Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Raisins (Whole Wheat Bread)

This is a dish my father and I use to make when I was a child, but we used more traditional ingredients like heavy creams, butter, brown sugar, white bread, vanilla extract and when no one was looking, we added brandy. Shhh!

For this Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe, I'm trying something non-traditional. I have found some interesting ways to cut some of the fat out and keep the dish as low in calories as possible while keep the flavor.

By the way, there are about 60 calories in a big handful of raisins. A 1/4 cup of raisins has about 140 calories.



What you will need:
-- Baking Pan: 8" x 8"
-- Stale Whole Wheat Bread or any sliced stale bread
-- 3 Eggs (instead of 6)
-- 3 handful raisins
-- Can of Pumpkin (100% pure pumpkin by Libby's is the best)
-- Apple Sauce (organic Santa Cruz) about a cup (instead of butter)
-- Sugar in the Raw - about 1/4 cup
-- Cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon) or about that much. I just shake it until it looks good
-- Nutmeg just a pinch - this is a very strong flavor
-- Ginger powder -- just a pinch
-- Whole Milk or you can use whatever you have at the house
-- Salt - very, very little

I use apple sauce instead of butter, completely leave out brown sugar and heavy cream, and use less eggs.



Lets start with the bread. Even if it's stale, toast it until it's very dry and hard. I place my cookie sheet on my pizza stone to get the bottom of the cookie sheet really hot. Toast for 10 minutes but do not burn your toast. Keep an eye on it.



Once toasted, cut the edges off the whole wheat bread. Use a serrated edge knife to cut the bread and let it sit while you make the pumpkin pudding. You can now pre-heat your oven at 350 F

USA Pans Rectangular Baking Pan, 9-in x13-in (Google Affiliate Ad)



In really hot (not boiling) water, soak your organic raisins for about 10 minutes. I do this to get them clean and softer, pulling off any stems or dirt. You could also soak them in brandy.



I just broke my only glass mixing bowl so I had to substitute my enamel cast iron sauce pan that I normal use for cooking. In a pinch, anything that looks like a bowl works.



Now add the pumpkin, eggs, milk, apple sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, dash of salt and mix (whisk) really well.



I put a little oil in the baking pan to help with the non-stick factor, just use a little around the inside of the pan. Then start to layer the bread. It's not suppose to be perfect, but make sure you fill the bottom of the pan with bread as best you can.



Now the pumpkin pudding layer. I use a soup ladle to keep things a little less messy.



After cleaning and soaking the raisins, dry them off with a cloth towel and pull off any stems still attached. Add the raisin as the third layer to the pumpkin bread pudding. I just toss a few in - don't put too many.



Keep layering the bread, pumpkin pudding and raisins. I think you'll get three layers of bread and you should use all the pudding mix. Push down on the layers with the ladle to help the bread absorb the pudding mixture.




The last layer of the pumpkin bead pudding should be the pudding. As you can see, the bread doesn't have to be whole, just as long as there is a proper layer. The last layer should always be the pudding mix.

Staub Black Crepe Pan, 11" (Google Affiliate Ad)




Now place the 8"x 8" baking pan on the cookie sheet, the cookie sheet on the pizza stone and cook for about 25 or 35 minutes (depending on your stove). If you need to check your bread pudding, use a butter knife to stab the middle of the bread pudding and bend back the knife a little. If you see the mix is very 'runny' inside, keep baking.



While you are waiting for the bread pudding to cook, you can take the extra bread and make bread crumbs. I use a cheese greater, pick the texture and just grate away.



Here is an example of different grades or textures for bread crumbs. I bag them and use them later for meat balls, frittata, or stuffing zucchini.



Once baked, let it set for about 10 minutes to cool and settle. I leave my bread pudding on the stove top until ready to eat.



On my old cracked plate, I serve this dish with a dollop of whip cream, ice cream or caramel rum raisin sauce. I didn't have any today, so I'm just eating it as is!

Enjoy your stale bread!!

