Wednesday, June 15, 2011

6 Reasons Why I Haven't Blogged in 6 months....And, Pumpkin: NOT Just for Dessert!

Well, hello blog!  Nice of you to stick around in my absence.....

Besides the usual excuses of
1) Too much work &
2) Not enough time,
I'll cop to avoiding this space because;
3) It's not pretty.  And I like pretty.  Have I had generous offers to help me with layout stuff?  Yes.  Have I taken advantage of them?  Ah....no.
4) I've heard lots of good things from the Wordpress camp and I'm vacillating about switching so I've been non-committal in this space.  Any thoughts on Blogger vs. WP?
5) I don't have a camera and
6) I'm under the impression that food blogs need gorgeous photos of glistening just-picked peaches, bubbling pie fillings, and flaky, delicate crusts.


So, those are my reasons.  But it's what inside that counts and (I'm pretty sure) old words can be transferred to new blogs and.....I'll agree with myself about the power of photos in food blogs but I'll give credit to the strength of strong writing and our collective imaginations to showcase our culinary endeavors.
On to it then, shall we?

Pasta and Kale with Pumpkin Cream Sauce
(Go go gadget imaginations......) Visual that very specific yellow-orange hue of homemade macaroni cheese, or of a bright, creamy curry.  Now, erase the cravings for either of those from your taste buds.  The sunrise color in this dish comes form none other than canned pumpkin.  It looks so much like macaroni cheese (and tastes SO different!) that I'd almost feel badly serving it to someone without prior explanation.  But not that bad.

I had a HUGE bunch of curly kale in my fridge bought with the sole purpose of getting more greens into my diet.  All week long, I had designs on tossing it with pasta and cream as a way to tempt myself into actually consuming it, when I happened to mindlessly pick up one of Rachael Ray's many tomes. (There are varied opinions out there on this omnipresent figure in the food world.  I'll remain mum for the moment. Except to say, harumph to the low-carb theme of that book.) Flipping through, I noticed a recipe that combined kale, cream, and canned pumpkin.  Of course hers was probably accenting a 3 pound pork chop, but I knew then and there that this combo would be draping itself over my next bowl of (high carb, all white flour) pasta very, very soon.
This was over a month ago and I just polished off  the frozen leftovers yesterdays.  Success.

Ingredients
1 pound dried pasta of your choice (I used rotini)
1 large bunch curly-headed green kale (I'm sure you could used purple or lacinto, too)
1 15 ounce can pumpkin (make sure it's not pumpkin pie mix-that has sugar in it)
1 pint (2 cups) of heavy cream
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Nutmeg, salt, & pepper

Method
  1. Bring a large pasta of water to the boil.  Salt the water.
  2. Meanwhile, clean the kale very well & slices the leaves off the stems.  Slices the leaves into thin ribbons or medium-sized chunks.
  3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water according to directions on package.
  4. In the last 3 minutes of cooking, add prepped kale to the pasta water.
  5. While pasta is cooking, make the sauce.  Mix, in a small heavy saucepan, the pumpkin and cream, until combined and simmering.
  6. Season sauce to taste with nutmeg (use sparingly at first, it's strong!), salt, & pepper.
  7. Drain pasta and kale and place bag in pasta pot.  Pour the sauce on top and stir well.
  8. Mix in the parmesan cheese and taste for seasoning.













Blogging from my phone via txt msg- I have seen the future. Was this covered in the book 1984? Next up....Pasta + Kale in Pumpkin Cream Sauce.
Testing