I've been out for a good walk with the dogs the past few days enjoying the local color knowing that November brings the somber tones of grays and browns. Truth is, this is the last natural color here on the blog until April. Are you ready for it? I'm not!
The lambs and ewes' fleeces are growing nicely - they are definitely getting ready for a winter wearing their warm woolen coats.
Yesterday, our neighbor Sid was haying. I loved the way his John Deere tractor and his orange baler looked against the autumn colors.
He'll be selling his round bales of hay all winter long to people who raise cattle and horses. Each bale weighs about 800 pounds.
This old farmhouse up the road has seen better days. Although it is rather run-down, it looks beautiful with its red roof from afar.
Lastly, today is the first of my October Giveaways. Here's what I have for you to win donated by the kind folks at Storey Publishing. Just in time for winter reading, I've got a stack of goodies for one lucky winner. (Please only US addresses - thanks.)
Jenna Woginrich's "Made from Scratch" (Jenna writes a nice country inspired blog here.)
Amy Cotler's "The Locavore Way" (Amy's food blog is here.)
Organic Body Care Recipes by prolific author Stephanie Tourles
Like many of my contests in the past, you'll have to answer an easy question in the comments section. Also, please be sure to leave an easy way to contact you with your comment.
What is your favorite autumn food? What do you just have to cook, bake or eat during the autumn season to herald its arrival?
Contest ends at midnight on Thursday, October 14th. I'll post the winner's name on Friday at noon. Good luck! There will be another contest next week so check back!
112 comments:
I love to make pie in the fall, especially apple pie :) something about paring the apples and rolling the crust out just feels like the right thing to be doing!
Well, the question is so hard to answer, but I think that soups are my faviorte thing to make when the weather starts to turn cool. Here in Tennessee we have had only a very few cool morings as most days are still in the mid 80's and nights just around 55. The leaves have yet to really start changing and the only reason I can really tell that fall is on the way is that the chickens and the sheep are gobbling all the green food they can, the chickens are on major bug patrol. Sure do love to see your farm pictures and the pictures of your wonderful art! It makes me so happy to see what beautiful creations you make. I hope I am the winner as all these books are just what I need for my fall break. I teach school and could use alittle me time with some good reads. I will also do some crocheting, hoping to find a good sock pattern to make for littles for chirstimas! Thanks for such a great blog!
I forgot my contact information! Just email me at ahaney01@comcast.net, if I am the winner. I can then send you my address! Thanks Again!
This is a hard one for me too! I am using my crock pot more and more these days. Stews and anything roasted (veggies, meats, etc) as well as anything with pumpkin or squash (bread, pie, cake, etc). tuttlesibleyATyahooDOTcom.
Yay fall! I love to make soups, especially baked potato soup and minestrone, and chili. I also love to make apple crisp. You can contact me, if needed, at thefankells@mesanetworks.net.
I live in south central PA, in the heart of the apple orchards. I must eat apples and preserve them in many forms! Applesauce is a big deal, but we eat our share of pie this time of year, too. YUM!
In fall I make my mother's vegetable soup and also butternut squash soup.
Fall would not be complete with out homemade applesauce!
Where I live it is too hot to have the oven on until Mid October at the earliest. So, being able to tolerate having my oven on for roasted veggies is my sign that Fall is finally here.
My autumn food is apple crisp with hot apple and caramel cider. I always know it is the fall when I whip up a pot of chili. Email is karclockATgmail.com
I go straight for the winter squash. Tonight I am making one of my favorites - butternut squash lasagna!
My contact info is katie(dot)benedict(at)gmail(dot)com
Beef stew has been the standby for our family. There's something about the chunks of hot beef and root veggies... Yum.
Pie is another one. Can't forget pies.
Fall means soup weather (finally!) after the hot days of summer I love to get back to my favorite soups, Curried Pumpkin Soup and a Parsnip and Apple Soup my husband and I ate on our honeymoon in Ireland.
susanabarfield(at)gmail(dot)com
Definitely chili and beef stew. When the weather starts changing, I'm in the mood for warm, comforting food!
Autumn cooking? I just HAVE to bake something with pumpkin! Pumpkin pies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin breads! ('Scuse me now, I'm off to look for a pumpkin muffin recipe!)
I have to have pumpkins and apples. One way we herald the autumn season here is to make our applesauce (from heirloom apples from a local orchard) for the year on a Saturday afternoon and then watch a movie together while we eat homemade popcorn (which is also grown locally). Autumn is definitely my favorite time of year!
I think apples always mean fall to me. And each year I always bake an apple chocolate chip coffee cake.
