Spiced Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

Dave DeWitt Leave a Comment

These muffins have all the ingredients you would find in a traditional Thanksgiving meal with the exception of one the Pilgrims never heard of–chile! With the availability of frozen cranberries and canned pumpkin, you can enjoy these tasty muffins anytime of the year–you don’t need to wait until the fall.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  • 3 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • ½ cup vegetable shortening

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin

  • ½ cup milk

  • 1 tablespoon habanero juice

  • 2 teaspoons orange zest

  • ½ cup cranberries, fresh or frozen, cut in half

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

In another large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the pumpkin and mix well.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the mixture and combine well. Add half of the milk and mix. Then add another third of the dry ingredients, and then the remainder of the milk, habanero, and the zest, and finish with the remainder of the dry ingredients.

Lightly oil a muffin pan and fill two-thirds full with the batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Cool the muffins on a rack before removing and serve them warm or at room temperature.

Creole Pumpkin Soup

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

Here is a classic Caribbean soup, as served at the Sandy Beach Resort. Be sure to use a mustard-based Bajan sauce such as Windmill or Lottie’s. Remember that pumpkin in the Caribbean is winter squash, such as hubbard.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1 medium onion, diced

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 2 medium carrots, diced

  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar

  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • 5 cups chicken stock

  • 5 cups chopped hubbard squash

  • 1/2 cup butter

  • 1 cup cream

  • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

  • 2 tablespoons Bajan hot sauce

Instructions

In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil and saute the onion, garlic, and carrots until the carrots are soft. Stir in the sugar and nutmeg.

Add the chicken stock and squash and cook until the squash is soft. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Return to the pot, add the butter, cream, lime juice, and hot sauce. Heat, stir well, and serve.

Harald and the Great Pumpkin

Dave DeWitt MyBlog Leave a Comment

Harald, our European editor, reports:  "I’m hugging a 396.4 kg (873 lb.) pumpkin, grown in Gluecksburg, northern Germany.  It was voted most beautiful this year, and 8th place for weight. That’s a lot of pumpkin soup, and a hell of a carving job for Halloween, which has become increasingly popular over here the past couple of years."    

Meet the New Porkers

Dave DeWitt BBQ, Grilling & Smoking, Meats for Grilling and Smoking, Pork Leave a Comment

By Gwyneth Doland Recipes: Braised Pork Shoulder with Tomatoes, Cumin, and Chipotle Chipotle- and Citrus-marinated Pork Tenderloin Posole A Guide to Today’s Pork, from Enhanced Meats to Heritage Breeds Pork isn’t what it used to be. Over the last 50 years, dramatic changes in farm practices and consumer demand have radically transformed the roasts in our supermarkets and the chops …

Pickled Peppers in Market

Best of the Balkans

Dave DeWitt Europe Leave a Comment

Story and Photos by Sharon Hudgins Balkan food is some of the most complex in Europe. Although firmly rooted in simple peasant cooking, the foods eaten in the Balkans reflect a wide variety of influences over a long period of time: geography and history, ethnicity and religion, wars and invasions, and new ingredients brought from other parts of the world, …