The harvest brings out some fantastic foods such as apples, pumpkins, different varieties of squash, sweet potatoes and yams and all sorts of great fall food. I love pumpkins and squash myself and especially the apples. Hand picked right off the tree and fresh, delicious! And Apple Cider! Always a fall favorite whether chilled, warmed, or spiced with cinnamon. Hot Apple Cider on a cold October day warms the soul.

I always loved picking pumpkins and enjoy taking my own kids to pick pumpkins too. I always end up spending too much money but we enjoy decorating them for Halloween and making crazy designs. I’m the pumpkin artist in my family too, I guess you could say. Every year I try to do one intricate carving and something different from previous years and I usually take a few pictures so I’ll try to post some when I take some new ones.

The pumpkin pie always tastes best this time of year too. Here’s a quick and easy recipe for some homemade pumpkin pie:

Harvest Pumpkin Pie

Servings: 10; Cooking Time: Prep: 25 minutes, Cook: 105 minutes

Ingredients:
2 deep dish, unbaked pie shells, thawed
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten (for the leaves)
1 can (or 16 ounces fresh cooking pumpkins) pumpkin puree
⅔ cup firmly packed, light brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground allspice
1 cup heavy cream
⅓ cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Roll out one pie shell with a rolling pin.
2. Using a paring knife, cut out leaves (as best as you can) of different sizes and then a large pumpkin shape. Make vines by wrapping dough around rolled up strips of tin foil.
3. Place the cut-outs on a baking sheet. Brush each with the egg yolk and bake until browned, about 2-4 minutes.
4. Remove decorations with a spatula and cool. Carefully slide the vines off of the foil to avoid breaking them.
5. Place an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and increase the heat to 400 degrees.
6. Place the remaining pie shell in a deep dish pie plate. Line the crust with foil. Fill the foil with dried beans and then bake for 8 minutes.
7. Remove beans and foil and prick the dough with a fork. Bake an additional 6 minutes, then transfer the pie plate to a wire rack to cool (completely).
8. In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Mix it well.
9. Stir in the cream, milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour into the cooled crust.
10. Bake until the filling is just set and a knife or toothpick, inserted into the center, comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
11. Arrange pumpkin cutout in the center of the pie. Arrange the vines and leaves around the pie in a decorative pattern, placing the leaves around the outside edge.

Bake the filling without the crust in a greased, rectangular pan. Serve squares with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon for a Harvest Custard. Also, when rolling the dough, lightly flour the rolling pan and work area to prevent the dough from sticking. You can also use wax paper on the top and bottom, and roll the dough between them.

You can print this recipe here: Harvest Pumpkin Pie

And here’s a recipe for some Candied Yams:

Candied Yams

Servings: 6-8, Cooking Time: Prep: 5-10 minutes, Cook: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 large cans of yams
2 cups of mini marshmallows
1 cup brown sugar
4-5 tbsp butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Drain the juice off of your yams and place into a well-buttered glass baking dish.
3. Sprinkle the brown sugar over top and then top with the marshmallows.
4. Melt 2 tbsp of the remaining butter and sprinkle overtop the of marshmallows.
5. Increase or decrease brown sugar or marshmallows according to taste.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the marshmallows are lightly browned.

Simple, easy recipe for Thanksgiving or anytime. To increase, you can easily make 1 ½ or double the recipe.

You can print this recipe here: Candied Yams

Here is the recipe for Irish Potatoes, which is our Featured Recipe:

Servings: 6-10

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8oz. cream cheese, soft
• 16 oz. coconut, shredded
• 2 lbs. confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tbs. vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon for topping and garnish or melted chocolate

Instructions:

• Mix together all of the ingredients, except the cinnamon, thoroughly.
• Roll into 1 to 1 & ½ inch balls (potatoes!)
• Roll in ground cinnamon, or melted chocolate according to taste!

This is our featured recipe on Professional Recipes, please vote if you like it!

You can print the recipe here: Irish Potatoes.

