Apple picking.
Fresh apple cider.
And even fresher Apple Cider donuts!
Yeah, yeah - there are pumpkins and hayrides and ghosties and goblins. And Salem, MA will be jam-packed for the entire month. But pumpkin spice stuff is WAY overdone since it started coming out in July. (And I won’t go anywhere near Salem, MA in October.)
But apples? There are thousands of kinds! And picking them on a crisp fall afternoon and then making pie, crisps, apple butter, or crunching into caramel apples and/or dunking for apples at the county fair to win a stuffed animal. Or go with Peter Brady’s favorite - pork chops and applesauce!
October - the month for really kicking it in with braises and stews and making the house smell great with appley things.
There was a recent thread about “dumplings” which got me thinking, I want some chicken and dumplings. So that is what I made for dinner (last night). The dumpling recipe is my mother’s recipe, although I added a little paprika (to the dumpling dough), as my girlfriend doesn’t like pepper.
Not WFD tonight, but the beginnings of tomorrow’s dinner: lamb sauce.
2 lbs ground lamb from our old share (just picked up the new one yesterday) were fried up in a separate pan bc this lamb is fatty AF, while I ‘infused’ some olive oil with fresh rosemary, sage, and garlic in the sauce pot. Added some RPF, a finely diced shallot, a good squeeze of tomato paste & let that get toasty. Splash of our party red wine, dash of oregano, cooked that off, added the degreased lamb, then a container of the grated FM tomatoes. This will simmer until we leave for our poker game, and simmer some more tomorrow afternoon for our Sunday dinner. I wish I had fancy Italian pappardelle, but I think TJ’s may have to do.
First really cool weather made it perfect for baking.
But first, another foil container dinner from the downstairs freezer defrosted for an easy prep: baked mac and ham and cheese. Added some more cheese sauce (defrosted from the upstairs freezer), some seasoned Panko crumbs, and baked until hot. A spinach salad alongside (not pictured) and wine.
Dessert was a Gingerbread Cake that uses applesauce in the recipe, topped with fresh whipped cream. I eyeballed the amount of unsulphered molasses in the recipe, thinking it was too much, and IMO, I was right. This is just a tad over on the molasses flavor, although it was good. Mine came out much darker than hers as well. But again, it was good. I added thinly sliced Honey Crisp apple slices to the top, but they didn’t add much.
A lemony fish chowder with halibut, salmon, and veg.
Loosely based on an Epicurious recipe, I started out with a bit of chopped bacon, used a variety of fresh veggies, went short on the cream, and thickened everything with a spoonful of potato flour at the end.
This was excellent – tasty, fresh and bright. Quite different from the standard New England style, and equally as good.
Served with a few croutons from the remains of a loaf of homemade bread.
Leeks, peas, carrots, green beans, potatoes and chives from the garden.
I’m celebrating. I have my property back . Raking , cleaning , using the chain saw , weed eater, loving it . The renter is gone . Cabin is in bad shape. I’ll polish it better than ever .
Starting with a yellow fin crudo with capers and lemon.
Cheers .
We enjoyed another fabulous dinner at The Farmer’s Daughter, with some friends, in Newton, NJ, including salmon; outstanding crispy crab cake with sweet potato fritter and maple mustard drizzle; crispy pork schnitzel with braised red cabbage and homemade spaetzle; wild mushroom tartare; cider braised chicken thighs; pumpkin mascarpone ravioli; and grilled trout; It all went great with an excellent Malbec, cabernet, and petite syrah.
Tonight’s dinner will be a Mexican Quiche. I’ll heat it up at halftime. I kind of got the idea from @Stefsteves who mentioned that quiche is a good “catch all” for emptying the crisper drawer. So when I saw beef chorizo on clearance at the grocery store, I grabbed it. I had some Mexican cheese in the freezer, along with the leftover crust (from my first quiche) and half a bag of chopped broccoli. I browned an onion with the chorizo and it all went into the mix.
Recipe from the same book as the Chana Pulao last week, and another good outcome, so I’m reading through everything I had flagged in there!
Very simple, and absolutely delicious – lots of caramelized onions, a few spices and aromatics, and a long, slow cook (made faster in the pressure cooker in my case).
I also baked a loaf of bread specifically to eat with this: not my best loaf, but better than the alternative.
Short rib rendang. Unfortunately I couldn’t find Makrut lime leaves at Hmart today, but they came through with lemongrass, beautiful fresh galangal and everything else I needed. Steamed broccoli and overcooked brown rice on the side. Cooking rice properly is my nemesis! Still a fabulous meal.
