Chicken-Pumpkin Tacos

For the record, yesterday's recipe post, as well as these next 2 pumpkin recipes, are taken from DeeDee Stovel's book Pumpkin: A Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year. If you like pumpkin, this is a cookbook for you!

Chicken-Pumpkin Tacos

Tacos:
1 TB Canola oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless Chicken breast halves (or tenderloins)
2 red peppers, seeded and chopped
1 lb. (about 2 cups) fresh pumpkin, seeds and fiber removed, peeled and diced
1/4 cup canned (or fresh cooked and mashed) unsweetened pumpkin
1/2 cup canned tomatoes with juice (I used fresh tomatoes plus tomato juice)
2 tsp chili powder
t tsp ground cumin
Dash of hot sauce
1 tsp salt
1 TB freshly squeezed lime juice
1 TB minced cilantro
6 flour tortillas or crisp corn taco shells

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Ann the onion and cook for 3 minutes, or until wilted. Add the chicken and peppers and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in the fresh and canned (mashed) pumpkin, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, hot sauce and salt. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until the chicken is tender and no longer pink, the pumpkin easily pierced with a fork, and the sauce thickens, about 10 - 15 minutes. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it and return to pan. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro and let mixture sit while you warm the tortillas.

On a griddle over medium heat, warm the tortillas for about a minute on each side.


Spoon chicken mixture onto the tortilla and top with any or all of the following toppings:

1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1/4 cup sour cream, mixed together
Grated cheddar or jack cheese
Avocado
Lettuce
Salsa


Fold them in half and consume :-) THEY. ARE. GOOD. !!!! REALLY!

Almond-Pumpkin Biscotti

I have started using my sugar pumpkins from the garden in earnest this week! This is something I baked for the crafting weekend with my sister and nieces and DIL, Bethany. Darrell and I enjoy a snatch of these delicious treats with a hot cup of Mixed Mint Tea, made from my harvest of varied mints.

Almond-Pumpkin Biscotti

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin (or freshly cooked)
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp ground allspice
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped

1. Beat together the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Stir in the pumpkin.

2. Sift the flour, cinnamon. allspice, baking powder, ginger, salt and nutmeg together and mix into creamed mixture until well mixed. Stir in almonds.

3. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

4. Divide dough into 2 equal parts. Turn one out onto floured surface and shape into a 1/2-by-3 inch wide loaf. Repeat with other loaf. (I used a lot of flour on my board and had to work some into the dough, as it was really wet and sticky). Put both loaves onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 - 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

6. After cooled, slice loaves diagonally and place cut-side down on the cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 15 -20 minutes. Turn pieces to other side and cook an additional 15 - 20 minutes, until they are completely dried out.

7. Cool completely and store in a loosely covered container for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy with a steaming cup of tea or coffee :-)

Pipilo Maculatus

Otherwise know as Spotted Towhee.

I have spied a new type of bird at my feeder the last 2 days! As most of my summer birds have flown south for the winter, I was delighted to see something of a different variety, and quite a pretty little bird to boot! They are mainly ground birds, both for foraging for food and nest building. Before winter, they move to higher elevations, so I suppose that is why I am just now spotting them.

This picture is courtesy of Birds of Washington Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela.

Incentive

This one's for Ginny, Jodi, Kari, Lela and Molly..........

Bethany Lynn and I have made these cute little matchbox drawers for each of you ..... in a variety of Christmas colors. Our plan is for each of you to come join us the 24th for a time of stamping/crafting and fill up these drawers with Christmas tags that you make!

Who's comin'?

Rolly Polly Joelly

Final summer project: conversion to a pellet stove/re-do bricks to river rock. Completed!

Due to Darrell's knee (3rd replacement of the same knee this past March, with bone grafting included this time), his orthopedist thought it mandatory that he no longer cut and split wood. Thus, the conversion to a pellet stove. Ryan is taking our wood stove, along with any remaining wood we have ready to go :-)

We raised the base up to create more seating area. It is a popular spot ;-) Actually, my niece and her family were here with us this weekend, so I wanted a family picture. It was great to see them with their four cute and fun kids!

Joel is their most recent addition, and at 5 months he weighs in close to 20 pounds! Chunker. The kids call him Rolly Joelly :-) He smiles with his entire body, and is a very content 'little' fella!

TRIX are for Rabbits!

As I was browsing the cereals down the breakfast aisle at Fred Meyer today, I was thinking about how many more healthier choices and less sugar-filled cereals there are now-a-days. I decided to see if my all-time childhood favorite cereal was still hangin' in there, and found that though it still graces the store shelves, it comes in a slightly altered form.

The TRIX puffs are now swirled, instead of solid in color.

Why were these so well-loved by moi? Besides the obvious sweet sugary flavor of the little balls, I had an imagination that ran a bit wild with them. To me, each puff was a little human person, and the milk in the bowl became the water in a gigantic swimming pool. The pool was overly crowded at first, but then as the day wore into evening (in my imagination), the pool emptied out as carloads (spoonfuls) of these little folks exited by means of the big tunnel (my mouth). Lucky were the last remaining few who had the entire pool to themselves! Alas, even their mothers called them home, and soon nothing was left but an empty pool. However, it was flecked with debris (little bits of puff fall-out!), so it was necessary to drain the water (milk) entirely off and down the gutter (again, my mouth). Ahhhh..... yet another fun-filled summer day at the pool :-)

Okay. Back to reality now. What was your favorite cereal as a kid?

Lagging Behind the 8 Ball

I am back from the crazy yet great trip back to the East Coast, but just can't quite get motivated to hunker down and start blogging again yet. Soon. Let's just call this a bit of a blogiday. Get it? Like Holiday, but Blogiday :-) Hee hee.

Be back soon.........