Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Maple Bourbon Brown Sugar Sauce

'Tis the season ....

No, not THAT season yet. (Soon. Frighteningly soon. But not just yet.)

'Tis the season for pumpkin. And for warming, comforting foods as we watch the leaves fall and the winds blow them around. And for starting to consider holiday meals, which absolutely must include dessert.

Because even though we've stuffed ourselves more fully than the Thanksgiving turkey, dessert is mandatory, right? Just one more bite ... and then another, and another.

We can't resist. We are weak. We are helpless creatures, caught in the tractor beam that draws us to all the fat, all the sugar, all the temptation, all the deliciousness.

And I'm here to play matchmaker, introducing you to the new love of your life. You'll dream about the creaminess, the hint of spiciness, the light crunchiness of the sugary topping. Your heart will start fluttering ... or is that just the cholesterol clogging up your arteries?

You can thank me once you wake up from your food coma ... :)


Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Maple Bourbon Brown Sugar Sauce

Pudding:
3 eggs
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups 2% milk
1 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin puree
4 large day-old croissants, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup brown sugar

Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup half-and-half

Make pudding: Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-by-13 inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, powdered sugar, sugar, vanilla, milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and pumpkin puree. Stir in croissant cubes and mix well; let rest 5 minutes. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon with brown sugar; sprinkle over pudding.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until pudding is puffy and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Make sauce: Place butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, corn syrup, and vanilla into a small saucepan and melt together over medium-high heat. Whisk in half-and-half and bring to a boil. Cook, undisturbed, for 1 minute. Let cool 10 minutes; sauce will thicken.

Cut pudding into squares and serve with ice cream or whipped cream, along with the sauce.

Yield: 8 generous or 12 moderate servings.

Gumbo Bread Pudding

Two N'awlins classics, baked into one: gumbo and bread pudding!

With some leftover chicken, a Cajun-spiced bagel, and the makings of "the trinity" - celery, onion, and peppers, which are the heart of Louisiana cooking - it only seemed fitting to take some of the essential elements of gumbo and combine them with the legendary dessert ... only making it savory. This is quick, easy, no-fuss, and delicious! It's a bit reminiscent of a frittata, and perfect for a light supper or a brunch.

You could also add some shrimp, which is often an ingredient in gumbo. But my dear friend Candace, a native of Louisiana who now lives in New Hampshire, told me that "Shrimp would be delish but they are unnecessary" given all of the other goodies already in the mix.

A colorful way to spice up leftovers - enjoy!

An update on my shoulder (mentioned in this post): I've been vindicated - my shoulder pain is more than just tendinitis! Not necessarily good news, but at least an answer to symptoms that weren't supported by the initial x-ray and MRI and an explanation of why physical therapy made it all worse. New x-rays show that the top bone in my shoulder, the acromion, has a slight dip to it that has apparently spent 50+ years abrading the tissue underneath it. So I have an impingement, to quote the orthopedic surgeon, which is severely restricting movement because of considerable scar tissue. I have edema in the bursa, and I do indeed have rotator cuff tendinitis - a trifecta! Had the thrill of a steroid shot (with ABUNDANT thanks to Craig for being the brave one who held my hand and actually looked at the needle), with hopes that it will reduce inflammation and pain as well as breaking up scar tissue. In a month, I get reassessed. No sling, as immobilizing it is counterproductive to maintaining already limited motion ... gee, and I was making plans to bedazzle one!


Gumbo Bread Pudding

2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped red pepper
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1 Cajun-spiced bagel (or 1 plain bagel and 1/4 teaspoon Cajun spice)
generous pinch of kosher salt
generous pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup chopped chicken
1 cup chopped Andouille sausage
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Grease a standard souffle dish or 8"x8" baking dish.

Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the celery, pepper, and onion; cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Place into a large mixing bowl.

Cut the bagel into 3/4" pieces and add to the mixing bowl along with the salt, red pepper flakes, chicken, and sausage.

Combine the eggs and milk; pour over the bagel mixture, stir, and let soak for 10 minutes. Pour into the prepared dish and bake for 40 minutes until the top is golden and puffed and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serve warm.

Serves 4.

Memorial Day Dishes

It's Memorial Day - a day to remember those who've served our country and sacrificed their lives for it ... for us.

