Delicious Autumn

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot

I am lucky enough to live in a climate that experiences, in their fullest, each season the world has to offer. Of all four, Fall is my favorite. The intense aromas and colors are unmatched in any other season. The sky is never bluer and the shadows seem to take on a life all their own in Autumn.

The foods of this time of year also tend to be my favorites. Apples abound, pumpkins are ripe and ovens are lit in expectation of comforting dishes.



Anne's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 24 standard sized muffins or 12 large
Printable Recipe

4 eggs
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
l can pumpkin (15 oz.- about 2 cups)
3/4 c vegetable oil
3/4 c olive oil
1 t vanilla
3 c flour
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
l t ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
l t salt
2 c semisweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oils until smooth.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt-add to
pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chips. Fill greased or
paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for
16 to 20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes
before removing to a wire rack.

My "Ham Ball" with Ham Balls!

Ham Balls

Ham Balls
Makes 12 individual size loaves
Printable Recipe

Makes 24  2-ounce ham balls

1 pound ground pork
2 pounds ground cooked ham
2 cups dry bread crumbs

2 teaspoons dry ground mustard

1 Tablespoon Kosher salt
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons brown or grainy mustard

In a large bowl combine pork, ham, bread crumbs, dry mustard, salt, eggs and milk. Mix well with hands.
Shape into 24 meatballs and set on a greased baking sheet.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Heat brown sugar, water, vinegar and mustard over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. 

Pour over meatballs and toss to cover.

Great minds think alike? Hmm...

Do you think LIFE magazine has spies? Well, at least we're on the same page eh?

My whole family had the dropped-jaw look this morning after I brought our paper home :O)

Starry Sky

"Now I really want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that the night is still more richly coloured than the day, having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If you only pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are citron~yellow, others have a pink glow, or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expatiating on this theme it will be clear that putting little white dots on a blue-black surface is not enough."

~Vincent Van Gogh writing to his sister, Wilhelmina~

I bet you're wondering what a painting has to do with food? Well, although Van Gogh was Dutch, he spent part of his later years in Provence and, to a Provencal, his stomach is second to nothing!

I must say, I love this painting for too many reasons to list but one of them being that it was done from memory and supposedly while Van Gogh was in asylum at Saint Remy in June 1889. I'm no art critic or historian but, unlike many others,I can't help but feel, regardless of the time of year it was painted, regardless of what season it seems to depict, that the "whorls" coming from the left across the upper part of the painting are really Van Gogh's "vision" of what the mistral must look like.

I don't begin to have time to go into how enamoured I am with Provence but it ranks up there with my love for my family!

Here is my very favorite Provencal recipe~also contained in the "Family Favorite Recipes" page.


Tapenade is a popular food in the south of France. There are entire stalls in the outdoor markets which sell nothing but tapenade. Tapenade is basically an olive spread with one rule; you cannot call olive spread "tapenade" unless it contains capers.
Why? In the old Provencal dialect, the word for caper is "tapeno", hence the term "tapenade".

Anne's Tapenade
Makes about 2 cups
Printable Recipe

1 c pitted Nicoise olives
1 c pitted ripe California olives
2 t anchovy paste
1 t brandy
1 T capers-drained
1 T honey
2 t Dijon mustard
1 t lemon juice
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic-minced

Combine all in a blender and puree until smooth and spreadable. Serve with rounds of toasted French bread.

Neighbors Are Lovely (aka, Gotta Love Pennsylvania Dutch Traditions)

My neighbor Karen, the one who gave me okra that I in turn made into gumbo to share with her, sent back the bowl from the gumbo in the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch way, with food in it.

What she sent back was a wonderfully delicious and fragrant (many hours after being eaten too!) Pesto. I got it all to myself too since nobody here will any "green" sauce. Here's a basic recipe~if you've never had it, PLEASE give it a try!

Pesto
Makes about 1 cup
Printable Recipe

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
salt as needed

Place basil leaves in small batches in food processor and whip until well chopped (do about 3/4 cup at a time). Add about 1/3 the nuts and garlic, blend again.
Add about 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese; blend while slowly adding about 1/3 of the olive oil, stopping to scrape down sides of container.
Process basil pesto it forms a thick smooth paste. Repeat until all ingredients are used, mix all batches together well. Serve over pasta. Basil pesto keeps in refrigerator one week, or freeze for a few months.

The very next day she sent along several grains that she is no longer able to tolerate including Besan, aka gram flour, or chickpea flour. Just guess what one would use THAT for? FALAFEL! And, as we all know (see index) "I Love Falafel".

What Ever Happened to Sunday Dinner?

Sunday Dinner

I asked recently of an email group I belong to what special dinner everyone might have on a Sunday. I was surprised at the responses I received. Some of them were flat out snippy, "Sunday is no different than any other day here", meaning they chose not to have any type of "religious" theme pervade their day.

Well, I wasn't asking whether they went to church or not but they must have thought I meant dinner after church. In my family, however, most of my memories of Sunday dinner were after church. There was nothing better than coming home (to grandma's house or dad's house or wherever we were) to the smells of Sunday dinner already cooking. There's something warm and fuzzy about those memories.

Sunday dinner has long been an American tradition ... institution even. Families once gathered nearly weekly to break bread and enjoy one another's company and I can't quite put my finger on why this seems to be a dying practice.

I myself am guilty of being "too busy" to get it done~even if it is a mere 10 minutes to set something up in a slow cooker.

I love this page and the ideas there for Sunday Dinners, as well as the writing on the whole topic.

If you don't have Sunday dinners, at least try to once a month. The connections you make with family during these times are precious and the chance should never be wasted.

Here is our Sunday Dinner today, complete with the All-American apple pie.

Roast Chicken (I always brine my chicken in water to cover with 1/2 c. of Kosher salt and whatever herbs or spices I feel like that day-today it's Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper seasoning or try my Simon and Garfunkel Roast Chicken.)
Roasted Potatoes (these I toss with olive oil, rosemary and garlic)
Gravy (Of course!)
Sweet Corn
Tomatoes from our garden
Apple Pie (recipe here)