She’d gone to Georgia on vacation and brought me a big bag of pecan meal. I had found a bread recipe somewhere and decided to use the nut meal up and give it to my parents for the holidays.  Both of them liked it a lot.  Then I lost the recipe.

Recently I was cruising my allrecipes.com account and found I’d submitted it to the website! At the time of submission,  I couldn’t remember where I had found it originally and I had wanted to submit it to the website so I could recall it when I wanted it again.

All this time it has been in my private recipe folder (which I never check) because it was still pending review. I can’t believe it is still pending review nearly 5 years later either!

So the recipe found at long last!  I sent it to mom and told her if she bought the goods I’d come over and make it.  She’s never quite gotten the hang of yeast breads.

This thing takes a while to rise so Mom was telling me about another “lost recipe” she’s been trying to find.  Some kind of creamy filling bread she once read about somewhere. So we were sitting at the kitchen table and I started helping her search in her cookbooks..

Voila! In this 1983 church cookbook my grandfather’s cousin Leona had given my mother was the very same POTICA recipe I thought I lost.

So all the while that mom was bugging me to make her the bread and I said I couldn’t because I lost the recipe? That recipe was on her kitchen counter.  When I saw it, I remembered I had copied it out long hand on scrap paper to take home to try out.

My potica is a brown sugar and pecan pinwheel bread — a variation on the potica that has walnuts instead.  When sliced open, it has spirals. It’s double rise — first 2 hours then 1 hour so best made on a day you plan to be doing other things while waiting.

Prep Time: 195 min
Cook Time: 45 min
Ready In: 240 min

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

• 1 envelope yeast
• 1/4 cp water
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup shortening (ex: Crisco)
• 3 1/2 – 3-3/4 cup white flour

Filling:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup ground pecans

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix first eight ingredients.  Knead until smooth and elastic. Allow to rise for 2 hours.

2. Punch dough down and let rise again for 15 minutes.

3. In the meantime, mix remaining ingredients for filling.

4. Divide dough in half. Roll out both halves until very thin and spread each sheet with half of pecan filling. Roll up like a pinwheel and place on greased cookie sheet. Allow to rise for 60 min.

5. Brush with egg wash if using. Bake for 45 min at 350 deg.

Paul and I liked it but Julia did not care for the onions. I have to remember to leave those out for her.

INGREDIENTS

Filling:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 package Boca burger Crumbles (about 12 oz)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 (15 oz) can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups Biscuit/baking mix
• 1 tbs sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

Prehat oven to 400 deg.

Add olive oil to skillet and sautee onions and peppers.  Add Boca crumbles and heat through.

Meanwhile in a bowl mix tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste.  Add to filling ingredients and blend.  Pour into 9×13 inch pan. Sprinkle with cheese if using.

In separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, and biscuit/baking mix.  Pour over filling.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 25 min.

I didn’t have sesame seeds but it turned out nicely anyway.

She’s experimenting with new art supplies — tortillons, charcoal pencils, water color pencils…

I’m experimenting with new recipes and shutting down my garden before I have landscapers come in to regrade and put in mulched paths.

ZUCCHINNI BAKE

We did this recipe together for a quiche-like bake because I was trying to use up some organic zucchinni and organic yellow crookneck  squash. I think it is her first non-dessert recipe she executed with supervision. I found it at allrecipes.com and just use halfsies instead of all zucchinni.

Julia grated the squashes since she can’t use a sharp knife yet.  We skipped the onion because she insisted that it would make us cry. (She’s going through this anti-onion period.)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup biscuit baking mix
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/4 cup grated onion
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 zucchini, thinly sliced (Or grated!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8×8 inch baking pan.
   
2. In a large bowl, combine baking mix, cheese, garlic powder, seasoning salt, oregano, salt, pepper and parsley. Stir in onion, eggs and oil; stir well. Stir in zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan.
   
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

PHOTOS

Here’s Julia cooking standing on a stool.  I was also making 5 entrees and sides for a mom with a new baby so we were having a good time wrecking the kitchen!

This is what the batter looked like.  We liked it so much grated, I don’t think I’ll get around to trying this with sliced squashes.

Julia pouring the batter into the 8×8 glass dish.

It took a long meditative period to get the batter smoothed just so…

Fresh out of the oven after baking 30 min at 350 deg.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 7/8 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe avocado
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the mashed avocado. Stir in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk until just mixed. Fold in the chopped pecans, raisins and orange zest. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans.
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow loaves to cool in pan for at least 20 minutes before removing.

Result? Four loaves of ok quickbread. It was moist, dense, the raisins were nice, but give me carrot or pumpkin any day. I don’t get the raves. It just seemed ordinary to me, albeit a nice way to get rid of the avocado.

I decided to use up some pears and baked this recipe from Vegetarian Times. Since I have to take it to Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m left it mostly like it is and am taking some vanilla ice cream on the side in case the kids aren’t keen on gingerbread.

Later I figure I’m going to be swapping out that egg for some flax seeds and omitting the yogurt entirely in favor of more applesauce to veganize it.

