Fall vegetables and desserts

Here is a nice dessert or even make for breakfast. I notice they use pears but I prefer the apple.

Autumn Dessert
1 large ripe pear or tart apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup water, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon raisins, optional
1 teaspoon butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash ground nutmeg 1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 slices cinnamon bread, toasted
In a saucepan, combine pear, 1/4 cup water, sugar, raisins if desired, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until fruit is tender. Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; add to fruit mixture.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.
Serve warm over cinnamon toast. Top with ice cream or whipped cream if desired. Yield: 2 servings.
NOTE: I made this with a tart apple and made my own cinnamon toast. This recipe came from Taste of Home.
You can find many recipes at Taste of Home site using many of the fall vegetables that are already showing up in the stores. One such recipe is a BUTTERNUT APPLE CRISP and recipes for pumpkin.
I found a great list of desserts at Food and Wine. Browse thru the list and maybe you will find something. I also have been getting emails from Pillsbury.com with lots of recipes for fall. So I suppose all the baking sites will be showing more and more for fall and even the holidays. But it is still quite warm here on the Gulf Coast and I am not into heating up the oven.

Chef John's Red Clam Sauce

I just had to post this today as it was quite inviting. Here is the recipe from Chef John @ Food Wishes that he calls a favorite "go-to" dish. As he says it takes only 15 minutes to whip up and is good for anytime or group of people. He does have a video of how to make this but here is the recipe as well. Go to his Food Wishes site and read more of what he has to say about his "Go TO" dish.
1 pound pasta
2 cans (6.5 oz) chopped clams in juice
3 cups tomato sauce (plus 1/4 cup water to rinse jar)
1 cup good white wine
1 tbl anchovy paste or 2 fillets
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes 2 tbl capers
2 tbl olive oil
Parmesan to taste
salt and pepper to tastefresh
herb to taste, basil or Italian parsley

I know it is rather hot in some parts of the U.S. and maybe you only make banana bread at Christmas but go check out this recipe at Food and Wine. I made it and it is delicious. No walnuts for me tho, so I tried some pecans. In fact Food and Wine has interesting articles on restaurants and wines as well. Give it a try for something different. May you have a good banana bread recipe you might like to share. Send it along in "comments"

Use up the zucchini with dinner

Here is the latest on using zucchini as a side dish with your chicken, beef or pork dinner from Simply Recipes. This is much like latkes using potatoes and tastes just as good.
Ingredients 1 lb of zucchini (about 2 med size), coarsely grated
Kosher salt and Ground black pepper
1 large egg
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grape seed oil or olive oil
Sour cream or plain yoghurt(optional)
1. Salt the zucchini with about 1 teaspoon of salt. Try to remove the excess moisture from the zucchini by either squeezing the liquid out with a potato ricer, or by squeezing with paper towels.
2. Whisk egg in a large bowl; add the zucchini, flour, scallions, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Mix to combine well.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
4. Cook fritters in two batches. Drop six mounds of batter (2 Tbsp each) into the skillet. Flatten slightly. Cook, turning once, until browned, 4-6 minutes on each side.
5. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining batter. The sour cream can be dolloped on top.
I also found a cake, chocolate no-less, using zucchini which made it quite moist. This was at Is My blog burning which is an unusual name, for sure.
There are recipes for zucchini bread, which I have made for years for Christmas gift-giving rather than banana bread. Zucchini, itself, can be cooked, stuffed, and broiled. YES, it can be frozen also. Grate it, separate into 2 cups each and pack in freezer-loc bags for use later on. So the vegetable is quite versatile depending on the meal or baking. I just wish it didn't produce so much at one time. Next year I plan on fewer plants. Let me know if you have a favorite and I will gladly post it here.

Foodie BlogRoll

If you like to browse thru food blogs, check out the Foodie Blogroll in the left hand column. Maybe you are looking for a particular food blog or just want to browse. The nice thing is you can zip thru the blog names, click on it and you are there. This idea was generated for food bloggers by TheLeftoverqueen. If you have a food blog and would like to join the blogroll and put it on your blog, just click there, complete the form at the site. Once you get the blogroll code, you need to put this on your site in order to get your site name added to the blogroll. Really quite simple to get this list of ALL the food bloggers. One sure way of getting new recipes and ideas.

TODAY is my big DAY

This is my big DAY--BIRTHDAY-- and lucky day too cuz I found a site with brownies galore from all over the world. Here at ONCEUPONATART are all the recipes submitted for the contest. BTW there also is a roundup-1 which you can reach if you look in the column to the right at the site. Chocolate Crunch Brownies was the winner. The recipe is located at llcskitchen and where I got the picture from. I read this recipe and cannot wait to make this but have to cut this recipe down some. This is going to be my treat for my birthday.
Dorie Greenspan-a noted chef- has her own blog. She states the following:Bake With Me on Serious Eats. Starting today, and for every Thursday forever after (or at least for a long while), I’ll be posting a recipe with tips and a story on serious eats. I have her cookbook and love it.
For all you Elvis fans I found his favorite recipe. Nothing fancy but supposedly he loved it(maybe too much.) In a small bowl, mash the banana with the back of a spoon. Toast the bread lightly. Spread the peanut butter on one slice of toast and the mashed banana on the other. Fry the sandwich in melted butter until each side is golden brown. Cut diagonally and serve hot. Got to try it as I love peanut butter and bananas.
Have a good day everyone and TRY to stay cool.

If you need help cooking, CALL

I found the answer to your cooking dilemna. Call CHEFSLINE which is an online cooking service. For 30 minutes ($10) you can talk to a chef and get the help you need, IMMEDIATELY. How about that for service! The web site shares a list of recipes from their chefs for some interesting foods. They are planning on having online classes which I would love to view. They also have a membership for $20 a month if you think you may need help more often. Sounds pretty good for any time or when company is coming.
Here is a great crabmeat recipe posted at GROUP RECIPES. This would be great for brunch.

1 lb. lump crabmeat OR shrimp
2 croissants
4 oz. mayonnaise
1/2 lemon (juice)
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 pinch of salt & pepper
8 slices of Swiss cheese

Directions
Put 4 ounces of mayonnaise in a large mixing bowl. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon into the mayonnaise. Add the dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and mix well. Gently toss the crabmeat into the mixture to retain the lumps. Split the croissants in half and lump 4 ounces of crabmeat mixture onto each half of the croissant. Top with two slices of Swiss cheese. Place in oven at 500º for approximately 8 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.
Serves 4

August 1 brings a Hot Brown sandwich

Chef Fred K. Schmidt at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, created The Hot Brown sandwich in 1926. Recently Bobbie Flay @ Food Network had a cookoff making this dish which is where I got the picture. It is rich but so tasty. Here are the ingredients
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, room temperature and beaten
salt and black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup prepared whipped cream
8 slices toasted white bread, crust trimmed
1 lb cooked turkey breast, thinly sliced grated parmesan cheese, for topping
1 (2 ounce) jar diced pimentos, drained
8 slices bacon, fried crisp
Read more about how to layer the sandwich @ RECIPEZAAR
Visit this blog FOODBLOGGA and look for July 15th with the title of The 91st Weekend Herb Blogging Round-Up is Here! Here are 39 delectable recipes from around the world that make this 91st round of Weekend Herb Blogging shine! Lots of foodblogs all about herbs. Great reading.
Happy August 1 to all and enjoy cooking.