Pumpkin before midnight.

When the clock hits midnight, I turn into a pumpkin. And then I have to sit and vegetate until someone rolls me home to bed. Or not exactly, but something like that. I had the girls Jen and Jen over for dinner last night, and I made a pumpkin menu at the smaller Jen's request. Also it was a celebration as the bigger Jen got a new job - hurrah!


First course was Curried Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus Spread from the wonderful Have Cake, Will Travel blog by Celine Steen. And it was fabulous! The girls both loved it and I gave them each a container to take home with them. My brother also snacked on the left overs this afternoon and gave it a two thumbs up! Particularly excellent with pita bread.

Dinner was meant to be a pumpkin sauce with gnocchi, but there was tragedy. I was making the potato gnocchi recipe from Easy Vegan Cooking. I had carefully worked in my potato and margarine and flour and it was looking grand. Then it said to mix together 8tbs chickpea flour and 8tbs water together then add to the mixture. As I was adding it I thought it looked like a lot, and it was! Turned my nice dough into SMOOSH, and I couldn't save it. It really annoys me when recipe books have the wrong ingredients with it! *grumble*


So, this was my saving grace. Pumpkin Lasagne! It is from a little Australian Women's Weekly Vegetarian book I had lying around. It had ricotta in it, which I replaced with the Cashew Ricotta Cheese from Vcon. It was pretty good, and I served it with green salad with Back To Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan.


And the finale - our first ever pumpkin pie! Pumpkin pie is not really something we eat in Australia. Even though we see American's eating it on TV all the time! The recipe for both base and pie was from The Joy Of Vegan Baking. A pecan pie crust, which was quite nice though a little crumbly. And the pie mixture. I thought it was pretty nice overall! Everyone who has tried it enjoyed it a lot. So maybe the pumpkin pie will take off in Brisbane?

It was a lovely nice. Lots of laughter, lots of fun and lots of eating. And I have so many more pumpkin recipes I can make! All hail the pumpkin!