Spicy Garlicky Pumpkin Seeds

I found this little recipe from a spicy-foods cookbook called Red Hot. I had huge hopes for it when I saw the ingredients... it came out fine, but not as special as I'd hoped
Prepare:
-1 cup pumpkin seeds
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tsp dried chili flakes
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp caster/icing sugar
Cook:
-In a fry pan on medium heat, cook the pumpkin seeds for a couple minutes till they swell and brown a little bit-Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes more-Add red pepper flakes and salt and cook for 1 or 2 more minutes
-Turn off heat, sprinkle with sugar
Tips:
-The book also states that you can sprinkle lime juice on it and eat right away; otherwise, store in an airtight jar

Polenta Focaccia

Browsing through a copy of Woman's Weekly at the hospital, I stumbled on this easy polenta focaccia recipe. I whipped it up to serve for some friends for dinner as an appetizer to potato gnocchi and pesto. This recipe really was a winner. The bread topped with pesto and parmesan was an especially lovely treat.
Prepare:
-Sift together 2 2/3 cups self-raising flour, 3/4 cup polenta, 1 tsp sea salt, 2 tsp rosemary-Mix 1 1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp instant dried yeast (7g) and mix well (whisk)
-Mix the flour with yeast-water and add 1/2 cup olive oil
-Knead together thoroughly -Set aside for an hour or so and let rise
-Re-knead for 5 minutes
-Divide into 2 balls
-Roll pretty flat (about 1 cm) on a floured surface
-Put on a pan that lightly has polenta flour spread on it-Place flattened dough on pan, sprinkle polenta on top and poke holes with a fork
-Let rise for at least 15 minutes
Cook:
-Preheat oven to 230C / 445F
-Once oven is hot place bread in and bake for 5-10 min, until golden brown
Tips:
-Mix in 1-2 tsp of freshly cracked pepper into the dough - I did it with only half and it was so good, I'd definitely do it for the whole batch next time. I also think I'd maybe mix in some minced garlic as well
-If you don't have self-raising flour, the equivalent to 1 cup is 7/8 cups plain flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Noodles, Corn and Brussel Sprouts

I know I've posted a pumpkin soup recipe before but I wanted to post anew since this one is a bit different. That and a friend told me that this was "fanfuckingtastic" (thanks Claire).

Prepare:
-Chop up and peel half a large pumpkin
-Lightly coat with olive oil and place in a roasting tray
-Thinly slice 1 large yellow onion
-~5 dried dates
-Dekernel one corn
-Halve about 7 or 8 brussel sprouts
-Get about 1 cup of cooked chick peas
-Dice 1-3 hot chili peppers
-1 cup dried pasta (I used wholemeal spirals)
-Spices and seasonings... bay leaf, salt, pepper, honey, cinnamon, cloves...

Cook:
-Roast at ~ 400F/200C for about an hour, putting about half a head of garlic still in the peel in the tray after 30 min-Once the pumpkin is ready, lightly sautée onion for about 5 minutes -When onion is translucent, add pumpkin and roasted garlic (remove the peel!) to the pot, cover with water and stock powder or stock
-Bring to a boil, add bay leaves and chili
-Turn heat to a simmer, cover and leave alone for about 15 min
-Once pumpkin starts falling apart, add the chickpeas and dates, mix through and then puree using hand-blender and attain even mixture
-Keep heat at a simmer
-Add pasta and brussel sprouts
-Add 1-2 tbsp honey
-About 5 minutes later, add the corn kernels
-Mix 1 tsp of cinnamon and cloves each through
-Once pasta is done, take off heat. Serve immediately with toasted breadTips:
-I added the chickpeas mainly to give a bit of protein and thicken it up without using cream or anything - I couldn't really taste them, though. If you wanted a more beany taste, using a stronger bean like butter beans or borlotti beans would be best, as would upping the amount used and perhaps reserving some for after blending
-The corn and brussel sprouts worked quite well... the corn gave a sweet crunchiness and the sprouts a nice green solid feel. Broccoli or cauliflower would work quite well, put in a bit after the pasta
-The dates, honey, cinnamon, and cloves helped to make the soup a bit sweet and really complement the roasted pumpkin taste. The chili gave a bit of a bite that worked quite well with the the mellowness of the rest of the soup. It wasn't too sweet by any means; just had a nice richness to it
-Cream (coconut, especially) would not hurt this soup
-Make a large batch! This freezes quite well (almost better the 2nd day)

Cauliflower-based Risotto with Mushroom and Broccoli

At the markets, I saw a gigantic head of cauliflower on sale and promptly purchased it. I'm a sucker for cauliflower and was keen on doing some experimentation, as well. This metafilter forum had a tremendous amount of awesome ideas, but this one really stuck out to me as being key. I set about making it following the loose steps in the post as well as adding from my own experience with risotto and food. It was pretty nice as a risotto but, honestly, I feel like the cauliflower taste was too subdued and almost a waste. But I regret nothing!
Prepare:
-Chop and separate about 1 medium cauliflower or half of a huge one
-Sprinkle oil through, mix, and then add salt, pepper, and cumin seeds
-Roast at 200C/400F for about 1 hr, mixing in the middle. 40 minutes into it, add several cloves of garlic, still in the peel-Once cauliflower is cooked, place in a pot with the garlic, some bay leaves, cover with water and bring to a boil
-After about 10 minutes, puree til even consistency. Set aside-Dice 1 large onion
-Prepare about 2 cups rice (you should use arborio but I just use medium grain)
-Chop some broccoli and some mushroom
-Grate 1/2 - 1 cup of parmesan
-Optional: have some previously toasted/roasted pumpkin seeds
Cook:
-In a large pot, lightly sautée onion in olive oil or butter for 5 minutes on medium heat
-Add rice and toast for several minutes, tossing often to get full area coated and cooked
-Add in the cauliflower soup
-Bring to boil, lower to simmer and keep stirring for a while
-As the rice absorbs the water/soup, add more water (with or without stock powder)-In the meantime, in a different pan, sautée mushroom and broccoli in some olive oil and salt on medium heat, turn off flame when veggies are cooked-Taste the rice every 5 minutes or so to check doneness
-Once rice is cooked through turn off heat, mix parmesan through, then add mushroom, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper
-Garnish bowls with fresh basil and a tiny bit of olive oil

