Oh Autumn. You are entrancing.

Autumn. I just love you. Leaves of all colors, crisp air, the return of gourds in all manner of colors, shapes and textures. <sigh>

This past weekend, I made three very Autumn inspired dishes to share with friends, and I'm just going to say it: I am a cooking/baking genius. Ok, not really, but dayum - tasty eats y'all. 

We hadn't hung out with our besties in quite a while, due to crazy schedules, so chose to do so Saturday night. It ended up to be a most fortuitous scheduling because Saturday was also the day the brought their new puppy home!!!!! 

B&K had a doggie for 15 wonderful years, who we just adored. A pup of surpassing beauty (really, he was gorgeous), character, personality, and joy and his passing, well, it sucked donkey balls. I still think about Tundra, a lot actually, and sometimes still tear up. He was such an amazing fur friend. 

LOOK AT THAT SWEET FACE!!!!

Clearly, his passing was way more deeply felt by his mom and dad, and they knew they'd find a new fur friend to hang out with them and started putting toes back into the waters in late summer. 

Enter Mesa. She is a shepherd / Norwegian Elk Hound mix and 4-6 months old. Vet can't pinpoint because some ASSHAT dumped her and at least one litter mate in the woods at some point after her birth. What.A.Dick.Move. Anyhoo, she's hit the jackpot this lil pup has. 

But so have they, because so far, she is calm, snuggly, sweet, and very clever, and she has already brightened up their lives, their home, and their faces, which as their long-time friends, makes me really happy. 

Brig & I yakked about menu for dinner, and since I knew they'd be wanting puppy time, offered to bring two things, and they would grill the chicken & steam broccoli. Then came up with an awesome idea for dessert and decided to make it too. (Normally, we get spoiled because they do all the cooking, so I loved doing more!).

I had a pound of locally grown brussel sprouts that I mainly quartered, after removing the harder parts of stems and some of the outer leaves. Tossed them in about 1 T of olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Since Spouse detests brussel sprouts (which means his Brother-From-Another-Mother, Kurt, probably does too), I put the sprouts in a foil packet in case Kurt wanted to throw it on the grill but mainly to cut down on the smell, which Spouse finds so offensive. #Boys

So in this instance, not so much a genius, just a gal with awesome taste in veg. 

Second dish, Brig loves maple syrup. I'm pretty sure I could make a cake from cow pats and so long as they was a shit-ton of maple syrup on and in it, she might just try it - that's how much she loves maple syrup. While I know she's so happy I'm not living in The 'Shire anymore, part of her is secretly sad because I don't have as quick access to Vermont Maple Syrup as I did before - that's how much she loves maple syrup. 

Spouse found a recipe for Maple Butternut Squash, so decided to give that a whirl. Freaking easy and delicious. I could have added a bit more syrup, to be honest, so I will add a skosh more next time. But SkinnyTaste, thank you for the recipe!!

Third dish, and truly the most deserving of my <self-appointed> baking genius moniker: Apple Graham Crumble. 

Here's how it went: had 6 gorgeous organic gala apples and was worried they'd rot before I got to them. Realized I had graham crackers in the pantry. Googled "apples + graham crackers". Found this Food Network recipe. Realized I had everything in the house. BOOM!

It was disgustingly easy to make, smelled heavenly baking and wuff. Tasty doesn't begin to describe it. B&K and Spouse had vanilla ice cream on top of theirs; I refrained, but even without the creaminess, it was awesome. 

Ingredients
6 apples, cored and diced into 1/2" pieces
1/2 of a lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar [I used demerara sugar]
1/2 cup ground graham crackers or flour [I used one package from the Honey Maid box]
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 stick of butter

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Combine the apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, ground nutmeg and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a 9" x 12" baking dish.
3. In a small bowl, mix the ground graham cracker crumbs (or flour), brown sugar, and butter with the tines of a fork, until small, even sized crumbles form.
4. Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly on top of the apples. 
5. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes, until the apples are tender and the topping is golden brown. 
6. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, if you can stand it. 
7. Serve with vanilla ice cream, or ice cream of your favorite Autumnal choice. 

Jen's Hacks
- I used demerara sugar with the apples
- I didn't actually measure the graham cracker amount - just ground up one whole packet but seemed to work well. Used 7/8 of it all. 
- I added 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder to the apple spices as well. 

Since I was going to put it together at B&K's house, I made the dish like this:
- Cored and chopped the apples and tossed the small pieces in the lemon juice, then put them in a large container to keep in the frig until ready to assemble.
- Mixed the cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ginger powder and demerara sugar together and put into a clean, dry spice jar for traveling.
- Ground up the graham crackers until fine, and added the brown sugar, then put the topping into a baggie to take with me.
- Took the 1/2 cup of butter and just made small dollops, which I put on top of the crumb mixture instead of working it into the crumbs & sugar mix. Seemed to be just fine. 
- Brig suggested adding a sprinkle of quick oats on the top too, so we did that. Added a great texture and flavor!

Assembling was super easy from there and way better to make fresh. 

