Spicy shrimp and sausage pasta

"Christmas is coming"

Its November, another month of recipes for your holiday table. In Jamaica we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we throw down for Christmas dinner. However, these recipes will work perfectly for your Thanksgiving dinner as well, if you want a departure from the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. This month, I will be sharing recipes for two side dishes, a main dish with chicken, a seafood dish and a simple dessert. So we start things off with a rather untraditional pasta side dish that can replace mac n cheese without anyone noticing.

Nutty Rice with cashews, peanuts and coconut

"Christmas is coming"

November brings another month of recipes that would be great for thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I have quite a few goodies in store; ham, biscuits, potatoes, lasagna, chicken, maybe duck (I’m a little afraid of the medium rare cooking requirements of duck lol). A holiday table (at least one in Jamaica) would be incomplete without a rice dish, it’s the staple side of life. So first up in this month of holiday recipes, is the rice.

Chicken Marsala

"Christmas is coming"

Mushrooms, garlic and wine anyone? This is almost one of the easiest thing I have cooked thus far. Chicken marsala is a dish I’ve always had at restaurants but never thought to cook. I generally try to cook recipes for the holidays that is easy to feed a crowd. This one fits the bill perfectly.

Thyme Smoked Ribs with a Pinot Grigio glaze

  
"Christmas is coming"

It’s November! Time to get our Christmas on, I know I totally skipped Thanksgiving, but I’m Jamaican, we don’t celebrate thanksgiving. And not only that these recipe can totally double to make a killer thanksgiving spread. So Greedy Guys and Gals, It’s about time I did some ribs. And not half assed ribs, straight grill smoked, tender, fall off the bone ribs. I decided to give the hickory and apple wood chips a break, and smoke these ribs with herbaceous thyme. Not only that but it has a lovely white wine and thyme glaze. A must have on your Christmas dinner table this year.

Orange Chicken

"Christmas is coming"

I’m always trying to find new and different ways to prepare chicken. Not that Orange chicken is a new thing, but it’s not really an everyday flavor for our home meals. When you think orange chicken you think Chinese take-out. This recipe is very flavorful and has beautiful citrus undertones. The chickens are browned to perfection and baked in the oven in a sweet sauce.

Roasted Pumpkin cranberry hash

“Pumpkin Everythang”

I’m not going to sugar coat it, this recipe arrived from sheer desperation of something quick and easy for dinner. I was cooking some salmon and ran out to the grocery store leaving my mother to start the rice. As I walked back into the house she said we have no rice. I was not about to go back out the door. All we had were a few 'fluxy' potatoes, flour and pumpkin. So our choices were baked or mashed potatoes, boiled dumplings or baked pumpkin. So baked pumpkin it was.

Asian turkey stuffed squash

“Pumpkin Everythang”

No one told me that during gourd season there were so many different varieties in the grocery store. Usually I’m in Jamaica during this time and we have one pumpkin, green skinned yellow flesh nothing new. However I waltz into stop and shop expecting to pick up a normal slice and the only thing I recognized in the pile was some butternut squash. I mean they had dimples, bumps, weird curves, some were purple, and they truly looked like something out of this world. Even though most are bitter and inedible, all I kept thinking was how hard they must be to peel. I picked up my two squashed and headed home to stuff them.

Curry chicken pot pumpkin pie

“Pumpkin Everythang”

I am yet again reminded of how annoying it is to cook food for this blog in a kitchen other than my own. My sister begged me to make this recipe while I was in NY and not in Jamaica, so I obliged. Who doesn’t love a good pot pie? This one is not baked into a corn muffin like my last one, but is full of pumpkin goodness; the filling is much thicker than normal because I used an entire can of pumpkin puree in addition to fresh pumpkins. The curry, the chicken and all the veggies along with the crust makes for a lovely meal.

Pumpkin ricotta cannelloni

 “Pumpkin Everythang”

This month I am definitely on a roll. Every single recipe just gets better and better, don’t mean to toot my own horn……but uhhhh…. beep beep! This is a very subtle, flavorful and delicious dish. Ricotta pairs so well with the garlic roasted pumpkins and the cannelloni pasta is the perfect vessel for this special blend of ingredients.  And it’s so weird because I’m normally not a very big ricotta fan (go figure).