Many people will be marching in parades or planting flags or somehow commemorating the occasion, and they'll get hungry. So here are some recipes for you, or for those who are relishing the day off - and their freedom - at barbecues or picnics.

These dishes, from the sweet to the savory, will do honor to your festivities, whatever they may be.

Red, White, and Blueberry Sangria

Strawberry Shortcake

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Berries with Sweetened Sour Cream

Blueberry Pancakes

Blueberry Bread Pudding

Grilled Chicken with Spiced Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Blueberry Streusel Cake

Pomegranate-Marinated Chicken with Honey-Grilled Pineapple

Bacon Cheese Mix-In Burgers

Frugal Floozie Friday - Grizzly Peak Brewing Company

My friend Ruth Kraut "won" me last fall at Gimme Shelter, the primary fundraising event for Alpha House, which provides shelter and other support services to homeless families. I had donated a gift certificate to the silent auction, offering a chance to join me for a Frugal Floozie Friday write-up. When offering these donations, one wonders who's bidding and who'll come out victorious. I was thrilled to learn that Ruth and I would be sharing a food tasting adventure!

We were finally able to schedule our lunch date, and had a fabulous time - and a great meal - at Grizzly Peak Brewing Company. We were seeking vegetarian options, and my auction package had included an offer to order - and perhaps share, dependent upon price - an assortment of treats. So we debated among the bruschetta topped with tomatoes, basil, olives, garlic, and parmesan; the polenta fries served with housemade "catsup," recommended by our charming waiter; several varieties of the hearth-baked pizzas; and cheddar and ale soup. Each dish was tempting, each had merit.

We settled on three things, sharing each not only so that we could both have tastes, but because the servings were more than generous.

As Ruth and I talked about our children, about blogging, about work, about barbecue competitions (Memphis in May as well as the kosher answer to this "Super Bowl of Swine," the ASBEE Kosher BBQ Contest), and about many other things, we started our meal with the soft warm pretzels pictured above, served with a hard cider-infused cheddar dipping sauce. With four large, tender breadsticks in the basket, as well as the rich cheese accompaniment, at $8.95 this was a great appetizer for two within our mandatory $5 per person budget.

Next we shared a pizza which, as Ruth noted, was truly large enough to have been our entire meal without any other dishes. We chose the one with roasted bell peppers and artichoke hearts, which was beautiful and flavorful all at once. For only $7.95, this was an exceptional value for a large amount of food.

We couldn't leave without dessert, especially since an AnnArbor.com reader who posts as DBH had recommended that I try the restaurant's cherry bread pudding.

At $4.95, Ruth and I could each have ordered our own and stayed within the budget; but it was rich enough - and we'd already enjoyed enough other items - that splitting it was perfect. (Our waiter even brought us individual plates, each with its own half-portion.)

If you ever just want coffee and a little sweet "something" to share with a date, I would highly recommend this. Featuring white chocolate, toasted pecans, and numerous tart cherries, the pudding is drizzled with a bourbon-caramel sauce that was an ideal accompaniment.

For attentive and friendly service, warm ambience, and excellent food that offers great value and numerous frugal options, Grizzly Peak is a wonderful place to enjoy a meal with loved ones.

Grizzly Peak Brewing Company
120 West Washington
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
734-741-7325
Monday - Thursday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Friday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Sunday: 12 p.m. - 11 p.m.



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Blueberry Bread Pudding

I got together with friends from Temple Beth Emeth's Sisterhood recently. I love spending time with this great group of women with whom I always have a good time!

The event was a potluck, and there was so much fabulous food!  Croissants, a cinnamon sugar-topped coffee cake, walnut spiral pastries, assorted fruits, a mushroom-cheese frittata casserole, a quinoa and vegetable salad, green salad, pasta salad, watermelon gazpacho, spinach lasagna, cucumber sour cream salad, lemon-glazed cake, and a 4-berry pie ... sigh ... :)

We'd been asked to contribute either breakfast or lunch dishes ... well, we all know where this is going, don't we? What to bring? Which meal? Sweet? Savory? Brain hurts ... ack!