The first pot of homemade soup lets me know it's really fall. In the summer, I'm not willing to heat up the kitchen with a bit pot of bubbling soup!
I know it's not original, but it has to be apple pie. Nothing says fall like apple pie made completely from scratch. I have fond memories of my dad watching football on tv while he peeled the apples for my mom's awesome apple pie.
Gingerbread with lemon curd sauce (homemade -- it's easy) just sings fall to me. Oddly enough, popcorn on a cold, gray, wet afternoon can do it too.
I look forward to making Butternut Squash Soup, a recipe my daughter gave to me. It warms you from the inside out and I love the orange color, very luscious & fallish.
I love anything pumpkin but fall especially calls for pumpkin soup. A dear friend of mine introduced me to it in the early 70's and we both have been making it ever since! Pumpkin nut bread is also a favorite!
Marcy
marcydoane@yahoo.com
Fave autumn food would have to be apple butter! Apple butter slathered on fresh homemade bread with sweet cream butter. Mmmmmm...
Fall is my favorite time, for sure! I make lots of soups, and always a big batch of applesauce - some of which I freeze for the holidays. Also - pumpkin soup and muffins. Oh, joy!
Erin
eowyn1220(at)comcast.net
Yup, me too for Butternut Squash Soup, I add a chunked apple, and sometimes I change it up with curry. A swirl of sour cream can be good, and homemade winter scones with lashings of butter. Oh my, it's definitely time...
Soup and pie are my cold weather foods. I love the idea of comfort foods that keep my family warm after eating them.
I started making apple pie in September, although its still warm here in Maryland, and no-one is eating my bean soup because of the warm weather. I think I jumped the gun.
letteredwoman@gmail.com
apple sauce, soups, baked mac and cheese, bread...wait, was i only supposed to leave one thing??? sorry, it's too hard to narrow down.
this is the time of year your blog draws my heartstrings and makes me soooo homesick! Spoke with mom for a full hour this morning, her in northern NH.
Each fall as soon as squash are ready I have to make various squash dishes, from stir fries, breads, etc.. but the favorite is a squash and wild rice soup served with a dollop of yogurt. Some days i may even add curry to the pot along with it. For hubby i may throw in a hand full of shredded turkey.... perfect fall comfort food!
(i did enjoy making stuffed baked apples this weekend in the dutch oven at the camp, got half a squash peeled and ready to go for this weekends camp fire fare...not sure yet what it will be! :)
generous gifts! all 3 great titles
I'm finally learning to prepare food, so I don't have a wide range, but I believe I might try the apple dumplings I made last year. They were a hit at thanksgiving, all wrapped up in apple-shaped dough with little dough leaves! And now my mouth is watering.
jessica dot rudmin at gmail dot com
My favorite autumn food is squash; squash baked, squash roasted, squash grilled, squash boiled. msaatjian@cox.net
We also had a gorgeous weekend although the colors are beyond peak up at our house. My family feels like it is fall when we finally begin to have roasts again--we love a roast chicken, butternut squash, and apple crisp dinner.
I have a short answer - pumpkin cheesecake! Yum! Once a year!
Pumpkin pie. But the famly favourite recipe has been lost. We remember it used pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, cream, possibly golden syrup...
It's actually spring in the southern hemisphere but one can get pumpkins of some sort pretty much year round. Which is good, as most knitting magazines etc come from the north, and all this constant reading about autumn makes me hungry for pumpkin pie... though I am so glad that spring is here, after winter we desperately need some sunshine in New Zealand!
Taco soup! It's fast, easy, yummy and delicious and serve it with the big fritos corn chips, sour cream and cheese. It makes great football watching food!
Typically I make old fashioned boiled dinner with ham and cabbage and veggies into a soup with dumplings I make it near Halloween and so I have renamed it "Halloween Soup" however the last couple years I have been craving roasted veggies which I made Sunday evening with the first batch of fall veggies from the market.
Ruth
Rcederstro@aol.com
When fall comes, I have to have cider and cider donuts. I rarely have either of them any other time of year. For cooking, I love to make applesauce and also jam from any last berries left at the place we pick the apples.
I love to make zucchini bread and all things zucchini! Chocolate zucchini bread is everyone's favorite. Also of course, pumpkin bread and pie.
Anything with apples! Apple pie, apple crisp, apple fritters, apple turnovers...
So sad that the contest is open to U.S. readers only!
Oh well, maybe next time I'll be able to get in on the fun!
Anything with fall apples fresh from the local orchards. Definitely an apple pie (I only make these in the fall) and an apple-pear crisp.
