We had a real doozy of a windstorm this past week, which pretty much took care of the remaining leaves on the trees. The styrax in the back yard just has a few left, and the seed pods have all blown off.
It’s starting to look like winter.
I’ve been waiting all fall for the Brussels sprouts at the store to get good looking and cheap. I finally decided it was time, so I bought a big bag of sprouts and a fresh pork tenderloin and dug out the delicata squash from the fruit bowl. This is a notable dinner because it consists of two different vegetables I absolutely loathed when I was young.
J was in charge of the pork. He seasoned it with salt, pepper and thyme, seared it whole in a cast iron pan and put it in the oven for 20 minutes or so. Then he made an absolutely fabulous pan sauce with chicken stock and some reduced apple cider. Mmmmm. It had a wonderful intense, savory apple flavor. (more…)
Artemisia is a great plant, it stays relentlessly fluffy and silver all autumn and winter. Then in the early spring I cut it down to a stump and it looks terrible, but by then there are other compensations.This one is called Powis Castle. It sits directly under a coralbark Japanese maple, which has been busily dropping all of its leaves.
Don’t ask me how this got started, but every year on Hallowe’en we have to eat the same thing for dinner. Pumpkin soup, hot Italian sausages, and Yorkshire pudding. It’s a requirement. It’s warming, autumnal and not a little bit indulgent, so I guess it’s perfect for an autumn holiday. In any case, we’ve been doing it for years. Usually I get a small sugar pie pumpkin for the soup, which I actually did this year, but it will have to get used for something else this time, because we got hold of one of these:
It’s a padana squash, as far as I know, a sort of heirloom Italian pumpkin with awesome ribbing down the sides. J saw it at the Dunbar farmstand and immediately wanted to carve it, and Steve pointed out that it makes good eating, too. So on Saturday J carved it, and we saved the flesh for our soup. (more…)
The Japanese maple on the deck had its best fall color year ever. Alas, the windstorm we had recently has taken every leaf off of it. But I can remember it fondly.
Fall really came in with a bang this year. One week, we were having the most gorgeous warm evenings of the entire year, then the next week it rained. And rained. And the wind started blowing. Then it hailed. So much for summer. At least the leaf colors have been fabulous this year, when it stops raining enough to see them.
On the down side, we’ll miss the grill. But on the plus side, we can get going on the braises, the roasts, and casseroles, and the squash and greens. I love the first really seasonal food of any time of year, whether it’s the first asparagus of spring, the first cold noodle salad of summer, or the first batch of holiday cookies. Because we try not to buy out-of-season produce (much), it makes it all the tastier when its time does come. On our last couple of forays to Dunbar Gardens we’ve bought Delicata squash, leeks, Burgundy apples, lettuce, poblanos, tomatoes and chard. At the farmer’s market we’ve gotten potatoes, cheese, cauliflower and eggplant. Eventually the farmstand and market will close for the winter and we’ll be free to buy brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes at the store, and they will seem like a treat because we’ve been waiting for them. (more…)
‘Tis the season for apples. We live in an area where apples are locally available, and some of them are very good, but I grew up in the heart of apple country, the Wenatchee Valley, and west-of-the-Cascades apples just never taste as good to me. So every year I make a point of buying a box of Jonagolds at a fruitstand near my parents’ house. Many of them are destined to become applesauce, but there are always leftovers.
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