Pumpkin Craze!

Boy oh boy am I on a pumpkin kick lately. Not really that shocking considering that it's officially fall! And if you know me at all you know that Fall and Winter are my most favorite times of year!! Hands down I am in my element once the temperature drops along with all the leaves changing colors!! It's just such a pretty time of year plus I absolutely love to feel nice and cozy in big sweaters and boots!! It just doesn't get any better...or at least until Christmas rolls around :o)

To celebrate the joyous Fall season I decided it was time to go out of the box and try a new recipe that included Pumpkin...a new recipe that was not a dessert! I feel like I don't branch out to crazy when it comes to cooking but times are a changing with the season and I am here to experiment!!!

While Chuckles cleaned up the house and kept the dogs out of the kitchen I set out to make Pumpkin and Sausage Penne straight from Taste of Home's magazine!

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup uncooked penne pasta
• 2 italian sausage links, casings removed
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup white wine or chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin or fresh pumpkin puree
• 3 tsp minced fresh sage, divided
• 1/8 tsp each, salt, pepper, and cinnamon
• dash ground nutmeg
• 3 tbs half and half cream
• 2 tbs shredded Romano Cheese

I am going to start off by letting you know I took the easy way out when it came to the ingredients. I improvised with stuff I had instead of going through the process of chopping up all the spices. I just don't roll that way so instead of chopped sweet onion I used onion powder, instead of a garlic clove I used garlic powder, and I did not add the Romano Cheese at all.

Here's a huge helpful tip - read recipes before you buy your ingredients!! The ingredients list calls for 2 sausage links, casings removed. You have to remove those casing!!!! Then the recipe simply wants you to ground it all up anyways! Save yourself the headache and you can either slice the sausage like me or just buy ground italian sausage!! 

Pour some olive oil in the pan and fry up your sausage.

Now would also be a good time to get started on cooking up your pasta!

After this step things tend to move pretty quickly! Grab your olive oil, chicken broth or white wine, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Remove your sausage from your pan, set aside. Pour your olive oil, chicken broth, and powders into the pan. Oh and toss in your bay leaf at this point too!

Yes it will sizzle and pop!! Let the mixture simmer down to almost nothing...

Add in your pumpkin, sage, remaining chicken broth, and salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Mix all that together, then add in your half and half cream. Stir.

Finally toss in your sausages! Simmer on stove for a minute or so.

Remove the bay leaf!

By this time your pasta should be cooked and placed into a serving bowl. Add your above mixture to your pasta.

And we enjoyed this meal with some more Garlic Cheddar Biscuits! YUM!

This dish was very tasty!! I loved loved loved the pumpkin flavoring!! I think next time we will substitute the pasta for white rice!! 

If you are a pumpkin lover like myself then I highly recommend this recipe! It was actually quite easy to make too! Of course the bonus I always love is when a recipe fills your home with amazing smells! This one definitely did the trick! :o)

Another great fall recipe that will be repeated multiple times in the upcoming months!!

Enjoy!