Fall Cooking...

Fall harvest at the Bloomfield Farmers Market

Last week, I spent pretty much every night in the kitchen.  I braised a chicken and turned it into a casserole (or a hot dish, as we from Minnesota like to say), made a beet stock (and a subsequent bright purple beet risotto), a squash soup, homemade greek yogurt, and a beet relish. It was a good cooking week, but now my creative juices are a bit drained, and I've been living on quesadillas and the frozen homemade ravioli I made a few weeks ago.  Plus some pub grub here and there.  Every once and a while, it's nice to have the weeks off from major cooking.  Grilled cheeses, chicken wings or burgers, take out, and the prepared foods section at Whole Foods are satisfying treats on a lazy day.  Maybe I'll whip something up after the farmer's market on Thursday, but I'm okay with a little fatty indulgence of cheese and fried foods until then.


Fall, though is my favorite time of year to cook.  The produce is great (winter squash, celery root, brussel sprouts, oh my!) and it's the time to start fattening up for winter.  A lot of hearty soups and creamy pastas and baked dishes galore.  And fall brings the colors changing and perfect evenings for brisk walks and scarves and dark beers with friends.  Sigh, it'll only last a short while until winter's inevitable return, but we can enjoy it until then, right?

 

So I'm putting together a list of things I'm looking forward to cooking to keep me warm throughout the season:

-Savory bread pudding
-Vegetarian chili
-Perfecting my braised chicken casserole
-Salted honey lavender shortbread 
-Irish brown bread
-Truffled egg toast
-Crab tater tots 
-Getting at least one gnocchi recipe down, such as this one
-Celery root ravioli or soup
-Potato soup
-Coming up with an awesome risotto cake recipe
-Pasta with sweet potatoes and a walnut-kale pesto
-Thanksgiving dinner, in all it's gluttonous glory


So much to look forward to!

Squash are perty