Autumn Gems

   Oh, how I love Fall in New England.  I’ve acquired a love for it over time, though – for when I was a young girl, my very favorite season was Summer  🌻- no school, barefoot, beaches,  bikes,  T-shirts and Johnny’s ice cream truck on Friday nights.   We played outside till the cows came home – well not exactly – in a city suburb it was more like till the street lights came on. Then we hit the stoops with lightning bug jars.   But fall held it’s own magic even back then… and just the other day I was reminded of it. 

   My husband and I grew up in similar surroundings and  yesterday as we patrolled the fields surveying fence and weeds and flooding  issues, the scent and crunch of fallen leaves underfoot reminded us both of our youth.  So much joy was found in the simple things – like raking leaves into a pile out in our postage stamp yards, and then jumping into and out of those piles repeatedly.  Trick or Treating was enhanced by the crunch underfoot, the jewel reds, oranges, yellows,  brown  hues all around and the earthy smell of fallen leaves, the crisp air carrying that scent as we trudged door to door to door.

   Here on the farm, fall means putting the gardens to bed, hay fields retired for the year, fuzzy horses eventually blanketed,  and chickens who retire to  the coop much earlier in the evening.   The racks on the porch are filled with firewood and the dogs are as eager as we are to sit by the hearth and enjoy the warmth of a fire in the fireplace.  We allow ourselves more down time in fall – the shorter days are a  welcome reprieve from all the chores around here that keep us going till dark.  We both have jobs that require computer time, too, and somehow even that momentum quiets as our internal clocks slow down and recharge. 

    We’ll have the traditional Thanksgiving meal  next month with family who are available to join us – and each year in the month of October I start hunting for a recipe or two that will add a little twist to the usual menu – Turkey,  mashed potatoes and gravy are forever, but the other sides can be jockeyed around without too much angst from the husband, we always hope.  (six blueberries, you might recall).   I found two recipes that seemed compatible and I gave them a try last week – Delicious! And they’ll grace our table this year. For the first, I combined several recipes – 

Butternut Squash Soup

1 very Large Butternut squash or two medium

Approximately 4 cups chicken broth ( vegetable stock is another option) 

1 cup finely chopped onion

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs butter or to taste.  (use olive oil for dairy free version) 

Sherry (or Vermouth)  About 1/2 cup. 

Preheat oven to 425, cut the squash in half lengthwise, drizzle inside of each piece with olive oil,   sprinkle with salt and pepper and place  cut face down on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Roast for  approximately 45 minutes or until tender.  Set the squash aside until it’s cool enough to handle. 

In large soup pot,  melt butter in pot and add onions –  saute until browned and fragrant. Put the cooked onion bits in a blender, scoop the butternut squash out of it’s thin skin and place in same blender, add salt and pepper and chicken (or veggie) stock.  Add the Sherry (or vermouth) .. and blend until creamy.  – place back in the large soup pot and warm to desired temperature – and serve – delish! 

  I also made this Leek and Root Vegetable Gratin – Recipe HERE –  this is a delicious twist on scalloped potatoes, although we love those so much I’ll probably make both.  I added organic multicolored carrots in place of  one of the parsnips and used yams instead of sweet potatoes, cheddar cheese, not muenster.  I used a poultry seasoning blend to sprinkle on top of each layer.  Slicing everything THIN is the key to success here. 

 
   When I’m cooking in the kitchen, the dogs are usually underfoot. If it’s a decent weather day, I open the sliders to the backyard and they sit in the sun patches, catching the breeze.  They are the best company, truly my other set of kids.

  

   Autumn means more reading time, too.  I fell in love with Gladys Taber’s books a few years back – more HERE on that.   She passed away in 1980 at the age of 81, and her books are no longer in print, but I’ve managed to find some online available through old book sellers, and a friend gifted me two as well.  This just arrived in the mail and I am savoring every relaxing moment I get to read her quieting, uplifting and thought provoking recollections of a life well lived on a very old homestead in Southbury, CT – Stillmeadow farm.  It is her pleasure in the little things, her kind and thoughtful disposition and her thoughts on troubling times in our earlier history that soothe my weary soul.  Ironic that much of it still applies today.