fall nesting

This has been a strange October for Illinois. First we had a ton of rain, and now it's just plain cold. We went from temps in the 80's straight to the 40's in 24 hours. No in-between. Me no-likey. I'm a warm weather, lots-of-sun person. I know many people love fall and are all like, "Yay, pumpkin spice lattes and hoodies and boots and scarves!" And then there's me..."Gimme my iced tea, t-shirts and bare feet!" I need to live in California. Don't get me wrong, I think the color change is beautiful and sometimes crisp, cool air feels good, but when October goes from summer to almost-winter overnight, I get a little cranky. Don't even talk to me about how early it gets dark now...and will only get worse with the time change.

Such is the time of nesting though, and the kitties are pros; snuggling together and always curled up in blankets. Or in Clementine's case, lying on the heater vent to keep warm.

And it's definitely comfort food weather. I do enjoy cooking more in the cooler weather. There's been chicken noodle soup with matzo balls (sorry, no recipe for this one. I make up a lot of my own soups and just go with the flow. Though I didn't make the matzo balls. Those were straight from the Jewish deli); roasted veggies (add some black beans for a complete meal - you can stuff this concoction in a pita or tortilla, if you wish);  Ragu Bolognese (this recipe is one where you need several hours...I didn't catch that in time and ended up having a late dinner...I also made my own modifications...didn't use veal {we don't eat veal}, added a little garlic and oregano, and used half and half instead of whole milk); and there's been a little baking thrown in, too. I picked the last of my rhubarb, bought a carton of strawberries, and came up with a crumble. I found a recipe for the filling that used pure maple syrup instead of processed sugar, but I made my own topping with oats, flour, a little brown sugar, butter, coconut oil, and cinnamon.

If you're looking for an easy, delicious chili recipe, give this one a try. We had it for dinner tonight and topped it with chopped onions and shredded cheddar cheese. It really hit the spot on a cold night.

Talk to you soon...in the meantime, stay warm and snuggly. 💗

yummy in the tummy

Hello, friends! The beautiful weather streak continues in northern Illinois.

When I wake in the morning, it's quite cold in the house. I make my coffee

and check my email and Facebook while wearing a hoodie, but by the time

I take a shower and start my day, the house has warmed up and the sun is

streaming in the windows. And once that sun goes down...brrr, it's quite chilly

again. I'm more of a summer person, but even I admit that there's nothing

like a pot of soup simmering on the stove or a creamy casserole or roast

warming in the oven on those cold evenings. Brian mentioned yesterday that

he really had a taste for some warm, homemade bread so I have dough going

in the bread machine, then I'll take it out to rise and bake. I'm also making a pot

of black bean soup for dinner. Mmm, that bread will be so good dunked into

the soup! I will post those recipes at another time, since I don't have any 

photos to go along with them right now.

In the meantime, here's some delicious warm-up-the-tummy meals that

I can share with you all. This first dish is Ribollita - or, Hearty Tuscan

Vegetable soup. It's loaded with veggies (including fennel - which I love in

soups) and beans and is so hearty and delicious. I found the recipe here 

from the blog, A Food Centric Life.

 This recipe piqued my curiosity. Pumpkin Mac and Cheese. I love cheese and

I love pumpkin, but the two of them together? I decided to give it a shot. Brian

and I really liked it, but it's rather "different". If you make it, do not skip the snipped

sage that the recipe calls for! I don't have any sage growing in my herb garden

and was going to buy some at the grocery store, but when I saw that a tiny

bundle cost $2.49, I said forget it. I used some snipped rosemary from my herb

garden instead and was glad I did. This is the kind of recipe that really needs

that little extra something. The recipe also calls for Fontina cheese, which is

 hard to find. I substituted a Swiss/Gruyere mix. Serve this dish with a green

 salad and you're good to go. The crunchy walnut topping is incredible, by the way!

 Now for a meaty dish. I made this one last night. I normally don't eat ground

beef, but this dish was an exception! Wow, was it good. I had one small bowl

of it and I was absolutely stuffed. And this recipe makes a huge pot, so we

have a ton of leftovers. I put some in freezer containers to give to Tim next

time we see him. I was talking to him while he was walking home from school

yesterday, and telling him about this goulash I was making. He said, "Stop, Mom!

I'm starving!" He had forgotten to take a sandwich to school with him to eat 

in-between classes and it was already 5 p.m. One good thing about adult

kids living away from home is that they certainly learn little life lessons and

how to deal with them without any hand-holding. We'll always be here for

 guidance, of course, but our kids have to learn how to be independent. And it's

 amazing how good it feels to know that your adult child is making it on their own

and is thriving and doing well. Oops, I just majorly digressed. Click here for

this awesome goulash recipe from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen. Make it -

your family will love it!

 Lastly, to leave you with a little something sweet. These cookies are

dairy-free and contain no sugar (except for the naturally occurring sugars

in fruit). I love a couple of them for breakfast with coffee. Since they're 

packed with oatmeal, fruit, and nuts, they're almost like a granola bar,

except in cookie shape! Though they're very moist and not crunchy like

most granola bars. I made up this recipe, adapted from this one.

BANANA NUT BREAKFAST COOKIES

2 c. old-fashioned oats

1/2 c. golden raisins

1/2 c. dried apricots, snipped

1 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 c. mashed banana (about 3 med.)

1/3 c. coconut oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine oats, fruit, nuts, salt, and cinnamon in a large

bowl. Combine mashed banana, coconut oil, and vanilla in another bowl. Add 

banana mixture to dry ingredients; stir to combine. Let stand 15 min. in the

refrigerator. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie

sheet. Bake at 350F for 15 min. or until lightly golden. Transfer cookies to a

wire rack; cool completely.

 Happy cooking and eating!

autumn in the garden and kitchen

 Perhaps the title of this post should've been wacky weather. It's supposed to get

up to 85 degrees today and boy, is it humid! I have mostly hardwood floors throughout

the house and my bare feet were sticking to the floors and I just felt "icky". So the

A/C just went back on for today. We still need to make a trip up to the garden shop

to get some grasses and hopefully bee balm to plant before the weather gets

colder. We also need to move the Russian Sage plant, and do some other outside

stuff such as caulking and some trim touch-up.

This is as far as I've gotten on fall decorating for my front porch - a little pot

of mums. I'm heading up to the grocery store this afternoon and hoping to

get a couple of fresh pumpkins for the porch.

Funny how some summer plants are still in full bloom, such as the geraniums.

I have a couple of small pots of red geraniums and they're still blooming, too.

This pot on my patio had daisies and sweet potato vines. The daisies have stopped

blooming, but there's some kind of weird vine taking over the patio! It's not the sweet

potato vine, so I'm wondering what it is. It looks like it's coming from the daisies.

The Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan are sadly drying up for the season...

The cooler weather (except for today) calls for some hearty comfort food,

don't you agree? Last night I made beans and cornbread. The beans were

dry Great Northern beans that I soaked overnight and put in the Crockpot the

next morning with chopped onion, uncured organic ham, pepper, parsley,

and a bay leaf. I then covered it with veggie broth and slow-cooked for 8 hours.

Gotta have a pan of cornbread to soak up all that delicious bean broth!

This is one of my go-to recipes for cornbread though I only use 1/8 cup of sugar

instead of the 1/4 cup that the recipe calls for. I always cut down on white sugar

in recipes and have never noticed a difference in taste. We don't need all that sugar!

Happy Thursday, everyone.