I'm going to come to your house and eat! lol.

It's COLD here during the nights, so yesterday I made a large pot of Ham and Beans w/Tabouli & biscuits for our homemade Peach jam.

It's getting much colder next week so on Sunday I'm going to make a Beef Stew. I could eat stew every day for the rest of my life!

Also use Tabouli as a side dish. Oh, I'm going to make a Corn Salad sometime this week.

Yup cold weather is here too and every year to welcome it in, I make chuck roast with onion gravy, browned potatoes and carrots. Yum! It's the same thing my mother made when I was a kid and one of my favorites!!!

I've been forcing myself to try new things. This isn't real fancy but I made this acorn squash recipe last week and was a happy camper. I failed to notice it was for "two" acorn squash and I only had one but followed the rest of the recipe as is. I thought it was good. Used onions because I didn't have any leeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roasted Acorn Squash

Ina's ginger chicken recipe is really good, I've made it with boneless breasts and cooked it for less and it is still delicious. I haven't made it for years so thanks for the reminder!
It was a favorite for a while ( at the time I had a new book of hers) then I moved on and forgot about it.

Scallion pancakes have been a recent favorite and bread from the 5 minute no knead healthy recipe book and I did spend a morning the other day making french onion soup for the freezer.
Nothing exotic happening here though. I need to make a batch of summer rolls and eat those for a few days.
Fall gardening is the big thing at the moment.

Shee, that's so different from any acorn recipe I've tried. Definitely adding it to the list. My mom always baked them with little sausages, butter, and brown sugar.

BB, I made it with skinless, boneless thighs and only marinated about 6 hours. I think overnight would have been too strong. Also reduced the ginger by half. Ina tends to go overboard on some of her seasonings, but I still love her recipes. I'm also heavy into fall gardening. More on tap for tomorrow.

Shee, that looks good. I have some delicata squash from the garden I will try it with. Thank you.

Last night I roasted some thin zucchini strips with cherry tomatoes and garlic, then tossed it with pasta, ricotta and basil. The picky kids even ate it.

I was trying to make a chinese orange chicken tonight and I was not impressed, back to the drawing board on that one. This week we did have acorn squash stuffed with corn custard but I have been rather uninspired in the kitchen of late, I do not have half the things I need right now and am rather tired of trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat. We had our first freeze last weekend and another one will be here on Tuesday so I think my funk is from adjusting to the weather changes.

I made up a roasted butternut squash and apple soup the other day for a luncheon here at the house . I do it differently every time ...mostly because I never write it down:). This one was especially good though so I jotted down the particulars.

The main thing to do is roast the squash and the apples at 400 til very tender. I used Mutzu apples and used the peelings in the soup too...pureed them and they were great. I also had 3 leeks sauteed them and added them in.

I make my own curry powder...use Alton Brown's recipe...it is the best you will ever try. Do cut the cardamom in half though as it is very pungent and takes over. Otherwise it is just the right amount of heat.

I caramelized a diced up apple in brown sugar and butter for the garnish. it really was exceptional. The soup also keeps very well and is better the next day.

I am going to try the Ina recipe as we love ginger. Also going to try the roasted zucchini...all nice ideas. c

Bumble, I make a great white onion pancake. I'll have to try it with the green onions.

Question, here in OK. we call scallions, "green onion." What part of the country are you from?

For the longest time I'd see a recipe that called for Scallions, and I thought, "what are those??" LOL

I call them green onions too, Oakly, but I have been making them like this video. Watch it, it's really interesting. He doesn't give a recipe, but I'll post later the recipe I came up with to match his demonstration.
Scallion is how they are called and the word pancake is misleading, it's a fried flatbread.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to make scallion pancakes.

Recently in HHI, I attended a cooking demo at my favorite restaurant. One of these days I'll be making the Minestrone with autumn veggies (pumpkin, chestnuts, acorn squash, green squash) and the fig tart that he made. The tart had a puff pastry bottom, pate a choux sides and an almond paste topping. It was deeee-licious. And the soup was heavenly and easily adapted to any season's veggies.