Tips:
-As I mentioned above, this was very nice but not nearly cauliflowery enough. What I would do is maybe cook the risotto the same way, only solely with stock, and then at the end mix through with cauliflower soup instead of the parmesan (perhaps using some cream in the soup) or just mix in stir-fried cauliflower like the broccoli
-The pumpkin seeds were a whim but I was really pleased with them. They're ones that I'd salted, peppered, oiled and roasted for an hour after a batch of pumpkin soup

Melon Oatmeal

I make smoothies/juices often and usually there some left. I put it in a tupperware and freeze it and then use it to "kick-start" my next smoothie. Somewhere down the line, I was hankering for some oatmeal (I use rolled oats) and thought, "hmm, instead of milk or water, why don't I use smoothie?" I did and it worked.
Yesterday morning I got up, hankering for some oatmeal. I didn't have any smoothie but what I did have was some canteloupe and watermelon. So I did it.
Prepare:
-3/4 cup of rolled oats (1 cup is a big portion)
-about 5 big bite-size pieces each of watermelon and canteloupe
Cook:
-Seed and blend the melon
-In a small pot on medium heat, mix the oats with the melon puree-Cook for about 5 minutes or until consistency you like is reached. If there's too little liquid after a couple minutes, add some milk/water/more puree

Zwetschgenschnecken! (German plum rolls)

I added that exclamation mark because I feel a word like that must be yelled, not said.
I write this entry with trepidation - committing an almost-unthinkable act: adding a recipe before tasting the product.
Why would I do something like this, you may wonder; there are a number of reasons, actually:
1) this is the most technically difficult thing I've made, I reckon. I am proud and want to share my glory
2) I really fear this is going to suck. The recipe I got was weird, the fact that there are pretty much no other recipes for this thing is weird, and the name is weird.
3) I'm waiting while it's in the oven

It all started today with a bag of plums for 1 dollar. It's the end of the season and I was at the markets around closing time and so snagged it up. Some googling later pointed me to this recipe that caught my eye, though instilled worry given its lack of comments/reviews. I bought some cream cheese and commenced this wild ride. I made quite a few adjustments to the recipe, almost enough to call it Measchgenschnecken, I think, but they were based on availability of stuff in my kitchen/personal judgment.

Prepare:
-Dice about 8 plums. The riper the better, but not too soft
-Toast about 1/4 cup macadamia nuts (original recipe calls for almonds... I think any nice, not salty nut, would be good)-Prepare some "plum butter". This actually isn't butter; the recipe is here. I didn't have enough plums for that, so I used some pear jam/sauce that I made a couple weeks ago - about 1/2 cup
-Mix these first 3 and set aside
-In a large bowl, mix
-1/2 c olive oil
-1/2 c milk (I used soy)
-5/8 c white sugar
-1 1/2 c cream cheese (I just used a large packet, which is 250g and not enough and I think that may have contributed to some of the problems)
-1 pinch of salt
-1 tsp of cinnamon (I used cloves since I didn't have it)
-Then add 4 cups of flour and 1 tsp of baking powder (This was the craziest part... the recipe called for 1/4 cup of baking powder! Never have I heard of that - even "baking powder cookies" uses less than that. I assumed it was a typo and hope it turns out to be the case)
-Knead dough on floured surface
-Roll dough to a rough 20 inch by 20 inch square (I didn't measure this and was hopeless in this part)-Spread the plum mix in the middle
-Roll up tightly... somehow-Cut into 12 even slices
Cook:
-Preheat oven to 350F/ 175C
-Grease a flat pan
-Arrange rolls on the pan and butter the tops-Bake for 50 minutes or until brown
Verdict! So these turned out to be damn tasty, I must say. I'm glad I did the modifications that I did to the recipe since it turned out pretty right. In the future if I use the little amount of cream cheese that I did, I would add an egg to the dough to make it stickier and more pliable. But I'm very happy, even though it was quite difficult to do.
Tips:
-Rolling it up was pretty difficult... hard to evenly get it at once. I think maybe if you had put baking paper underneath originally it would be much easier. I also wonder if the dough was right - it felt like it was not connected enough... I suspect an egg should have been involved. Of course, this could be due to the fact that I didn't have enough cream cheese...

Banana Chocolate Shake

Every now and then I get a craving for a creamy shake. The problem is that they're usually like 5$ and unhealthy, so I never buy them. I tried to make one at home that was maybe a bit healthier and definitely cheaper. It came out with pretty much the exact consistency I wanted, thick and creamy but still drinkable, which was very nice.

Prepare:
-Couple tbsp cocoa powder
-1 tbsp hot water
-5 cubes ice
-1 banana
-1/4 cup milk (I used soy)
-1.5 tbsp low-fat vanilla yogurt

Cook:
-I put the tbsp water in a big beaker that goes with my blender, then put it in the microwave for 30 seconds to boil
-Mix in the cocoa until it's a bit thicker and almost like a paste-Pour in half the milk and the yogurt and blend-Mix in the banana, ice, and the rest of the milk and blend again
Tips:
-You could change this in may ways... substituting ice cream for yogurt, using a different kind of milk, putting in berries instead of banana, different flavored yogurt, mixing in mint leaves... the world is your milkshake!