17 Pumpkin Recipes! Pumpkin Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bars, Pumpkin Pasta and more

Autumn is here!  The perfect time to celebrate the awesome pumpkin.  Don't wait for Thanksgiving to make a pumpkin pie and call it 'done' for the season.  Here are over a dozen recipes from my website that I've posted over the years.  From cakes to cinnamon rolls, pasta to griddle cakes.  There is something here for everyone - as I even have an amazing pumpkin bread that can be served to those doing sugar free or low carb way of eating.    Enjoy!!


Pumpkin Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping
Perfect Pumpkin Bread
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Mexican Pumpkin Dip
Flaxseed Pumpkin Bread (sugar free and low carb too!)
Pumpkin Butter Pie
Pumpkin Pie with an Oatmeal Crust
Homemade Pasta
Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Griddle Cakes
Pickled Pumpkin
Pumpkin Dessert
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Two Ingredient Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin Pie

Homemade, Canned Salsa

I didn't have enough for a whole regular batch, but enough for a half batch.

Simmering on the stove.  A half plus a little more batch netted me 3-4 pints

Here is my original recipe post for this recipe - posted a couple times on An American Housewife already.  This particular one in 2012.

Homemade canned salsa - fresh from the garden

Canning your salsa, you will need two things for sure;  a large enough pot to boil the jars in water that covers their lids and, canning jars with lids and bands.   I don't have an official 'canner' - I have a soup pot.  But it works great for me and since I'm not canning low acidic foods like green beans or meat, I don't have to use a pressure canner.  Water baths work just fine.  An item I would suggest you get to save yourself burnt fingers;  a jar lifter.  This is something I didn't use the first couple years, I just tried to hold on to the jars with a towel as my 'hot pad' holder.  Once I invested in a cheap jar lifter I was amazed at how easy things became!  

 

 

Homemade Salsa

10 Cups of peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
5 c chopped onions
3 sweet banana peppers, diced
4 jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 t minced garlic
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 1/4 c vinegar
2 T chili powder
2 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 T sugar

To peel/skin your tomatoes easily just put them in boiling water. Skins will split in 10 seconds - 2 minutes. Remove as soon as the skin splits and lay on a clean towel to cool until you can handle them comfortably - or you can dip them into a bowl of ice water if you wish. Some tomatoes won't split but they are still ready;  if it has been in the water for approximately 1-2 minutes, lift it out and feel it. If it looks tight and ready to burst, yet it feels like a water balloon, then remove it to cool. It's ready.  The second your fingers or a knife touch the skin it will probably split on contact.  Tomatoes can be seeded and the juice canned separately or you can use the whole tomato in your salsa and skip that process.  Up to you.

Mix all the ingredients for your salsa and simmer 1-3 hours.

While simmering, be sure to either run your jars and lids and seals through an extra hot dishwasher cycle or boil them in another pot of water so they are hot and sterilized when you are ready to use them.  Ladle salsa into the jars with about 1/2 inch head space at the top.   Wipe the edges completely clean with a clean cloth and place the lid on it and then the ring.  You don't have to tighten them hard - just a quick twist to hold the seal/lid on during the process.  Now, originally this old time recipe did not call for a water bath.  The heat from the salsa and the jar will seal the lid.  However, I like to boil them in a water bath as an extra precaution for 25 for pints.

Remove from the water, set on a towel on the counter and let them cool at room temperature.  You will hear popping noises.  That is the lids sealing.  When completely cooled, store in your pantry or cupboard.

Tomatoes from the garden, ready to be made into salsa

Immersing in boiling water to easily remove the skins

The skins will split within about 30 seconds and they literally slip right off.

Chop your tomatoes.  No need to be concise. They will cook down. Just chop quickly and toss in.

Ingredients ready to simmer

A water bath of 25 minutes as extra protection

       

Another way to save basil from the garden: Drying it in the microwave

The basil in my garden is growing like a weed and it's time to start harvesting it to use this autumn and winter.  I posted earlier this week about simply stringing it up in bunches and hanging in an out of the way place to air dry.   The second way I kept some of it was to dry it in the microwave.  Now, this is not actually something I've done before as I assumed it would burn parts of it and not actually dry it.  I was wrong!  It worked perfectly.

