I enjoy all of that, just not all at once. All year, the season doesn't matter.

What time is dinner? What can I bring?

Ha-Ha, Elmer. How about some fine California white wine?

Possibly or maybe another type. I'll be there.

I love stews and soups. But it is still too warm for that here in the south. I’m still enjoying fresh tomato salads from my garden and watermelon from the farm stands, and whever else I can get that’s fresh. Give me some good vegetables any time.

DH and I have really cut back on our food consumption, by choice. we both needed to lose a few pounds and it seemed right to work on it ths summer. So we don’t eat much red meat now (he doesn’t think today’s market meat tastes like it should). I’ve always loved fish and seafood so that’s easy no matter what time of year.

This time of year is often the hottest here. But we don't discriminate about food. The first batch of pumpkins is here! But I probably won't get into cooking them until mid-October. I love pumpkins. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasta, etc. No butternut imposter for me! (Butternut is actually pumpkin enough that it's legal to call it pumpkin in canned pumpkins, but I hate the resin and the hard carapace and all, and I like the pleasantly bitter undertones of real pumpkins.)

I also had a yen for stew, but we had an unseasonable rain event...I also have to make chicken stock and spaghetti sauce and other freezer fillers. Maybe some chili. Maybe some beans.

Most comfort dishes…soups, stews, chili, pot roast/braises, pot pies, baked pastas and so on. Fun to make…great to eat!👍🏻

Outside said :

" I love stews and soups. But it is still too warm for that here in the south. "

But pillog said:

"This time of year is often the hottest here. But we don't discriminate about food."

For me, my preference is more in line with pillog's. I'm north of SoCal now in a more coastal than inland location and we're having really nice, warm weather. No rain at all. But a bowl of soup or stew is always welcome.

I remember thinking a bit about this the other way around, relative to drinking beer in the wintertime, before moving to Europe. I'd been there in the summertime and wondered how it would be - would it be appealing to drink beer with colder and rainy-er weather than I was accustomed to?

Well, it's no problem at all!

Seasonal produce: apples, pears, squashes, cabbages. Root vegetables starting: parsnip, celeriac, swede. Game: pheasant, duck, pigeon. Casseroles.

I quite like soups but DH, who is not remotely a fussy eater, just doesn't like liquid meals.

“This time of year is often the hottest here. But we don't discriminate about food.”

Agree…I refuse to let the warm/hot Sept. and Oct. temps deter me! I do envy my siblings in Seattle and Kansas City with their cooler Fall temps

Like so many of you, I really ramp up my homemade soup making during Autumn, my favorite season. Along with many favorites already mentioned here, I also love making Posole/Pozole a lot. I’m not much for casseroles lately, but I do also enjoy making another New Mexican family favorite, Chile Rellenos. They both say cool weather and family gatherings to me. I’m not much into making us many desserts, but cozy breakfasts, yes!

oooo yeah! LynnNM. I love chili rellenos. The last time I made those, (its been awhile), but instead of dipping the filled peppers in the meringue, I put blobs (pillows) of it in the pan of hot oil, then placed the peppers on top, then covered with another blob (pillow). It seemed easier, and every pepper gets a hefty amount of yummy meringue. I want some now.

I haven't had chille con carne in well over 50 years and as the weather cools here, I suddenly have been thinking about making it - hoping I can remember and replicate this one of my mom's fall and winter soups. Will try kefir cornbread with it.

Happy Autumn Equinox today, everybody !

LynnNM, I love chile rellenos too, what type of chilis do you like best ? My stores always have poblano and anaheim, so I use those. Do you have hatch chilis available now ? We get those from time to time. I've been able to grow peppers occasionally, poblano and cayenne were very robust at times but it depends on the summer (didn't happen this summer, very sad pepper plants).

I made posole the other night, sooo good and we are enjoying the leftovers .

What springs to mind for me right at the moment is leafy greens like chard, collards, kale, etc - they hang on even through frost, My favorite way to use lots of mixed greens lately is Saag Paneer, so flavorful and it's a great way to use copious amounts of leafy greens .

Alaska has the best carrots around - they are extra sweet due to our long summer days and it's similar for potatoes and beets they grow very well here in the Matanuska Valley (Alaska). Like others have said, the pumpkins are a favorite and other winter squash... red kuri and kobocha are favorites. Our farmers market will go on for another week or two and then they move indoors through the holidays .

Preparation-wise, I think my favorite is to sautee squash with chard or other leafy greens - it is so pretty and I riff off of a dish I had at Square One in San Francisco many years ago.

Lat62: You’re in Alaska?!? How wonderful! We were there exploring in late-September 2023 for a couple of weeks. What a dream of a trip for us!
Living here in New Mexico, we have great access to Hatch chiles. I use their mild to medium Big Jim’s for my rellenos. I have great recipes for all my New Mexican foods. When we first moved here (me from Michigan) 42 years ago, a new, good native NM friend taught me how to “cook like a New Mexican and not like a gringo!”. She and her husband own a big, wonderful hotel and restaurant now in her Northern NM town. She even made me a cookbook of her great recipes, which I still use to this day.

