October and Fall Food

With the cool weather rolling in, I definitely started to look forward to some great fall food.  This month's issue of Women's Health had an entire article on various recipes you could make with pumpkin.  I've never made anything pumpkin flavored before, but pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie are definitely some of my favorite fall foods!  So last week I decided to give one of the recipes a try: Pumpkin and Shiitake Risotto with Crispy Sage.  Here are all the ingredients I started with:

I modified this recipe slightly: I had plain canned mushrooms on hand so I used them instead of shiitake mushrooms.  I also used dried sage leaves to add flavor rather than frying up my own.  So, I skipped steps 1 and 2 and started my risotto:

Making risotto is a time-intensive process because you have to continually stir the risotto to avoid it sticking.  You also have to add the liquid slowly to allow it to absorb and cook correctly.  But, risotto is also one of my favorite foods, so I ALWAYS find the time and effort it takes to be worthwhile!

After the risotto was cooked it was time to add the pumpkin, cheese, salt, and pepper.

This might sound silly, but recently I had forgotten how much salt and pepper can bring out the flavors in a dish.  Although lots of different flavors added to the deliciousness here, I'm pretty sure that it would not have been the same without the salt and pepper!

This recipe made about 4 servings which I had throughout last week for lunch.  The flavors were amazing - pumpkin, cheese, risotto, yum!  It's also a very creamy, savory dish, so every day I felt really satisfied and full afterward eating lunch.  I highly recommend trying this at home - it wasn't very difficult at all!

Happy Fall, everyone!  What are some of your favorite fall foods?