This Valentine’s Chocolate Heart Cake is sure to do the trick. It’s the Featured Recipe and a nice way to say Happy Valentine’s Day to your special someone:

Servings: 12

Preparation: 30-45 minutes / Cooking: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
* 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup less 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
* 1/8 tsp salt
* ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter
* 2/3 cup granulated sugar
* 2/3 cup, firmly packed, brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 ¾ cups buttermilk

For the Frosting:
* 2 cups prepared frosting
* 2 cups whipped cream
* 1 pint fresh raspberries

Tools:

* 9-inch heart-shaped cake pan
* 2 pastry bags with small star tips
* Waxed paper

Instructions:
* Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of the pan with waxed paper. Grease the paper and all sides of the pan, and then dust with flour.
* In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
* Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla; mix until blended.
* At low speed, alternately beat flour mixture and buttermilk into butter mixture just until blended. Pour batter in prepared pan.
* Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack; cool for 10 minutes.
* Turn out and remove the waxed paper. Turn the cake topside up and cool completely.
* Frost the cake evenly with chocolate frosting. Run the tines (forks) of a fork across the top of the cake to form a wavy pattern south-to-north across the cake (from the bottom of the heart to the top).
* Spoon any leftover frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Starting an inch from the edge, pipe out stars in a heart shaped pattern, following the edges of the cake. To make a star – squeeze the bag and lightly lift the tip to form the star.
* Fill another pastry bag with the whipped cream, fitted with a small star tip. Pipe around the top, outer edge, and along the bottom of the cake, forming a scroll pattern.
* Garnish with the raspberries!

You could substitute the chocolate frosting with white chocolate frosting or whipped cream!

Serve this dessert as a romantic finale to your Valentines’ Day with your sweetheart. If fresh raspberries are not available, use fruits in season or what is available like strawberries or blueberries.

Print this recipe here.

Be sure to check out the Featured Recipe page on the main site and place your vote for the Valentine’s Day Chocolate Heart Cake!

My Charmglow Grill

It’s important to clean your grill before cooking. While some believe that keeping some of the burnt food on the grill irons adds flavor, it’s simply not true. That will cause more headaches instead as food sticks to the burnt leftovers and chars the outside of the food before the inside is cooked, which forces you to keep it on longer, burning the outside even more. Make sure to oil down your grill before cooking on it as well so that food doesn’t stick and always remember – SAFETY FIRST!

Check out some of these great grilling tips from my site: Grilling Tips from Professional Recipes

On the menu this weekend, I’ve got:

• London Broil with a smoky mesquite marinade
• Grilled Corn on the Cob
• BBQ Chicken marinated in my near-famous barbeque sauce (not giving out that recipe yet)
• Steak and Shrimp Kabobs
• I might do these again this year too: Grilled Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Are you looking to try something different this year, like a gourmet hamburger? I might give these a try, from 2 chef friends of mine:

• Greek Burger with Beetroot Relish
• Chef Newmans Newman Burgers

I wrote some posts last season as well for Memorial Day and Tips for Grilling in general and keeping the grill clean, check them out if you get a chance:

Memorial Day Weekend, so What’s Cooking on the Grill?
Grilling Tips for the Backyard Gourmet

I found this article today about enjoying wine at the backyard BBQ, check it out:
Burgers and Beyond, Wine Comes to the Barbecue

For vegetables, I’ve got fresh asparagus and will be making a hollandaise sauce from scratch tomorrow to go along with it and glazed carrots using brown sugar and butter. Fresh mashed potatoes and croissants will finish everything off nicely along with a bottle of white zinfandel and fruity Robert Mondavi wine. For dessert, well, we’re heading over to my grandmother’s house for dessert and to give her the Easter flowers I bought for her today.

Try this glaze for your next ham:

Pineapple Ham Glaze

Servings:
1 5 lb. ham

Cooking Time:
60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of crushed pineapple
• 1 can of sliced pineapple
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp prepared mustard
• 1 small jar of maraschino cherries (optional)

Instructions:

• Whisk together everything but the sliced pineapples in a bowl, mix well.
• In the last hour of cooking, pull out the ham and glaze the ham with the mixture using a brush.
• Layer the pineapple slices across the top. Use wet toothpicks to stick them in. If using the cherries, do the same with these in the middle of the pineapple.
• Baste every 10 minutes. If needed, you can add a little water to the bottom of the pan if getting dry.

