Veal Cakes w/ Silky Eggplant

Got this recipe from the last issue of Gourmet (RIP). Really good, satisfying and surprisingly quick! Pictured here with a side of bok choy.

Mustard-y Mustard Greens

Quick side dish.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Loved the sauce for this dish (based on Emeril’s recipe). The shrimp I bought from the store, however, were not very good, bringing down the meal a bit. I ate the leftovers sans shrimp.

WW Slow Cooker Paprikash

This recipe tasted good and was convenient, but it won’t be replacing John’s paprikash recipe anytime soon.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi w/ fried sage and gorgonzola cream sauce

This was quite a project, but it ended up being a delicious combination. I relied chiefly on these two recipes for inspiration.

Carrot Fingers

I wanted to make something creepy looking for Halloween. This is what I came up with (got the idea off a Web site).

Pumpkin Hummus

This really adds something nice to the flavor of hummus, and is a good use for roasted pumpkin flesh.

Recipe Variation: Pumpkin Chili

I was kind of at a loss of what to do with my roasted pumpkin left over from carving night, once Halloween rolled around. Chili was already on the menu for the night, so I thought throwing in some pumpkin might be fun.

I don’t know if it was the pumpkin, the meat used, or the spicing, but it turned out to be some of the best chili I ever made.

I used my basic chili recipe (here with venison) as a starting point. I cooked this on the stove, not the crockpot. Here, I used a package of ground pork instead of venison. I used whole tomatoes instead of crushed, and only used a splash of chicken broth. I added a cup of roasted pumpkin to the proceedings with most of the other ingredients, after browning the meat with the onions and garlic. Cooked on low for about an hour, maybe longer.

 

 

Roasted Pumpkin Flesh

I roasted some of the pumpkin we cut up for Halloween, and the byproduct made it into two dishes: hummus and chili. Here’s the easy building block that gets you started.

Recipe Variation: Pumpkin Banana Bread

One of my pumpkin-themed dishes of the night. I would have gone with regular pumpkin bread, but considering we had rotting bananas around, figured I might as well use both.

I followed the recipe I used for blueberry banana bread with a few changes. One, no blueberries. Also, I used just two bananas, and added a cup of pumpkin (canned). I also added some cinnamon and grated nutmeg to the mix.