Autumnal Cooking

Update: Two years later (almost to the day!) I'm including this post in a link-up on Rae's blog which can be found here. If you're visiting because of the link-up, howdy! The pumpkin soup is the first recipe I feature on this post, and I include the link (so many links) for the recipe itself right off the bat. Don't be grossed out by the prospect of pumpkin soup, please. I live through the year yearning to make this recipe; in fact, I'm making it for the first time this fall on Thursday, for a crowd of hungry people. We will use copious amounts of whipping cream.

And when you go to the Crock Pot Lady's blog for that recipe, stay there and poke around for awhile. I've found some fabulous slow cooker recipes there, and she in particular likes to cook in the fall and winter with very seasonal foods. A lady after my own heart.

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It's a slow, sleepy Sunday, and I'm burrowed under layers of blankets, slippers, and housecoats. It's cold, folks, and our 60-year-old windows are doing very little to keep the chill out of our house. In fact, I think they do very little but invite it in for fun, months-long parties. Hmm.

So it officially feels like autumn, right? At least here in Chicagoland it does, and I'm doing my darndest to fix healthy, seasonal meals that nourish and warm and put a smile on everyone's face. I'd like to share with you the recipes to one particular meal from this past week that proved to be a big hit.

Main course: Jamaican Pumpkin Soup (slow cooker recipe)

I have a love affair with my crock pots, and my newly-acquired (thanks, Rae!) 6-qt. one is perfect for this recipe. This soup simmers on low for 8 hours, filling your home with the most amazing and mouth-watering fall aromas. The instructions for making this family favorite can be found here, at the CrockPot Lady's blog. I've written about her blog before; suffice to say, I love it and I love that she stuck to her 2008 New Year's Resolution. I use so many of her recipes! I've fixed this soup several times before to lots of applause and kisses on my feet (no, really!), and this time was no exception.

I'm not going to type out the instructions as it's all simply a click away. I will add a few thoughts, though: a) yes, tumeric is a necessary spice. I have never used it for anything else, but I can't imagine the flavor of this soup turning out quite so well without it; b) I use vegetable bouillon cubes for the broth; c) I do blend up almost of all the soup in my blender--I like the creamy texture, especially when whipping cream is added; and d) this time around I used a large can of pre-cut sweet potatoes instead of fresh ones, and it turned out great. I don't think you necessarily need to peel and cut fresh ones, unless you just get a kick out of doing that and/or are a purist. Personally, peeling and cutting potatoes is one of my least favorite cooking chores, and I'll do anything possible to get out of it. This recipe simmers for so long, plus you end up blending it, so I don't think fresh ones are really necessary if you're in a hurry.

Moving on.

Side dish: Baked Squash and Apples

This recipe originally appears in the cookbook Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. This is a Mennonite cookbook that my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas last year, and I love it and use it regularly. It presents menus and recipes within the context of the seasons, pushing the use of local produce, healthy foods, and seasonal goods.

This was the first time I had tried this particular recipe, and it turned out great! Charlotte couldn't get enough of the squash.

Baked Squash and Apples

2 lbs. butternut/buttercup squash

2-3 baking apples

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 T. butter (melted)

1 T. flour

1 t. salt

1/4 t. ground mace (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Peel and seed the squash and remove fibers; cut into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange in an ungreased oblong baking dish. (I used a 2.5 quart dish.) 

Core apples (use red ones for good color) and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange on top of squash.

Combine rest of ingredients in a small bowl and then sprinkle on top of apples and squash. Cover and bake until squash is tender, 40-50 minutes.

Note: I doubled the brown sugar mixture because this tends to make a lot of squash and apples. And let's face it, what's squash without a lot of brown sugar?

And now for our final recipe of the day, which can be seen just barely in the bottom left-hand corner of the previous picture. (I'm sorry I got all of the pictures half-way through the meal. I think I was actually onto my second helping of everything by then.)

Side salad: Pear and Gouda Salad (found in the October 2009 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, page 22)

(for one serving) Slice a pear and add chunks of Gouda and blue cheese. Toss in some chopped walnuts and a few greens, then drizzle with honey.

Notes: I left out the blue cheese and the greens and we still enjoyed this sweet little appetizer. It pairs very well with the other two dishes.

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So that was our incredibly seasonal meal. We had apples, squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and pears, plus I made apple crisp for dessert. Plusplus, this meal is almost completely vegan, save the cream in the soup (easily left out), the butter in the side dish (easily substituted), and the cheese and honey in the pear dish (hmmm, I'll have to think about that one.) These will be great options for our upcoming Nativity Fast.

The final bit of autumn I'd like to share with you involves our dining room chandelier, which is admittedly fancy enough to stand on its own, but what with all the fall decor everywhere else, was crying for a little attention. I don't remember where I saw this idea (a magazine? a blog?), but I ended up poking a grapevine wreath into its center and then sticking pits of faux berries, feathers, and any other autumnal fixings I could find to make a pretty arrangement above our heads. Then I used thin floral wire to dangle a few, small fake pumpkins from the chandelier, one of which you can just barely see in the next picture:

The feathers might be my favorite part. They are, after all, fairly unexpected.

Let me know if you have any other nourishing fall meal ideas! (Especially if they're meatless/vegan and kid-friendly!) Tomorrow I'm brewing up a hearty vegetable stew that takes all of 10 minutes and 3 brain cells to throw together. At this point in my life, 3 brain cells are about all I can spare for a meal.

Happy Autumn!