Thanksgiving comes very late this year, so we still have lots of time to enjoy autumn things and eat lots of yummy autumn food! This month’s Pickett’s Pearls features warm and cozy Pumpkin Soup, Orange Margaritas and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. (All 4 ingredients of course:)
Pickett’s Pearls to the Rescue
My very good friend Jill has a party every Halloween and she has the same scrumptious menu which includes Pumpkin Soup from a cafe called Plums. Well this year she called me in a panic because the chef at Plums hasn’t been making the soup. (The nerve!) I told her that I would see what I could come up with. I didn’t really have time to go shopping at that point, but luckily I had some things in my cupboard that I thought just might work. The soup turned out surprisingly delicious even though the ingredients are very unorthodox. I know because it was met with wholehearted approval from Jill herself! Here’s what you will need:
A can of pumpkin puree
1/2 of a 14.5 oz. can of thick coconut cream (or 3/4 cup of heavy cream)
1 to 1 & 1/2 cups of Ginger Miso soup - TJ’s (Miso soup is mostly vegetable broth and I thought the ginger would add a lot.) Vegetable broth can also be used.
1/3 cup of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin bread mix (before you think “too weird” remember that bread or cake mixes are basically flour, sugar and spices.) I needed a 4th ingredient that had pumpkin spices and sweetness!
Simply blend these 4 ingredients in a pot and serve hot in very small bowls. (It’s very rich.) You can top the soup with very finely chopped candied pecans, which can be purchased at the store. (I candied pecan pieces myself by combining them in a small pot with a little more pumpkin bread mix and butter till everything was browned, and then I chopped up the mixture very finely.)
*If soup gets too thick, just add a little more miso soup.
Orange Margaritas
Every year at Jill’s same Halloween party, I make The award winning Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa Margarita recipe. This year Jill asked me if I could make Orange Margaritas. I like a challenge so I went for it! Here goes:
A cup of tequila
A cup of beer (yep that’s the recipe:)
A cup of limeade concentrate.
A cup of frozen mandarin oranges (you have to freeze these yourself), a cup of frozen peaches-chopped, or a cup of frozen mango pieces (all of these are good!)
Blend everything together with 2 to 3 cups of ice and you have a super fun fall party drink! We also put a tiny bit of lime around the glass rim and turned the glass over onto a saucer of Tajin (a very popular mexican salt/spice; you only want a touch of this!)
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Recently my daughter, Abbey, wanted to make pumpkin bread, so my family and I taste tested a bunch of pumpkin bread boxed recipes and we found that we liked the Trader Joe’s “Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Mix” the best! All you have to do is follow the directions and add a heaping 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips. (What is it about dark chocolate and pumpkins? Beyond yummy!) Additionally, you can add a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans to the mixture or to the top before baking.
By the way, it’s not by chance that everything on this post is orange and blue! Go Auburn Tigers!