 

Rinsed, fresh picked basil from the garden.  Placed on a layer of paper towel.

I laid another paper towel on top and microwaved for 1 minute. Checked, added another 30 seconds. Then they were dry!

Depending on your microwave it may take more or less time but they were completely dried in 90 seconds.

I opted to chop this batch and put them into my Basil spice container. Fresh and homegrown!

  

Artisan Bread - when I don't have time to make ciabatta

This is a repost from a couple years ago but I'm making a batch of it right now for dinner tonight and I thought I'd post it again just in case it got 'lost' in the history of An American Housewife.   I really wanted to make Ciabatta bread - which takes a couple days as you start the biga a day or two before and then make your dough, let it set, form it, let it rise, poke it and let it rise again and finally, bake it.

No time for that today!  Instead I love this bread as a close cousin... chewy, hard crust but a soft and yummy inside.  Note:  The last time I made this I got sloppy and lazy.  It's a very sticky, stretchy, wet dough.  I was rushing, decided to add some flour to make it more like a regular dough so I could work with it faster.  Mistake.  It's sticky. It's stretchy. Just use oil or water on your hands (or a tiny bit of flour) but don't try to add flour to make it easier to work with OR like a typical homemade bread dough.  That's not what this one is about.

I LOVE this recipe.  Only 4 main ingredients and you can mix it up with a wooden spoon in a bucket.  No kneading.  No fuss. 

Artisan Bread

1 ½ T yeast
1 ½ T salt
3 c water, lukewarm
6 ½ c flour
1 bucket with lid
cornmeal
flour



Dump yeast, salt and water into a bucket or container.
Add flour.
Mix with a wooden spoon just until the flour is incorporated. No dry flour, no lumps.
Put the loose lid on. Not air tight.  Let set at room temperature about 2 hours.
Sprinkle bit of flour so your fingers don’t stick or use oil. Cut off grapefruit sized piece with serrated knife.
Work in your oiled/wet hands to make somewhat of a ball, pulling top layer to bottom.  Round and smooth.
Place on cornmeal sprinkled board.
Let set 40 minutes.
Sprinkle with flour, slash the loaf with a few slices.
Bake at 375 preheated oven with an empty pan in the bottom.
Slide on middle shelf baking stone.
Pour a cup of water in the hot empty pan and close door quickly to steam the bread.
Baked till top is golden brown.
Hard crust and moist, soft bread!

Mix the yeast, water and salt right in your container

An ooey gooey mess.  Perfect.

Lid on... but not air tight! Make sure your container is big enough to allow for rising.

Formed into rounds. Scoring the tops with a knife.

Fresh from the oven - let it cool.

I couldn't let mine cool. I cut into right away!  Crisp and crunchy crust - moist and chewy inside. PERFECT.

Time To Put Up Basil

Fresh basil, ready to air dry for use later this Fall and Winter

Returning home after being gone a week, I saw my garden was suffering a bit from lack of care... mostly, lack of rain!  But my basil?  Happy and proud... and full!  Time to gather some and put it up to dry.

I've posted about drying basil before - because I do it many different ways.  The previous post was chopping it and letting it air dry before bottling it.   This is another way you can dry it... whole.

Rinse (to remove any dirt, small bugs or hidden little spiders).  Grab some twine or string, and string it in bunches.  Tie it tight on the stems, and make a loop to hang on a nail or however you plan to hang yours.  Now hang it in a place where it gets plenty of circulating air, but no moisture or heat from appliances or cooking.  It will wilt, and slowly start to dry.  After a couple weeks (up to a month depending on where you live and the time of year) you can either put it into a baggy whole, or pull the leaves off and crunch them up to store in a baggy or bottle.

Simply tie bunches together to hang upside to air dry

Ready to hang in my large, open pantry.