My Favorite (Local) Fall Foods

Cooking, to me, has so many important functions.  The old saying goes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  Well, I think that works for both men and women.  It sure works for me, and the great part about it is that I am the one providing myself with the delicious food.  Like my yoga practice, cooking is an act of self-love.  It is also one of the ways in which I nurture my children.  Last week I made both pumpkin pie and banana bread and sent it with them in their lunches.  For that week, at least, I felt a sense of joy and satisfaction while packing their lunches instead of the usual drudgery mixed with dread.  My cooking is also a big draw for my ex husband and is certainly one of the reasons that he looks forward to our weekly family night dinners.

Recently I have been cooking up a storm.  The early fall New England crops are so delicious and bountiful.  Sweet corn, tomatoes of many colors and flavors (Striped Romans are my favorites), fingerling potatoes, luscious lemon cucumbers (the last of which, sadly, I bought last week), green patty pan squash, sensuous poblano chili peppers, rich winter squashes (even though it isn’t winter yet thank God), earthy leeks, crisp apples of more varieties than I have ever seen (Ginger Golds and Mutsus are my  pick), amongst others.  These wonderful offerings coupled with the cooler weather have stimulated my appetite.

One of my blogger friends commented that I was making her hungry with my posts on my Thanksgiving turkey and my date night dinner.  She wanted some recipes.  Well, since most of my recipes are found on-line, I thought I would share them with you.  Most of my dishes were made with local ingredients so maybe you have a farmer’s market near you where you can get them.

Tonight I am eating leftover Thai-inspired butternut squash soup, which originally appeared in the classy, yet now defunct, local family magazine Wondertime, where some of my favorite people once worked.   I made it this time with a red kuri squash.  Unlike my funky chicken, this is a dish that gets better each day it spends in the fridge.

Spicy Roasted Green Beans and Shrimp is a dish that has recently become one of my old standbys because it is quick, simple, and very tasty.   I prefer with wax beans, but they may be at the end of their season.  I have also added fennel stalks for extra flavor and texture and patty pan squash when I didn’t have enough beans on hand.

Last week a woman at the Tuesday Market was selling green tomatoes.  I had once eaten fried green tomatoes with our friends Stephen and Ramie, who used to live in North Carolina.  They had been delicious so I decided to try my hand at them.  I found this recipe, which, like the beans and shrimp, has a little cayenne pepper in it.  Clearly I like spice, but it is easily omitted for more sensitive palates.  It took me a while to get the oil the proper temperature because I am not used to deep frying but once I got it right the tomato slices browned to perfection.  I made a sandwich with them with cheddar cheese, sriracha chili sauce, and Asian greens (arugula would do fine).  It was delicious.

My kids and ex love pumpkin pie.  It is, without a doubt, the breakfast of champions.  It is chock full of beta carotene and has a little protein.  The way I make it is super healthy and lower in fat.  I use the recipe on the Libby’s pumpkin can but add nutmeg.  I also substitute one cup of soy milk for the evaporated, condensed milk, reduce the sugar to one-third of a cup and add one-fourth of a cup of maple syrup (local from Massachusetts of course!).  I also use a spelt crust that has vegetable oil instead of butter.  These changes make it less creamy but really enhance the basic pumpkin flavor.

I hope that you enjoy some or all of these recipes.  My goal with this post is to share with you some good eats, encourage you to nurture yourself (and your family) with some good home cooking, and also give a plug for buying local foods.  They taste so great and, maybe it’s psychosomatic, but they seem to give me more energy when I eat them.  It’s also good for our local economy.  Tonight some friend of mine posted a video on our community’s efforts to maintain local farmland.  I love my progressive town.

So please share any and all of your favorite recipes here.  I am always excited to cook something new.

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