I made it in a 2.6 L Anchor Hocking glass pan with a lid. Makes it easier to transport than the 8×8 with no lid. (2 L). So I added extra pear topping to cover the bottom and just dealt with the fact that there’s be less cake stuff on top. Cut out a heart from paper, put it in the center and dusted the top with powdered sugar since I don’t plan on flipping it over like an upside down cake.

Pear Topping

• 1 tbs Earth Balance (to grease pan)
• 5 tbs packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 4 pears, peeled, cored and grated

Gingerbread

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or mix white and whole wheat)
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 large egg (Or 1 tbs ground flax seed + 3 tbs water)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (or use soy yogurt or use more applesauce)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Brush 8×8-inch glass baking dish with butter. To make Pear Topping: Press brown sugar over bottom of prepared skillet. Sprinkle with nuts. Arrange pear evenly over nuts.
2. To make Gingerbread: Whisk flours, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat egg, sugar and molasses with electric mixer 3 minutes. Add applesauce and oil, and beat until blended. Fold in flour mixture and yogurt Pour batter over pears.
3. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Dust top with powdered sugar if desired.

Preheat oven at 350 deg. Mix all these together in a bowl:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or mix of white and whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tbs ground flax seed

Fold these in with a spatula.

• 1 cup apples – peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Pour into 9×5 loaf pan and bake for 50-55 min or until toothpick in center comes out clean. If made with white flour, it’s a very moist bread almost like bread pudding.

 Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 6 tablespoons water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9×5 inch loaf pan or two mini loaf pans.
2. Whisk together flax seed meal, water, and pumpkin. Add 1-3 tbs water if looks too thick but keep in mind this is a thick batter.
   
3. In another bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and cloves.  Stir wet into dry and mix until well combined. Fold in walnuts and cranberries. 
4. Bake in preheated oven for 65 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. (Start checking mini loaves at 45 min.)
   

But today Julia and I had time for some toddler cooking and I selected the easiest pumpkin pie recipe I could find online.

When informed it was time to cook, Julia announced, “I get to be the first chef! You can be the other one. Wait a minute… I’ll get my stuff!”

Next think I knew she was in the kitchen with her play apron, chef’s hat, a wooden ladle from her play kitchen and dragging a kitchen chair to stand on by the counter. Her open, sunny face demanding “Now what? Where do I stir?”

I made her give me the toy ladle and handed her measures.  Then I laid out ingredients and utensils so we could measure up

• 1 (16 oz) can Libby’s pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
•  1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 (12 oz) package firm Mori-Nu tofu
• 1 9 inch graham pie shell (Keebler Ready Crust Pie Crusts are vegan)

The lesson today was about measuring more than anything else. And having pie for mom to eat because mom was not going to feel like making breakfast later on and pie is easy.

I helped Julia get all this into my blender so she could whiz it smooth. She sniffed everything and stuck her grubby little fingers in to sample the sugar, pumpkin, and tofu. In fact, I had a hard time getting her to STOP grabbing chunks of tofu out and blobs of pumpkin so I could put the lid to the blender on.

Ater it was all blended smooth we poured it in the pie shell and I chucked it in to bake at 425 for 15 min and then 350 for 40 min. Cool and then refrigerate.

(And don’t think you can use a mixer instead of a blender. Many years ago I did a tofu pumpkin pie with a mixer. It looked fine until I baked it and all the bigger blobs of tofu that had hidden in the pumpkin batter floated to the top giving my pie a strange white freckled look. Tasted fine, but looked like bad pumpkin acne. )

After sticking the pie in the oven I started to clean up but Julia started to wave the spatula she’d been licking and sang… “Pie! Pie! Pumpkin pie!”

I laughed.

She gave me an impish look and sang, “Pie! Pie! Tofu pie!” to see what my reaction would be the second time. So I laughed again.

Then came  an all out jig with “Pie! Pie! Tofu pie! Pumpkin pie! TOFU PUMPKIN PIE!” because if mom laughs at pumpkin pies and she laughs at tofu pies, surely a TOFU PUMPKIN PIE must incite sheer riots of giggle fits!

We pulled ourselves and the dishes together and later we pulled out the result to cool and nibble at the edges:

Not bad, though Julia didn’t like it. She likes the raw batter better. I think it needs molasses and maybe regular Chinese style tofu instead of Japanese silken because firm silken is still too soft for me.  I don’t want this to be like a soft pudding pie — I want it more sliceable.

The waffles were deliciously light and airy although had a tendency to split when I opened the waffle iron. I hear this happens in eggless recipes.  I liked the cornmeal giving it a bit of a gritty texture and the lemon was a good mix. It all went well with the blueberries and I think this would be a good one for entertaining at a brunch.

I liked it and it was actually a very nice banana bread.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cups Sucanat
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup dark raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance Spread
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, rice milk or orange juice
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Oil a loaf pan with a dab of oil on a paper towel or oil spray.

Mix all the dry stuff together up to but not including vegan margarine.

Mash the margarine and bananas with all the other wet stuff and once well blended, dump into the dry stuff.

Mix the whole thing with a spatula. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 min or until toothpick in center comes out clean.

You can also make this as 3 mini loaves.

 NUTRITION PER SLICE

Calories: 345
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Carbohydrate: 62 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 5 g