Fall food ramblings

I love fall. The foods. The colors. The smells. The sights. The feel, the crisp coolness. The sounds, the crunchy leaves, the wind. And the foods, did I mention the foods?

So far we've picked apples and pumpkins. We grew a pumpkin and some butternut squash. I've made an apple pie and applesauce will be next, followed by apple crisp. We've had squash a few times for dinner. I've made pumpkin muffins, pancakes and bread. Mmmm.

Pot roasts and roast chicken are another fall fave, followed by Sunday Football Chili!

I could go on and on...or I could post some of my recipes for some of these soon... But, you know my problem, I don't follow recipes and I estimate everything.

Apple pie is the easiest. I use PW's perfect pie crust. I use 9 inch deep dish, because I like a deep, thick pie. About 6-8 apples, depending on size. I hate overly sweet apple pies, like the prepared/canned filling. It's just sugar, no apples. So, I cut my apples in thick slices, add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp cloves. I love spices, so the more the merrier. I throw in about a tsp of cornstarch and mix that all together. Top the pie dish with another crust, bake at 375 for an hour, and voila, the bestest apple pie ever. Well, unless you make one with a crumble top....ooh now that is good.

Another thing I love is to sprinkle nutmeg on squash before serving. Gives it a slightly refreshing but mild zing.

Sometimes if I need a quick apple pie fix I'll core an apple, fill the cored out part with cinnamon and brown sugar and microwave it for a few minutes until soft. Now, that's easy.

For the pumpkin pancakes I made a "pumpkin cream syrup" of sorts by mixing equal parts pumpkin puree and plain yogurt and (real) maple syrup. It was really good! Kian ate it by the spoonful.

And for easy fall meals you cannot beat a crock pot! Those things do wonders. Throw in a beef shoulder cut with potatoes, carrots, celery and onions. Add 1-2 cups water, seasoned salt, pepper, some Worcestershire sauce, leave it for 4 hours and you have an amazing meal. (Sometimes I take the "juice" boil it with a tiny bit of cornstarch and make a nice gravy for it too!)

Well, my pie has now run over, onto the bottom of the oven. That means for the next 2 weeks every time i turn the oven on my house will smell like apple pie-not such a bad thing! Guess I'd better take it out now!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow the pumpkin syrup sounds really good!

Rosie : ) said...

Mm, pumpkin syrup soudns interesting. :) You shoudl post your recipes, even if they are approximate. I lvoe trying out easy new recipes!

I did a pumpkin cheesecake recipe last weekend {I think it was last weekend :)}, so if you feel the need to make it with real pumpkin puree, it would probably be even tastier. :)

Anonymous said...

Try adding a bit of nutmeg to your apple pie