There are days when I just get the urge to bake.  And there are days when I get the urge to bake for someone.

Yesterday I got the urge to bake for my friend Amanda.

And often when I bake, I double or triple or quadruple a recipe so that I can make tons and freeze the extra for later urges…to eat or to give.  I kinda figure that while you’re making a mess, it isn’t that much more mess to prepare extra to satisfy urges.

I should let you know though that while I made umteen loaves of pumpkin bread yesterday, I did neglect to cook dinner and had to run out to pick some up. (Keeping it real here people.)

So when it was warm from the oven and my husband had walked in and I was going to walk out and grab some take-out for us, I told him that I needed to stop by and take some to Amanda.

She didn’t know I was coming.  I tried calling and texting and she didn’t answer, and I decided that I didn’t care if she knew I was coming or not, because this wasn’t the first thought I’ve had of Amanda lately.  I’ve been thinking of her alot.  Her mom has been battling cancer and that alone is reason enough to be more prayerful on her behalf than normal…but yesterday I couldn’t get over the feeling that she needed warm bread.

I wrapped up the bread and tied it pretty and hopped in the car with it and a container of the best tomato soup known to man (which sadly I don’t make and cannot wrangle the recipe for) and headed to just drop by to drop off a little “thinking of you.”

When I got to her house she had just gotten out of the shower, had on sweats, no makeup, and a giant smile of welcome for my unannounced drop in.  I could have cared less what Amanda had on or the state of her home (which by the way is preparing for remodel so it’s stripped bare in some parts.)  I just felt strongly like she needed to know she was on my mind and on the Lord’s that He’d keep bringing her to mine.

So I hugged her and gave her bread and she cried and said I had no idea how much she needed that yesterday.

But somehow I knew.  It’s why I baked bread in the first place.  And sometimes breaking bread with someone looks more like baking bread for them.

It’s the prophecy of pumpkin bread…those urges we get to do something to remember someone else tangibly and unexpectedly with nothing more than a hunch that it matters.

And it did.

And it does.

So the next time you get that feeling to bake and take….or to buy that cute little mug in the Marshalls check out line … or to stop by with a surprise cafe Americano on a dreary day for your friend… DO IT!  It just might be that the Lord’s prompting has some real needs behind it.

So here is the recipe for you… my most favorite pumpkin bread recipe ever.  It’s fallish and spiced and almost like a cake.  I love it with cream cheese spread on a warm piece!  And in the comments below, I’d love if you’d share stories like this…of when you took and someone needed or when someone brought and it ministered to you!

Pumpkin Bread with Dates and Pecans

• 1 c. water
• 1 c. applesauce
• 1 can pumpkin
• 3 c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 c. chopped pecans
• 3/4 c. chopped dates
• 1 tsp each…nutmeg, ginger, salt, and baking powder
• 3 1/2 c. flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cloves

Mix first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl.  Mix drys all together and add to pumpkin mixture and blend well.  Pour into 2-3 loaf pans and bake at 325 for 1 hr or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Once in a while I come across a recipe that is so simple, I actually even think to myself “this seems too simple to be very good.”

But in my quest to even simplify some of my life lately, I should really remind myself that sometimes it is the simplest things that yield the greatest return.

Lazy day fishing by a pond with my family….super simple, super awesome.  Breeze through a hammock with a good book in the back yard… understated perfection.  Fresh summer anything from the garden… bound to be nearly divine.

That’s how it is with this recipe.  Put excellent simple ingredients together, toss it around for maybe 10 minutes, and seems too good to be true.

But good and true it is!

From one of my favorite chefs, Sarah Foster, I give you a summer dish of epically simple and fabulous proportion!