Pumpkin Omelet

“Pumpkin Everythang”

Well hello my greedy guys and gals, welcome to the second annual greedy girl pumpkin month. If you were here with me last year you will now realize that every October I will dedicate the recipes to this one round orange gourde.  Last year I made 9 pumpkin recipes everything from soups to panna cotta.  If you’re like me, you will agree that breakfast is the best meal of the day. This recipe is my attempt to combine my favorite breakfast dish with a not so conventional ingredient. Let’s face it, when was the last time you ever had a pumpkin omelet? 

Pumpkin gnocchi with white wine cream cheese sauce

  

 "Pumpkin Everythang”

I’ve always wanted to make gnocchi. In my early days of cooking, when I was mostly a spectator (that is watching food network) I decided to try these little Italian dumplings, however I purchased the prepackaged ones in the pasta section and needless to say it was not good. It deterred me from ever trying or attempting to make gnocchi again. That was years ago, and I know better now. Its always better to make your own than to do store bought if you can. So one fateful jet blue flight from Kingston to JFK about two months ago, I was watching food network on my little mini screen. I saw a really quick video with Mario Batali and Mark Bittman making gnocchi and as usual the light bulb went off.

Pumpkin Sausage & Raisin Rice

"Pumpkin Everythang”

So here is part two of the main course, the delicious rice that stuffed my Cornish hens from last Tuesdays post.  It is very simple and delicious. The stock added an amazing rich flavor that the rice soaked right up, coupled with the sweet pumpkin, sage, sausages, raisins and veggies, it went very well stuffed in the citrusy fowl. The reason I separated the dish into two post is because this rice is a side dish all in itself, you can use it to stuff the fowl as well as serve it on the side. When stuffed in the hen the rice gets the ginger and citrus flavor imparted on it, however on its own, the sage, sausage and pumpkin flavor are more prevalent.

Boneless Citrus ginger Cornish hens stuffed with Sausage pumpkin rice

  "Pumpkin Everythang”

The words thanksgiving and turkey are almost synonymous. Normally you don’t find one without the other, but personally I’m not a fan. This large bird needs the right amount of TLC to be delicious. My late grandma was one to apply that perfect amount of TLC to yield an awesome turkey and an even more awesome turkey salad in the days to follow.  Now-a-days whenever we are in New York for thanksgiving, or when we have thanksgiving dinner in Jamaica (Jamaica?? Yes I know.. My mother just loves any excuse to set the table) we always do another type of roast poultry, out of sheer laziness and the plain fact that Jamaicans generally don’t like turkey. What better substitute than a Cornish hen.

Warm Kale and Pumpkin salad

"Pumpkin Everythang”

Pumpkin salad surprisingly has been my biggest challenge so far. In trying to conceptualize the dish I made a few decisions very early on...

•  I’ve never been a fan of warm salads, but this had to be one, because raw pumpkin es no bueno
• Texturally pumpkin gets mushy no matter how it’s cooked, so I needed a way to prepare it so it would maintain its shape for the most part.
• I didn’t want it boiled
• I didn’t want it roasted
• I didn’t want a pumpkin dressing

Pumpkin Coconut Leek soup

"Pumpkin Everythang”

Like clockwork  the day I decided to make a lovely pumpkin soup here comes the rain, perfect timing. I had originally wanted to make a pumpkin wonton soup. However when I got to the grocery store they were all out of wonton skins, and ‘aint’ no way I’m making that dough from scratch, so plan B. A few isles down I spotted some leeks and figured, they probably taste like onions or scallions, so they should pair well with pumpkin, not to mention some coconut milk.

Cheesy garlic Pumpkin bread

"Pumpkin Everythang”

I bet you can’t name one person (who is not on a diet) that does not love a hot basket of bread or rolls or any carb. at the start of a meal. One thing I’ve always said about restaurants; your first sign of a good meal to come is the bread you are first served, it sets the tone for the meal. Oh you need some examples?