Toasted Pecans

  We've saved the simplest form of pecans for last.  The only thing you do to these babies is toast them in the oven.  While we had these at our Thanksgiving dinner, they are a perfect tasty snack throughout the holidays.  Think "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" except that they're pecans toasting in the oven.  Okay, so that analogy didn't quite work, but you get the point.  It makes your house smell cozy, inviting and as delicious as the pecans actually taste.

Toasted Pecans
provided by Sandy Cox
YEILDS: 4 cups

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups pecan halves
6 Tbsp. margarine or butter
3 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS:
Melt margarine and pour over pecans.  Sprinkle with salt, stir well.  Put pecans in shallow baking pan.  Put pan in preheated oven at 350°, then turn oven off.  Let pecans stay in oven until cooled.  Will not burn!

Sangria

  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we all know what that means:  family time.  Whether they are your family by blood or your family by marriage, time together is something to be treasured.  While cooking up the feast, you all might enjoy this tasty treat.  Easy to make, plenty to share, this sangria can be whipped up in no time from ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen and bar.

Sangria
recipe and pictures from Prudent Baby

INGREDIENTS:
wine (red or white)
fruit (strawberries, grapes, melon, oranges, apples, pears, etc.)
sugar
carbonated mixer (ginger ale, Sprite, Fanta, Fresca)
pitcher
glasses

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the wine into the pitcher until it is about 3/4 of the way full.  Add cut up fruit, just a little sugar (if you like things sweet) and stir.  The longer the sangria sits the sweeter it gets so don't sweeten it too much in the beginning (unless of course you're planning on drinking it all right away).  This mixture is really strong.  Think of it like a concentrate, so when you pour it into the glass to serve you will want to mix it with a carbonated beverage (about 50/50).

NOTE:  Because the wine is all mixed up, it does have to be expensive wince.  Actually, this is the one time you can buy bargain wine and no one will be the wiser

Pecan Crusted Catfish

  Today's pecan recipe is different from what is usually featured on here.  Instead of being a sweet or a snack, it's an actual meal.  This catfish, dressed with pecans, is a little salty, a little sweet and all the way delicious.  The perfect home cooked meal all year round.

Pecan Crusted Catfish
provided by Andy Peterson
YEILDS 4 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS:
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. butter, melted
salt and pepper
4 catfish fillets
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400°.  Combine lemon juice and 2 teaspoon of melted butter in 12x8 inch baking dish.  Salt and pepper fillets and spread mayonnaise over "bone" side.  Arrange fish in baking dish.  Combine cracker crumbs, pecans, and 3 tablespoons melted butter; sprinkle over fillets.  Bake catfish for 12 to 15 minutes or until fish flakes.

Windy City Lemonade

  There's not much to say about this drink, except it is super delicious.  When a recipe calls for parts, it doesn't matter how much you put in except they should be equal.   Which means that you could measure using a shot glass or just half of that shot glass.  That is if you're making it at home.  If you don't want to go to through the trouble of making this drink at home, Windy City Grille on the Hernando Square would love to make it for you.

Windy City Lemonade
provided by Windy City Grille

INGREDIENTS:
Belvedre Vodka or Jack Daniels
Sour Mix
Triple Sec
Sprite

DIRECTIONS:
Mix 1 1/2 parts Belvedre Vodka or Jack Daniels with 1/2 part Triple Sec.  Fill cup with Sour Mix and top off with a splash of Sprite.

Zucchini Nut Bread

  I know it's not exactly the season for zucchini, but nowadays you can buy vegetables all year around.  This is one recipe that might not exactly be good for you but because you can always pretend it is because of the vegetables and pecans inside.  (Don't worry, I won't tell if you won't.)

Zucchini Nut Bread
provided by Wynne Harris
YEILDS: 3 loaves

INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups peeled and grated zucchini
3 tsp. vanilla
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins (or chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS:
Beat eggs with whisk.  Add oil, sugar and zucchini.  Mix lightly.  Add vanilla.  Add all dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Add pecan and raisins (or chocolate chips).

Bake in a greased and floured tube pan for 1 hour at 325° until it tests done.
OR
Bake in 3 one-pound greased and flour metal coffee cans (or small loaf pans) for 1 hour at 350°.

Warm Fudge-Filled Cheesecake

  It's November!  That means that our recipes this month will all have pecans in them (except for the Sunday recipes).  Today's recipe is one that is a favorite in my family.  For as long as I can remember, my dad has been making this cheesecake and it was actually the cake that converted me from a cheesecake hater to a cheesecake lover.  With the chocolate center of this cake, you can either eat it warm, with the chocolate melted, or eat it cold.  Both ways are just as delicious, though personally molten chocolate is my downfall.

  While making this cheesecake, we tried to combine two leftover bags of chocolate hoping it would be enough.  It wasn't.  The pictures below reflect the lack of chocolate.  Where normally there would be a whole layer of chocolate there are just a sprinkle of the chocolate mini-morsels.  It was still extremely tasty (I think there is about 1/2 of the cake left and it was just made three days ago).  This go-to recipe is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, basically any special occasion or even a non-occasion.  You can pair this cake with any drink you would like.  It especially goes well with Cognac or a nice red wine.

