Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

Fall is here in earnest, so it's time to make some heartier dinners! Pumpkin Mac & Cheese perfectly fits the bill. 

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

Adapted from Taste and Tell's excellent version. I made hers last year and loved it but wanted to pump up the flavor of the spices, among a few other tweaks. Rotini is just so perfect for catching every drop of this amazing sauce, so I have to recommend it over penne.

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INGREDIENTS
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16 oz whole wheat rotini

2 slices crusty artisan bread
1 Tbsp dried sage
2 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1 C stock
2 C milk

1 tsp allspice
2 tsp ground mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
2 tsp nutmeg (grated is best)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground black pepper

2 C pumpkin puree (a little more than a can; you can probably just do one 15 oz can and be fine)
2 Tbsp honey

4 oz fontina, shredded (keeps the sauce from breaking)
4 oz extra sharp cheddar, shredded (this is the flavor; you could try a flavorful gruyere instead)
2 oz other flavorful cheese (I used Toscano)
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Cook the rotini a couple of minutes shy of the box time (quite al dente). Drain and set aside in the strainer. 

Process the bread into crumbs. If you don't have a food processor, dice the bread into the smallest cubes that you can manage. If you do use a processor, grate the cheese in it after the bread. No processor--grating 10 oz of cheese by hand won't take too long.

Melt the 2 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet and toast the crumbs/cubes and sage in the butter until golden. Set aside. 

In the skillet, melt the 4 Tbsp of butter over medium heat until golden brown. Add the flour and whisk like mad. Don't be afraid to let it brown--when it comes to a roux, color is flavor. My roux was quite brown, just short of almost burnt, and it tasted great and nutty in the final product. Stir in the stock and whisk until smooth, cooking down a bit, and then whisk in the milk. 

Whisk in the seasonings and let the sauce cook down until thick (coating the back of a wooden spoon). Stir in the pumpkin and honey and cook it down about two minutes more.

Turn off the heat and add 2 cups (8 oz) of the combined shredded cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted fully into the sauce.

Place rotini into a 10x13 baking dish or pan. Pour the sauce over it and stir to combine. Sprinkle first the remaining shredded cheese and then the breadcrumbs over the top. Place under the broiler until the cheese on top is melted (set alarms for yourself at maximum 2 minute intervals--the broiler acts fast!).

Don't be alarmed--it's not burnt. The bread I used had a very dark crust. Make sure to watch your broiler!

This recipe serves at least 8--the whole wheat pasta and pumpkin cheese sauce are very filling. It's amazing as leftovers!

Apple Feature: Pink Lady, Mutsu, and Jonagold

 Fall is my very favorite season, especially here in New England. It's just not the same in New York :)  

The farmers' market this weekend was bursting with perfectly crisp apples in over a dozen varieties. I decided to grab two new-to-me kinds (Jonagold and Mutsu) and an old favorite that I haven't had in a couple of years (Pink Lady).

I had almost 10 pounds of perfectly crisp apples, so I decided to do a head-to-head tasting and then a little baking (stay tuned for my favorite pie recipe). I made sure to choose apples that were recommended for both eating and baking.

First up: the Mutsu. 

All three of the varieties were deliciously crisp, but the Mutsu might have taken the crispness crown. It had a good balance between tart and sweet. 

Behind crispness, tartness is my second most important apple factor. In the offseason, if the Honeycrisps are gone I will only buy Granny Smith (no mealy apples allowed!). 

The second contender: the Jonagold. 

The Jonagold was the sweetest apple in the mix, with definite honey notes. If you like a sweeter apple, Jonagold is almost as sweet as Red Delicious, but still edible (Red Delicious are probably my least favorite apple). 

The final variety: Pink Lady. 

The Pink Lady is perfectly tart with a dense crunch. I liked the Mutsu a lot, but Pink Lady and Honeycrisp are still my favorite eating apples. The Pink Lady was a great afternoon snack with fresh buffalo mozzarella (thanks to a Costco run in the morning). Fall caprese!

Apple and Brie Crepes with Oven Bacon

If you want bacon with brunch, start it first. Toss it on a rack (or just flat on a baking sheet) into a 400 degree oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. Check on it at 20 minutes, and give it more time in 5 minute increments as necessary. Thin cut bacon will be about done at 20; this thick cut variety took close to 40. When it's done, pat it with a paper towel and eat! No more burnt bacon.

The very best things start with bacon. Overall I'm about an 80% vegetarian, but bacon is non-negotiable. I am the backlash against the backlash against bacon. 

This quick brunch was inspired by the menu of The Paris Creperie's food truck. Cinnamon-infused crepes with apples and brie sounded eminently doable for a lazy Saturday morning. Some thick cut bacon would be the perfect accompaniment.

Add a pat or two of butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar to the apples. Some sea salt and maple syrup may have found their way into the pan as well.

Mild brie is probably best here. Next time I'll be using extra sharp cheddar. 

This basic crepe recipe with stellar reviews acquitted itself well. A subtle infusion of cinnamon and ginger was a successful addition. 1 cup flour + 2 eggs, whisked together; add 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water + 2 tablespoons butter melted with 1/4 tsp salt; cook in about six batches over medium heat for a few minutes on both sides.

