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The Fall Feast Begins

September 27th, 2009

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If I look long enough I can see the leaves revealing their true colors: rusty reds and vibrant orange loveliness.  To some people they may still look green, but the butternut squash and sweet potatoes in my farmer’s basket tell me that change is very near. And so begins my favorite season of colors, weather, and food.

My friend had the great idea to create a fall menu with her family.  She explains more on her blog, but I’ll tell you why our family got inspired and created our own Fall Menu.

Our family has been part of the local csa for almost 4 years now. We’ve gotten used to(and come to love) eating by the season. Grilled zucchini in the heat of summer, strawberry pie at the end of spring, and apple crisp on the cusp of fall and winter.  It makes each season of food fresh and exciting, it builds anticipation for the dishes we love. Distance makes the heart grow fonder right? (in this case the distance is measured in months).

Now that we are a family of 6, there are many favorites amongst the crew.  One sister’s favorite is another brother’s dreaded dish(take black beans and rice for instance).  When we created our fall menu each of us contributed 2-3 ideas to each category. Now atleast they can be assured that when their least favorite hits the menu list, there’s bound to be something scrumptious in a day or two.  It also gives me a spring board of recipes for menu planning each week, rather than starting with a blank slate. Each week I’ll take a handful of recipes from the fall menu, along with some leftovers and some new fall dishes to try.  It was fun listening to the suggestions in our brainstorming session today.  Not so surprisingly they were very good at coming up with fall treats.  Surprisingly, everyone wanted butternut squash lasagna on the list.  The only drawback is the dishes I’ll be passing up in my current dairy free diet-well, maybe a few nibbles of the lasagna.

Here’s what has made the list so far:

Breakfast

  • Pumpkin Muffins
  • Apple Muffins
  • Pumpkin Waffles/Pancakes
  • Cinnamon Scones
  • Baked Apple Oatmeal
  • Grits with Apples Sausage

Main Dishes

Sides

  • Baked Sweet Potatoes
  • Sweet Potato Fries
  • Sweet Potato Biscuits
  • Cranberry Sauce
  • Harvest Grains with vegetables
  • Baked Apples
  • Roasted Veggies
  • Carrots(soufflé or sauté)
  • Orzo with carrots and peas

Breads

Cranberry Bread

Desserts

  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Pumpkin Cheesecake
  • Apple Cake
  • Apple Pie
  • Cranberry/Apple Crisp
  • Pumpkin Bars

Let the feast begin.  Thanks, Wordgirl, for the inspiring idea.

2 comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Abundant Food in the Making » Our First Fall Dish with Sweet Potatoes September 30th, 2009 8:57 pm

    [...] have a new soup to add to our Fall Menu.  Our family has a thing about soups. We’re ever so slightly, but not enough to be [...]

  2. Ben Frank from I Ate That! October 15th, 2009 5:59 am

    YES! fall is certainly in full swing. over here we’ve been doing our best to creatively use the vast amounts of winter squash we’ve received from our CSA. i’d love to hear about that butternut squash lasagna.

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