Adventures in the Kitchen

Some random happenings from our kitchen.

We tried a pomegranate for the first time yesterday. It was so good! I can't believe we haven't tried it before. Sese and I were in the store the other day and she spotted one and said, "Mom, we have to get one of these!" This child reads the Food Network Magazine, food blogs, and will read cookbooks as bedtime reading! Needless to say she's a natural in the kitchen and willing to give new things a try. She read about pomegranates on my friend Patricia's wonderful blog, www.butteryum.blogspot.com

Check out her blog! I'm surprised that she doesn't have her own cooking show! So, anyway, we got the pomegranate and followed Patricia's instructions. So easy, so good AND good for you too.

A couple of hits in our home lately are pasta e fagioli and a new pumpkin bread/muffin recipe.

I first had pasta e fagioli at Olive Garden - a rare lunch out with a friend. She suggested I try it. I really liked it and she said it's easy to make, just google it! So I found a great recipe: www.topsecretrecipes.com/Olive-Garden-Pasta-e-Fagioli-Recipe.html

It's kind of like chili, but has pasta in it. Not exactly a soup, but not just a pasta dish either. I use ground turkey instead of ground beef, but either will work fine. This recipe makes a pretty big batch. It lasted us for 3 days I think.

This pumpkin bread recipe has a great mixture of spices. allrecipes.com/Recipe/downeast-maine-pumpkin-bread/detail.aspx

We went through a batch of 24 muffins in less than two days. I cut the sugar down from 3 cups to 2. Muffins are done in about 30 min. This recipe will make 2 dozen muffins.

OHHHH! and I'm so excited that I used my OWN baked pumpkin in the muffins. A friend (Susie K) has been passing out nice small pumpkins to friends and we took about 6 or 8 of them. She encouraged me to try baking them. Reed dug out the seeds and roasted them. They turned out great. You pretty much bake the pumpkins just like squash, with a little water in a baking dish. So good! Tastes just like squash. I can't believe it took me so long to try this. Plus I like saving $$ - canned pumpkin has gone up so much!

Tonight we are enjoying chicken enchiladas! Very easy and everyone likes them. Sonja requested it and I just googled and found an easy recipe. I love finding recipes online!