Orange you glad its the holiday season!?

My favorite time of the year! Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Born on Thanksgiving day, it's only natural that I'm drawn to the delicious holiday food! I always look forward to one of my favorite traditions: making pumpkin bread! Oh so yummy! But what to do with leftover canned pumpkin?! Make some pasta sauce! I had some artichoke ravioli in the freezer and some swiss chard from the farmers market so I decided to pair it with a pumpkin sauce. It was a great, easy weeknight meal.

Pumpkin Pasta Sauce
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 parmesan reggiano
1 clove garlic
1/2 small onion diced
salt/pepper to taste
1 cup water/stock

1) Sautee onions and garlic
2) Add pumpkin, yogurt, parm, salt and pepper and mix
3) Add water/stock to thin out to desired consistancy
4) Blend and strain for smooth consistancy (* I did not do this step)

Spicy Swiss Chard
1 bunch swiss chard
1/2 small onion diced
1 clove garlic
1-2 pinch of red pepper flakes
salt/pepper to taste

1) Sautee onions and garlic
2) Add swiss chard, pepper flakes and 1/4 c water or stock and sautee on medium heat until tender.

Seafood Pesto Pasta

One of favorite dishes of for this summer is my seafood pesto pasta. All the herbs at the farmers market are so fresh now and I love my basel. The key to this dish is making your own pesto.

2 cups basil
1-2 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Your best olive oil
Parmesan cheese (optional)

I make this pesto in my food processor but throwing the basil, garlic, salt and peppper in and add enough oil until desired consistency. I prefer more of a soft paste and do not like it too oily. Make sure to add more salt or pepper if needed.

When making this pasta dish, I prefer to make the pesto on the same day but it can be easily frozen as it keeps well. (Tip: Freeze them in ice cube trays so that you can easily defrost it!)

Use any type of pasta you like but I used speghetti here. I sauted onions, garlic and then added some shrimp and scallops.I then added the pesto, tomatos and white white to deglaze the pan. Make sure its only a splash of wine because the tomatos will release liquid as well and you do not want you water down your sauce. Once the seafood has cooked, add your pasta to the pan. Taste you dish at this point and add more pesto or salt or pepper. This is a quick and easy (and healthy!) dish that you can make for yourself or friends and family! This dish is good hot or cold! Great for picnics too!

Cleanse that palate!

With the first sunny weekend in San Francisco, I decided to try to make some granita! I had a ton of lemons from my friends lemon tree so I decided to make a lemon based granita. I went to the farmers market to see what else I could add and I saw some beautiful, fresh mint. It was definitely going in! I also bought some ginger to give it a little kick (I add ginger to almost everything that I cook!) It would have been great with just the lemon, mint and ginger, but I wanted a little pop of color so I thought of pomegranate juice...BUT, I was not able to find any at the little store next to my house, so I just bought some cranberry juice. The granita turned out amazing! The soft pink color and the ginger and mint give the granita a sophisticated touch. I can't wait to make this again in the summer!

2 cups sweetened cranberry juice
4 large lemons (zested and juiced)
1 tbsp of grated ginger
1 cup of mint leaves
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar. Let it steep for 20-30 minutes. The longer the better. Place in a large flat baking dish and freeze for 2-3 hours. Once frozen, use a fork to scrape the surface to create a icee/slushie consistancy and refreeze for another 4 hours. Enjoy!