Savoury Pumpkin Pasta

I was at home on my own one night, home from work and ready to watch a DVD (Mansfield Park) I had gotten from the library. I had pumpkin in the fridge I wanted to use, so I adapted this Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage recipe from Rachael Ray to make a quick, easy and comforting weeknight meal. Also - cooking with wine is a great excuse to drink a glass or two!

In a large pan, heat some olive oil and add 3 minced garlic cloves and one diced onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add 1 bay leaf and 1/2 cup white wine. Let it bubble for 2 minutes so it reduces a little, then add 1/2 cup stock (I used vegetable) and 1/2 cup pumpkin puree. Once it bubbles, reduce the heat and stir in 1/4 cup milk and a few pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg - careful not to overdo it!

Let it bubble away for 5-10 minutes so the sauce can thicken. Remove the bay leaf, and pour over cooked whole wheat pasta - I used penne, which is good for thick sauces. I also stirred in some greens to add some vegetables to the meal. Serve with parmesan cheese or, as I did, feta on top.

The spices give it a little kick and the wine keeps it from being too sweet. The addition of pumpkin means that you can make a nice, thick sauce with very little unhealthy ingredients, like cream and cheese. The original recipe calls for sausage, which I'm sure would be good, but I was just looking for a something quick and light. The fresh sage leaves she calls for would make a big difference, as sage is quite strong and piney - something to try for next time.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

'Tis the season for all things pumpkin. I've just bought my third can of delicious orange pumpkiny mush... I can't stop. It's the fall weather - it screams "Make orange-coloured, spiced things!". But I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to try cheesecake. Also, it was my first time making cheesecake! I only got a springform pan last year, and making an entire cheesecake always seemed quite intimidating. I decided to go the easy route and make mini cheesecakes - super simple. After a dinner of Pumpkin-Peanut Curry Pasta, we needed more pumpkin! I followed this recipe from a lovely food blog called Pinch My Salt.

Luckily I had some graham cracker crumbs left over from another recipe for the crust. I mixed 1 cup crumbs, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp melted margarine, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. I added extra oil to the bowl as it seemed a little dry. I also learned a neat trick after googling how to soften up brown sugar that had hardened - place the sugar in a bowl with a damp paper towel, and microwave, covered, for 20 seconds. It really worked - and saved my butt. Thank God for the internet sometimes. Once it's all mixed, push into the bottom of a 12-cup muffin tray and push down with the back of a spoon.

Thankfully cream cheese softens quite quickly so you don't have to remember to take it out of the fridge the night before. In a large bowl, beat 1 rectangular package of (light) cream cheese, 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1 egg, 1 egg white, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice with a wooden spoon, and then a whisk to break up the chunks of cheese. Pour batter into muffin cups, and bake @375 for about 20 minutes. The recipe originally said 14, but they seemed quite raw still by that point. Cool, then keep in fridge until ready to serve.

They became quite soft after being left out so make sure to keep them in the fridge. We originally ate them unadorned, but the next day I put some Greek yogurt on top in place of the recipe's whipped cream topping, which was a nice compromise. These were a great dessert for a weeknight. The cheese was rich and sweet with a hint of spice. My cat even licked most of the cheese off the top of one while they were cooling - so I can officially say everyone in the house liked them!

Pumpkin-Peanut Curry Pasta

When the weather gets colder and the cans of pumpkin show up on store shelves, this is my go-to recipe. It's a slightly random mix of delicious ingredients that makes a hearty pasta dinner. I have been making it for a couple years, so I almost laughed out loud when I had to google the recipe for this post. The picture for Rachael Ray's Pumpkin-Peanut Curry Noodles with Five-Spice Seared Scallops and Shrimp recipe looked nothing like mine! I had forgotten the original featured scallops and shrimp. Oh well. And before you discount the recipe because it's from Rachael Ray, it's a very un-Rachael Ray recipe. It's not Italian or sandwich-based, and the finishing touch isn't a pound of cheese grated on top. Trust me on this one.

First in the pan is lots of garlic and ginger (grated from frozen), followed by bell peppers (I had both red and green for colour) and red pepper flakes. I usually throw in carrots as well. Then I push the vegetables to one side and start on the sauce: a couple of large spoonfuls of (natural) peanut butter melted, then whisked with tamari/soy sauce, pumpkin puree and curry paste. Seems Rachael Ray uses Patak's Indian curry paste - I've been using thai red curry paste this whole time. I'm sure it's good with both! And when she says it will be thick, it is:

Luckily by this time there should be a pot of whole wheat pasta boiling away on your stovetop, so it's easy to ladle in some starchy pasta water to thin it out. Hmmm, seems she also strangely uses spaghetti. I've always used penne or rotini - much better for thick, chunky pasta sauces.

