Everything but the Cow:Pumpkin Cream Sauce

I love pumpkin. Seriously, like LOVE it. I eat anything with pumpkin in it. In fact, there's an open bag of Laurel Hill's pumpkin seed tortilla chips on desk staring me down. Anyways, awhile back, I stumbled across pumpkin cream sauce.  

(Williams-Sonoma)

Doesn't sound dairy-free friendly does it? Also, there's no way in hell I'm paying whatever the asking price was at the time for a jar of sauce. I can make it from scratch for a whole lot cheaper. I Googled around until I found a recipe I liked. Thank you Washington Post. It was a relatively short list of ingredients, no fuss directions, and best of all, I could tweak it to make it dairy-free.





Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce (adapted from The Washington Post)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
8 to 10 ounces gemelli pasta
1 medium shallot
3 medium cloves garlic
2 sprigs sage leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup soy milk
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (parmesan is a hard cheese and is considered to contain very low, next to none, levels of lactose, feel free to omit)

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions (6 to 7 minutes).
Meanwhile, mince the shallot and garlic; finely chop the sage.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic; cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until they have softened. Add the pumpkin puree, chicken broth, milk and half of the sage. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce is slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste; keep warm on the lowest setting.
Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, then add 2 tablespoons of the cheese and mix well. Divide among individual plates and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese and the remaining sage.

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Everything but the Cow:Black Raspberry Chipotle Chicken

Garnished with sesame seeds and served with a side of white rice.
(Yes, I know brown rice is healthier, but I grew up on the white stuff.)

Sweet and spicy. YUM! I followed the Black Raspberry Chipotle Chicken recipe from Stonewall Kitchen with a few adjustments.

• I didn't pound my chicken cutlets thin. I was being lazy and just left them as is.
• I didn't use the Stonewall Kitchen spice rub. I used Kansas steak seasoning from Dino's Park n' Shop. Not sure what's in it, but I think it gave my chicken an extra zing.
• Halved the amount of cilantro. I HATE the taste of cilantro, so I reduced it. I probably should have used the full cup the recipe called for to balance the heat.
• Substituted rice vinegar for cider vinegar. I didn't realize I was out of cider vinegar and was far too lazy to go back to the store.

Free Cupcakes!

Who wants one? Of course you do. Who doesn't? Wait, not everyone. I actually know someone who doesn't like cake!

So how do you get one? Well, you have to put some work into it. Hop over to my baking blog, Delightful Cakery for details.

Basically, you need to enter through Facebook. If it happens that you don't have a Facebook account, let me know and I'll figure out another way to qualify you for the giveaway.

Good Luck!

Pumpkin cupcakes from Baby J's shower.
(Baby J will now be known as Baby M. J was her last initial, now we know her first name!)

Creative Lighting I

I took a second photography class from NESOP. It was called Creative Lighting I. This was the class description:

This ten-week course is an intensive and thorough foundation that will help you produce more effective and consistent results using natural, ambient, and found light sources. It provides a complete review of essential camera functions including meter, exposure, histogram, highlight alert, dynamic range, autofocus, drive/advance, and white balance as well as strategies for addressing a variety of different and challenging lighting and subject situations indoors and out. Quantity, contrast, color, and direction of light are discussed in detail. Additionally, the course will provide instruction for backlit subjects, using window light, and the use of a reflector for fill, accent, and background lighting, helping you to use existing light effectively in your photographs.

To be honest, I wanted to take Creative Lighting II so that I could learn how to use a flash. But according to the website, you had to take this course before tackling the flash course. I said to myself "It can hurt have a strong foundation in the basics." At least the second half of the syllabus sounded neat.

So I signed up. The syllabus said that we'd get to the cool stuff (backlighting, reflectors, etc) around week 8. That was a long time to wait. I decided to sit through a class or two before dropping. Things progressed well enough...albiet, slow to my liking. I learned new things, and relearned some old things. Then we went past the drop date and things started to SUCK.

