Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to you and yours!


Working on my bokeh.



Artsy close up of our tree.

Christmas and babies threw up on our fridge.

Everything but the Cow:Pumpkin Cream Sauce

I love pumpkin. Seriously, like LOVE it. I eat anything with pumpkin in it. In fact, there's an open bag of Laurel Hill's pumpkin seed tortilla chips on desk staring me down. Anyways, awhile back, I stumbled across pumpkin cream sauce.  

(Williams-Sonoma)

Doesn't sound dairy-free friendly does it? Also, there's no way in hell I'm paying whatever the asking price was at the time for a jar of sauce. I can make it from scratch for a whole lot cheaper. I Googled around until I found a recipe I liked. Thank you Washington Post. It was a relatively short list of ingredients, no fuss directions, and best of all, I could tweak it to make it dairy-free.





Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce (adapted from The Washington Post)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
8 to 10 ounces gemelli pasta
1 medium shallot
3 medium cloves garlic
2 sprigs sage leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup soy milk
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (parmesan is a hard cheese and is considered to contain very low, next to none, levels of lactose, feel free to omit)

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions (6 to 7 minutes).
Meanwhile, mince the shallot and garlic; finely chop the sage.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic; cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until they have softened. Add the pumpkin puree, chicken broth, milk and half of the sage. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce is slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste; keep warm on the lowest setting.
Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, then add 2 tablespoons of the cheese and mix well. Divide among individual plates and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese and the remaining sage.

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Everything but the Cow:Black Raspberry Chipotle Chicken

Garnished with sesame seeds and served with a side of white rice.
(Yes, I know brown rice is healthier, but I grew up on the white stuff.)

Sweet and spicy. YUM! I followed the Black Raspberry Chipotle Chicken recipe from Stonewall Kitchen with a few adjustments.

• I didn't pound my chicken cutlets thin. I was being lazy and just left them as is.
• I didn't use the Stonewall Kitchen spice rub. I used Kansas steak seasoning from Dino's Park n' Shop. Not sure what's in it, but I think it gave my chicken an extra zing.
• Halved the amount of cilantro. I HATE the taste of cilantro, so I reduced it. I probably should have used the full cup the recipe called for to balance the heat.
• Substituted rice vinegar for cider vinegar. I didn't realize I was out of cider vinegar and was far too lazy to go back to the store.

Free Cupcakes!

Who wants one? Of course you do. Who doesn't? Wait, not everyone. I actually know someone who doesn't like cake!

So how do you get one? Well, you have to put some work into it. Hop over to my baking blog, Delightful Cakery for details.

Basically, you need to enter through Facebook. If it happens that you don't have a Facebook account, let me know and I'll figure out another way to qualify you for the giveaway.

Good Luck!

Pumpkin cupcakes from Baby J's shower.
(Baby J will now be known as Baby M. J was her last initial, now we know her first name!)