Monday, October 23, 2006

Falls goods


Me: Bubba, isn't it so fall-ish out here?

Bubba: Yep.

Me: I just love that it's just so, you know, fall-ish. Crunchy under my feet. Leaves all different colors. You know?

Bubba: Yep, fall-ish.

Me: Right. You know.

I never said we were philosophers. But I do like fall, and it was looking rather fall-ish out this weekend. So, we walked in the crunchy leaves, I made random brainless comments and then I baked fall-ish things. And I blatantly ignored the unfall-ish temperatures outside because I knew it was retarded to be baking in 80 degree weather.

It is unfortunate that my desire to do/bake fall-ish things never coincides with actual fall-ish weather. I'm always early and I always end up doing this type of baking in a tank top and flip-flops.

But since I've already brought in the final harvest from the veg. garden and it's already week 7 in the NFL, the thermometer can fricken blow me, because I'm ready to bake.

I also got my delivery (via dump truck) of November magazines this week, and there were a billion recipes I wanted to try. This was from Sunset (yes, I'm a granny that subscribes to Sunset) and the recipe had me at "Polenta". Apparently my enthusiasm is somewhat naive because my mom-in-law reminded us, at hubby's rejoicing in the forthcoming meal, that "hey, you know that's just grits." Oh well, I still love it and the fact that it comes pre-made in a tube just sweetens the deal.






Let me be 100% honest here, it was real good. Like "gimme summore" good. And when you open the windows and trade jeans for capris, it helps with the sweating.

*Per Kelli's request, here's the recipe for this fab dish. Why I didn't link to the recipe in the first place is a mystery. BTW: I swapped the Bulk Italian Sausage with the Italian Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe's because real sausage skeeves me out. Also, don't forget to peel the gnarly casing off. Oh, ew. I'm actually gagging a little bit typing that. Ew.*

For dessert I made Martha's Pear-Sour Cherry Flat Pie.

It was fine.

I'd had high hopes, since hubby was so excited to have a cherry pie of any variety in our house (cherry pie is so nasty), and because I had brought a new, fun food into our house that hubby was thrilled to eat (puff pastry). But, in the end, hubby didn't throw his eyeballs back with ecstasy with the first bite or give me the finger when I tried to engage him in conversation while he was eating (signs of good baking). Although he did finish his first piece and then get another when he saw me dozing on the couch, so he might not have been lying when he told me really liked it.

Personally, I found it a little spicy, which is a weird characteristic for a fruit pie. This is because of the Chinese Five Spice in it, which I was suspicious of when I added it to the mix in the first place. Should have left that out. And, plus, you use dried cherries instead of fresh fruit which I find a little grody.

At the end of the day we both decided that it'd be good for breakfast with a strong cup of coffee. Or as a dessert as long as it was buried underneath the dessert band-aid, a heap of vanilla ice cream. I prolly won't make it again. I might try the pie version, but only because there's no Five Spice in it and I need to put all these leftover dried tart cherries into something. After that, no more cherry pie. EW.

What I will be using more of is puff pastry. I got an extra enthusiastic thumbs up from Bubba at any/all of the puff pastry recipes I presented, so I'll add that to the list. I kinda see this as an extension of the All Pie All the Time mantra in our house. So, during my carboholic weekends when I release the floodgates of my naughty eating behavior, I'll try to put something good into puff pastry so I can get that drooling look of food bliss from Bubba that I so strive to achieve.








10 comments:

  1. How funny, I made polenta this weekend too...

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_tm/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9997_34995,00.html

    I made all of it, but I substituted the cod for halibut. It actually turned out pretty tastless. Honey thinks it was the lightness of the fennel and onions..dunno, wasn't a huge fan.

    I also made pecan bars..yummm

    Might I suggest for the dried cherries? I really like them in my salads with toasted or lightly sweetened walnuts..They go very nicely with a crispy romain.

    TTFN..
    Steph

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  2. FYI, on the italian..might I suggest an italian dinner to lead up to our attempt at a conversation!?

    I have a killer, very basic recipe for simple pasta with tomato sauce..Very plain jane, but one of our fav's.

    XOX

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  3. Huh. Chinese Five Spice? I've never heard of that. The first one, polenta cheesy goodness, looks FANTASTIC!! Please send the recipe. :) And those Fall leaves are beauty!

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  4. Fury - I have had polenta a million ways at work and I love it most when it's sauteed and paired with either a spicy tomato sauce or some kind of mushroom business. As for the cherries, I'm sure Bubba will take care of those in no time. If not, on the salad they go.

    Put up your simple Italian dish and I will try it right out. Then we will parlare Italiano. Va bene.

    Kelli- Chinese five spice is still something of a mystery to me. Apparently it goes into a lot of Chinese dishes. Who knew? All I knew was that I had a jar of the stuff and was excited to finally use it. Too bad the dessert turned out weird. Stupid weird five spice.

    I put up the link for the recipe on the post -- good call. I shoulda done that in the first place.

    More fall leaves to come...

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  5. See, the thing is I don't have exact measurements for my recipe....I just do it...

    I know, sucks, but this is how my Mom taught me...

    :(

    -Steph

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  6. You gotta love a post that includes 'grody', 'ew' repeatedly, and 'skeeves me out'. I love that. I love that hubby giving you the finger is an anticipated goodness. Homer Simpson, "can't. talk. eating..."

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  7. Stephs - It's going to make it mighty hard for me to construct a recipe from your memory, so I'm assuming you will be making the dinner and I will be mangling the Italian language while you do so?

    Barb - All words that are mainstays in my vocab. Sad? Perhaps. But oh so descriptive. :) Homer Simpson, "WE HAVE A KITCHEN?"

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  8. sure fin. Sounds great to me :) Name date and place and we'll work out the rest of the details.

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  9. i am so inspired by people that enjoy cooking. whoever ends up with me will have to enjoy the interior of the kitchen...and they better like being in there alone...oh, and serving me. (just jokes)

    i will say that the flaky thing looks good, but filling it with something more appetizing like apples would give it 10 cool points.

    ps - this is my first visit to finny knits. love it!

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  10. the only problem with fall is that it has a tendency to turn into winter.

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