But it turned out that the breakfast options were going to be a bit sparse, so I jumped onto that bandwagon. Whew! I'm always so much better when given direction, rather than being left to my own indecisive devices. (And, of course, there was plenty of food for each meal.  I've joked with friends before that Jewish women never feel there's enough, no matter how full the table is, so there's always way too much ... and everyone always enjoys the bounty!)

So, then I thought about some sort of easily transported casserole. Something that wouldn't be messy, something that was easy to serve, something that just needed to be baked and brought ... bread pudding, one of my very favorite dishes. And since it's blueberry season, what a perfect addition!

And so, croissants were transformed into a creamy, cinnamon-scented treat, with some gorgeous fresh fruit added in, too. Gotta love bread pudding!  And I'm very happy to say that the entire pudding was eaten, not even one serving left ....

Blueberry Bread Pudding

6 cups of cubed day-old croissants (1" cubes)
3/4 cup blueberries
3 large eggs
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups half-and-half
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 10" round baking dish.

Place the cubed croissants and the blueberries into the baking dish. Whisk together the eggs, confectioners' sugar, sugar, vanilla, and half-and-half; pour over the croissants, and let soak for 10 minutes, pressing down on the bread a bit to help it soak up the custard.  Sprinkle the top with the cinnamon and the brown sugar.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until pudding is puffed (it will sink as it cools) and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 servings, and is ideal with either ice cream or whipped cream.

Frugal Floozie Friday - Roger Monk's Yappy Hour

Roger Monk's is today's Frugal Floozie Friday feature for many reasons.  It's got great food, and it offers a wide variety of appetizers, drinks and desserts for $5 or less - our mandatory per-person budget - during its weekday Happy Hour.

But not only does this casual, comfortable, but still sophisticated restaurant welcome humans, on Thursdays it also welcomes dogs at its fabulous Yappy Hour.  Yes, well-behaved humans and their adorable leashed owners can gather on the back deck for food and fun - a chance to chat with fellow animal lovers and furry friends.

So, of course, I had to bring my grandpuppy, Poochie, one gorgeous sunny afternoon.  He's a very sociable beast - a veritable party animal!

Jeremy, Stuart (Jeremy's dad, my ex-husband), Poochie, and I recently took advantage of a perfect summery day to enjoy some fabulous food.  We started with appetizers, each of which costs $5: a very generous portion of chips with a slightly spicy salsa, crisp-coated and tender chicken satay with a creamy peanut sauce, and enormous mussels braised in a lemon-wine sauce.  These were delicious, as well as being perfect for sharing.   The two other options we could have chosen were hummus served with toasted pita bread and a duck liver mousse served with crackers.

We drank water - as did Poochie, who was given his own personal bowl of water even before the humans were taken care of; and it was served refreshingly with orange rather than the ubiquitous lemon.  But if you're in the mood for something a bit stronger, 20-ounce pints of draught beer cost $4; glasses of wine and drinks such as Martinis, a Daiquiri, or a Cosmopolitan cost $5.

And then there was the temptation of dessert.  Desserts, too, cost an even $5 - perfect for our budget.  As good as the appetizers were - and they were very good - these were absolutely the stars of the show.


Jeremy order the utterly decadent chocolate mousse pictured at the top of the post.  It was as thick as ice cream, rather than pudding-like as some can be.  It was intensely chocolatey and simply addictive.  You'd be tempted to keep eating if the portion were larger, but the full coffee cup of this treat was a perfect and generous serving.

As soon as I heard a few of my very favorite words - "bread pudding," "cherries," and "caramel" - all in the same sentence, as our server recited the dessert options, I knew that this would be mine.  Bread pudding featuring tart cherries and a bourbon caramel sauce ... oh, be still my heart!  This was rich, sweet, had a bit of a kick, and was just perfection.  I loved the dessert, but would happily have just taken a spoon to a jar of the sauce and eaten it "as is" even without the tender, fabulous pudding base.

Stuart was in the mood for a hot fudge sundae, which isn't on the menu; but our very kind and helpful server, Dennis, offered to bring a serving of vanilla ice cream (which is a standard offering) topped with the bourbon caramel sauce.  Although one of my personal pet peeves is customers who make special orders - hard-working restaurant staff are not personal chefs - I was very pleased to know that great service and keeping customers happy was high on the agenda at Roger Monk's.