Also on my list to make soon is a honey roasted butternut squash and spinach salad. I found that on a website linked over on the cooking forum - skinny taste or something like that. It looks lovely - orange squash, green spinach, red dried cherries (although I'll use cranberries since I have them), white from either feta or gorgonzola.

Last night we were out and I had butternut squash agnolotti (basically a ravioli)with browned butter and sage. Tonight will probably be my favorite Silician style pizza since I haven't had it in over 5 weeks. The staff probably thinks I died it's been so long since I've been there. They all know my order and hand me my glass of wine as we sit down. It's my Cheers, where everybody might not know my name but they do know my standing order.

My cooking this week has been uninspired and I am determined to get my mojo back. After I get my Silician pizza. :-)

Yum - sauash! Haven't made any recently. I haven't cooked alot this week. We grill alot - did burgers the first of the week. I did make parmesan chicken, roasted veggies and a creamy chicken rice thursday. Love corn salad, i don't make the one with corn chips.

Every year on this weekend we have a cook-out with most of our kids, gkids and one other family like ours, about 15 adults and 8 little kids. We grill burgers and sausages over our fire pit on the edge of our woods, make camp coffee, roast veggies, have s'mores and birthday cake (4 b'days in two weeks), and everybody's favorite Carrot Soup served in a pumpkin.

It is sunny and 58* right now, the wind is seems like it may blow the house away. If it doesn't calm down before we start the fire around 4:30 we may have to huddle around the bbq grill. How charming is that!?!?

I have plenty left to do yet. I always wonder why I wash the floor the week BEFORE this party, when by the end of today it will be completely covered in dry leaves and footprints. Maybe it's time to have my loose screw tightened.

Gotta go.....

Sherrmann, hope the temps don't drop too fast once the sun goes down. Carrot soup sounds good! Do you put fresh ginger in yours?

Caroline, I like Penzey's curry powders. When you mentioned cardamom had to check if the jar was still in the baking drawer. It is. Fancy green pods dated March 08. Bought them to use in Dirt Bomb Muffins, but didn't care for the smell. Cracked a couple open ... have no idea if the black seed should be as dry as it is. Guess I should just toss.

Went to the farmers' market this morning. Picked up satsumas, yellow squash, green beans (mine are still too tiny), tomatoes, and honey. Chicken stock is simmering for the next few hours, so I need to change and get some work done outside. Grilling burgers tonight.

natal don't toss ! I had a bottle of the little black seeds that was over 10 yrs old. We kept them in the fridge. Take a couple and grind them...I bet they will be very pungent.

Try Alton's recipe...it is so so good. Lots of nice ideas. I am definitely going to make the roast bn salad...I have everything including the cherries. c

Caroline, checked Alton's recipe. I'd need to buy cumin seeds and tumeric. And then both of those would languish in my spice drawer, lol. You did pique my curiosity about the cardamom. The seed is still pungent. I may try those Dirt Bomb muffins afterall especially after seeing Oakley's donut thread. Dh loves cinnamon sugar donuts and that's what the muffins are supposedly like.

Tonight we'll be watching OU (University of Oklahoma, DH & DS's alma mater) play football on tv, so I'm going for a casual, fun dinner on trays while we watch it: BBQ ribs, potato salad and corn. Nothing gourmet, but very yummy :~)
Lynn

natal: I keep meaning to make the dirt bombs...forgot all about them till you mentioned it.

We use a lot of cumin so the jar is always almost empty. Turmeric keeps for at least a decade or more LOL. So you will use it all up. We make curry powder about every month or two so we use a lot of it too.

Try putting curry powder in your catsup the next time you want it for a burger or fries. It is SO yum. That is the way everyone in Holland eats their patat frites....french fries. c

I'm not crazy about cumin. I never cook with it. Tumeric stains everything it touches, so I shy away from it too. I know both are in curry powder, but that's the only time I use them.