Kaiser Classic Mini Cake Pan (Google Affiliate Ad)

Sunday Afternoon With Jess - Hog Island Oyster Style

I'm working a part-time, seasonal job at William Sonoma so my weekends are not as footloose and fancy free as they use to be. So, I went to work on Sunday feeling a bit deflated that I couldn't join friend for brunch, meet up with the 9:30AM biking group... etc. I got a text around noon time from my friend Jess asking if I was up for a road trip around 2PM - HELL YES! Perfect since I was schedule to end my shift at 2 - stars were aligning.

We drove north across the Golden Gate Bride towards Tomales Bay. Our destination - Hog Island Oysters - about 40 miles north of San Francisco. It was a lovely ride up the coast along a very windy road with a great view of the Pacific ocean. We got to HIO in time for several oysters, some Cowgirl Creamery Cheese, a very nice bottle of the Wattle Creek Sauvignon Blanc and fresh baked local bread. Come to think of it, it was all local cheese, oysters, wine and bread. I really enjoyed the Sweet water raw oysters, but the BBQ were my favorite. So good, I had to dip my bread in to the shell to get the last of the sauce - yum!

Hog Island Oysters has an outside communal seating area with park like picnic benches.  Some people brought their own food and wine and just purchased oysters! I remember thinking it's the end of November and we are picnic'ing and BBQ'ing outside...Awesome! Had a very 'east coast' flavor to the day.  We all spend the Sunday afternoon talking, BBQ'ing and eating some DAMN good oysters.

I can't wait to go back!!!

Acorn Squash Soup - Vitamix Blender

Last week we were making the Stuffed Acorn Squash with Quinoa and Kale. There was about 3 cups of acorn squash leftover from the stuff squash. I froze the extra acorn squash for later use. Well, here it is - Acorn Squash Soup.



What you will need:
-- 3 cups chopped up acorn squash
-- 1 cup milk
-- 3/4 cup Santa Cruz Organic Apple Sauce
-- 1 cups chicken broth
-- pinch of ginger
-- pinch of cinnamon
-- pinch of nutmeg
-- 1/2 onion
-- Salt and pepper as needed
-- water as needed to thin soup
and a Vitamix blender

If you don't have a blender, you can use a food processor. You will need to puree the squash in a food processor of some sort.



Toss all of the ingredients in the Vitamix blender and turn to HIGH. Blend on HIGH for about 5 to 6 minutes or until you see steam escaping from the top.



This is the soup once blended and hot. If it's too thick for you, at this point add some water or more chicken stock and blend on high for about 20 seconds.







Ready to eat right from the Vitamix Blender! Add salt and pepper as needed to the soup. I added a lot of pepper and two dashes of salt to this bowl. I'm not use to the strong squash flavor - much different than butternut squash soup, but still very good.

Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships 2011 - SSCXWC

Just some mud, singlespeed bikes, biggest urban park in the nation, and beers... mix it all together and you get SSCXWC 2011 aka Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships.

On November 20, 2011 in San Francisco, CA we got to see some crazy singlespeed cyclocross riders get busy! Some of the riders were in DEVO costumes, some were dress up as a panda bears, Wonder Woman, Calif. Bears, Cross-dressing mo-fos and so many more unique costumes. The tandem guys and unicycle dudes were my favorites and also a little off their rocker! So much fun playing in the mud with everyone on Sunday in Golden Gate Park!

Here are the videos I took from the last day of the race. I hope you enjoy the videos as much as I did watching the race!


Can these guys be any cooler! Tandem singlespeed cyclocross bikers! Very cool and they looked like they were having a blast! Good guy boys!



Biker breaks for a beer on the logs - This guy was racing in the world championships! However, he decided to stop, have a rest on the log, drink some beer, talk to the spectators and then continue on a very mellow pace - he rules!

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Kale and Quinoa

The acorn squash is a variety of the squash species known as Cucurbita pepo, which includes squash, gourd, pumpkin and zucchini. One cup of cubed acorn squash has about 115 calories, contains a total of 29.9 grams of carbohydrates, and lots of vitamins.