I love to make soup with homemade bread, and for dessert--apple crisp or something with pumpkin. Mmmm...I think tomorrow might be a baking day!
Oops! I pressed the button too soon! momaritst@comcast.net
Deborah
Apple pie made with a variety of apples from our favorite orchard is the first fall recipe that comes to mind. Second is the "potpourri soup" with cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, barley, onions, and ground beef that has been our traditional Halloween dinner for many, many years now. It just tastes like fall!
Count me in. I love reading your blog-I'm from Central Mass. oroginally and now live north in NH, and reading your blog is like reading about home in lots of ways.
Erika at dekn@worldpath.net
That's a really easy question for me - sweet potatoes are my fall favorite - just plain roasted with butter works, but they're great on pizza, in quesadillas, and in lasagna, too - yum! Thanks for the contest!
Definitely Apple Pie - or Apple crisp - or Apple turnovers (do you sense a theme here.
I'm knittingbug on Ravelry
This weekend I'll make "Butternut-Lamb Deluxe" .... it's a delicious butternut squash & ground lamb casserole. It's from my tattered copy of Garden Way's "Zucchini Cookbook and other squash" published in 1977 by Nancy C. Ralston & Marynor Jordan. The secret ingredient that makes it so great is the 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. Mmm-mmm-mmm!
(wild rose farm)at(earthlink)dot(net).
Oh wow! That old farm house is so pretty! All of them are great but that one really stands out to me!
Fall time brings thoughts of mums, football, pumpkin bread and taco soup.
Ruth Ann in Oklahoma
As soon as it starts to get cool, or late September, whichever comes first.. we start having soup once a week until it gets warm again. The one thing, however, that I only make in the fall, is chocolate chip pumpkin bread. Yummy!
Beth R
Your pictures really make me miss western Mass where we used to live! In the fall, I love warm gingerbread made with fresh ginger with lemon sauce on top, hot cider, and butternut squash.
Thanks for a wonderful giveaway. Love Storey!
There are many, many things. My favorite is real apple cider with mulling spices. Hot. Cold. With brandy or amaretto or without.
After the first frost, I also start to eat the brussel sprouts from my garden.
My first of the Fall favorite for my family is a pot roast done in the crock pot with onions, garlic powder and salt & pepper. Nothing fancy, but the smell fills the kitchen all day long, and then the roast is so juicy. my contact is garnerdk at olypen dot com.
Roasted root veggies - squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and parsnips. I make a big batch then use the leftovers for a soup. Delish! Oh, and I LOVE pea soup (parsnips are the secret ingredient) and of course Apple crisp. However, up here in Alaska, apples are expensive (not abundant like they were in NH!) so I can only make one very special baked apple dessert. Reminds me of home! ksoucy@gmail.com
A big fat caramel apple with nuts is a must to celebrate the arrival of autumn! rla0523@aol.com
Apple Squares. When I was a kid, my grandpa would make huge pans of these thin apple pie-like creations with a drizzle of powdered sugar icing over the top. If nobody was looking, I would eat an entire pan. I think grandpa always looked the other way on purpose so I could indulge! Apple squares always make me think of him.
my favorite autumn dessert is apple raisin bread pudding.
Ah....German Apple Pancakes are a must in the fall!
kimgoodling@yahoo.com
My favorite is butternut squash. I love to roast it,bake it, put it in a cassarole, any way possible it just seems like fall to me. ma2vt@comcast.net
I make a tomato pumpkin soup that I like a lot - it's a recipe that I created using one can of Trader Joe's diced fire roasted tomatoes, one can of TJ's diced tomatoes with chili, 2 cans of water, 2 cans of almond milk, diced onions and what ever other veggies I feel like, some salt and maybe some herbs, and 2 cans of pumpkin puree (without any spices). I like it.
Mine would definitely have to be a thickly coated, rolled in pecans, gooey, yummy, sinful caramel apple!!!! It's a fall-time must, along with warm apple cider with a floating cinnamon stick...
We have 6 apple trees so I know it's fall when I'm out there picking apples and making applesauce and apple crisp.
Peach cobbler...holsgrdp at yahoo dot com
What is your favorite autumn food? MACOUN APPLES What do you just have to cook, bake or eat during the autumn season to herald its arrival? I like to make the plum tart recipe from the NY Times w/italian prune plums that are available for a short time at the end of the summer for Rosh Hashana dinner. It reminds me of my grandmother who always made a plum cake for the holiday
Blappleberry pie! There is an abundance of blackberries growing wild all around us. These mixed with tart apples from our tree make a delicious pie, warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream on top. Yum!
juliewittatshawdotca
Winter squash is the best. You can do so much with it.