Tried a new squash tonight ... buttercup. It reminded me of acorn except it was drier, but a little more flavorful. I seasoned it with chipotle powder and a little butter. Dh grilled country style ribs with raspberry chipotle bbq sauce. Also had cole slaw and cranberry Jezebel.

Caroline, we don't use catsup, but I bet that is good. I use curry powder in tuna salad sometimes.

Well I was going to have a nice BBQ chicken meal tonight.

Imagine my surprise when I checked on it an hour later and realized I had put an already cooked roast from Friday in the oven.

I had prepped the chicken this morning and put it in the same type of corning bake-ware dish as the roast beef was in - and grabbed the wrong dish.

We are now having fish tonight...

Anyone have a good recipe for extra dry extra tough chuck roast?:)

I love curry. Do you know what Comeback Sauce is - kind of like a spicy thousand island dressing that is so good, even just with crackers. I put a little curry in mine for an extra kick, and it is delicious! Good with seafood, fries, even on a hamburger (use instead of ketchup.)

It's still in the 80's here, but nice at night and a cool front is on the way, so I'm thinking it's time for soup, too. I recently started back to work, so tonight I am going to make a big pot of taco soup (with ground turkey instead of ground beef), freeze in small containers so I can take for my lunch.

Wodka, does Comeback taste like remoulade? One of the recipes online sounded similar.

Tried a couple more new recipes the past week ... Apple Buttermilk Muffins and Butternut Squash Bisque with fresh ginger and curry powder.

I didn't flip the muffins, but I did add a pecan half to the top before baking. They were wonderful hot out of the oven and equally good the next day reheated for 10 seconds in the microwave.

Oh those look great ! I have a couple kinds of apples and buttermilk so I think I will make them tomorrow. Looks like she has a lot of really nice recipes. Thanks for linking it.

We are back to sunny days...but 40's at night. Will be mid 70's again next week.

I posted on the Kitchen forum the pretty cookies that DH made...they are Italian and chocolate...what else can you ask for ???

DH made omlettes tonight with sauteed red onion and red bell pepper. He added cheddar and finished them under the broiler...they puff so nicely. I had some tomatillo sauce leftover so i heated that up and we spooned it over...oh wow...it was so yummy. I also made grits in the double boiler. Never have done that before. They take longer but are really creamy and no sticking and also no stirring.

Had homemade Challah and homemade elderberry jam and that was that. c

You are all so ambitious! Was out shopping w/DD until early Sat. evening, so had to 'make' something quick. I thought broccoli cheddar soup sounded good, with warm jalapeno corn bread. Target has a great little deli. ;o)

Pattycakes, sometimes it's just easier to let someone else do the cooking. ;)

Made a German apple pancake for breakfast. Saw it on a blog recently and I think someone here shared a recipe too.

Dh went to the LSU game yesterday and got home around 6:30. Since he wasn't starving I decided to roast a chicken. Only took 90 minutes, so it wasn't too late. Sides were mashed rutabaga and roasted green beans.

natal, yes, Comeback Sauce/Dressing tastes similar to a remoulade sauce. I went home for a family wedding and we actually were talking about it today, wondering where comeback sauce might have originated, if it was a Mississippi thing. One old, local Greek restaurant was famous for it (Dennery's.) My late mother-in-law used to make it all the time.

Slow roasted turkey legs with root veggies from the garden. Yum.

Thanks for sharing the muffin recipe Natal - I am going to try that. I have been enjoying the honey crisp apples (they are here for a short time only) and cooking with them.

tina

Tina, a few notes if you decide to try them ... she mentions not overfilling ... I did and there wasn't a problem. Also had to bake them a few minutes longer.

Trailrunner and Shermann - those soups sound delicious!!!!

Caroline I am definitely going to try your soup!

Shermann - do you have a recipe for your carrot soup that you wouldn't mind sharing? I've always wanted to try it.

Fall means it's time for me to make tomato fennel soup w/ grilled gouda cheese & cayenne sandwiches.