Sautéed Summer Shrimp with Fresh Corn, Tomatoes, and Basil (serves 4-6)

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced (I ran out of shallots and so I substituted a finely chopped 1/2 onion)
• 1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 heirloom tomato cored and diced (I just used 2 regular tomatoes from the farmers market)
• kernels from 2 ears fresh corn
• 6 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips

1. Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.  Add the minced shallot and saute for 1 minute, just to soften.  Add the shrimp, season with salt and pepper, and saute for about 1 1/2 minutes per side or until the shrimp all turn pink.  Remove the shrimp and shallots from the pan and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. (If you need to do this in 2 batches to cook everything evenly, then just divide everything in half and do it twice.  I’m lazy, so I do it all at once.)

2. Melt the butter over high heat in the skillet you cooked the shrimp in, being careful not to let the butter brown.  Stir in the tomato and corn and saute until the corn is tender, 3-4 minutes.  Return the shrimp to the pan, sprinkle with the basil, and stir just to coat the shrimp with the sauce and warm them slightly.  Season with additional salt and pepper as needed and serve warm.

I served it tonight with spinach that I quickly wilted on the stove in a tad of butter with salt and pepper.  Also, our family LOVES this brown rice and quinoa mix from Seeds of Change that we pick up at Costco.  It only takes 90 seconds to warm up and has a good bit less sodium than many of the other 90 second rice packets contain.

That’s it!  See…super simple, super summery, and super delish!

For more awesome recipes from Sarah Foster, I highly recommend both of her cookbooks which can be found on Amazon!  This recipe is from Fresh Every Day, which is probably my favorite of the two!

I’m learning something about myself, and it’s that what comes out of my kitchen is often a barometer for the state of my heart.  If I’m cooking fresh and delicious food, it’s honestly becoming an indication of the amount of margin I’m creating in my life.  If we’re picking up dinner, then it probably means that I’m spent and don’t have much left to give.

Sadly, we’ve been picking up dinner a lot lately.

But I’m working to create more margin in my life… exiting extra facebook groups, making business calls and working on Allume during set office hours, plugging in my phone in another room for the afternoon.  I want more of my life back, and truthfully, something about the internet and all of the noise can easily just get in the way.

Cooking for me has always been a love.  And as my 8 year old went for seconds last night and kept exclaiming how much he was enjoying this yummy new dinner I made, I realized again how much my family feels love in what I serve up for them to eat.

Hospitality really begins with those who live in rooms just down the hall.  If I can’t give them my best, then I don’t need to be moving on beyond that to extend it elsewhere either.

So, give your family some love this week…and might I suggest that you can even begin by putting the following on their plates for dinner!

Grilled Basil Salmon with Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa

• 4 salmon fillets cut 1 inch thick (about 6 oz each), skin on
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
• Juice of 1/2 orange
• 8 basil leaves cut into thin strips
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• I also added probably 2 tsp lime juice, and 1 Tbsp honey (but that was going off the reservation and adding my own stuff)

1. Rinse the salmon fillets under cool water, pat dry with paper towels, and place skin side down in a shallow dish. Rub the salmon fillets with the olive oil, drizzle with the soy sauce and orange juice (drizzle honey and lime now too if you want to add it), and sprinkle with the basil. Turn the fillets to coat with the marinade, press the basil into the flesh side of the fillet, and turn them skin side up.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.

2.  Prepare a hot fire in the grill (or heat a grill pan over medium heat to hot, almost to the smoking point.)  Remove the salmon fillets from the marinade, season with salt and pepper, and lay the fillets, skin side down, on the grill for 4 minutes, brushing the flesh side with the reserved marinade.  Turn the fillets and grill for an additional 4 minutes, spooning the marinade over them as they cook, until the fish is opaque and flakes easily when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Remove the fillets from the grill, peel off the skin, and place them, skinned side down, on a serving platter or individual plates.  Serve immediately topped with the grilled pineapple salsa (or any fresh salsa of your choice would actually be delish as well.)

