blog postings for roasted

 

 

I know it isn't customary to cook for your own birthday party, but I had all this roasted pumpkin left over from the healthy snack program at my son’s school and wanted to use it. So I decided to make some pumpkin ice cream to go with the maple cake my girlfriend was baking. I searched fruitlessly for a recipe that didn’t use a custard that must be cooked then cooled (didn’t have time for that, of course), so I decided to make some frozen yogurt. It was much simpler, and I liked the idea of the tangy yogurt with the rich pumpkin.

 

All mixed up and ready for the ice cream freezer.

I used the base of my favorite lemon frozen yogurt, then added the pureed pumpkin, spices, a dose of cream cheese for richness and a dash of heavy cream to finish it off. It was fabulous with the rich maple cake. However if you don’t have any of that on hand, a drizzle of warmed caramel sauce would be lovely.

 

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

 

3             cups Greek low fat yogurt (such as Fage)

1 ½             cups dark brown sugar

2             cups pureed roasted pumpkin

¾             teaspoon cinnamon

¼             teaspoon nutmeg

½            cup cream cheese, softened in microwave until creamy

1/3             cup heavy cream

 

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until combined. Place in container of ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturers instructions.

Here's a quick chicken dinner I made last night. I took chicken quarters--my preferred cut of chicken, because they're meaty and moist and cheap--stuffed them with some roasted tomatoes I had from my last batch of home-roasted tomatoes (scroll down to see roasted tomato tutorial), some feta cheese (the real kind made from sheep's milk), fresh basil leaves and a smudge of roasted red pepper pesto I had left-over. The recipe would be fine without it though. I baked them for an hour and then drizzled the pan juices over some sweet potato wedges, which went great with the zesty quarters. I served it with some arugula and sliced mushrooms, which I also drizzled with some pan juices. A perfect dinner to usher out summer and welcome fall.