Archive for the ‘Baking’ Category

Who Doesn’t Love Pumpkins? New Pumpkin Cookbook Features Amazing Art Quilts!

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

cover of Pumpkin, Pumpkin

This is the cover of the new cookbook, Pumpkin, Pumpkin: Folklore, History, Planting Care, and Good Eating, just published by Anne Copeland of Lomita, California

Truly, this is the most amazing cookbook I have ever seen! Throughout the 129 pages you’ll delight in the beautiful photos and art quilts, all related to pumpkins, shared by Anne’s fiber artist friends from around the country and around the world. The book is an international effort!

Anne Copeland is interested in so many areas of life, it is hard to keep up with her. She holds a university degree in Archaeology with a minor in English. She is a freelance writer and researcher, and a certified appraiser of quilted textiles. She has done much to promote art quilting in southern California and is a fiber artist herself. Her “day job” consists of teaching special needs children, as a paraeducator in California. She loves animals and has even worked for a veterinarian!

Annie Copeland

Annie Copeland, the author

Moreover, Anne loves the color Orange, and everything about pumpkins, including their shape and texture. She says that she takes a lot of time in choosing just the right ones to buy that will please her aesthetically. She lets virtually none of the pumpkin go to waste, even saving the seeds, piercing them with a needle, drying them, and adding them as components of necklaces. She is so frugal, and caring about the environment, one could mistake her for a Yankee!

pumpkin carvings by James Gorham 2008

Anne is not the only one who loves pumpkins. My son, James Gorham, has enjoyed carving pumpkins since he was a teenager. This photo is in front of his house, 2008.

This current venture, a Pumpkin cookbook, has been many years in the making and reaches far beyond just offering recipes. The history of the pumpkin is explored as well as the folklore and traditions surrounding pumpkins. She describes the various names of different pumpkins and the sizes to which they grow. She discusses their nutritional value, reveals how to store them in various ways and how to prepare them. Only then does Annie offer an array of mouth-watering recipes from soups, salads, breads, biscuits, sauces, condiments, drinks, baked goods, and more!

Patrick-size pumpkin

My grandson, Patrick, loves pumpkins, too. Here he is shown in 2008, picking out a “Patrick-size pumpkin.”

This wonderful cookbook can be downloaded from Kindle, in which case, I don’t believe the photos will be in color. My suggestion is to order the slightly more expensive CD that will be mailed to you, via snail mail. We printed out the pdf format of the book and bound the top of it with a coil. The pdf format tells you the page you are currently viewing, at the top of your computer screen.

There are 129 pages, and we printed the book, single-sided, and laminated the covers. To keep the ink jet colors from running, we plan to cover the pages with a piece of heavy plastic that has weights on two opposite ends and is see-through. I will have to investigate who carries the product. We have had ours for years. Check your local cooking stores.

Last year, we went to the Pumpkin Festival in Jackson, NH. There are photos of Pumpkin Head people, elsewhere on this blog!

For more information about ordering this book that you didn’t know you needed until you saw it … go to Anne Copeland’s blog. There, you will see more ordering details and a Paypal button. I guarantee you that you won’t be sorry!

Autumn is a great time of year, here in New England, and part of our delight is in seeing pumpkins growing in fields, and piled up after the harvest. Anne Copeland has created a one-of-a-kind pumpkin cookbook that is unequaled! Do yourself a favor. Order it today! The beauty of an e-book is that it can be printed, one page at a time, if desired! To contact the author directly, please write to: anneappraiser@yahoo.com

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

That Marvelous Treat Called “Stollen”

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

While growing up, I always looked forward to my mother’s baking of the traditional Austrian sweetbread called “Stollen.” At Christmastime and at Easter, she would prepare this treat that takes hours to process. This afternoon, it being a snowy day, just two days after Christmas, I decided to bake. The recipe for Stollen has been on our website forever, it seems, but until a few minutes ago, there was no photo. Thanks to Jim, you can see my Stollen.
Pat's Stollen baking project - 2007

To learn how to make Stollen, visit the Recipe section of our website, or click on the link in this sentence. From our house to yours, enjoy!

Patricia Cummings

The Coconut Cake: A Catch 22

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

For holiday occasions, my dear sainted and departed mother would make a Coconut Cake. This delightful confection would consist of a white layer cake separated by apricot or strawberry or raspberry jam, and would be covered with a delectable butter cream frosting. To the top of the cake, she would add coconut flakes, and appropriate sprinkles of green and red colored sugar crystals, for Christmas, or chocolate sprinkles for Easter.

She would lure us to her home with the promise of a piece of this cake, and that is where the Catch 22 would come in. After we would eat one generous portion of the cake, she would ask if we would like another. If I said, “Yes, please,” she would retort, “Patti, you are just falling away to a ton, but if you want to be fat, I guess that is your business!” If I said, “No, thanks,” she would respond, “What’s the matter, you didn’t like my cake? What, are you sick?”

With my mother, one could never win the game.

For those who think it is a deficient moral character to want a second piece of cake, I say this: I am a bonafide member of the Clean Plate Club. In addition, I would rather die happy than to sit around a nursing home in my nineties, slowly slipping away.

While my husband thrives on eating hot, spicy foods, I have always gravitated toward sweet things…which is probably why I like him so much!

Now, that I have shared this intimate tale of entangling family alliances, I think that I’ll go check my fridge, on the off chance that I might still have some coconut lurking in the crisper box. Old habits are hard to break.
Enjoy the holidays, and remember that the word “diet” is a four letter word!

Patricia


 

Stollen: A Holiday Treat

Thursday, December 7th, 2006


 

One of my fondest memories of the winter holidays is the smell of loaves of Stollen baking in my mother’s oven. Stollen is a type of sweet bread that has raisins and candied fruits, and when it is cool enough, the loaves are drizzled with an icing made with confectioner’s sugar.

While the family recipe was always very tasty, a few years ago, I adapted it a little bit so that it would be more moist. Making this traditional German bread is a labor of love, like so many of the other goodies that we might have this time of the year…such as cut-out Christmas cookies.

There is a recipe for Stollen on our website. Many people have already downloaded it, but I just wanted to remind you that it is there.

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/ChristmasFruitStollen.htm

The other item that my mother always made was fruitcake. To make her fruitcakes, she would macerate the candied fruit in rum for a month to six weeks ahead of time. I didn’t care for the boozey flavor, but I do like the crunchiness of the pecans and other nuts, etc. in fruitcakes that are a purchased item.

You might have heard the saying, “Friends don’t give friends fruitcakes.” However, I know people who really like fruitcake. I particularly enjoy the fruitcakes sold by Collins Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. No, that’s not an ad, and I have no affiliation with the company, other than making them a little more successful. Every year, I usually buy a fruitcake for our family. When I am able to do so, I send some as gifts.

This year, the grocery shopper in our family has already picked up the ingredients for Stollen. Sometimes, if one waits too long, the store are sold out of candied cherries and such. I am so looking forward to baking that delicious yeast bread. I know there will be a certain comfort in partaking of it, as it is an age old tradition that reached back to my maternal family’s roots in Austria. My mother was fond of serving Stollen with tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. Enjoy!

Patricia

New Cookie Recipe Added to Website

Sunday, December 3rd, 2006


 

I have just added a recipe for Molasses Raisin Cookies to our website. I really like these cookies as I have chosen to use butter, a more healthy alternative to transfats/shortening. They are lightly spiced, and smell wonderful while baking. I bet you can’t eat just one! Enjoy!

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/molasses-raisin-cookies.htm

Patricia