It has to be pumpkin for me. My husband makes the best pumpkin pancakes! Jackie, jzlpbc@aol.com
Apple pie and casseroles. It is so hot here in the summer I never turn the oven on. I miss baking, but now that it is cooling down I can bake or roast anything I am in the mood for, but apple pie is our favorite.
My autumn favorite is Butternut Squash soup, garnished with crumbled bacon and grated Parmesan and served with toasted baguettes spread with chevre. Yum!
Leek and potato soup with sour cream; beef stew with lots of red wine; chicken chili with oven roasted tomatoes, onions, and garlic; bread; chicken and biscuits; meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes; rosemary and blue cheese cookies; AND, only one time a year, triple layer, chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. I like to make the cheesecake as a surprise. I love the fall.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. A classic!
Baked apples stuffed with mincemeat and lovingly basted with apple brandy and cream. YUMMY!
Claudia
At our house it would be anything pumpkin. We celebrate our son's autumn birthday with the first pumpkin pie of the season. YUM!
Pumpkin. Nothing more to it than that. Pumpkin pies, loaves, muffins, waffles, pancakes, cookies, etc. Pumpkin is what makes autumn autumn.
By the way, these pictures are fantastic. I love fall color, and I envy the leaf peepers in their wandering and gazing. Things in the northwest stay green all year. I genuinely love evergreens, their scent, how they drip with rain, their pale spring growth, but the changing colors of leaves in the fall is something I can never get enough of.
This time of year just to name a few squash, pumkin, apple dumplins gingerbread. Then there are soup,
stews, pot roast,chili etc. I also love going to quilt shows, fall festivals, drives in the country, you can be outside in the beauty of it all!! My contact info is Patti knit1bit@yahoo.com
Potato Soup, fresh bear and apple pie. Can't beat it!
Roast pumpkin seeds. Yes, after the jack o'lanterns are carved, I have to salt, roast, and eat those seeds, and that is utterly fall. Yes, all sorts of delicious recipes-- soups, stews, etc-- come back on the menu as the weather cools, but they represent winter as well. Home-roasted pumpkin seeds mean bright and beautiful fall.
-- Gertchen
Cooking with apples is what I do! I always get carried away picking them at the orchard. My favorite is apple crisp. My husband prefers the apple pie.
There are so many seasonal favorites, but one thing that really feels like fall to me is toasted whole grain bread, spread with some home-made apple or pear chutney, topped with really sharp cheddar cheese, and melted. Then a sprinkle of freshly-grated black pepper, a cup of soup, a pot of hot black tea, and let the knitting or sewing begin! Thanks as always for your lovely blog. Claudia Horner
I have to make beef stew with carrots, squash, onions and red wine - mmmm... after cleaning up the gardens for their winter nap, it is great to come inside and smell the stew and then enjoy it with my family.
was I suppose to pick just one...sorry, there are several...first up is apple cider donuts dipped in sugar from my local farm stand...fall just can't be here without them....butternut squash soup, pumpkin bread preferably with chocolate chips...and bring on the teas please....maple and spice. yum!
Squash! In the fall I long to cook winter squash--butternut, Hubbard and delicata are my favorites, with acorn as a backup. Every fall my family builds and decorates a backyard hut for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. We drive out to the local Homestead Farm (near DC) and fill the trunk with gorgeous squashes. After the week of Sukkot is over, we start cooking and eating the squash. I save one or two monster Hubbard squashes for Thanksgiving and contribute a huge stuffed Hubbard to be a centerpiece of our Thanksgiving dinner, since both my sisters-in-law are vegetarians. It is a very impressive--nearly as big as a turkey, stuffed with apples, sunflower seeds, nuts, and other stuff that I invent from year to year.
Acorn squash - love to bake it with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, yum! Whole Meal Mormon Soup is another favorite, like it says it is a meal in itself with all kinds of veggies and meat, a real comfort food. And pumpkin and banana bread are always good as well.
Definitely roasted chestnuts.
Not only are they delicious but they evoke fondly memories of my childhood. I grew up in Europe where roasted chestnuts are sold on almost any street corner this time of the year.
By the way, I love your blog
Making apple cider with hundreds of kids at the nature center where I work. And apple crisp! fiberlooney@yahoo.com
Soups and stews are what I look forward to making in the fall! And apple crisp is what I HAVE to make for it to officially be Fall :) Anne Paulson paulsons4@arvig.net
Potato Leek Soup, made from local milk (Our Family Farms), potatoes (Riverbend Farm), and leeks (Shoe String Farm). Mmmm.
