Autumn cooking

To me, Autumn means progressively shorter days, the fall foliage turning brilliant shade of crimson red, flame orange and deep gold and of course it's also sweater weather! Autumn also means time for cooking comfort foods such as homemade macaroni and cheese, chili, chicken pie, and of course there's hearty beef stew (my favorite recipe is Parker's beef stew- it's one of Ina Garten's recipes) and cottage pie. Lets not forget dessert! Apple pie has to be one of my most favorite things to eat in the Autumn, the scent of apples and cinnamon swirling around in the air just sings happiness! Pumpkin pie and Pecan Pie (my dear friend René makes the BEST Pecan pie). Lets also think about the cakes...Gingerbread cake, Spice cake, coffee cake and of course carrot cake! Where do we begin to pick out our favorites? One of my childhood favorites was Acorn squash stuffed with...what else, stuffing! Yes, the stuff you would put into a turkey. You put the stuffing in when it was about ½ to ¾ of the way done, stuffing doesn't take as long to cook as the squash does. I remember thinking that this was the end all be all of enjoying Autumn veggies. You could also fill it with a meat filling made in the same manner as you would meat loaf or a Florentine meat filling for manicotti (I use ground chicken or turkey). Heck, you can do this same thing with zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers...the list is endless!

So go out there and cook up something fantastic tonight using the bounty of veggies from the Autumn harvest!

Le Creuset versus Tramontina Cookware

I've had more people write to me about this topic than any other. I have to say that in the end I did donate my Tramontina cook-pot to the local women's shelter. It was a heavy pot! It weighed a lot more than the Le Creuset pot of a similar size. When I would have it filled and put into the over to finish cooking the oven rack would have a very noticeable "sway" in the middle. That always made me very nervous.

One of the comments made on the original post (same topic headline as this one) there was a person who said that they had bought a Le Creuset pot at an outlet mall for a seriously discounted price. I too have bought a deeply discounted Le Creuset pot at TJ Maxx, paid about 1/3 of the cost if it had been first quality. You do need to be aware that at outlet malls and discount stores like TJ Maxx the Le Creuset pots and pans being sold there are seconds (they are discretely marked) and the warranty does not apply to them.