time. What I did find with the cream is that it dulled the spices so I had to add more spices. Of course if you don't like curry, you don't have to add it in the first place.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 Cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

Whip all ingredients together in the mixture until stiff.

Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting:

Add to the above 1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder plus an additional 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated white sugar.

Raspberry Whipped Cream Frosting:

Add to the above 1/2 cup lightly sweetened raspberry puree or seedless raspberry jam.

This was FABULOUS! I was out of butter for my butter cream frosting and made this instead. It was incredibly light. The chocolate was absolutely amazing but didn't overpower the chocolate cupcakes I made. I will have to try the raspberry sometime and I am sure I could make any flavor with all the jams available to make other berry frosting flavors.

Hamentashen

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
variety of fillings

Directions
1. Beat eggs, add oil and mix. Add the sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Add the flour gradually and mix well. Don't overwork it though!
2. Refrigerate a few hours or overnight in a sealed container.
3. Kneed dough until it becomes soft enough to roll. Cut dough with three inch cup or three inch round cookie cutters. Put about 1 tablespoon of pie filling into the middle of each circle. Fold up the edges of the circle into the middle and pinch together.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 20 minutes.

NOTE: This was very tasty. Just make sure you roll the dough fairly thin and don't overstuff them. I had a few turn inside out and the filling on the sheet pan.

Pie Crust

Ingredients
1-½ cup Crisco (vegetable Shortening)
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1 whole Egg
5 Tablespoons Cold Water
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
1 teaspoon Salt

Preparation Instructions
In a large bowl, with a pastry cutter, gradually work the Crisco into the flour for about 3 or 4 minutes until it resembles a coarse meal. In a small bowl, beat an egg with a fork and then pour it into the flour/shortening mixture. Add 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
Separate the dough into thirds. Form 3 evenly sized balls of dough and place each dough into a large Ziploc bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (about ½ inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you will be using it immediately it’s still a good idea to put in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)

When you are ready to use the dough to make a crust, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for 15 minutes. On a floured surface roll the dough, starting at the center and working your way out. (Sprinkle some flour over top of the dough if it’s a bit too moist.) If the dough is sticking to the countertop use a metal spatula and carefully scrape it up and flip it over and continue rolling until it’s about ½ inch larger in diameter than your pie pan.

With a spatula, lift the dough carefully from the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the corner of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to make a clean edge.

Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients
2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup vegetable broth, chicken broth, or a packet of chicken seasoning
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
1 3/4 pounds ground beef
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
6 tablespoons stick margarine (so you can divide it easily)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup beef stock or broth
2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it
1/2 cup frozen peas, a couple of handfuls
1 teaspoon paprika

1 pie crust (optional)

Directions
Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Add 2-3 tablespoons of margarine and a splash of broth or chicken seasoning to potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth. Taste potatoes and add more broth/seasoning as necessary.

While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan with beef or lamb. Season meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes. If you are using lamb and the pan is fatty, spoon away some of the dripping. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worchester sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.
Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole or pie dish with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned. Top casserole dish with chopped parsley and serve.

Monkey Bread

Ingredients
4 small cans (usually sold as a 4 pack special) Buttermilk Biscuits (the Non-flaky Ones)
1 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons (to 3 Teaspoons) Cinnamon
2 sticks Butter
½ cups Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. (3 teaspoons of cinnamon gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons.) Dump these into a flat Tupperware container. Doesn't need to be huge but big enough to roll some dough around.

Open up one can at a time of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters. Roll the quarters in your hand into a sort of ball and drop into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Roll it around in the cinnamon-sugar mix to coat and drop into a bundt pan. After two cans are in the bundt pan, take a few spoons of your cinnamon-sugar mix and put a layer in the bundt pan. Finish remaining two cans of biscuits and spread another layer of your cinnamon-sugar mix.

At this point, you’re going to want to melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Cook butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the two become one. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep dark brown on top. When its finished cooking, remove it from the oven.

Allow it to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate.