This is a go-to fall and winter dessert, a ready-when-you-are, last-minute triumph that seems more complex than it is. Winter pears (I typically use bosc), even slightly hard ones, are sliced, sprinkled with brown sugar that’s been spiced with ground cinnamon, nutmeg or mace (current fave) and doused with a little heavy cream. Add walnuts [...]
Archive for October, 2011
Baked Pears in Spiced Cream
Posted in Pears, tagged Baked pears on October 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Chard Stuffed with Winter Squash, Brown Rice and Currants
Posted in Grains, Greens, Spice Rack Challenge, Winter squash, tagged Stuffed chard leaves on October 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
These flavorful little bundles are perfect for a fall meal, simply served with a salad of bitter greens, pears and walnuts or as a side dish for roast chicken. I wrapped lightly blanched leaves of young chard around a risotto-like combination of roasted winter squash and brown rice, perked with little bites of dried currants [...]
Apple-Mace Muffins
Posted in Apple, Quick breads and muffins, Spice Rack Challenge, tagged Apple mace muffins on October 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
These are the ultimate Sunday morning muffins – light but rich with a delicate crumb and a lingering spiciness. The tops are crunchy from a sprinkling of brown sugar crystals and the inside contains tiny cubes of fall apples. When I thought about making muffins for this month’s Spice Rack Challenge, I envisioned a perfect [...]
Pepper and Beef Goulash
Posted in Peppers, Stews, tagged Hungarian pepper goulash on October 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Peppers peppers peppers. The combination of so many varieties of peppers with a fall cold snap makes us long for the comfort food, even though we’re still harvesting corn and tomatoes. Stews are the epitome of comfort food in our house, whether vegetarian or containing meat, poultry or fish. Having gone to school in Vienna, [...]
Sautéed Corn with Pepper and Tomato
Posted in Corn, Peppers, Tomato, tagged Louisiana maquechoix on October 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
What? Still serving fresh corn on the cob in New Jersey in October? You bet. No killer frost yet. Our local farm stand has a crop of corn in peak condition and another waiting, though we don’t have high hopes for the last one because the nights are getting too cold for the corn to [...]
Timbale of Collards, Red Pepper and Corn
Posted in Corn, Greens, Peppers, Vegetable gratin, tagged Collards custard on October 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A savory custard envelopes seasonal vegetables to make a simple but satisfying vegetarian meal. (It would also welcome a few cubes of smoked ham if you’re so inclined.) Like quiche filling without the crust, this is a riff on one of my standbys, extended by adding corn and red pepper to the collard leaves and [...]
Preserving Herbs Part 9: Salt Rubs – Rosemary-Sage and Celery
Posted in Herbs, Preserving, Uncategorized, tagged Making herb salt rubs on October 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Now that the local growing season is winding down, I am harvesting the remaining herbs that won’t survive the winter and preserving them. Preserving herbs is an ongoing process all summer and fall, especially since the tender ones like basil are gone, and other like mint are past their most aromatic stages. In the 6 [...]
Preserving Herbs Part 8: Making Herb Tea
Posted in Herbs, Preserving, tagged DIY herb tea on October 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I have had a love affair with lemon verbena for months thanks to a bumper crop at our CSA. At the end of the season, just before the first frost, I harvested a few bunches and hung them upside down in a dark dry spot. When thoroughly dried (a couple of weeks), slightly crumble the [...]
Preserving Herbs Part 7: Sugared Pesto – Lemon Verbena
Posted in Herbs, Preserving, tagged Lemon verbena sugar on October 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
When I was playing around with herb syrups for Part 5 of my Preserving Herbs series, I was in the middle of preserving the last basil from my garden into little tubes of pesto for the freezer. With sugar and lemon verbena on the counter ready for syrup, I thought, why add the liquid? The [...]
Waste Not Want Not: Braised Fennel, Tomato-Orange Sauce, and Manicotti with Fennel Frond Pesto
Posted in Fennel, Pasta, Pesto, Tomato, Waste Not Want Not, tagged fennel frond pesto, pasta with tomatos and fennel, tomato-orange-fennel sauce on October 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
After a weekend of canning tomatoes, including a lovely Provençale-style tomato sauce with orange and rosemary, I had a little leftover sauce, a leftover half of an orange (precious at this time of year) and a large (3-foot-long) bulb of Florence fennel with stalks and fronds intact, courtesy of our CSA farm. I hadn’t figured [...]
