Pumpkin Party, part 2

Remember all that pumpkin pancake goodness from yesterday?  It's time to fill you in the rest of the dishes from Sunday.

Dinner was fantastic!  I made Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta from Emily Bites.  I was going to make it on Saturday but realized I was out of chicken broth.  (Yes, I had pumpkin, but no chicken broth.  I had used it all up with some wonton soup on Friday night - recipe to come when perfected.)  So I made chicken broth.  But it had just finished brothesizing, when I was coerced into going out.  Then it got left for Sunday.

Okay, Sunday.  Lazy day of fakely being snowed in.  Time to whip out the broth and make some pumpkiny pasta.  I won't repost the recipe, as you can find it on Emily's blog.  However, I did make a few changes based on what I actually had on hand:

• rosé instead of  white wine
• regular pork sausage instead of turkey
• spinach instead of mushrooms

And, viola!

Emily says the original recipe from Taste of Home says you can substitute extra chicken broth for the wine, but she recommends not doing so because of the flavor profile the wine brought to the dish.  I almost made the substitution, thinking I didn't have any wine on hand.  (Travesty! I know.  I need to head to my local wine store and stock up.)  But then I remembered I had a couple of bottles from my trip to the vineyards.

I am so glad I used wine!

Emily knows what she's talking about.  The wine (even though I went with a dry rosé instead of a sweet wine) really helped make the flavor of the sauce.  I can't imagine not using it (though I'll try it again with different wines).  It gave it a nice tang to contrast the pumpkin.  The other essential part of this recipe, in my very humble opinion, is the sage.  Wow.  Seriously, just wow.  It just made the sauce.  And it made my taste buds very happy.

The final pumpkin dish of the day was from Skinny Taste: Low-fat Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies.  One word: yum!  Okay, that was a pretty lame word.  I can't even begin to describe how good this cookie dough the cookies are.  I'm not sure how accurate Gina's serving count is because I doubled the recipe, made 25 cookies, and ate lots of cookie dough.  (I wanted to bring 2 dozen to work, and I ate 1 off the first batch, so I added an extra to the second batch.  But then I had 2 more before I came to work, so... whatever, there were still plenty!)

No pictures, sorry.  But my coworkers loved them.  Lots of happy tummies around here!

Pancakes, and Pasta, and Cookies...

The other day I was shopping and decided to buy some canned pumpkin.

I didn't really have anything in mind to use it for, except maybe cookies, but I knew I wanted pumpkin flavored stuff.

It sat on my counter for a few days.  Until, along came a snowstorm on Halloween weekend.  The snowstorm said, "Hey, chick, don't go anywhere.  Just sit around and cook all day."  So that's how I spent most of my Sunday.  (To be honest, here, the storm happened Saturday, and I was going to spend my evening cooking, but I ended up going out instead... yes, in the snow storm.)


So, Sunday rolls around.  Plan I had were canceled and I figured it was time to get cooking.  I started with brunch: Chocolate Chip Walnut Pumpkin Pancakes.  This ended up being a WW Pointstastrophy.  Oops.  I worked off recipes that were supposed to make one serving of pancakes and then adjusted for my pumpkin craving.  16 P+ later, I'd had a pretty hearty breakfast...  I'm pretty sure I could have been satisfied with half the portion.  So, if you want 4-6 big fluffy pancakes, enjoy alone.  If you're good with 2-3, share with a friend.


Chocolate Chip Walnut Pumpkin Pancakes

In small bowl, mix together:
1/4 c canned pumpkin
1 egg white1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a larger bowl, mix:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Add wet ingredients to try and mix until just crumbly.  Whisk in 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%).  Then stir in 2 Tbsp each of chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.

Then I poured the mixture into my trusty measuring cup, greased up a pan with  non-stick spray, and started pouring batter in. 

Small pan, but I was too lazy to clean the griddle.

Then I had 4 delicious fluffy, pumpkiny pancakes.  I topped each with about 1/4 tsp of butter because butter is awesome.  And then I topped with pancake syrup, but it probably didn't need it.  Wash it down with a glass of milk, and it was delicious!

More pumpkin deliciousness to come...