Grilled Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa

• 1/2 ripe pineapple, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, cored, seeded, and minced (recipe called for 2, but that would have been too hot for my kids)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (1 inch piece), and if you didn’t know, you can buy fresh ginger & store it in the freezer for whenever you need a piece
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• juice of 1/2 orange
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Prepare a medium fire in the grill. (I grilled the pineapple before I did the fish, so while the fish was cooking, I was chopping the grilled pineapple.)  Place the pineapple rounds on the grill for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown on both sides.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

2.  Cut the pineapple into 1/4 inch chunks and discard the cores.  Place the chunks in a large bowl.  Add the onion, jalapeños, bell pepper, ginger, honey, vinegar, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper and toss gently to combine.  Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.  Serve over grilled salmon. (We also thought this would be great on my recipe for slow roasted pork tacos, or any grilled chicken or fish.)

Bon Apetít ya’ll!

This recipe was originally found in one of my favorite cookbooks, Fresh Every Day by Sara Foster

This is a recipe from last year.  It’s worth sharing EVERY SINGLE YEAR though for New Year’s Day.  I promise!

I must confess that headed into this recipe I was skeptical. I’m a good Southern girl, but that doesn’t mean that I have a burning passion for all things black-eyed peas and collard greens that I want to tell the world about. In fact, memories of the food from every single New Year’s Day growing up still make me cringe.

If you’re from the South, you probably at least know what I’m talking about. The New Years Day dinner. Black eyed peas for luck and prosperity in the new year, collard greens for money, cornbread for gold, stewed tomatoes for wealth and health, and if you really want to be the luckiest one at your table, then you’ll be the one served the penny in the bottom of the pot along with all of your black-eyed goodness.

I started dreading New Year’s Day food always very shortly after Christmas. And every year I remember begging my mom to just make something normal.

SO, when my sister recommended that I try this recipe over a year ago (it is originally from Cooking Light 2007,) I just wasn’t so sure. But she’s a great cook and so is my mom, who also recommended it. They both love the New Years food though. It was a risk to be sure, but after weeks of sickness, and busyness, and travel…I have to be honest and say that my creative cooking bone had taken a vacation as well. To put it plainly, I’d been in a culinary slump. And the first time I made this, I just didn’t want to have to think about what was for dinner…I just wanted to cook it.

I did it though. I went to the store and I bought the stuff I needed and I made this stew. And now since I’ve taste-tested, I can’t wait to eat it again. It is awesome! This stew has single-handedly changed my opinion on New Year’s food.  In fact, when I saw black eyed-peas on sale at the store this week, I was actually excited to make this again at the time that seems to most celebrate these ingredients!

Here you go ya’ll. For those who love collards and black-eyed peas…and for those who, like me, need a new opinion of them.

Black Eyed-Pea Stew

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried black-eyed peas
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (whatever…I used EVOO. I have a feeling any oil is probably fine.)
• 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 8 ounces turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I LOVE Better than Bouillon more than broth or bouillon…give them a shot for any base broth)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 (28-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
• 1 (10-ounce) bag prewashed collard greens (or mustard greens, or turnip greens…the collards are a little heartier though)
• 1 (10oz can) Rotele tomatoes (the original recipe didn’t call for this, but it added some awesome kick.) For a less spicy version, I’d leave this out.

Preparation

• Sort and wash peas; set aside.
• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 3 minutes or until tender. Add sausage; cook 4 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Stir in broth; bring to a simmer, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in peas, salt, peppers, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer 45 minutes or until peas begin to soften. Uncover and cook 15 minutes or until liquid begins to thicken.
• Stir in vinegar, tomatoes, and mustard greens; simmer 10 minutes or until peas are tender, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaves.

Enjoy ya’ll. And lemme know if any unusual luck comes your way after you make it! 🙂

I can’t believe it’s almost the new year!?!

Thought I’d make a 4×6 Printable Version for you here too so that you can save it for yourself every year!  Click the link below to download it!

Black Eyed Pea Stew 4×6 Recipe Card