10/16 A Pumpkin Feast of Epic Proportions

As is very evident, I absolutely love pumpkin. I can't get enough of it. For weeks, I have been collecting any interesting recipes I see on Tastespotting involving pumpkin (I have an entire bookmarks folder). During my Fall Break (a five-day weekend), I finally decided to throw a pumpkin feast for my friends remaining on campus. I had an absolutely miserable midterm week, consisting of 3 papers totaling more than 25 pages and a test. I was almost had another 6 page paper due, but that was luckily postponed. I opted to stay on campus for Break to sleep, build a fort, and cook. It was a grand weekend.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Black Bean Lentil Burgers (quite the mouthful)

These were my first attempt at veggie burgers, ever! I've now decided to make them all the time and freeze them for later because they are so incredibly easy. I added lentils just for fun, and they made all the difference.

Pumpkin Garlic Knots

Next time, I would add more pumpkin to the dough so it tastes more pumpkin-y.

My roommate's delicious Butternut Squash Ginger Soup (not pumpkin, but close enough)

Salad with field greens and walnuts (not especially exotic but still delicious)

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake

I don't remember where the recipe came from, but I did use a gingersnap crust, which was pretty awesome (except they were near impossible to crush). I wasn't especially thrilled with the chocolate overpowering the pumpkin, but it was still pretty tasty.

9/17 Fabulous Pretzels

Whole wheat soft pretzels

9/12 A Delectable Indian Meal

My roommate and I had volunteered to cook house dinner tonight, so we opted for a full-on Indian meal. I made naan, which I had never in my life cooked before, and she made delicious curried lentils (I love lentils!). We also had pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting, to which nothing will ever measure up.

20 baked pieces of naan

Curried lentils and yogurt sauce

Brown rice

Sauteed kale and onions

All the fabulous items together

9/12 Irish Sodabread

Irish sodabread with cranberries

9/9 I Just Can't Get Enough Pumpkin

It's that time of the year again! The leaves are changing colors. The air is finally becoming cooler and less humid. Orange vegetables are in abundance!
And all I want to do is eat pumpkin.

Pumpkin bread!

On another note, we realized too late that the oven shelf was up too high, and the bread rose much more than we expected, so...

We were left with sadface pumpkin bread, although the only emotion I could taste was happiness for the first bite of Fall!