Into Fall (Seasonal) Cooking

Hey, do you find that your cooking recipes change with certain seasons?

I just got to thinking about it this morning; I made a Saskatoon Berry pie on Saturday (for attending a virtual Banquet online for a Galcom (mission) Annual Reports and Banquet night. (I had been busy cleaning up the garden in a strong wind, so was too exhausted to try the Three Sisters soup and Bannock recipes that I'd been sent). It was for sure an interesting 2 hour event!

Pumpkins. I'd harvested a large and a medium but good-sized pumpkins from my garden. They sit on the floor under my kitchen table so I don't forget about them, but because I was focused on the yard and garden cleanup I put off doing anything about them. Well, aside from printing out some good prospective pumpkin recipes when I see them online.

Gary had brought me a smaller pumpkin at our Thanksgiving Sunday meal. I decided to hold off using that until he would happen to be here doing handyman work for me, and then I'd bake a hamburger stew in the pumpkin for our supper. He called yesterday to say he was coming to fix the plugs on my long cords for plugging in the car in winter.

So I quickly scrambled up from the computer and went to the kitchen to defrost and brown some hamburger meat, with onions, and add some frozen vegetatables and a can of mushroom soup. That was more than I could get into that pumpkin, so I was able to set that aside in the fridge for another meal. Actually, the hardest part was stabbing my largest knife in a circle around the top to get the lid off. Then I scooped out several cups worth of seeds, and spooned in the stew. It only needed to bake for an hour so I left it on the counter until 4 pm.

Guess what, Gary thought that was an excellent supper idea. He had several servings and in the end I put the pumpkin shell and the stew still in there into a plastic ice cream container so he could take it home and enjoy another meal when he warmed it up.

I've got to tend to my business hours at the computer too, but I will try to get the other two pumpkins cleaned out over the next couple of weeks. Right now, I think I'll just cook and puree the plup and use it for about half a dozen recipes that call for pureed pumpkin. Some can even go into empty yogurt containers and stay in the freezer until I'm ready to use them.

Gary came with another gift yesterday, a small store-bought chicken. I wasn't sure what I'd do with it, but before he left I suggested I cook it up today and make a number of jars full of ready-to-heat old-fashioned chicken noodle soup. (I've got to remember that as a batchlor, with limited cooking skills, I need to make his take-home portions quite simple). I'm sure I'll get to keep some of that chicken noodle soup for myself.

So, I'll take time over lunch to get it started in the crockpot and let it simmer there for hours on end with some vegetables and herbs. Not sure yet if I'll take time to make home-made noodles. I usually settle for store-bought ones myself. But they can be added when you are heating up a jar of the flavourful soup stock.

Oh!!! And Halloween falls on Sunday! Hmm... last year I had bought a box of small chocolate bars but no kids came to my door. Maybe this time I should make pumpkin & chocolate chip cookies - so that if no kids show up, I'll be eating up healthy treats this time instead of pigging out on sweets for a couple of weeks.

So, tell me, what are you go-to foods for this fall season? Or does nothing change at all?

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