recipe | Adventures in Thyme

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Ah the humble pumpkin, the herald of the “holidays” – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. When Starbucks updates their Fall menu to “Pumpkin Spice Latte” we know its time to kiss our diets a fond farewell and dive into pumpkiny indulgence in all its many forms. Gather together pilgrims, it’s time to sing the praises of squash. Can we get an amen! Our ode to the season is this delicious Pumpkin Bread Pudding. So easy, so delicious, you’ll love it as much as we do.

2 loaves pumpkin bread (we used the Krusteaz mix you can get in the store for the holidays)
8 eggs
4 cups goat milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1.2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Cut the pumpkin bread into 3/4 to 1 inch cubes and place into the 9 x 13 baking dish.

Lightly beat the 8 eggs and whisk together with the 4 cups of milk, the spices and vanilla. Carefully ladle or spoon the mixture over the bread. Let the bread and custard mixture stand for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the bread pudding into your oven on the middle rack and back for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the custard is done. Place on a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or place it in your refrigerator to serve tomorrow. You can warm it or serve it cold.

To serve, cut into portions and drizzle with caramel sauce and top with whipped cream. There is a good, easy caramel sauce on the Food Network website, here.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving, may you see the many blessings of this life everywhere you look.

Beef Stroganoff

To quote the Bard “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet”. I would argue the same could be said of well known recipes.

History pegs this dish as either hitting the culinary scene in the late 1800’s or later in the 1900’s. It’s made with sour cream (or not), onions or mushrooms (or not), and sometime tomato paste – not!

Our humble version has little in common with the modern version and more akin to the one noted in a Russian cookbook of 1861. With an eye towards not inflaming the delicate constitution of our home’s inhabitants, our stroganoff began with strips of beef lightly fried (no flour) and then placed into a crockpot set on low for six hours. The beef was then left to have a “spa day” in a mixture of Burgundy wine and beef stock, one packet of Beefy Onion soup and a tub of Tofutti imitation Sour Cream. The herbs we used were Rosemary, Thyme and some Savory, all crushed into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle.

It’s up to you what carbohydrate delivers the creamy goodness to your tastebuds – rice, pasta, baked potato or a humble slice of buttered bread. On a lazy Fall day, this is the perfect recipe to kick back and enjoy a slow cooked meal.