The other night my gastronomically gifted friend, Phil Woods , and I made a great pumpkin, Parmesan and porcini risotto (along with a few other dishes you'll be reading about soon). It was super easy, fairly quick and yielded quite a bit so be prepared for leftovers; or just throw a little dinner party and get ready to entertain like a boss.

There are an infinite number of reasons to love fall: the foliage, the apple picking, that colored corn people hang on their front door. Plus you can say bye bye to humidity-induced hair frizz for another 6 months. Yayyy fall! Fall also happens to bring out some of my favorite flavors when it comes to food and booze. Hello pumpkin, squash, cinnamon and apples NOM.

Ingredients:

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, diced

1 cup mushrooms (I used a mix of porcini & oyster)

1 cup baby pumpkin, diced (or buttah-nut squash)

1 1/2 cup Arborio rice

3-4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

Fresh parsley, minced

Grated parmesean

Salt & Pepper

Butter

Evoo

Grab a giant saucepan (non-stick recommended but not necessary) and heat up about a tablespoon of oil and 1/8 stick of butter. Then add the garlic and onion and stir gently for a couple minutes.

Next add in rice, and stir for one minute. Make sure it's completely covered in oil and buttah. Next add in the pumpkin...

...and the porcini mushrooms.

Add in 1 cup of chicken stock, and stir continuously until it is almost completely absorbed by the rice. You want to continue to stir, adding one cup of stock at a time, until it is completely absorbed and the rice is tender. This should take around 20 to 30 minutes.

*If you're using a non-stick pan you don't have to cater to the rice as frequently.

Add in parsley, Salt n' Peppa to taste, then just add PARM!

Now stir, then serve, and wait for everyone to tell you how awesome it is.

The rice itself is tasty enough to serve alone, or you can get fancy and serve it with some pork chops. This one happened to be marinated in red wine, minced shallot, fresh squeezed orange and some butter (which you should heat in a pan first until reduced by half). The marinade also doubles as a great sauce for drizzling on top of, well, just about anything. so have at it.