Day Trip to Woodinville

This weekend has been all about getting out of Seattle and enjoying the color changing leaves and crisp cool air. We ended up in Woodinville. We did a little mead tasting and enjoyed some wine, snacks and each other's company.

 Wearing my new necklace from Brian

 

Pumpkin!

To be honest I am not very confident when it comes to baking. I much prefer cooking but every so often my husband requests some baked goods. I would rather make something myself and get more experience then just running out to get something that probably is full of preservatives and God only knows what other horrible additives. So since it's pumpkin season I thought I would try this pumpkin cake that I actually made baked in a bread pan instead. The recipe is from Martha Stewart and let's just say it was sinful :)

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting

Ingredients:

For The Cake-

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp each allspice and cloves)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

For The Frosting-

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
• 1 bar (8 ounces) cream cheese, very soft
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter your baking pan
• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, and pumpkin puree until combined. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, and mix gently until smooth.
• Turn batter into prepared pan, and smooth top. Bake about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake about 10 minutes.
• Make honey frosting: in a medium bowl, whisk butter, cream cheese, and honey until smooth.
• Spread on top of cooled cake. 
• Enjoy!

Fox Hollow Family Farm

Brian surprised me yesterday with a day off in the midst of his 12 day in a row shift. Yay! We took the opportunity to visit the pumpkin patch while it wasn't raining and too gross outside. There are a few places to go in the area but we decided to drive to Issaquah and visit this one since it's close and the drive is always so nice. We arrived at this family farm and it was adorable! They had it all decorated beautifully and it was very obvious this wasn't their first rodeo. I honestly felt like I was visiting Martha Stewart's place or on a movie set! We had a blast wandering around the property, eating pumpkin pie, drinking hot cider and enjoying the animals.

 The Piggies

 Jack-O-Lantern Lane

 Brian hogging the pumpkin pie!

 Peacocks on the roof? Ok

 The house behind the farm

 We saw salmon swimming up the river

 I snuck up on this peacock and snapped a picture before he ran away

 Mr. Sheep

Catalan-Style Beef Stew with Mushrooms

Sunday evening I was dorking out and watching the local station that was showing some cooking shows. They were featuring this beef stew that looked really good and a little different from my usual recipe. Now that the weather is cool enough to not worry about sweating all over the place when using the oven I was excited to try this recipe. And yes, over the summer I really did sweat while cooking on a number of ocasions. Gross! Anyways, this is a great stew and I think it's my favorite that I've ever made.

Ingredients:

Stew: 

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper
• 2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, pulp grated on large holes and pulps discarded
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 lbs beef short ribs

Picada:

• 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 slice hearty white sandwich bread, crust removed, torn into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1/2 lb oyster mushrooms, trimmed
• tsp sherry vinegar 

Directions:

• For the stew: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
• Heat oil in dutch oven over medium-low heat until shimmering. Add onions, sugar, 1/2 tsp salt; cook, stirring often, until onions are deeply carmelized, 30 to 40 minutes. Add tomatoes, smoked paprika, and bay leaf; cook, stirring often, until darkened and thick, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Add wine, water, thyme, and cinnamon to pot, scraping up any browned bits. Season beef with 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and add to pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Transfer to oven and cook, uncovered. After 1 hour stir stew to redistribute meat, return to oven, and continue to cook uncovered until meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours longer. 

 

• For the picada:
• While stew is in the oven, heat almonds and 1 tbsp oil in skillet over medium heat; cook, stirring often, until almonds are golden brown 3 to 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer almonds to food processor. 
• Return now-empty skillet to medium heat, add bread and cook until toasted, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to food processor with almonds.
• Add garlic and process until mixture is finely ground. Transfer mixture to bowl, stir in parsley and set aside.
• Return now-empty skillet to medium heat. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil. Add mushrooms and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring often until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to bowl and set aside. 
• Remove bay leaf from stew, add picada, mushrooms and vinegar into stew. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with some crusty bread.