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Good Autumn Food


Peter the eater

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Pork!!

Seriously, I don't cook a lot of pork in the summer except for the occasional tenderloin on the girl, so in the autumn I love to make it many different ways. I think this autumn I'm going to tackle carnitas.

Also, I had my first acorn squash of the season. I just roast with olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar. It just tastes like fall.

My dad's been asking for chili, beans with ham, cornbread, and beef stew, so I know the change of seasons must be final. He's more reliable than the Farmer's Almanac or wooly worms!

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." - Frederico Fellini

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Pork!!

Seriously, I don't cook a lot of pork in the summer except for the occasional tenderloin on the girl, so in the autumn I love to make it many different ways. I think this autumn I'm going to tackle carnitas.

I agree Emily, autumn is the season of the pig. I love the concept of carnitas, never made them. I had carnitas at a friends place this summer, lots of guac, refried beans, very spicy, and she used Coca-Cola.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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Pork!!

Seriously, I don't cook a lot of pork in the summer except for the occasional tenderloin on the girl, so in the autumn I love to make it many different ways. I think this autumn I'm going to tackle carnitas.

I agree Emily, autumn is the season of the pig. I love the concept of carnitas, never made them. I had carnitas at a friends place this summer, lots of guac, refried beans, very spicy, and she used Coca-Cola.

That is interesting! In Japan, pork is often associated with the summer. Although we have it all year round, we think we need pork to survive the sweltering hot and humid summer in Japan.

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That is interesting! In Japan, pork is often associated with the summer. Although we have it all year round, we think we need pork to survive the sweltering hot and humid summer in Japan.

I was discussing this with some friends the other day, and I was probably exaggerating a bit. Pork steaks and tenderloin on the grill are really common for BBQ/grilling around here as well as smoked and pulled pork as long as the weather is nice enough to be outside. But for some reason, that "outside" has me not really connecting it with "cooking." I grill and BBQ a lot, but it's almost not the same thing.

I think the reason I really think of pork as a fall food is that the things I like it paired with best are fall foods: sweet potatoes, squash, corn, apples, and sage, for example. Also, the ways I like it cooked best are more fall-ish: braises and roasts and in the slow cooker.

We were also trying to figure out why pork pops up on fall menus more, and we think it's linked to historical harvest and slaughter times. Though we can have pork any time of the year, traditionally farmers had to wait until the weather was cold enough to hold pork carcasses and the pigs were fattened off the summer's fruits and fall's nuts, etc. Pork is definitely cheaper here in the fall, so maybe that schedule is still generally true.

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." - Frederico Fellini

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm slowly working my way through the multitude of weird and wonderfully affordable squashes that are everywhere. I don't know what the green-striped one below is called but it got sliced up along with a small cooking pumpkin then roasted with herbs and olive oil until soft. Served with a smear of maple butter. Leftover chunks got puréed with kale and white beans for soup.

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Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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Fall is my favorite season, both in general and from a culinary perspective. Long slow braised and roasted dishes, but brighter then those of winter. The perfect blend in my opinion.

Cast iron roasted chicken- sauteed shallot mixed with parsley stuffed under the skin started on one breast, rotated once to the other breast a third of the way through cooking, and lastly onto it's back for the last third so the skin of the breast crisps. The various "gizzard bag" items of neck gizzard liver etc also in the pan during roasting to add to the crispy bits. Remove the chicken and the gizzard bag items and pour off excess fat and create the sauce with a little water and maybe some red wine. No flour or anything needed, just a little butter. Simple, rich, delicious. Served with the veggies noted below.

Any sort of meat braised in rich sauces. It's the time of year in my house for Saurbratten, lean beef roast (top, bottom, eye round, etc.) marinated for 3+ days in 50/50 red wine and red wine vinegar, juniper berries, a sliced onion, and caraway seeds. Slowly braised in the marinade until tender, the sauce made from the remaining cooking juices blended smooth with crushed ginger snap cookies for both flavor and to thicken. Served with Krautspätzle. A pan with butter fry a sliced onion and sauerkraut until lightly golden, add a pinch of caraway seeds. As soon as you smell the caraway toss in cooked spaetzle and continue frying until the spaetzle pick up a little color.

For sides, it's the time of year for squash and root vegetables. Carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and whatever winter squash you have around. Cut up and roasted all together they are delicious. Alternatively all the same but mashed together with butter and milk, a great alternative to mashed potatoes.

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I just discovered the joy of using grapes as a bed for roasts. In the last week I have done a covered "roast" of cornish game hen, and another of lamb shank. The aroma is sweet and winey. The grape and meat juices mingle and demand to be sopped up with fresh bread. Due to our odd weather there are still fresh grape leaves in the garden, so those along with fresh rosemary, thyme, and oregano added their perfume.

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For some reason, I am especially drawn to spicy Asian food in the fall. Spicy works well all of the time in our household, but for some reason, October rolls around, and my nightstand is peppered with a plethora of Asian cookbooks. Squash, oh, don't even bother. Perhaps it's the note that the last of the peppers are avabilable?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Fall always really means two things for me - braised short ribs and butternut squash soup. Seriously, I eat and make those two things religiously during the fall. Also, I glaze anything I can with maple syrup, since this is Maine, and I think just about everyone I know either makes their own, or has parents or relatives living up in northern maine making some, so the good stuff is easy to come by.

Also maple desserts. And maple with bacon.

Damnit now i'm hungry.

Cheese - milk's leap toward immortality.

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Mushrooms! Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms.

In a takigomi-gohan, in soup, or as the base of a nice Korean deonjang-jigae.

Mushroom risotto is also good, made with fresh shiitakes.

Fried with butter and soy sauce.

In bulgogi.

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my wife will be happy to see the slow cooker come out of the closet again, she's been nagging me about "that big expensive christmas gift" over the summer, LOL

Lots of plans, low and slow meats, beans, onion soup....

Of course we won't see much of a real wintere here in Northern California, so my new Big Green Egg and the bbq will still be in use, but I am looking forward to some nice comfort food.

I am also getting more and more into open fire cooking and might either get a spit or a Tuscan grill for the fire place...

check spitjack.com for all those wonderful things!

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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Ah! At last someone mentions kale and white beans. A pot of garlicky beans and greens, simmered for a bit then served up in a bowl with a good dash of Tabasco and a chunk of crusty wholegrain bread.

I may be in Nashville but my heart's in Cornwall

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