Autumn Harvest 2013

I have been walking my children to school every morning, waving them off and continuing on to enjoy the crisp morning, and taking in the changing colorful leaves.  I feel so fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a community school, where I can wave to my neighbors as I walk by, and greet folks with a good morning and a smile.

With the weather becoming cooler, we have been focusing on the garden and harvesting our produce.  I have dried more peppermint, as well my large batch of oregano.  I also prepared plenty of oregano pesto, which I divided into smaller containers and placed in the freezer for use during the winter months.





I'm always amazed by the number of squash we grow. Truthfully, the huge leaves on the never-ending vines perfectly camouflage the squash so I never know how many we have until it comes time for garden cleanup! I find squash and pumpkin recipes give way to perfect comfort foods.  Used in soups, mashed or cubed for use in side dishes, it really helps as the sun sets earlier and the outside temperature drops.

We have already enjoyed a red cabbage coleslaw and I have made plenty of tomato sauce with the abundant tomato harvest this year.  As soon as I find the notes, I'll post a roasted tomato soup I prepared.  I have been a food blogger for many, many years yet I still scribble recipes and notes on single sheets of paper which often gets misplaced.  Even though I purchased a scribbler to keep everything in one place, I have yet to make it part of my routine.  Bad blogger.



Due to the many hail storms throughout the summer, our apples were ugly as sin.  We decided to steam the juice out and hubby is making apple wine!  We have 12 litres doing it's fermenting thing and I can not wait to imbibe this winter!

We often share our abundant apple yields with friends and this year a coworker took a large box of our ugly apples and turned it into the most delicious tasting chunky apple compote.  Twice this last month, I baked up the golden puffy dutch baby in a cast iron skillet with the apple compote spread on top.  Comforting indeed.

The only things left to do is dig out the remaining carrots and potatoes before the ground freezes. Hopefully Autumn sticks around for a while so we don't have to be in a hurry. *crossing my fingers*