And this Pineapple Stuffing is to die for:

Pineapple Stuffing

Servings:
5

Cooking Time:
Prep: 5-10 minutes, Cook: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• ½ cup margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
• 5 slices potato bread, cubed
• Can substitute 5 slices of white bread for the stuffing instead

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C) and grease a 9 inch baking pan.
• In a mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugar.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Add the pineapple and bread cubes to the mix.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour.
• Let the stuffing cool for about 5 minutes before serving to firm up.

Have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? Leave a comment below! Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

One of the most popular recipes at home and on Professional Recipes is the Irish Potatoes Recipe. It’s simple and easy to make and a old recipe passed down to me from a grandmother. They usually don’t last very long though so we often make a many batches of this. Simply double or triple the recipe if you need to make more, just be careful to mix it really well. Here’s the recipe below:

Irish Potatoes

Servings:
6-10

Cooking Time:
10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8oz. cream cheese, soft
• 16 oz. coconut, shredded
• 2 lbs. confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tbs. vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon for topping and garnish or melted chocolate

Instructions:

• Mix together all of the ingredients, except the cinnamon, thoroughly.
• Roll into 1 to 1 & ½ inch balls.
• Roll in ground cinnamon, or melted chocolate according to taste!

To print the recipe, visit this link to it on our site: Irish Potatoes Recipe and select your browsers print option and you’ll get a nice clean copy to print.

Here’s another idea for something to make, try Irish Soda Bread. It’s a little more involved of course, but is a classic and often served in restaurants specializing in Irish fare. The Shanachie Irish Pub and Bar comes to mind. They serve this as their bread served to every table and it’s really good.

I’ve also made Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage and changed it up with using Ham instead of corned beef. The kids especially enjoy the ham over the corned beef, so I often make both around this time of year and I make enough to have for 2 nights each, so our fridge is a little full for a few days!

And this is interesting, a recipe I found from The Hungry Mouse, someone I follow on Twitter: How to Make Your Own Irish Cream Liqueur!. Give this one a try and any party you have for Saint Patrick’s Day will be a hit!

Enjoy!

It’s a wonderful time of year where most people you meet seem to be more a little more cheerful than usual, as long as you’re not trying to take their parking spot at the mall!!! It’s also a time of year where people indulge in some of their favorite holiday foods and sweets. Extravagant displays of goodies adorn many tables and the home bakers of the world get busy making their favorite cookies and cakes to share with their friends and families. My wife was busy this weekend in fact, baking up the family favorites (I’ll post some recipes up here shortly!).

In honor of the holidays, we’ve got a few suggestions for recipes below that you might like to try:

• Hanukkah Candle Cookies
• Christmas Light Cookies
• Candied Yams
• Pumpkin Pie

However, admittedly, I am short on different holiday and traditional recipes and not very knowledgeable about the dates of other holidays this time of year. If you have any recipes you’d like to share or any comments or suggestions for a holiday that you celebrate, please leave us a message or submit your recipes on our Submit a Recipe page.

Check out this great resource on the three major US holidays:
December Holidays

Happy Holidays to all!

To start, we have the classic Thanksgiving Roast Turkey for the main course. There are some who enjoy ham instead of turkey and some who do both or try something else entirely.

For something entirely different, check out the Cornish Game Hen with Garlic or Rosemary.

Or for the adventurous types, there is the increasingly popular Turducken, which is a chicken stuffed inside of a duck stuffed inside of a turkey. John Madden of NFL and Monday Night Football fame made this one popular. I have to admit, I’ve never attempted to make one, but if I do I’ll be sure to post the results here and the recipe as well.

For a different kind of stuffing, try this Cornbread Stuffing instead of your usual “classic” bread stuffing.