There are many public places that dogs aren't welcome, so it's wonderful that on Thursdays you can linger over great food and cool drinks at Roger Monk's while your dog gets to play with new friends.  Poochie was fussed over by the staff and by other customers enjoying the fabulous weather, and he just loves being the center of attention!

We had a grand time at Roger Monk's, and highly recommend its Happy and Yappy Hours for fabulous treats at reasonable prices.  What a great opportunity to unwind at the end of the day!

Roger Monk's
5400 Plymouth Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
734-662-1647
Tuesday - Saturday: 3 - 10 p.m.
Sunday: 3 - 9 p.m.
Closed Monday
Happy Hour: Tuesday - Friday 3 - 6 p.m.
Yappy Hour: Thursday 4 - 7 p.m.



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Raspberry Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

There are a lot of ways to use up stale bread: turkey stuffing, Panzanella, feeding it to birds and squirrels (because, of course, if you feed it to the former you inevitably also share it with the latter!).

But truly, without exaggeration, I have to tell you that this pudding recipe I'm sharing with you today is probably the best re-purposing of stale bread that you will find.

It's sweet, but not too sugary. It's substantial, but not heavy. It's rich, but not obscenely so. And since the custard that the bread soaks in is flavored with instant cocoa, you can even vary the flavor of the pudding to suit your whims.

This is a perfect dessert to serve on a chilly Fall evening.



Raspberry Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

3 large eggs
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1-1/4 ounce packet Chocolate and Raspberry Instant Cocoa
1/8 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups half-and-half
6 cups of cubed challah (1" cubes)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 10" round baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, confectioners' sugar, cocoa, sugar, and half-and-half. Stir in the bread cubes, and let soak in the custard for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish, and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 45 minutes until pudding is puffed and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 10-12 servings, and is ideal with either ice cream or whipped cream.

Lenten Friday: Asparagus Bread Pudding with Mushroom Gravy

I love bread pudding, and make some -- if I may say so myself! -- pretty exceptional (and prize-winning) dessert versions, loaded with varieties of chocolate chips and with flavored cocoa mixes added to the custard.

But I was in the mood for a savory bread pudding recently, and also had some roasted asparagus to use up. Well, since bread pudding is a great way to repurpose excess/leftover bread, why not throw some excess/leftover vegetables into the mix, too???

And so, for dinner one night Tom and I took some whole wheat English muffins that had been staring out of my refrigerator for awhile, begging for a reason to justify their existence ... the lingering asparagi ... a small scrap of cheese that had been hanging around since St. Paddy's Day ... and we turned it all into a magnificent feast!

I also had a lot of half-and-half that had originally been intended for some other concoction -- I can't even remember what, anymore -- which never materialized. So it found its way into a gravy that was not only a perfect complement to the pudding, but which would also be exceptional with meatloaf, with chicken, over pasta ... sigh.

This is a quick, easy, and delicious meal whose beauty is completely and totally greater than the sum of its parts.

Roasted Asparagus Bread Pudding with Mushroom Gravy

Pudding:
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 whole wheat English muffins, halved and cut into 2" pieces
2/3 cup chopped roasted asparagus
1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 9" glass pie pan.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, salt, pepper, milk, half-and-half and mustard. Add the English muffin pieces and soak for 10 minutes, stirring and pressing down occasionally so that the custard is absorbed a bit.



Stir in the asparagus, and place the mixture into the pie pan. Sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake for 35 minutes until the pudding is browned and puffed up, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.



Gravy:
5 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup chopped onion
8 ounces mushroom, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons unbleached flour
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup half-and-half

While the pudding is in the oven, make the gravy. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, the mushrooms, the salt, lemon pepper and pepper flakes; cook for 2-3 minutes until the mushrooms are softening, then add the remaining butter and cook until it melts.

Stir in the flour and coat everything with it. Combine the wine, milk and half-and-half; slowly pour over the mushroom mixture, stirring to incorporate the liquid with each pour, before adding the next increment. When the liquid has all been added, let the gravy come to a boil; then lower heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, until the bread pudding is ready.

Cut the bread pudding into 8 servings, and pour gravy over the top of each portion to serve.