It wasn't the material or the instructor that sucked, it was fellow classmates. Week over week, we would go back to the same basic concept. Week over week, the instructor had to explain it again and again. Ugh. It got so bad that I started crocheting in class. At least it gave me time to work on what seemed like a never ending project.

I was able to bring in a couple of photos for critique. This class was structured much differently than my first. There wasn't a set amount of time set aside after lecture to review photos. We were just to bring them in when we wanted. Sometimes, we came really close to spending almost all 3 hours of class talking about photos. This usually happened because 1 or 2 people would bring in a ton of photos rather than just picking out a handful that they had specific questions on.

Anyways, the feedback from my photos was fantastic. I was told that I'm a risk taker, but it works in my favor since it results in very interesting shots. I do need to work on exposing my photos correctly. One thing I'm struggling with is figuring out how to make my photos less flat. Here are the photos I shared:

All images are straight out of camera (SOOC) and have not been retouched.
Top: Looking down from the observation deck of the Willis Tower, Chicago. Photo is too flat in terms of contrast.
Middle: Chicago at night looking towards Lake Michigan. The photos is a bit dark.
Bottom: Baby D. I didn't compensate for being in the shadows, so all my photos had a blue-ish tint.

Image SOOC. Should have changed the metering mode. My camera took into consideration
the super bright (white) sky underexposing the actual focal point (image on the camera's LCD)

After 10 weeks, I'm so glad to have my Tuesday nights back. I'm glad that I was able to finish the baby blanket I started. I'm glad that a learned some new things about photography. But I won't be signing up for the next class in the series. It's going to be the same cast of characters, thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll just stay home and read the manual for my flash.

Everything but the Cow:Black Bean Cakes

Black Bean Burgers. Say it with me, YUUUUUUUUUM. If you've never had one, you are missing out. I was first introduced to them in college. A friend and I decided to throw a dinner a party. Actually, she probably decided to throw it and I just went along for the ride. Anyways, she made these AMAZING black bean cakes. Of course, what made them good was the slightly spicy monterey-jack cheese.

Of course, now a days, cheese isn't my friend. So I scoured the interwebs looking for something that caught my eye. I decided to try Annie's Eats version of black bean burgers.

Black bean burger - black bean patty, baby spinach, and guacamole,
on a sandwich thin (it's either whole wheat or multi-grain).

Black bean patty topped with spicy mayo and guacamole on a bed of baby spinach.
Served with chicken-mango-jalapeno sausage and roasted baby carrots.

Black Bean Burgers (adapted from Annie's Eats)

Yields approximately 6 patties

Ingredients:

¾ cup panko (plus extra for coating patties)

3 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. olive oil, divided
2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed, divided
2 large eggs
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt (I omitted this since I was using seasoned black beans)
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
¼ cup fresh cilantro, minced
1 shallot, minced

Directions:

• Place a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Combine the panko with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil and mix with a fork to blend.  Add the mixture to the skillet and toast the panko, stirring frequently, until light golden brown.  Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
• Place 2½ cups of the beans in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork until mostly smooth. (I cheated and used a hand blender).  
• In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, 1 tablespoon of the oil, cumin, salt and cayenne.  Whisk to blend.  Add the egg mixture, toasted panko, the remaining ½ cup beans, bell pepper, cilantro and shallot to the bowl with the mashed beans.  Stir together until evenly combined.
• Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions, about ½ cup each.  Lightly pack into 1-inch thick patties. I recommend chilling patties for a bit so allow them firm up a bit before handling.  (At this point the patties can be covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before cooking.)
• Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Coat patty in panko crumbs on all sides. Carefully lay half of the patties in the skillet and cook until well browned on both sides, about 8-10 minutes total.  Transfer the cooked burgers to a plate, tent with foil, and repeat with the remaining oil and bean patties.  Serve warm.

Since the recipe made 6 patties, I placed them on wax paper and froze them in tupperware. Makes for a quick dinner when your fridge is empty.

Next time around, I'll add the salt, up the pepper, add some corn kernals, jalapenos, and season the panko.