ramble alert


sometimes i really miss germany. lately i've been missing it a lot. there are, however, some things that i don't miss. like unemployed elderly men who drink schnapps in front of the grocery store and make remarks to me in a dialect that i, quite frankly, find frightening. or like the fact that the stores are never, ever open.
so when i got up to go to the monstrosity that is the 24-hour grocery kingdom down the street from me this morning only to find it closed (closed?!) for thanksgiving monday, i had to smile a bit.

and do the "what can i rustle up from the crumbs in the cupboard" that i was so familiar with on the other side. so i came up with this:



baked pumpkin risotto with pancetta.

which isn't too bad. i'm not a giant fan of risotto, but i've never been one to turn down pancetta.

1. put one cup of arborio rice, two and a half cups of chicken stock, half a pound of diced pumpkin, some butter in a pan and cover it and bake it at 400 f for 30 mins.
2. take it out and stir that mother. oh and add some salt and pepper and parmesan (or bread crumbs if you are me and have no parmesan)
3. make pancetta crispy.
4. eat.

i'd never baked a risotto before, and was pretty delighted with the results. mostly because it gave me more time to look at this