I'm Dreaming of a White Pumpkin

Here in Houston, we're having what my friend Emily and I like to call, "Faux Fall". We'll enjoy a couple of days of lovely fallish weather followed by a couple of days of sweltering heat and humidity. This fickle fall forces us to grab on to any moments we can to celebrate the change of seasons.

In honor of the cold front coming in this weekend, some of us girls are going to have a little fall party tonight. We're going to enjoy some fun fall foods and try our hands at pumpkin carving/painting. If our pumpkin projects turn out to be as cute as I hope...I'll share the results here. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy these yummy fall recipes.

WHITE CHILI
Yield
Makes 4 quarts
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 skinned and boned chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 (15-ounce) cans cannellini or great Northern beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth
1 (16-ounce) package frozen shoepeg white corn
2 (4.5-ounce) cans chopped green chiles
3 tablespoons lime juice
Garnish with cilantro sprigs

Preparation:
Sauté chopped onion in hot oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat 7 minutes; add garlic, and sauté 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in chicken pieces, and cook, stirring constantly, until chicken is lightly browned. Stir in 3 cups water and next 5 ingredients; reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Place 2 cans of beans in a blender; add broth, and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.

Stir bean pureé, remaining 2 cans of beans, corn, and chiles into chicken mixture in Dutch oven; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in lime juice just before serving. Garnish, if desired.

Note: Use a handheld submersion blender to pureé the beans and broth, if desired.
Southern Living, JANUARY 2002

PUMPKIN CRUNCH CAKE
1 pkg. Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
3 eggs, beaten
1 16 oz. can pumpkin
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pecans
1 cup melted butter

- Spray bottom of 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Preheat oven to 350-
- Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, spice, and salt; mix well.
- Pour into 9x13 dish
- Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture.
- Top with pecans
- Drizzle melted butter over the top.
- Bake for 1 hour until golden brown & bubbly - it sometimes needs longer.
- Cool completely before serving.
- Serve with Cool Whip topping.

(Especially good with the "French Vanilla" flavored cool whip!!)

Recipe from: Jennifer Mills