As we turn towards Fall...

[SeaGal]

I love to do lamb shanks osso-bucco style with a lovely gremolata added at the end and served over either couscous or creamy polenta. Yummmm....

Jan

[skyflyer3]

Hot chocolate. I'll be experimenting with Greg Atkinson's and Jeffrey Steingarten's recipes this weekend. I'd like to try a nice mint variation as well.

[Marlene]

Beef Stroganoff. A staple in our house in the winter months.

shepherd's pie but with a rice and cheese topping usually.

[Wayne]

Braised lamb shanks...braised anything for that matter.

Baked pork and beans.

Tourtiere.

Squash soup.

Onion soup.

Bean soups with sausage or hocks or ham.

Potato gratins.

Any game we're fortunate to be given.

Fall is indeed my favorite season.

[snowangel]

Although I really hate to see the end of the local sweet corn and Colorado peach season end, I am getting the yen to use the oven.

Zuni Cafe Mock Porchetta, braised anything, soup, soup and more soup.

Fill the house with "perfume" for hours.

[Kevin72]

Fall is my favorite time of year, which is saying something when you live in Dallas and the trees don't lose their leaves until two weeks before Christmas.

Like alot of responses here, I'm eager to get back to braising and roasting. Looking forward to cooking with apples, pumpkins and mushrooms the most.

[Busboy]

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Duck confit

Thomas Keller's Braised short ribs

Desser souffles

Carnitas and red beans

Anything that makes the windows in the kitchen steam up

[eunny jang]

Ohhh man. I love fall foods -

Short ribs (I have been dreaming about short ribs for weeks now)

Beef stew over mashed potatoes

Roast chicken and the next day's chicken pot pie

Parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, brussels sprouts, fennel, squash....

SAGE and lots of it, anywhere I can sneak it in. Risotto with roasted butternut squash and sage.

Waking on a Saturday and stepping outside to find that your sunny shoulders are warm, but the inside of your nose tingles with chill-edged air that suddenly feels very thin...getting coffee and the paper coming back home to spend the day baking and stewing and braising and roasting.

[Al_Dente]

I warmed up the Le Creuset with some short ribs last weekend. Just couldn't wait any longer to braise those up. I did it for my twin Godboys' second b-day taco feast. I must say, I have mad braising skills.

Chili is another favorite. I have about 3 different styles: a smoky hot chipotle chili with big cubes of beef that have been browned in rendered bacon fat, a variation on Cincinatti style, and a veggie style that needs work.

Osso buco... mmm. I made it for the first time last winter. I'll definitely do it again.

Roast chicken. I'll even do this on a grill during very cold weather.

Oh yeah, I have a gratin I picked up last year-- potatoes, mushrooms, cheese. Ahhh....

I've decided I need to cook with beans more often, so that'll probably be the skill-improvement area this fall/winter.

I'll also frequently make some good chicken broth.

After the taste, the next best thing about all that we've listed is the aroma in your kitchen. It's homey and inviting. It attracts attention from guests.

Fall and early winter are probably my favorite time of year for cooking.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Scones and Tea

Borscht

Minestrone

Greek Lamb Stew

Cookies and Tea Cakes

Okay -- I've figured it out. For me, it is baked goods and pots of soups and stews... I'll eat them all winter long, in fact!

[carswell]

Many of the above. And a few dishes I make only in the fall because the ingredients are available, affordable or locally in season only then:

- pork neck/shoulder stew with leeks (a dozen leeks costs $4 in October, $12-15 in March)

- sautéed apples, preferably local golden delicious, as a side for duck and pork dishes or slightly caramelized and tucked into a omelet flammed with Calvados

- buttercup squash halved, cavity filled with a sausage-based stuffing, and roasted

- baked apples, stuffed with nuts and raisins and topped with marc de gewurztraminer sabayon

- grape cake made with red wine grapes or concord grapes

- fresh fig tart

- guinea hen braised with green figs

- chestnuts, especially braised in red wine with bay leaves

- oily fish (makerel, blue fish), usually baked, often with tarragon

- oysters any way

- brussels sprouts, sautéed with bacon or braised with pecans

- a last-hurrah orgy of end-of-season vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, wild mushrooms, green beans, chard, arugula, cukes, eggplants) and fruits (berries, peaches, plums)

- roasts (no airconditioning, so the oven stays off most of the summer)

[eunny jang]

This thread got me all fired up about brasing some short ribs in red wine and maybe making some horseradish-spiked mashed potatoes and eating a big bowl of it curled up on my couch. I started making a grocery list. Looked outside - it looks pretty grey and dingy. Short ribs even more appealing.