  The next few pecan recipes will be more pecan based, but this delicious treat was too yummy to not pass on.  It's not to late to send in your pecan recipes or you could start sending in cookie recipes for December!  Our December recipes will be centered around Christmas cookies so that we can get into the Christmas spirit.  I don't know about you, but as a sweet lover, I'm really looking forward to December.

Warm Fudge-Filled Cheesecake

from Southern Living January 1998 Cookbook

YEILDS: 12 servings

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup chopped pecans

4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate mini-morsels

Sweetened whipped cream (optional)

Garnish: chocolate shavings

DIRECTIONS:

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add 1/3 cup of sugar, beating well.  Gradually add flour, beating at low speed until blended.  Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla and pecans.  Press into bottom and 1 ½ inches up sides of a 9-inch springform pan.  Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.  Cool on a wire rack.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; gradually add 1 ½ cups sugar, beating well.   Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.  Stir in remaining 2 tsp. vanilla.  (Do not overmix.) 

Pour half of batter into prepared crust; sprinkle with chocolate morsels to within ¾ inch of edge.  Pour in remaining batter, starting at outer edge and working toward center.  Place cheesecake on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until set.  Cool cheesecake on a wire rack 1 hour.  Serve slightly warm with sweetened whipped cream, if desired.  Garnish, if desired.  

Brandy Old Fashioned

  This Thirsty Thursday recipe comes to us from a reader.  This timeless classic hasn't been made popular like the Martini ("shaken, not stirred"), but it has stuck around for quite some time.  While it might not be the trendiest drink around, the Brandy Old Fashioned could easily because your drink of choice.  

Brandy Old Fashioned
provided by John Rawlsky

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp. granulated sugar
2 dashes bitters
1 1/2 ounces brandy
7-Up
Orange slice
Maraschino cherry

DIRECTIONS:
Spoon sugar into one 6 ounce cocktail glass.   Add bitters.  Dissolve quickly with a splash of 7-Up, then add brandy, followed by ice cubes.  Top off with 7-Up and garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry on a tooth pick.  (Good bartenders skewer the orange slice from bottom to top with the cherry in the middle, which they call a "flag.")  Enjoy.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars

  No collection of recipes is complete without a gluten-free variation.  Whether its a personal choice to be healthier or a mandatory boycott due to allergies, finding gluten-free recipes that don't sacrifice taste can be a little difficult.  Most of the pumpkin seed recipes post earlier this month are also gluten-free, but here's a recipe that requires flour, but not necessarily of the wheat variety.  While we ended up using a cream cheese frosting to top off these yummy bars, there is also a healthier substitute made from tofu.

  We ended up tripling this recipe to make a 9x13 pan so we had enough for a fall festival.  Not being so great with math I just measured out each ingredient three times instead of actually trying to triple the number amounts.  When we first mixed the batter it looked dry and crumbly, but once we put it in the pan and pressed it together using a spatula it turned out wonderfully.  

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars

from Chocolate Covered Kate

YEILDS: 12 small squares

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup coconut flour (or oat flour, spelt flour, etc.) (For gluten-version, you can use white flour.)

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 “egg” of choice (or 1 tsp. ener-g powder, 1 Tbsp. ground flax) (if necessary, you can omit completely)

5 Tbsp. brown sugar (or 3 Tbsp. agave and 2 packets of NuNaturals stevia) (For a sugar-free version, you can use 3 Tbsp. xylitol.)

½ cup canned pumpkin (or cooked, pureed pumpkin)

2 Tbsp. milk (of choice)

2 Tbsp. oil (I used coconut oil, but vegetable oil is ok too.)

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Pumpkin Pie Spices:

Our own version of “Pumpkin Pie Spices”; feel free to ad lib a little based on what you have on hand.  Nothing is essential other than the cinnamon.

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cloves

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Combine dry ingredients, then add wet.  Spread into an oiled 7x5 pan (or double the recipe for an 8x8) and cook for 14-15 minutes. 

Let the pan cool for at least ten minutes before cutting or frosting the squares.  Also, the flavors seem to intensify and taste even sweeter the next day.

You can frost with Healthier Cheesecake Frosting (recipe below) or you can opt to leave them plain.  Other topping ideas include apple butter, vegan butter, nut butter or vegan cream cheese.

Healthier Cheesecake Frosting

from Chocolate Covered Kate

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup silken-firm tofu (Mori-Nu)

2 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. Tofutti non-hydrogenated cream cheese

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

stevia or other sweetener to taste

cinnamon as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Blend the tofu until smooth, then add other ingredients and blend again.

Cream Cheese Frosting

from Simplyrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese (1 package), room temperature

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

With an electric mix, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth (about 3 minutes on medium speed).  Add vanilla extract and mix.  Slowly add the powdered sugar.  Keep adding until desired sweetness and thickness.  (The more powdered sugar added the soupier the mixture gets.  I just used 2 cups.)  Spread on with blunt knife or spatula (or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake).  

VARIATIONS:

-Add a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice for exotic chocolate cake.

-Add freshly ground ginger for a carrot cake.

-Add freshly ground chai spice or even the contents of a bag of earl grey tea for heady and aromatic frosting.

-Add the scraping from a vanilla bean to make a very sweet frosting for red velvet or dark chocolate cakes.

-Add freshly grated or dried, flaked coconut for coconut cake.

-Add 6 oz of white baking chocolate squares or chips (melted and cooled slightly) for a delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting.