Wednesday, October 31, 2012

What's Cooking - Fall Favorites

Hi! This will just be a quick post bringing you some of our favorite fall dishes we've been cooking lately.  They each include pumpkin or squash - true fall classics.  We cook ALOT over here on 18 Preston.  If you're ever looking for something new, quick, and fun to try we post our "tried and approved - Foods" on Meg's Pinterest Board: http://pinterest.com/missmegk/i-tried-and-approve-food/  Only the good and easy is allowed on this board - and I try and add our comments/tweaks to the descriptions. 


Pork and Pumpkin Chili
Ok; so this is a recipe where our small change actually should change the name of the recipe.  We make this with cubed turkey breast simply because we prefer chicken or turkey to pork.  Besides that, this is our FAVORITE fall chili because of the pumpkin.  A word of caution - the chilies in adobe are quite strong.  We back off to adding just one of these so Meg can actually eat her dinner.  You can also substitue the mustard greens for any other leafy greed such as swiss chard or kale.  If you switch it with Kale - buy enough to make the third recipe as well.  The pumpkin sour cream is also delicious!



Tortellini with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce
This is a new favorite, recently spotted in the cooking with kids section of Food Network Magazine.  It's quick to get to the table, has that "must be fall" pumpkin flavor, and the pumpkin adds so much nutrients.  We've made this exactly per the recipe and another time with a whole can of pumpkin and skim milk instead of the heavy cream.  It's certainly more healthy with skim milk, but it needed a bit more flavor that time.  




Gnocchi With Squash and Kale
This is a Fall through Winter Favorite, and also from Food Network Magazine (have you gathered that I LOVE that magazine?!)  This year in particular we've made this dish more because we're growing our own kale and swiss chard in the garden.  We follow everything in this recipe except we substitute the gnocchi with cheese tortellini which is a personal preference.  This dish impresses and can be served from oven to table.  It's quick enough for a weekly family meal, and elegant enough to serve at a small dinner party.