The resulting meal is really good - peanut and curry are fabulous together and the pumpkin just pulls everything together in a nice thick sauce. Usually when I'm cooking with thai curry paste it's for soup, or actual thai curry, so this pasta dish is something a little different. And other than buying the can of pumpkin, I usually have everything else in the house. Try it with the seafood toppers if you want, but I don't think there's a need.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

For the record, I don't think I had ever eaten a whoopie pie (the dessert du jour, cupcakes are out!) let alone made one. But, 'tis the season for pumpkin things, and I wanted to make a Halloween treat for our Halloween-themed monthly pub trivia night at the Magpie. I had this recipe from Food Network magazine picked out, which involved a chocolate cookie and pumpkin icing, but the online reviews turned me off - good thing I checked! A quick Google search found a multitude of recipes, and I picked Rachael Ray's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies because they seemed to be what I wanted - a pumpkin-flavoured cookie with cream cheese icing.

I don't make cookies too often (they're hard to make healthy since the best ones are full of butter) but I figured since a large group would be eating these, I could go crazy. The batter was different from the choco-chip cookies I normally make - it's made with melted butter and brown sugar, which gave the cookies more of a cake texture.

Despite (or because of?) my use of a cookie scoop (a Xmas present from last year) the thick batter didn't really smooth out very easily, so the cookies were a little bumpy and not all were particularly round, but mostly the same size. Clearly this is a skill I need to work on. But they were a lovely dark orange colour.

Next up was making the cream cheese icing - seemed a pretty standard icing. Which means it was delicious, of course. Hmm.. think I still have some in the fridge... the recipe made twice as much icing as I used, and I thought I had used a generous amount in each 'pie'. Clearly I should have used more! Just didn't want them getting too messy in their Tupperware in the fridge.

Sandwiching them together was pretty fun, mostly because of the large amount of icing I ate in the process. The cookies were so thick that the pies were quite tall - lots of cookie goodness in each bite. My friends seemed to enjoy them - and we ended up in a solid 3rd place at trivia.

Pumpkin Pear Bread

Imagine my happiness when I got the October issue of Vegetarian Times in the mail (courtesy of my dad, who mails his issues up north to me!) and found their '1 Food, 5 Ways' section featured pumpkin - my favourite seasonal ingredient. I'll eat pumpkin anything once September hits. We had an overnight guest coming to visit us for the weekend and I always like to bake when there people around to eat, so I picked the Pumpkin Pear Bread for our Friday night dessert. (Recipe not online so I'll post it below).

While the others played Super Mario World on our Wii, I got started on whisking the dry ingredients. It called for quite a bit of sugar, 1 1/4 cups, which I changed to about 3/4 cup. I find most recipes can handle a small reduction in sugar without compromising the rest. I also made it 100% whole wheat flour, as I usually do. I pretend it's healthier that way. Plus a pumpkin bread doesn't need to be too delicate. I'm also sure you could reduce the oil down to 1/3 cup from 1/2 cup thanks to the pumpkin puree - something to try for next time. Not sure if I got the exact right amount of spices, I was grating fresh nutmeg in so wasn't measuring. (Bonus tip: Buy fresh nutmeg at a bulk store - it's worth it)

I next whisked the wet ingredients together - pretty simple. We used lactose-free milk because our guest is lactose-intolerant, but could have easily used milk, or soy or almond milk. You could probably also use flax-meal as an egg replacer to make it completely vegan if you're so inclined.

I had poured the batter into the loaf pan only to find out - duh - I had forgotten the damn pears. I was clearly getting distracted with all the chatting. Since I had gone to the store to buy them just for the bread, I poured the batter back in the bowl and folded them in. I don't think the extra handling toughened the dough, as the bread turned out fabulously. Still very sweet even with the reduced sugar, nicely spiced, really moist.

Bonus: there was lots left for the rest of the weekend. Breakfast of champions: Strong coffee and sweet pumpkin pear bread. We didn't put anything on it, just ate it as is. Quite decadent! Better than the usual Cheerios or Mini-Wheats. And, perhaps thanks to the pear, the bread stayed moist until Sunday when we finished it off.

Pumpkin Pear Bread, Vegetarian Times, October 2012:

Oven: preheat to 350. Coat loaf pan with oil or margarine.
In medium bowl, whisk:
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp each cinnamon and baking powder
1 tsp each nutmeg and baking soda
Pinch salt

In large bowl, whisk:
1/2 cup oil
1 egg

Whisk in:
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla.
Stir in dry ingredients until just combined.
Fold in 1 15-oz can pears (drained and diced).
Spread in pan, bake 45-55 min.