Penne Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce

I've literally had this recipe in my drawer for over a year. I wanted to make it last year but my husband hates pumpkin everything (and he's not that picky...so when he doesn't like something I try to avoid it) and I just never got around to making it.

However, a few weekends ago he went up to hunting camp so that was the perfect opportunity for me to make this.

This was an easy dish to put together, and came out great. The pumpkin flavor was so nice and the creamy sauce just lent itself so nicely to the penne pasta. And honestly, the leftovers tasted almost better then the day I made this. It might take me another year to make this, but I will definitely make it again!

Ingredients
Source: Martha Stewart

12 ounces penne rigate (ridged), or other short pasta
Coarse salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (I used dried)
3-4 leaves fresh sage, minced (I added)
1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar (I omitted)
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for garnish (optional) (I omitted)

Directions

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 2 cups pasta water; drain pasta and set aside.

In pasta pot, heat oil over medium. Add rosemary and fry, stirring, until starting to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rosemary to a paper towel, leaving oil in pot.

Carefully (oil is hot and will spatter) add pumpkin puree, garlic, half-and-half, Parmesan, vinegar, red-pepper flakes, and 1 cup reserved pasta water to pot. Stir sauce until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add pasta to sauce, and toss to coat. If sauce is too thick, add some reserved pasta water. Season generously with salt. Serve pasta sprinkled with fried rosemary and, if desired, more red-pepper flakes.

Savoury Pumpkin Soup

Sunday Afternoon rolled around and my husband requested an all time favorite...soup and grilled cheese. Just when I was decided that I didn't feel like using canned soup, I remembered that I had some canned pumpkin in the fridge left over from my marbled pumpkin cheesecake. Thus, Savoury Pumpkin Soup was born. I didn't follow a recipe or anything, and I didn't take any measurements. So these are very rough measurements for the soup. The great thing about this soup is that A) It's delicious and B) it's a 1-pot soup. SO easy and quick. I will most certainly be making this again; it was SO yummy and perfect for a fall afternoon!

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 -1 cup fat-free half and half
1-2 tbsp butter
3-5 fresh chopped sage leaves
cinnamon
nutmeg
Parmesan Cheese
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Combine pumpkin and half and half in a small-medium saucepan until smooth. Add more half and half for a thinner soup, and less for a thicker soup. Then add chooped sage, a little shake of cinnamon & nutmeg, and aprox. 1 tbsp butter until all ingredients are combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low-medium heat for about 5-8 minutes. Pour into serving bowl. Add a little more butter to enrich the soup and then top with a few slices of Parmesan.

Tips: If you're feeling more motivated than I was today, I think that melting the butter in a seperate saucepan and adding the sage and some freshly minced garlic to that would be excellent. Let the sage and garlic become fragrant and then add that to your pumpkin/cream mixture.

Halloween Treats

I'm pretty much a sucker for any holiday...I love decorating the house and getting into the "spirit", but most of all I love to cook and/or bake holiday-themed treats!


This year at work the girls and I decided to bring in a dish to pass and I, being the overachiever that I am, brought in two Halloween treats!

Spooky Witches Fingers

Adapted from http://www.allrecipes.com/

These little fingers were really fun to make and were really a delicious sugar cookie. I think I will use this recipe for my Christmas sugar cookies this year, with a few changes.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract (next time I make this I will use 1/2 teaspoon. It was just a bit too much for me)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole almonds (I used slivered almonds)
1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel

DIRECTIONS
Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer; gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt, continually beating. Here, I added 4 drops of green food coloring to make the fingers look more witch-like! Refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of waxed paper. Use the waxed paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are slightly golden in color, 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

Some Tips: Roll out your dough on the thin side...the cookies will get bigger as they bake. Also, use some variation in terms of length and thickness. Not all witche's fingers are the same after all!

Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake

Adapted from http://www.allrecipes.com/.

Well this was my first attempt at a cheesecake! Overall I think it went well. I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake myself (which is why I've never made one until now) but I thought this would be a good Halloween treat to bring in for everyone at work, which it was! This was actually a very yummy cheesecake...it was more of a cross between pumpkin pie and cheesecake. Everyone at work really loved it! It wasn't too sweet and for cheesecake it had a nice light texture.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (instead of using all Gingersnaps, I used half Grahm Crackers. I thought all that gingersnap might be too much)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup butter, melted

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed gingersnap cookies, pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla just until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture. Blend 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the remaining mixture.
Spread the pumpkin flavored batter into the crust, and drop the plain batter by spoonfuls onto the top. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.
Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until filling is set. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Allow to cool before removing pan rim. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Tips: I watch Food Network religiously, and I thought I remember someone saying to put a cheesecake in a water bath so it doesn't crack on the top. So I did, and it didn't crack! Yay!

Happy Halloween!!!