Trippin into Fall.

Fall is here, with a bang. Overnight our weather turned from Indian Summer splendor to Red, gold and get a coat. I seem to be in the minority in that I love the fall and the return of colder weather and dramatic skies. Especially since it brings out the fashionistas of the town, you know, those women who wear tights with their Keen sandals without a hint of irony.

I like to celebrate the return of cold feet on hot hubby cuddle weather with cooking favorite cold-weather recipes. This includes one of our all-time favorite recipes – hot chicken casserole. This casserole (sourced from the culinary masterpiece “What’s cookin’? the Thomas Jefferson Elementary PTA cookbook circa 1979) contains all the essentials of comfort food with none of those pesky nutritional considerations. How can you not love a casserole that celebrates the use of cream of chicken soup and mayo? Add a crunchy cheesy topping and you have manna.

I do concede that I use lite versions of the soup and mayo, and I use Special K instead of potato chips. But it’s still damn tasty! Colin enjoyed his portion and I hope he’s going to be a good eater this fall as I pull out my cold weather bag of kitchen tricks. This week I’ve been going gangbusters in the kitchen and I cranked out some healthy pumpkin muffins and also tried making applesauce for the first time. In no way does it compare to the saucy goodness that is my mutter-in-law’s recipe, but Rob declared it waffle-topping worthy (high marks my friend).

We harvested our pumpkins today. A bumper crop of two orange beauties! I am kind of tickled that Colin gets his own home-grown jack-o-lantern this year. I was happy to have my garden back this year, and this harvest was a nice culmination of our growing season.