There are thousands of side dishes made in all sorts of ways. Often different family members are responsible for bringing this or that. If you’re one of those family members and you’re looking for something different or special to make, try some of these side dishes, sure to be a hit:

• Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
• Carrots Vichy
• Bacon Cheddar Whipped Potatoes
• Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
• Candied Yams

Here’s an interesting one I found, Mashed Potatoes with Lavender and Honey. Not sure how this one is, but if someone gives it a try, please comment here and let everyone know how it is.

For dessert, we’ve got a couple of suggestions here:

• Chocolate Mousse
• Cherries Jubilee with Cote Rote Wine
• Coconut Cake
• Poached Pears
• Classic Pecan Pie

Hopefully now you’ve got some different things to try for your Thanksgiving feast. If you decide to try one of our recipes, please post a comment and let us know how it came out. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

For most people, Labor Day barbecues are a big deal with all kinds of different food to throw on the grill. For the backyard gourmet this provides the perfect opportunity to show off their best marinades, elaborate shish kabobs and many different varieties on the classic BBQ fare. The grill usually gets a good workout and often times it’s the last time it gets used before being put away for the winter.

While many of us are experienced in the art of grilling when it comes to food, there are some basics to proper grilling that are either forgotten or never learned. While the food still comes out tasting good, there are some subtle things you can do to really make your food stand out from the crowd to impress your friends and family.

Always clean your grill with a wire brush before cooking on it. There are some who believe that leaving some of the residue from previous cookouts adds flavor to the food, it simply is not true. More often that not, it adds a burnt taste to the food and causes it to stick to the grill. Even if you take a break between grilling for lunch and dinner, clean your grill before starting again. You’ll be glad you did.

Use oil on the grill to prevent sticking. Lightly brushing the grill with oil before grilling will prevent food from sticking to it.

Flare-ups. Yeah, it looks cool to see some high rising flames and for certain foods, this may be preferable (searing the outside of a steak for example, but leaving it rare in the middle), but for most food on the grill, this just leaves it overcooked on the outside and generally undercooked on the inside.

Basting your food while grilling can add some wonderful flavor, particularly if you’ve marinated it ahead of time. Try not to baste the food until the last 5-10 minutes of cooking however, else you run the risk of flare-ups and burning your food. This is particularly true if you used sweeteners such as brown sugar or honey in your marinade. Sugar tends to caramelize quickly and stick to the food and the grill.

Marinades are a wonderful way to introduce a variety of flavors to food. It’s best to marinade for at least 6 hours, but if you’re planning a big barbecue, it’d be a good idea to marinade your food the day before to really get the fullest flavor.

Safety First! Grills can get very, very hot and often there are children running around, whether it be to jump in the pool or playing a game in the backyard. Accidents happen of course, but there is the potential for serious injury. Make sure your grilling area is well away from the pool, deck, or any area where others will be sitting or playing. Be sure you know how to properly operate your grill, no matter what kind it is.

So, by following some simple rules, you can really make a big difference in the flavor and presentation of your food and everyone can enjoy a safe and happy Labor Day BBQ.

Check out some of these recipes to try for your own Labor Day BBQ:

Firewalker T-Bone Steak

Steak and Shrimp Kabobs

Cajun Chicken Kabobs

Grilled Salmon with Lemon Butter

Grilled Swordfish With Chipotle Cilantro Butter

Apricot Marinade

Chef Newman’s BBQ Sauce

Easy Guacamole Dip

Enjoy!!!

We’ve got our Steak and Shrimp Kabobs in the works with some grilled corn! Salsa and Grilled Sweet and Hot Italian Sausage!

My mom’s semi-famous Ambrosia recipe and fresh fruit salad and let’s not forget the greens – a giant tossed salad to boot. We’re doing it up here this Memorial Day Weekend.

What are you cooking for Memorial Day? Post a comment below and let us know and in the meantime, check out some of our recipes below:

Cola Nut Grilled Salmon – added 6/15/2008

Steak and Shrimp Kabobs

Chef Newman’s Burgers

Chicken Salad

Grilled Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Mandarin Orange Gorgonzola and Almond Salad

Seven Layer Dip

Enjoy the holiday weekend!!!