Pumpkin-Walnut Praline Bars

This recipe came from a contributor to Food & Wine magazine, who said that it is her son's favorite sweet and the family makes them at Halloween to give to trick-or-treaters. I don't know what planet she lives on. These are way too good to give out to kids, who in this country, aren't going to be allowed to eat them anyway. There's an unwritten rule: store bought, manufacturer wrapped candy only. But there are other unanswered questions too? How many pans of this does she make to give to the 100 or little goblins that one might have in a kid friendly neighborhood (it only serves 16). How does she wrap them to keep the praline and crust from becoming soggy (even with a light foil covering, mine only lasted a day).

While I ponder these questions, you should get on to whipping up a batch of these - they're really good and also a lot of work.

Pumpkin Pretzels

These soft pumpkin pretzels look much more appetizing on Carrie's blog than mine did in person. The Hub commented that mine looked like something the dog might have left. Rude, but true, they kinda did. I had some trouble with this recipe. The ingredients came together in a breeze with a stand mixer and bread hook. My dough formed a little crust while rising - maybe it was too warm - that was hard to incorporate back into the dough. Also, I have never made any kind of bread dough that you didn't oil the bowl and the loaf to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The dough was so stiff it was really hard to roll and stretch it into ropes and the hard bits of crust didn't make it any easier. And, of course, all this working with the dough made for some very dense chewy pretzels. The pumpkin flavor was too mild for my tastes.

Pumpkin Filled Pancakes

This ebelskiver pan from Williams-Sonoma has been on every bridal registry I've seen lately. And no wonder, the catalog makes it look like whipping up a batch of these on a weekend morning would not only be impressive, but would also be loads of fun. And nothing could be further from the truth. Most newlyweds should be working on their regular pancake and waffle skills before taking on these extremely labor intensive, finger-burning pieces of work.

But I knew that going in - I've had the pan for several years. This recipe for pecan pumpkin filled pancakes is typical of the recipes they recommend for the pan. They also do a little self promoting and use their own pecan pumpkin butter. I just mixed plain canned pumpkin, 2 tablespoons sugar and a little cinnamon with the cream cheese.

The last two paragraphs in their directions are for making the actual pancakes, having you tilt each pancake twice. My batter was not runny enough to do any tilting, so I used this method and had pretty good luck with it. I sprayed the pan with nonstick spray instead of 1/2 tsp of butter per pancake as recommend. Fill the cups 3/4 full, go back to the first one and start adding 1 tsp of filling, again return to the first one and add 1 tsp of batter to cover the filling. Let this cook until the bottoms are browned. Using either wooden skewers or the special wooden sticks they sell for this purpose turn the pancakes over and let the top cook until browned. Turning is not as easy as it sounds and there are probably a lot of burned fingers out there to prove it. If you haven't thrown the pan away in a fit of frustration, you will probably get into a rhythm and be done in about 1/2 an hour.

Speaking of burning - these pancakes are usually filled with some type of fruit filling and are really hot inside. They can't be served immediately, especially to children. I hope I haven't completely discouraged you from making these because they really are good. Just leave plenty of time to make them before serving, and if you are having guests, I would recommend a trial run first.

Andrew, Karen and I all loved them and ate a lot of them for breakfast. I also enjoyed them as a snack.

Pumpkin Grits and Shrimp

This recipe was cobbled together from a pumpkin grits recipe put out by the Washington Post and my favorite grits and shrimp recipe put out by America's Test Kitchen. I served this for lunch on a Saturday with a salad made from lettuce from my garden. Everyone like it, but I have really enjoyed having the leftovers for lunch the last two days.

Pumpkin Grits and Shrimp

16 oz large shrimp (31 to 40 per pound ), peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup onion, minced

3 cups water

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1 cup quick grits

1 cup pumpkin puree

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Toss the shrimp with the oil, garlic and cayenne and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate while preparing the grits.

2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the water, cream, pumpkin, hot sauce, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Slowly whisk in the grits, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring often, until the grits are thick and creamy, 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Off the heat, lay the shrimp on their sides in a pinwheel formation over the grits, then press on them lightly to submerge about half way. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the shrimp are cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes.

Crispy Chicken Thighs with Pumpkin and Golden Raisin Compote

This recipe came from the February 2011 Food & Wine magazine. I replaced the butternut squash with - get this - frozen pumpkin. Apparently some types of pumpkin do freeze well. The package I thawed for this recipe was marked Mexican pumpkin, a green mottled pumpkin that was fabulous to eat fresh and I had a hard time locating a lot of them. It held its shape and was firm even after cooking in the compote. If there is a next year in this blog, I will definitely remember this.

When grocery shopping for this recipe, the store I was in didn't have any golden raisins and I was tempted to replace them with regular. I'm so glad I didn't. They really make the dish. Cooked with apples, pumpkin, shallots, wine, honey and spices, they were just delicious. I also like this method of cooking the chicken thighs, although it did take longer than they suggested it would to reach the correct internal temperature for chicken. Served with wild rice, it was a great Sunday dinner.

 

White Chip Pumpkin Spice Cake

I recently misplaced my bundt pan. It's olive green with an original teflon coating, weighs a ton and could have been a wedding present. The Hub thinks it got misplaced in the trash. Could have happened, I can't remember and apparently neither can he. Anyway we bought another one. What a difference! This new one weighs a couple of ounces and has this slick surface that I dare anything to stick to. I love it.

This pumpkin spice cake is another winner from the Libby's website. Easy and quick, but with a I-worked-hard-at-this flavor. My white chocolate chips dissolved in the batter during cooking leaving little patches making me question the purpose of them. It didn't change the flavor of the cake, and the cinnamon and white chocolate glaze is to die for.  



Sweet Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta over Baby Spinach

This recipe came from a card attached to this package of pumpkin spice fettuccini from the Rossi Pasta Company. The pasta was a gift from Andrew and Karen. This company makes many different types of pasta and gives recipes on their website for using them. This was good; we all like it. I would have liked less competing flavors though in order to actually taste the pumpkin flavored pasta. The spinach, asiago cheese and Italian sausage overwhelmed the mild flavored pasta. Next time, I'll try a pumpkin sauce on the pasta to really ramp up the pumpkin flavor.