fall food

Fall is my favorite time of year, but I never felt like I had one when I lived in Southern California. The natives will disagree, but there is no such thing as seasons in SoCal. Sure, there are those rare days when the temperature dips below 75 degrees or the sun refuses to shine, but there are no distinct seasons. 

Fall was much too short in Green Bay, but I was grateful for it anyway. One minute I was admiring the fall foliage and then suddenly, the trees were bare. But I made the most of it! Fall is the time for pumpkin, of course. I made these pumpkin pie bars, from Food & Wine. I had intended to make these last year, but then the job market happened, and I just didn't have the time. They don't look like much, but they were phenomenal. 

In my opinion (but not Drew's, who does not share my pumpkin enthusiasm), I took it easy on the pumpkin this fall. In addition to the pumpkin pie bars, I made a pumpkin cake with maple cream cheese frosting, pumpkin pecan scones with a brown butter glaze, pumpkin pancakes, and a pumpkin loaf (but that wasn't very good so I'm not linking to the recipe). 

I also made a cinnamon ice cream, which seems very fall-like, and I'm trying to remember why. 

I believe that this was an effort to replicate Drew's favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors, Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. It was mostly successful; the ice cream was amazing, but the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies weren't. 

chopped salad, parmesan rosemary biscotti, chai-spiced chocolate ice cream

This week, we made a hefty chopped salad for dinner. I know, a salad for a vegetarian and a mostly vegetarian, right? Lame. But this is a really good salad. The recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen, and instead of salami, we used Italian veggie sausage. The only other changed I'd make in the future is to use half the salt called for in the recipe. 

To go with the salad, I made parmesan rosemary biscotti, from My Name is Yeh. I made these when Drew wasn't home and they were so good that I shamelessly ate two right away.

I also made chai-spiced chocolate ice cream, from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, whose authors opened up the Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco. Drew and I stopped there on our road trip from California to Wisconsin and loved the place. 

roasted strawberry and buttermilk ice cream

If there is one thing that should be made from scratch, it is ice cream. It is easy to make, and so, so worth it. While I've been to bakeries with cookies or cupcakes better than homemade, I can't think of any ice cream shop with better ice cream than the homemade stuff.   

Making ice cream is pretty effortless as the ice cream maker does most of the work. As such, having a good quality maker is key. I acquired my first ice cream maker a few years ago, but it was cheap and I struggled to make good ice cream. Last Christmas, Drew's parents gave us a Cuisinart, in yellow, and it makes excellent ice cream. 

Last weekend, I made a roasted strawberry and buttermilk ice cream. The recipe is from the Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream cookbook, which has lots of unique and interesting recipes. I love this cookbook- the pictures are pretty and the directions are easy to follow. And best of all and most importantly, the results are wonderful.