Then I checked weather.com, and daytime highs/overnight lows are 78 and 67 degrees, respectively

[bloviatrix]

Like intraining, I'm starting to use my oven again. And like everyone else I'm getting excited about the braised meats and stews. I'm making my brisket for Rosh Hashana tonight and I can't wait for the smells to start!!

[chappie]

Here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I always anticipate a grand finale of crabs in mid to late October. Those late crabs aren't just cheap, they tend to be enormous, heavy and dripping with fat.

I like to braise, especially with ever-plentiful venison, but that's more of a winter thing. Speaking of which, what are the primary differences in your opinions between fall and winter cooking?

Beets. Mmmm... I like those too.

[mnebergall]

Chili, pot roast, Hungarian goulash, veal stew, bvraised lamb shanks.

I am especially eager to try a new technique on the lamb shanks. I plan to saw off the small end so that when cooking, the meat all draws up into a ball at the other end of the bone. A trick adapted form chicken drumsticks.

[irodguy]

Well just fixed Lamb Osso-Bucco last night. It's always season for Osso-Bucco. We just turn the air down a little here in Texas.

As it's gets cooler I normally make:

French Onion Soup

Scottish Lamb Stew

"Heavy Vegetable Soup" - lots of meat

Chili

Manicotti

[msphoebe]

As I live alone, large slabs of roasted meats aren't something I do a whole lot of. Not to say I don't love a good roast beef!

My favorite things to prepare in fall/winter are:

Any kind of soup - bean soups, chili, potato soup, Vietnamese Soup, Thai Soups...

Freshly baked bread...plan to practice lots more this winter

Cajun foods -- Red Beans and Rice, Gumbo

Carnitas -- Although this falls under the "big slab of roasted meat" category, I plan to perfect my carnita skills this fall. (How can I make something so simple, so difficult?)

[Toliver]

Roast Pork with sauerkraut, dumplings and potato pancakes.

[fierydrunk]

Made Turkey Tetrazini from an old issue of Saveur last night and it was AMAZING! Such good comfort food...would be a good after Thanksgiving Day easy leftovers recipe. If anyone wants it, I'll copy it to the thread.

[Really Nice!]

I started this thread in the Pacific Northwest forum; hence the reference to Le Pichet chicken, a dish served at a local French bistro. If you're ever in Seattle, you must go in for a visit.

Le Pichet

1933 1st Ave.

Seattle, WA 98101

TEL: 206.256.1499

The recipe for this dish is near the bottom of this thread, look for Makarky's post.

I made this last night and served it with potatoes anna and a chicken stock reduction. I made a little bit of a change by rubbing the chicken skin with reserved foie gras fat before putting it in the skillet.

[KatieLoeb]

As soon as my 1940's sandwich press I purchased on eBay arrives, I've going to satisfy this jones I've been having for a grilled Brie & Asian Pear sandwich on Raisin Nut Bread.

[liamsaunt]

Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy

Roast cod with potatoes

Lasagna

Big trays of mixed roasted root vegetables

Coq au vin

Pommes Anna

Applesauce

Fish chowder and popovers

Fondue

Gingerbread

[sparrowgrass]

Anything that involves firing up the oven. I am in Missouri, and even with the air on, my kitchen is too hot for the oven.

I am ready for

Not-out-of-the-breadmachine bread

Pot pie

Baked potatoes--sweet and not

And, someday soon, I will get my once a year craving for apple pie. I love to bake pies, but really don't care to eat them.

[nice_guy1812]

-anything and everything braised

-stews

-grains, lentils, polenta, beans

-root vegetables

-dried fruit (i know it has no season, but it seams appropriate in fall/winter)

-GAME!!!

I love autumn! I find myself cooking fall-appropriate dishes throughout the summer to remind myself of the wonderful season. We're lucky enough to have a friend that hunts deer, so we always get a good bunch of venison...for free! Now if only I could befriend a gamebird hunter.

[Really Nice!]

Ragu Bolognase

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Made a rabbit and veal ragu bolognase the other night. Served it topped with a slow roasted pork loin-cooked medium rare, finished with reduced balsamic and Malden sea salt, and a Nicholson Ranch Pinot Noir.