Potluck polenta

Potlucks spring up like dandelions in Chico. Vegetarian potlucks, vegan potlucks (where people freak out if there’s even one iota of animal product in any dish), planned potlucks, “divine synchronicity” potlucks (meaning nothing is planned)—there’s really no reason to go hungry on a weekend in Chico. Potlucks abound. Go find one and graze from it!

I really like the “divine synchronicity” potlucks, where nothing is planned. Such potlucks usually work out very well. But one time at a potluck at my friend Chris’s house, almost everybody ended up bringing a dessert! To say the least, we had a very sweet time that night. We didn’t bother to count grams of fat.

I have been known to hold some great “girls only—no boys allowed” potlucks where my women friends and I eat delicious goodies (no “fat-free” foods allowed, either!) and we sit and really talk. You know, we talk about those “girl” things we wouldn’t talk about in mixed company—our wildest escapades, stuff like that.

One of the great advantages of potlucks is that they allow you to try out new foods and recipes you might not otherwise encounter. Such is what occurred when I not long ago held a combination women’s potluck/writing event. As usual, I invited my friends to bring whatever they wanted to bring, and we ended up with a fine array of interesting “winter” foods: several different kinds of soup, a pleasantly cheesy casserole, French bread with freshly pressed garlic, several different salads (including a sumptuous vegetarian Chinese salad), and a bakery carrot cake from Albertson’s (you’ve got to love a carrot cake, even if it’s not made from scratch). We drank hot herb tea, talked about all kinds of things in which men would have absolutely no interest, and we even went back for seconds.

The real culinary hit of the evening, however, was the Pumpkin Polenta that my friend Marianne baked and brought. You couldn’t make a more delightful wintry dish; it was light-orange in color and slightly sweet and savory to the tongue. Nobody got any seconds because it was gone after firsts!

Everybody raved about the Pumpkin Polenta, and Marianne swore it was easy to make—not one of those recipes that keep you slaving away in the kitchen like a good little 1950s housewife. When we begged her for the recipe, she promised she would send it to all of us via email. I wondered if she would really remember.

She came through. Two days later, I had this Pumpkin Polenta recipe in my e-mail inbox. Relax, you don’t have to carve up a pumpkin to make this; you can use canned pumpkin! Bon appetit.

Pumpkin Polenta
Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 30-35 min. Serves: 4

1/3 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (12 oz.) can evap. milk (vegetarians can substitute soy milk)
1 tbsp. unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium saucepan, combine cornmeal, pumpkin, salt and nutmeg. Gradually stir in evaporated milk until mixture is smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Stir in butter.

Spoon mixture into a 1-quart casserole dish (rub first with oil or butter). Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the casserole is firm on top and lightly brown.

Remove from oven and drizzle honey over the top of the casserole.

Per serving: 174 calories; total fat: 3 g.; saturated fat: 2 g.; cholesterol: 13 mg; percentage of calories from fat: 18.

(Note: Marianne said she added extra nutmeg to her Polenta, which sounds like a swell idea to me.)