Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese

My husband doesn't eat macaroni and cheese ... he hates the stuff. I know, I don't understand it either - I mean how could you NOT like macaroni and cheese?!?! He obviously didn't grow up in the same home as me; my mother makes the BEST macaroni and cheese in the whole world. Her recipe runs circles around Kraft Dinner.

Anyway, this evening Alan had plans to go out for dinner with a friend so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make something he wouldn't enjoy eating. I went online to search for recipes and stumbled on  one for pumpkin macaroni and cheese. Since pumpkins are in season, and since I had a can of pumpkin puree hanging out in my pantry, I decided to go for it. I modified the recipe a little bit, and here you go:

Ingredients -

2 cups of macaroni
Smoked Gouda cheese (approx one cup, shredded)
1 can of pumpkin puree (approx one cup)
1 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of skim milk
1 teaspoon of sea salt (or regular salt)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
Shredded Smoked Applewood Cheese (optional)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cook the 2 cups of macaroni in boiling water until al dente. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, mix the butter, sea salt, flour, pumpkin, heavy cream and skim milk on medium heat until nice and bubbly. Add in the cheese and stir frequently so the cheese doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. You should end up with a thick, creamy texture like this:

Remove from heat. Add in the cooked macaroni.

Stir the sauce and the macaroni together until well blended. Pour into a casserole dish. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top and, if you wish, additional cheese. I added shredded Smoked Applewood Cheddar to the top of mine. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve. Mmmmmmm.

I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed this. It was so creamy and rich, and the Gouda cheese really gave it an awesome smokey, woody flavor. Perfect for fall and I actually think it would be perfect as a side dish at a Thanksgiving feast. Delicious! Husband missed out, big time.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

So, the second thing on my fall culinary goal list was to make potato and leek soup. I don't think I've ever actually had potato and leek soup in a restaurant, so I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like or if I'd even like it. I wanted to tackle it because both potatoes and leeks are "in season" in the late fall/early winter ... a time of year when not much else is in season. If I could learn to successfully make this soup and if Alan and I both enjoyed it, it would be a great addition to our seasonal menu. 

Let me begin by saying that leeks are pretty intimidating. I mean just look at these suckers: 

They look like giant chunks of celery, they smell like onions and they take up a lot of room in the fridge. I looked up several potato and leek soup recipes online, but most of them called for ingredients that weren't available at my local grocery shop - specifically, creme fraiche. I didn't have the time or the energy to be running around from store to store so, in the end, I worked with this recipe and improvised. I used sour cream instead of creme fraiche and it worked out well. 

Ingredients -

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 large leek, diced 

Salt (to taste)

1/3 cup of heavy cream 

2 tablespoons of sour cream (or more, to taste)

Fresh parsley 

First, dice the leeks as you would celery or onions. Then, heat the tablespoons of oil in a large pot. Add the leeks and potatoes. Stir occasionally for about ten minutes. Add six cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. 

Once the water has boiled, reduce heat to low and allow the ingredients to simmer for a half hour or so. Once the potatoes are tender, use a hand mixer to blend all the ingredients together. Add the heavy cream and salt until you get the taste you want. Pour into bowls, add sour cream (I did one tablespoon of sour cream per bowl) and garnish with fresh parsley. 

And there you go! Potato and leek soup, nice and creamy and perfect for a crisp autumn evening. Alan and I liked it quite a bit, but next time I'm adding bacon or ham chunks to add even more flavor. Overall, I'd say it was a success!

Coconut Curry Noodles

Fall has definitely arrived in Vancouver. We've been blessed with a bit of an Indian Summer and the days have been warm, but mornings tend to be crisp and evenings are cool. On Friday I decided to take advantage of the cooler temperature to try a dish I saw on Pinterest - coconut curry noodles. The original recipe can be found here. 

The ingredients were fairly simple and included a red pepper, carrots, chicken broth, rice noodles, cilantro, soy sauce, coconut milk and red curry paste. Both the coconut milk and red curry paste were on sale at my grocery store: winning!! :)

Here's my curry brewing ... it smelled sooooooo good ....

 .... And there's the end result. Delicious looking, right? Right. Unfortunately, it wasn't really delicious tasting. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't disgusting and we ate it all, but it just lacked flavor and kick.

Next time I'll try a different brand of coconut milk and curry paste to see if that makes any difference. I'm also gonna be honest and confess that I *may* have screwed up the recipe ... I wasn't sure if I was suppose to just add the ingredients to the water with the noodles, or remove the noodles from the heat and add them to the curry mix later. It was kind of confusing and I may have messed up. For now, I'm giving this dish 2.5 out of 5 stars but I'm planning to try it again and hopefully master it because we LOVE curry!