Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

So, remember when we made Pumpkin Chili and only used half of the pumpkin? Well, here's what we did with the rest of it. We made it that same day. We must have been on a roll. Here's what we used:

• 3c milk (ideally you'd use cream; the more fat the better)
• 1 c pumpkin, de-seeded, de-skinned, and roasted
• 1 c sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 ground cloves

Roasting is the same as for the chili: roast it at 425 degrees for an hour. A fork or knife should just slide right in. Chop it up into bits.

Put everything in a blender or food processor. You can even just mash it by hand if you want. It's all about what texture you want.

Dump it into an ice cream maker and make it go round and round in it. Once it's hardened, put the ice cream in your face.

Pumpkin Chili with Sausage for Your Fall Time Reverie or What Have You

We just got back into town, refreshed from time with family and friends. We scheduled ourselves a day to recover from cat withdrawal and relax. We came back to Kansas City to find fall starting to creep in, and we decided to try our hand at a pumpkin chili. Here's how we went about it:

• 1 lb pumpkin, roasted (skin-removed) and cut into 1 inch squares.
• 1 whole onion, diced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced (leave the seeds in if you want it extra spicy)
• 1 lb sausage
• 1 15 oz can chili beans, undrained
• 1 15 oz can black beans, undrained
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp adobo sauce from can of chipotles in adobo sauce, not pictured (can substitute dash of liquid smoke, 1/2 Tbsp Korean chili flakes, or 1 1/2 Tbsp of barbecue sauce)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• Dash of turmeric
• Pinch of celery seed
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/2 c water or broth

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Creamy Gorgonzola Cider Sauce (Bonus: Baked Pumpkin Seeds!)

So, it's fall, and time for everyone to carve up the harvest of the season and put it on their porch to rot. Unless you're us, of course, in which case you add pumpkin to nearly every dish for about two months or so. Our first endeavor this season started over at Saveur, whose Squash Gnocchi with Meat Sauce provided the genesis for this recipe.