what we've been eating.

Sweet potato pie & mushroom-red onion-chicken tart

Acorn squash & butternut squash ready for their water baths

Sauteed with garlic, onion, olive oil & basil and served over whole wheat pasta & mozzarella

Unfortunately, the Sweet Potato Pie had too much vegetable flavor. One slice was nice for novelty, but we didn't devour it like we would a pumpkin pie. I think that makes me give up on sweet potatoes; I've tried them multiple ways now and they never seem to succeed. Squash, on the other hand, has been really tasty - especially with a lot of garlic. Yesterday the New York Times had this tasty article about seasonal cooking, with recipes for fig tart with onions, rosemary & stilton, ratatouille & sausage potpie, and tomato eclairs with ricotta & basil filling. I think I need to get some figs?

Roast!

This was the start of a scrumptious roast stewed with carrots, onions, portabella mushrooms and thyme. I don't like beef very much, but N. loves it so I made this last Saturday. Even I had to admit that it was pretty delicious.

Part of the prompting for this dish came from the fact that it has been just a little bit cooler in the South this week, even though I know our real "Autumn" won't come until November. If you want your own inspiration for fall cooking, check out Nigel Slater's article on autumnal food over at the BBC...the Stilton, Onion and Potato Pie sounds fantastic (to easily convert from the metric system, use this tool).

Fun Cards From Etsy!

photocredit: boygirlparty

RKP recently gifted me these so cute recipe cards from boygirlparty's amazing Etsy shop. Their stuff is quirky, whimsical and reasonable. These would make great hostess or aunt (or sister) gifts.

Recommended?
Yes!

Negative bits
The only negative bit is that the recipe cards (I don't know about the other products) are printed on heavy, glossy cardstock. Although this makes a beautiful image, it also means you can only write with ballpoint pen (other ink smears). As we all know, ballpoint pen is a horrible thing to use because it quickly deteriorates and easily fades. This librarian/archivist says thumbs-down to ballpoint.

Hamantaschen

My mom really likes the traditional Jewish dessert Hamantaschen that is usually made at Purim (in early spring). I've made it for her a couple times, but for Mother's Day this year I bought a can of the poppy seed filling and used the recipe inside the can and I think it was the best batch I've made so far!


The only thing I did differently was to add extra orange peel and it made the cookie part really moist and tasty. Mom likes the poppy seed filling the best, but you can also put preserves or jam inside the cookies. These make a great tea cookie, just leave enough time for chilling the dough (since that's what takes the longest).