I don't have many dinner recipes, per se, which I make repeatedly as written, rather than as a guideline. One big favorite, however, is PKramer's SW chicken and dumplings from back when in CF. I can't find it in the search, but it's a perfect Fall kind of dish. Oh, the change that is the exception is I combine light and dark meat.

Chicken and Dumplings (biscuits) SW style from PKramer

INGREDIENTS

For the Filling:
1 ½ lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into pieces
½ cup AP flour
2 TBSP veg oil
2 tsp salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper (go easy)
¼ tsp black pepper
1 leek, sliced into moons
1 rib celery
1 carrot, diced
1 sweet potato, peeled and chunked
2 parsnips, peeled and diced
2 bay leaves
¼ c. dry white wine
1 qt. Chicken stock
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sage, chopped
1 tsp rosemary, chopped

For the Dumplings:
1 ½ c AP flour
3 TBSP Parm Cheese, grated
2 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground pepper
2/3 c whole milk
3 TBSP unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

For the Filling:

1. Preheat oven to 375°, rack in center
2. Cut chicken and dredge in flour, peppers and salt
3. Brown the chicken in large oven proof pot with 1 T. oil over medium heat. Brown in batches, adding oil if needed. Remove from pan when brown.
4. Sweat the veg. and bay leaves in oil until soft, 5 min.
5. Deglaze the pan with wine, simmer until almost gone.
6. Stir in remaining flour to coat vegetables.
7. Gradually add stock, cover pot and transfer to oven, cook for 20 minutes.(no chicken yet)

8. (Start dumpling dough now) For the Dumplings:

Blend dry ingredients in a mixing bowl Heat milk and butter until melted, blend into dry ingredients. Shape into small balls, or use small ice cream/cookie scooper

9. To Finish: After 20 min, into the pot stir in chicken, lemon juice and herbs. Drop dumplings into stew and braise 20 minutes until dumplings are cooked, toothpick is clean.

I think fall may be my favorite eating season! My other favorites are winter, spring, and summer.

Seriously though, you can still grill and eat outside some days, or you can set the table and dine, there are still tomatoes on the plants and lots of fresh fruit etc in the stores, but no-one looks askance at a hearty beef or beef-less stew, it’s a great season.

It's too hot to think about fall food other than Reeses Peanut Butter Pumpkins. I'll still into cold salads and sandwiches right now.

LynnNM, yes I'm in Anchorage - coincidentally to your experience, I moved here in 1983, 42 years ago, and I grew up in Michigan, left in 1980 right after high school graduation (2.5 years in Houston ). Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip here, it's a very special place .

If you are up for sharing your relleno recipe I'd love that ! I use a Diana Kennedy recipe and shallow fry.

We love Chili Rellenos but they are a PITA to make.

I've made this Chili Relleno casserole several times which is pretty close to the same flavor.

We are having a roller coaster season of temps. I plan a meal when the temps are low and when the day cones to actually cook it temps are up!! Today is stuffed pepper soup. It sounded soo nummy last week when I harvested the bell peppers. Today the high will be 77 a bit warm for soup to make sense but oh well.

It's still 95 degrees in central Texas, but the first cold snap we get - usually in October - everyone here makes chili with no beans.

I love caramel apples. They used to have great ones in a candy store near me, but not anymore. I satisfy the craving by melting caramel and dipping apple pieces into it. That way I don't have to commit to an entire apple or even get a stick.

It's also impossible to find readymade popcorn balls, and I just want one or two, not a whole batch.

On a holiday note, last night I made a honey cake and it turned out great.

Just a bit early here as well - heat still feels like summer, only slightly cooler, yet the days are definitely becoming shorter, and the stores have lots of fall merchandise and decor, of course.

To me, Fall means fresh apples, pears, Winter squashes and oranges in the stores - cranberries too. Bought my first bag of Bartlett pears the other day and they're finally ripe enough to eat. Made an apple crisp with raisins too.

Also looking forward to making beef stew, that and pot roast are among my fave cool weather dinners - and I make biscuits to go with 🙂

Its still quite warm here. I made a turkey dinner including pumpkin pie on Sunday! Thanksgiving is too far off to wait.

Fall has definitely arrived in Maine. My cooking this time of year tends to be a mix of the last of summer produce and fall crops. Mixed in with odd left overs bits from whatever I am canning or freezing. Sometimes the mix is good and other times not so much. I tend to eat more starchy vegetables ie potatoes or squash and heartier greens this season. Mixed with pestos and other herbal ‘sauces’ or hot sauces that I freeze, ferment or can.

I was very busy last weekend because of the Common Ground Fair (big organic agricultural fair) - luckily the first area frost didn’t hit my garden. Nonetheless I need to process lots of herbs and tender crops in the next week or so.