I thought of a couple of things I'd try next times, like maybe add in some real vanilla extract/bean paste or drizzle maple syrup over it next time. Or honey. I mean, there's a ton of interesting things one could do. Add nuts. Dried fruit. My tummy just growled. 

The thing I love about cooking and baking is, if you are willing to expend the time and ingredients, the most amazing dishes are usually the ones where you just grab stuff and make a dish out of it. 

Have you had a recent cooking or baking adventure?
How'd it turn out?

Autumn, Part Deux

Color me weird (der) but there's something really therapeutic about squishing through gourd guts to get the yumminess that is the seeds. Well, eventually the roasted seeds. Right out of the gourd, they are kind of gross. 

Since I had to de-pulp the butternut squash to make my soup, I knew there would be a lot of seeds so it was an excellent excuse. Spouse and I are going on a Very Special Adventure soon and originally, I thought, the seeds will make an excellent snack on our Very Special Long Flight. But, well, they are almost gone. <The Best Laid Plans, etc. etc.>

After I had dealt with the squash/soup, I took the pulp and seeds and separated them as best as I could. The pulp is pretty sneaky though, so despite my best efforts, still some guts left on them. 

Next, I took my find mesh sieve and threw in a few tablespoons of seeds, etc. at a time and rinsed them well. The water helped rinse off the seeds and also dislodge any pulp holding on for dear life. After each batch felt relatively rinsed, I set them on paper towels to drain a little bit, until I had rinsed all of the seeds. 

While I finished the soup, I let them dry a bit, which also helped get the very last little bits of pulp from the seeds. I also moved them, on the paper towel, to a cooling rack, so they were elevated to help with the drying. 

Once they were dry, I took them off of the paper towels and moved them to a mixing bowl. I added a glop of olive oil and stirred them around. Just enough to coat all of them without extra pooling in the bottom of the bowl. 

On a recent sojourn to the North Market, I stopped and talked with my spice nerds at North Market Spices, who recommended a delightful blend of italian herbs with some kick. I thought they would be an excellent companion so threw in a pinch of the blend. I am totally blanking on the name (and not where I can check it out) but it's powerful enough that I really only sprinkled in a little, then did a quick taste to make sure it was good. And it was. The heat is a a slow burn but delightful. 

Once they seeds were all spiced up, and the oven was pre-heated to 350 degrees, I turned them onto a baking sheet and spread them around. You want to try and get them separated as much as possible. Seeds are not good in clumps, when roasting - but oiled and spiced, not as easy as it sounds because they'll stick to your fingers or a spoon, so just do your best. 

Pop the baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes, stir, check to make sure they aren't burning and pop back in for 5 minutes. Keep doing that until you get your peak roasting. I find roasting seeds is a very personal choice. I like mine roasted but still sort of chewy, so 15 minutes in my crappy oven, seems to be just right. 

I ended up with enough to fill a recycled garlic jar. Technically enough for 2-3 snack sessions. I'm not saying that's how many snack sessions I got out of this batch, but theoretically speaking, were one to exercise more restraint and portion control. <cough, cough>

Do you have any favorite Autumnal treats?
Any short cuts or special seasonings you add, to enhance the flavor?

I.Love.Autumn.

I adore autumn. Between it and Spring is nano-points. Between it and winter is 10 points. Between it and summer is 50 points, unless the summer turns out to *not* be hazy, hot and hellish, then we'll say, just 20 points. 

Autumn features my favorite color palette: burnished reds, deep oranges, blazing golds, flashes of bright green (generally when and where you least expect it) and all fading into rusted reds, deep browns and golds that make you want to drown in them. 

Autumn is also the season when I married Spouse, first moved to The 'Shire, and have met many of my oldest and dearest friends. 

Autumn is also my favorite FOOD season. Being that apples seem to come to the height of crispness, gourds of all varieties are everywhere (PUMPKIN, WHAT?), and soups are in vogue yet again (I've never mastered being able to eat soup in summer. It's just not right.). 

It seems odd to me, since I've been writing so infrequently of late, to skip the latter portion of summer [one more beer fest, garden updates, etc.] but today I made butternut squash soup. It rained. Football dominated my television viewing. It was just really autumn......

Oh and Spouse & I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday but y'know, minor details. [It was awesome].

Quiet is good.

My friend, John and I have a yearly conversation on the switch from summer to fall. We met as awkward, doe-eyed freshman, lo many decades ago, and still find that we have a physical connection to the moment when the weather, circadian rhythms and/or consciousness changes from summer to fall. It's a connection to our friendship and those young, fairly stupid, wide-eyed kids we were. 

"Remember when we'd sit by the pond outside Harshman for hours?" 
"Remember running around the mall to try and outsmart that stupid mall machine?"
"Remember how I always managed to wear a white t-shirt on spaghetti day in the caf?"

I'm not altogether certain it has happened, but I feel it coming. Schools are in session. I've noticed a few trees are already losing their leaves. Pumpkin flavored beer is available at your local dispensaries of spirits. So it's pending....

And maybe because it's the Labor Day Weekend, with three whole days off. <sigh> Fall is coming.