Also, roasted buttercup squash, homemade apple pie with Vermont cheddar, and a strong cup of Dean's Beans coffee.
You said the question was easy, but naming just one favorite autumn food is not easy for me. ;-)
The food I most look foward to cooking and eating in the fall is a nice, big pot of beef & veggie stew. I realize that's not necessariy an autumn dish in all parts of the country, but where I live, the summers are so scorchingly hot that the thought of eating soup is not at all appealing. We all look forward to that first cool snap when we can make a big pot of soup! :-)
Another favorite fall food, more commonly associated with fall is anything with apples in it. In my case, it's a fresh apple cake. Yum!
I love soup in about any form along with fresh baked yeast bread. I don't tend to bake until the weather cools off.
Forgot to leave my email! crochetreneeATyahooDOTcom. Thanks! Hope I win something!
We have fall raspberries which I love. But my husband grew up on an orchard so there HAS to be apples and pears. AND fresh lamb--what a great way to greet the season. Jane
Ratatoulle is the best food in the fall as it is all the root veggies cooked into a stew which can be savored at any time as it can be frozen and re-lived in the winter!!
Elaine
Anything with sage. "fried sage"--crisped in olive oil. Or, take that and throw it in risotto...or garnish some type of squash dish...or just toss with pasta and garlic. Doesn't matter. Must. Eat. Sage.
and....I forgot contact info. skramoth@verizon.net is the most reliable way to reach me. kate, who must eat sage.
Oh, I love when it finally gets cool enough to make soups. (I save the remains of my roast chickens to make my own stock when I'm willing to simmer them for 3 hours!) In fact, tomorrow I'll buy the vegies I need for winter vegetable soup.
I love autumn because of all of the wonderful squash that is available. A must-bake for me is acorn squash, filled with a little butter, brown sugar, and home made chunky applesauce. It doesn't get much better than that.
I can be reached at valzbunnies@verizon.net
Soup! I love making it and feeling it warm my tummy as it goes down. But then there's pie too. Love to make apple pies in the fall.
kelleyhart@mac.com
ps
Love your colorful photos and insights, as always
xo
Pumpkin bread! Mmmm!
I don't need the books, but would like to comment anyway!
For me, autumn is Pumpkin. Could be muffins or bread or pancakes. . . . I've heard of a pumpkin latte that I may try to convert to non-dairy.
I love to make turkey dinner - roasted turkey, mashed potatoes (white and sweet), bread stuffing, sausage stuffing, roasted vegetables ... uummm! Whenever we have guests from other countries, I make this "typical American" celebration dinner for them!
bookboxer1@gmail.com
I've got to have beef stew; full of veggies & slow cooked all day! But chili runs a very close second. Somehow it's not fall until I smell chili cooking.
If I win, email me at adevineATpathgroupDOTcom. Thanks!
Soups, stews, roasted veggies...warm and cozy. YUM!
For me Fall means making roasted leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic. I just love the smell of it roasting in the oven. Alongside I prepare made from scratch mashed potatoes and a fresh mint sauce from a recipe I created out of sheer desperation cause I couldn't find mint jelly at the store but they had fresh mint and I won't go back to store bought. Together with some beautiful green beans.... Ok now you are making me hungry.
I know it's officially fall when we buy bushels of apples and make applesauce!
Goodness, that's hard to choose. I think what I have to make is applesauce but on the other hand what I've been craving is butternut squash risotto.
I need to eat butternut squash in the fall. Love it.
Mixed Grain Risotto with Brussels spouts and butternut squash (my favorite variation of this recipe).
Apple pie....the day after we go apple picking. Definitely a must have for the autumn season. Thanks for the great giveaway!
My favorite Autumn food is Pumpkin
latte from Starbucks. Really , it is not in one of these cookbooks but I celebrate Autumn's arrival this way and only drink it in through Nov.
BUT then to cook ~~ I have to make soup. Put candles on the table, put on a sweater because in the South
the coolness of Autumn means something hot. Butternut squash if possible!
homemade pumpkin chocolate cookies, they are my daughters fave! moonbabyk@gmail.com
I love cornbread and chili when the weather is cooler.denkatzart@gmail.com
Fall is the time to taste the different varieties of fresh apples available.
Hands down, nothings says Autumn like Baked Apples. As the mornings are colder, warm baked apples sprinkled with cinnamon are the best!
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