Stuffed acorn squash with kale, quinoa, apple, celery, carrot, onion, and ginger. This dish is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan, and a low-calorie, but filling dish.



Ingredients: 

- 1 Acorn Squash
- 1 bunch of Kale chopped up and de-stem
- 1 tbsp Ginger (more if you enjoy the flavor)
- 1 large Carrot
- 1 Apple
- 1/2 cup Cranberry or Raisin (soak first)
- 1 Jalapeno - one medium, minced
- 1 stalk of Celery, diced
- 1 cup Quinoa (cooked)
- Olive Oil - as needed
- salt and pepper

Meat options: turkey sausage, ground beef, or chicken. If you do not have quinoa, add brown rice. If you do not have kale, add chard or spinach.


In a large pot add: olive oil, chopped yellow onions, some ginger, one jalapeno (wash hands after touching the jalapeno - trust me) and cook on high heat until the onions are transparent / cooked.

Next add the chopped celery and carrots and cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes.


While you're waiting for the celery and carrots to cook, start to gut your acorn squash. A helpful tip is to microwave the squash on defrost setting for 10 minutes (Depends on your microwave - mine is old, so it takes 10 minutes to cook al dente). You do not want to cook the squash all the way, but cook it halfway or al dente. It's easy to cut in half once it's al dente.


Scrap the inside of the squash to make a 'bowl' for your stuffing. Keep the extra 'inside' of the acorn squash to make an acorn squash soup or squash fries.

At this time, you'll want to start cooking your quinoa. Measure 1/2 cup of quinoa to 1 and 1/2 cups water and cook.

Turn oven on to 375 - so it's pre-heated when you're ready to bake the Stuffed Acorn Squash


I typically wait until the very last minute to add the kale, apples, cranberries/raisins and quinoa.

Add the cooked quinoa, kale, cranberry/raisins, and apples into the pot and mix it around for about 5 minutes on medium to low heat.

Now it's time to stuff the acorn.


In a bread baking pan, add about a 1/2 inch of water to the pan to keep the squash moist,  add both sides of the stuffed acorn squash and cover with aluminum foil. Cook covered for about 25 to 30 minutes or until cooked. Do not burn yourself on the steam when uncovering the aluminum foil.

I use salt and pepper to taste and even some Sriracha for a kick!

Kelly Slater Wins 11th World Title at Rip Curl Pro San Francisco

Ran into my friend Art while walking to the Rip Curl Pro media tent and some of his buddies. One of his friends is one of my fav photographers Frankie Quirarte . Check out his amazing photos of California coast, waves, and ocean!




Here's a little video I put together of Kelly Slater and Daniel Ross at the Rip Curl Pro San Francisco 2011 - It's mostly of them getting out of the water, me high five'ing Daniel Ross, Kelly being carried to the stage and some Kelly Slater speech.




Here is a video of some very silly birds that are playing tag with the waves. I think they are called Sanderlings. This was at sunset at Ocean Beach at the far south end passed the parking lot.

Louisa's Pictures

Ran into some guys I ride road bikes with - Team Fusion Cycle Team - They stopped by to check out the Surfing event, then get their mtn biking on somewhere along the coast line. I was so sad I couldn't bike with them. Still recovering from a mtn bike crash from last week.

Louisa's Pictures

Surfer exiting the water and all the kids (and me) wanted to get a photo or a high five from these guys. They are amazing to watch and we had a great view - no need for binoculars

Louisa's  Pictures

The conditions were amazing for the Rip Curl Pro event directly across the street from Beach Chalet and Park Chalet - Everyone was here with a camera or video equipment to get some awesome surf footage

Louisa's Pictures

Carolina and George stopped by around 2 PM right as Kelly slater and D Ross went out for their Heat in the Rip Curl Pro Search. We were able to see both surfers very well, but couldn't get anything on my iPhone - they still do not have a zoom!!!