Happy October, everyone. That is a very exciting sentence to say as I love Fall. I am all about the pumpkin dishes, warm soups and fall leaves. Usually the season goes by too quickly, and the weather turns to winter before I am ready. But this year has felt like a smooth transition. Maybe we are all more present to enjoy it? Not sure. Either way, I am trying to soak up all the season has to offer. It is basically the reason I stayed up north. The changing seasons are fun and festive, and also provides some new inspiration with fall produce. Here are a few recipes I have made over the past few weeks and a few thoughts on each. I loved all of them, and would definitely recommend them.
Recipes
1. Olive Oil Pumpkin Loaf: This recipe was Molly’s hope to save the standard and subpar pumpkin loaf from Starbucks. Instead of a sweet, and monotone loaf, she created a savory and rich version with an olive oil base. I love making olive oil based cakes, they are definitely more flavorful, and also do not dry out quickly. Since it is just two of us, it can take us a full week to get through a pound cake if not sharing with friends. I pretty much followed the whole recipe as written. A lot of comments complained about the flavor of the olive oil being overpowering but I did not have a problem with that, and wonder if it has to do with the quality and freshness of the product. The recipe calls for a lot of spices, but the recipe is a guide. I would not be afraid to eliminate or substitute ingredients to use whatever you have on hand, such as cardamom. The eggs can easily be swapped for Just Eggs, and I almost always substitute vegan butter. These swaps lower the overall cholesterol of the dish which makes it a little bit healthier for my personal needs. The maple butter is also a must. I think this dish would appeal to everyone, independent of your love for pumpkin because it is more flavorful, and complex. It is a little bit sweet, salty, crunchy and of course autumnal.
2. Cloudy Kitchen Olive Oil Cookies: I whipped these cookies up recently because it was a quick, small batch recipe, but to be honest I had medium-low expectations. Not because of Cloudy Kitchen’s recipes, but because I don’t love cookies and am on the fence regarding overly chocolatey desserts. But, my boyfriend is 10/10 on board with both of the above. Since these only made six cookies, it was the perfect recipe. While I often freeze the second half of a batch of something I make, I wasn’t sure I wanted these sitting around. These quickly came together with ingredients I had on hand, and baked up in 15 minutes. They do not contain any dairy, and again the egg can be swapped for Just Egg. I also did not have Rye flour, but used Spelt, which I add to most recipes anyway. I was so pleasantly surprised to find I was way off base on my expectations of these. I could not stop eating them! I had to limit myself to 2 because it was already 11 PM, but could not wait until lunch to enjoy another one. They were rich, and fluffy, and that delicious sweet and salty mix with the sprinkled Maldon salt on top. They also looked really pretty which is a plus. I saved this recipe and would love to make it the next time I am with some friends and family. Definitely recommend you check it out!
3. Cassoulet Purple Carrot: The last recipe is one from my Purple Carrot meal delivery. I chose this meal because I had never heard of it before. This is often the case with my weekly meals, which is something so fun about the service. They are not the true classic, but are based on the original, adapted for convenience and vegan dining. This version was made with vegetable broth, white beans, carrots, mushrooms and vegan sausage. I did not use the pesto on top as I did not think it was necessary. I was honestly blown away with the flavor of this dish. If you love beans, I would think you will love this recipe. Of course a more tradition recipe can be found online, and is made with a meat broth of your preference. If you have never tried this, I would recommend checking it out. This would be a great Friday night option to use up veg and possibly meat left over from the week. I have included the Purple Carrots recipe below for your reference. I ate it too quickly to show you photos.
New Fruits
So a few months back, I decided to try Cloudy Kitchen’s pavlova recipe, which came out pretty good, other than the fact I had the oven at the wrong temperature. In the recipe, she recommended topping your dessert with strawberries and kiwis. But the kiwi was a special New Zealand variety, called a yellow, Sungold kiwi. This species was sweeter, and she said it was more delicious. I honestly did not think I would find it here in the Midwest, and just moved on. But then, months later, as I was unpacking the deliveries BF ordered, I saw them in the bag. I asked him, very confused, if I had mentioned this to him? He said no, but he purchased them because he had never seen this brand and wanted to give them a try. You guys, how fortuitous is that! I was so happy. The story keeps getting better because we loved them! They really are way more sweet and a pretty golden color. We have bought them two more times, and hope we can continue to find them. Hopefully you all can spot these and pick up a package because you will not be disappointed.
The second fruit I ordered last month was figs. I have eaten fig newtons, and fig topped foods at a restaurant, but had never purchased them. I used them two ways. The first was a charcuterie board. Calling our spread charcuterie is honestly offensive to all previous spreads, but we put some cheese slices, crackers, figs and jam on a plate and enjoyed some snacks while watching football. And we loved it! I did not know it was so easy to slice and serve. Really delicious flavor, and easy to put together with some cheese. Then I added them to a figgy bundt cake desert. I am not featuring that specific recipe because it was not my favorite, and there was very little fig flavor. BUT, I am looking forward to buying more figs and trying out some other recipes. I love trying out new (to me) produce and incorporating them into different dishes at home. If you have tried figs and have some recs, I would love to hear them, and if you have not ever bought figs, maybe give them a whirl.
Well, that rounds up a few recipes and ingredients I enjoyed lately. I am looking forward to a new cookbook, Dessert Person, that should be shipped next week. I pre-ordered it basically immediately, without much knowledge, solely because it was written by Claire Saffitz. I know some crazy things went down with BA YouTube, and the EIC at BA, but I still really like the content creators and the BA magazine. I hope they continue to make amends and improve as they move forward. I have some butternut squash, brussel sprouts and Half Baked Harvest on deck for the next few weeks. What all have you been cooking, and what are you looking forward to during this autumnal season?
