This fall we have been overwhelmed with work, school and CSA produce. In fact, there’s a big head of cabbage in the fridge staring me in the face and I am open to suggestion about what to do with it. With our busy schedules we have not had time to come up with many new or original recipes, but have managed to eat well and entertain while relying on a few suggestions from much respected cooks for inspiration. I thought I would share the results here so that you can be equally inspired.
Butternut squash galette with salad and collards with bacon
For two separate dinner parties I made Smitten Kitchen’s absolutely divine Butternut Squash with Caremelized Onions and Fontina Cheese Galette. It’s a little time consuming, so this recipe is best made on the weekend when you don’t have to hurry. I sped up the process by making the crust in my food processor and skipping the first step of freezing the different bowls of ingredients. I also substituted low-fat plain yogurt for the sour cream. Be careful not to overfill your galette. I found that my Silpat mat was absolutely essential for easy rolling out of the crust and baking- I didn’t have to slide the galette off of it until it was done!
Unbaked galette on the Silpat
I was also inspired by Mark Bittman’s Roasted Sweet Potato Salad from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and, convinced I had sweet potatoes, began to plan a dinner around it. Of course, whoop! I realized too late I had no sweet potatoes, but I substituted roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and the result was equally tasty. I also made extra red pepper dressing, which was perfect on salad and even chicken! Because I’m lazy I just threw the hot pepper into the blender to make the dressing instead of chopping it up. I served this with black bean and queso fresco croquettes, also from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and some tomatillo salsa (though I never cook the tomatillos).
Croquettes, potato salad, kale
Served with an Oregon Pinto Noir, great for dinner among friends
Finally, apples. What fall dining would be complete without apples?
Prepping for apple sauce
I responded to my apple surplus by making apple sauce (which we’ve already covered here) to bring the apple supply in my fridge back inline with my daily apple demand. Besides cheese my favorite apple pairing is with freshly baked ginger bread. I used Gourmet magazine’s recipe for Old Fashioned Gingerbread and it tasted exactly like the gingerbread my mom and I used to make together, even though I substituted allspice and nutmeg for the ground cloves and used Earth Balance sticks instead of butter. So enjoy and happy fall cooking!
