We met at Lauren's house and she picked a wonderful, fall theme of pumpkin. All gourmet gals were in attendance. Yea!
Appetizer: Tonya, Pumpkin Seed Pesto crostini with goat cheese and manchego cheese.
Salad: Angie, Fall Greens Salad with Pumpkin Seeds and Asiago
Soup: Carol, Pumpkin Soup
Bread and Wine: Janet, Spiced Pumpkin Biscuits and Riesling
Main: Lauren, Pumpkin Corn Cakes with Creole Shrimp and Avocado Butter
Desserts: Mary, Pumpkin Butter Cake and Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Lauren set a beautiful fall table with pumpkins and leaves and Carol's pumpkin soup bowls fit right in.
We started with Tonya's appetizer of crostini with pumpkin seed pesto and either goat cheese or manchego cheese. Both were delicious and looked beautiful on Tonya's green platter.
I also brought along some sweet and salty roasted pumpkin seeds which I found on the Nutmeg Nanny blog. They are an addictive little snack!
Carol made for us a heavenly pumpkin soup. I unfortunately did not get a picture of the beautiful orange soup and it was creamy and just the right amount of sweetness from the carrots and apple.
Carol doubled the recipe and the following modifications were made for a SINGLE BATCH:
- used just 1.5 tablespoons butter
- used just 1/2 cup cream
For our bread, Janet made Spiced Pumpkin Biscuits. These were wonderful with butter and Janet suggested that they would also be great with some honey and served for breakfast.
Alternations made:
- added 1 teaspoon dried sage to dough
- add pumpkin seeds to the middle and top of biscuits
For our main dish, Lauren combined three recipes to create this creative and fancy entree. The corn cakes were fluffy and flavorful, the avocado butter creamy and the shrimp spicy. All complimented each other well.
Pumpkin Corn Cakes with Creole Shrimp and Avocado Butter
Prep Time: 30 Minutes Total Time: 45 minutes Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
For Avocado Butter:
2 ripe avocados, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons honey (or more, if you like it sweeter)
¼ cup olive oil
Salt to taste
For Pumpkin Corn Cakes:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 egg
¾ tsp baking powder
½ cup pumpkin puree
2 cups fresh corn kernels
2 green onions with tops, thinly sliced
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
For Shrimp:
8 oz large uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 tsp Creole Rub (recipe below)
1 tsp lemon zest
For avocado butter, combine avocados, garlic, lemon, honey, olive oil and salt in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
For cakes, combine flour, buttermilk, egg and baking powder in bowl; whisk until smooth. Add pumpkin, corn, green onions and black pepper to bowl; mix well.
Heat olive oil on griddle over medium heat 1-3 minutes or until simmering. Using a medium sized scoop, scoop pumpkin batter onto griddle for a total of 12 cakes, lightly pressing down with back of scoop. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side or until cakes are golden brown. Remove cakes from griddle, keep warm.
For shrimp, combine shrimp, 1 tsp of the oil, rub and zest in stainless mixing bowl; toss to coat. Arrange shrimp on griddle; cook over medium-high heat 1 ½ - 2 minutes on each side or until opaque.
To serve, top pumpkin cakes with avocado butter then shrimp.
Cook’s Tip: Creole rub consists of: 1 ¼ tsp paprika, ½ teaspoon garlic powder and ¼ tsp each of salt, cayenne pepper and dried oregano. Combine ingredients in prep bowl.
Mary blessed us with TWO desserts, both featuring pumpkin. The first was Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake which had a delicious spice cake crust and a similar texture and taste to pumpkin pie. Mary topped the cake with freshly whipped cream. The pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting was wonderful and sinful with that icing!