Finish with the apples, brie, bacon, and a generous pour of New Hampshire maple syrup. President Bartlet would agree: yes, it has to be New Hampshire maple syrup.

Waste Not

This was our first weekend fully at home in our new place, with my pantry fully stocked. I had to celebrate by having some friends over and taking my new kitchen for a test drive! I also completed a personal challenge that I've never conquered before: to use up the entirety of the sour cream and whipping cream that I originally bought for recipes that only use a bit of them.

The recipe links in the post go to the full recipes in my public Springpad recipe box. I've got 650+ recipes from around the internet bookmarked in private mode but I'm only going to make them fully public as I cook and adapt them myself. If you're a Springpad user and are interested in seeing the full collection, leave a comment and we can talk :).

I started with spicy cheese breadsticks, inspired by Smitten Kitchen's version. I make them with whole wheat pastry flour and more spice!

For the real spread, I made my version of baked spinach artichoke dip (surprise, it's also spicy!).

The perfect partner for spicy spinach artichoke dip is sweet baked brie! I usually do brie en croute, but the pastry is almost less than a sideshow for me. Just bake the brie and jam til bubbly and dive in with endives and bread!

I don't always like really bitter vegetables, but Belgian endives are a revelation dipped in brie and apricot jam. Add some cubes of crusty wheat bread (and a platter of other vegetables, they're ok too) with sweet and spicy dips and you have a perfect party spread!

After a lovely party, I was left with a large amount of sour cream and heavy cream. Usually, these kinds of ingredients sit in the fridge for a couple of weeks until they spoil. But I had time on my hands and I was determined to use them up in real recipes!

Trader Joes had organic strawberries for a great price, so I tossed them in a little sugar, set them aside to develop a nice syrup, and made sour cream biscuits.

An aside: I don't care what anyone else says, real strawberry shortcake is made with unsweetened biscuits. No cake or sugary "biscuits" involved!

About 3/4 cup of heavy cream beaten till thick and fluffy to dollop on top, and you have heaven in a bowl.

Sunday morning I had a serious pancake craving (it's probably been over a year since I've had pancakes!). It probably came from watching a rerun of the Pioneer Woman's show on Food Network (now that I have cable and a DVR, I can watch all sorts of new things!). I adapted her lemon blueberry pancake recipe to use up the sour cream and subbed in whole wheat pastry flour with some all purpose for her cake flour.

While I grew up picking wild blueberries off the sides of mountains in New Hampshire, I really love the tartness and plump texture of cultured blueberries. Trader Joe's has great organic cultured blueberries in the freezer section!

After breakfast I had so many blueberries left over (I bought two bags) and about a cup of cream left. I had the perfect blueberry cream scones recipe in my Springpad collection, just modified it with whole wheat pastry flour and all cream instead of half cream, half milk.

By this point even A was full, so I sent most of the scones to work and B school study group with him.

Postscript: In the spirit of wasting not, I came up with a dynamite recipe for Saturday night dinner featuring the leftover bread cubes from the party. Panzanella is such a great meal, and I've somehow never made it! This one was inspired by Cambridge 1's tomato mozzarella salad, but I couldn't get the dressing quite perfect. Even so, it was so delicious we didn't even notice that I forgot to buy mozzarella til we were done eating.

It was just as good the next day for lunch with a fried egg (runny yolk underneath, of course) and sweet apple chicken sausage.

New Favorite Breakfast of All Time

Ripe avocado spread on toasted rustic bread with cracked pepper.

That is all.

Ridiculous Salsa

Need something amazing and light to serve at your Super Bowl party next to the wings and chips? Ever sneak past the sample tray at Whole Foods three or four times in a visit because the pineapple salsa is too good to stop eating? Did you have a minor coronary when you saw the $8 price tag on that tiny sliver of a plastic tub? Then this post is for you...

I can barely call it a recipe, but I can tell you it's worth the chopping.

Take one ripe pineapple (as yellow as possible without smelling sickly sweet or feeling mushy), two ripe mangoes, a red onion, two or three limes, and a handful of cilantro.

Separate the fruit from skin and core, then dice the onion, pineapple, and mangoes.

Chop the cilantro as finely as you can and mix it with the fruit and onion.

If you are one of those poor dears who are genetically predisposed to think cilantro tastes like soap, I think this would be amazing with fresh mint or fresh basil.

Squeeze two limes over the mix and shake in some salt.

Taste and add more salt and lime juice as needed. You'll probably need more salt than you think!

For the best guacamole ever, mash three or four ripe avocados and add as much of the salsa as you'd like!

This amount will feed an army but it also keeps really well in the fridge (and if it doesn't get devoured on the first night, you'll find plenty of excuses to cook something complementary with Latin American or Caribbean flavors during the week)!

Brussels sprouts, bacon, and caramelized onions

Christening my new cast iron! I really wanted to cook it all in the pan the first time but next time I'm doing the bacon in the oven. Had to take down the smoke alarm...