Fall Food

We finally have Fall weather and I can't wait to make all of our fall favorites.  I bought lots of mushrooms because mushrooms and Fall go hand in hand.

I grabbed some ingredients and went to town.

I created some luscious mushroom pate'. 

This is the recipe I made up:

25 mushrooms assorted

1 stick butter

olive oil for sauteing

salt and pepper

truffle salt

porcini powder

mushroom powder (not trader joe's)

truffle oil about 1 T.

1/4 cup onions or shallots

1/3 cup cream

Saute' mushrooms and onion with a little bit of dry thyme in olive oil and a bit of butter just until it starts to soften.  Cover with a lid to get it started. Add some salt and pepper, not too much pepper.  Add butter and cream to cool it off.  Place it in a vitamix and add a tablespoon of sherry and truffle oil.  Puree'  on the cream soup setting.  Test for seasoning and pour the mixture into ramekins and chill. Serve with crackers or sliced baguette.

I bought local pears and made these pear pudding cakes. They were served warm with vanilla ice cream.

The recipe:

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• 1/3 cup milk 
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 4 pears (ripe, peeled, cored and cut into chunks)

Topping:

• 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

Garnish:

• Icing/Confectioners' Sugar (for dusting)

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 4-6 ramekins (4 large or 5-6 smaller) or one large baking pan, such as an 8x8 or 8-inch round or similar size, by lightly buttering or spraying with cooking/baking spray. Set aside.
• Prepare the pears and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Measure out the milk and add the vegetable oil and vanilla to the milk. Pour into bowl with the flour mixture. Add the eggs and stir until smooth. Add the pear and stir to coat.
• Spoon batter into prepared ramekins, dividing evenly between them. Don't over-fill, as these will rise as they bake. Fill no more than about 2/3 full! Place ramekins on a baking sheet and place in preheated oven to bake for 20 minutes.
• While the pudding cakes are baking, prepare the topping. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Once cooled, stir together the sugar, egg and melted (and cooled) butter until combined and smooth. *Be sure the butter has cooled, or it will cook the egg. Set aside.
• After 20 minutes of baking, remove the pudding cakes from the oven and pour the topping mixture over-top, dividing evenly. Use a spoon to spread evenly, if necessary. Return to the oven and bake an addition 15 minutes, or until set and golden on top.
• Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before serving warm. Serve dusted with icing sugar or alternately, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. These are also good at room temperature. Refrigerate any leftovers.

I made another Mabon Cake.  The Blog Tech wanted one of his own.

Though these aren't very Fall-like, I had to send some chocolate chip cookies to my special DIL.

There was a football game so I sent them some chili con queso too.

We are experiencing a cold wave and were supposed to get rain along with below normal temps. I decided that I better harvest all of my basil before it froze.  

I made many containers of pesto to freeze and use all winter.

And I told The W's that if we ever finally get some rain, this is what I am doing to them.