October - The Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

October is Autumn Proper; if it were a colour, it would surely be orange.  From the colour of the leaves on the trees at the beginning of the month, the piles of leaves on the ground as they drop, the golden glow of the slow sunshine off the wet ground and the lake on our morning walks and the pumpkins that mark Halloween at the end of the month, there’s no getting away from Orange.

Starting with the last dregs of summer, hanging on by its fingernails, by the end of the month it will be a dim and distant memory as the darkness and chills take over. The light 4 tog duvet will be exchanged for its 9 tog counterpart and the annual central heating battle will have begun!  The clocks will be going back to GMT at the end of the month, heralding dark evenings and, for the commuters among us, a long dreary dark homeward journey at the end of the working day.

This is when our cosy homes come into their own though.  Lamps on timers make a welcome-home glow for the weary worker, and lamplit windows against dark wet evenings always seem so cosy and comforting.  Even rainy dog walks are cheered by the return to our cosy home, despite wet and muddy towels draping the hallway radiator and muddy pawprints on the hall carpet!  I don’t think there are many things more rewarding than warming up after a cold, wet walk with a cuppa and my towel-swathed companion asleep at my side.

 

In the kitchen, comfort food season is on its way.  Soups are thickening and pasta bakes and risottos warm us up from the inside.  We can even begin to think about proper puddings and hot custard.  Rice pudding is a firm favourite and always reminds me of the ones my grandmother used to make.

Out in the garden, by now the spring bulbs will all have been planted and we can start tidying up and emptying out pots ready for next year.  As the leaves are falling, raking and tidying is a never ending task, especially with a dog who likes to distribute them as far and wide as she can!

http://thehappyhousewife12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/rice-pudding.html

http://thehappyhousewife12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/creamy-chicken-courgette-pasta-bake.html

The Happy Housewife's Year : September - Summer's End and New Beginnings

Hereford 2015

I suppose it’s odd to start a new beginning in September, but I’ve always thought of September as a chance to start over.  No doubt it’s a throwback to those long ago school days, but the end of summer always seems to be a natural conclusion to the year. 

The long anticipated holiday is a thing of the past; the Summer plans made so long ago have either come to fruition or been abandoned as a lost cause and the outdoor living season is drawing to an end.  It’s time now to settle down to Autumn, make the most of the last of the sunny warm weather at home and get ready for the cooler months ahead.

In nature too, we’re in a transition.  The harvest is more or less gathered, farm, garden and on a foraging.  The summer birds and geese are preparing to take off for warmer climes as the year settles in for the quiet wind down to Winter.  The gardens too are winding down as everything retreats for the colder months.

The hot sultry days (the few that we had!) and sleepless nights of July and August are behind us, leaving us with (hopefully) pleasantly warm, sunny days and cooler nights.  The evenings will begin to draw in noticeably now – especially as we reach the equinox, meaning cosy evenings at home curled up with a book or some trashy television to entertain us.

September is the last of the foraging season for me.  The blackberries will be going over

Blackberries August 16

soon; the Old Wives advised against gathering after September 19^th - no doubt, because by then they are all fly blown and maggot riddled!  They’ve been ripening since the beginning of August and I have plenty stashed in the freezer for crumble season.  I might be lucky enough to gather a good batch of cobnuts, if I can get to them before the squirrels.  The hedgerows and trees are groaning with rosehips and rowan berries for those inclined to turn their hand at jellies.  Soon the sloes will be ready for picking, although the longer they are left on the tree the better.  They are ideally an October crop but competition tends to be high among the sloe gin makers and they rarely last that long here!  According to folklore, they shouldn’t be picked until after the first frost, but a day or two in the freezer does the same job.

On the domestic front, after months of flicking a feather duster around, September usually sees a concerted attack of dusting, polishing, vacuuming into the furthest reaches and window cleaning.  The annual spider migration has much to do with this newfound interest in housework as everywhere I turn, I’m surrounded by cobwebs!  A few days’ neglect can turn the house into something Miss Faversham would recognise!   The summer duvet will be probably put away by the end of the month, the flannel sheets will put in an appearance shortly afterwards too ....... even if I have to have all the upstairs windows open again to keep me cool at night!!

Blackberry Crumble

Kitchenwise, the last of the preserving has been done until next year so we have plenty of goodies stored up to see us through the winter months.  September will probably see our last barbecue of the season, unless we have a very dry October.  The new gas Man-Aga we bought has been worth every penny.  It’s so much more convenient than the charcoal ones we’ve been used to so we’ve taken to barbecuing at every opportunity.  The Bacon Wars I’m engaged in with my lovely neighbour were ramped up when we started barbecuing gammon steaks!!  By the end of the month soup season will have begun in earnest, I love soups and could happily live exclusively on them!  I restrict myself to making one batch a week, with the leftovers being stashed in the freezer for another day.  September is also when crumble season begins; served with a swathe of cool creamy custard at the beginning of the month, we’ll be having thick hot custard by the end!

In the garden, we’ll be having a general tidy up and a session or two to plant up the winter bulbs.  Last year I decided to plant Crocus and Snowdrop bulbs directly into the lawn.  They are always such a cheerful flower and always make me smile; they were a lovely treat to see in the barren garden in March this year.  I’ll plant up another swathe this year too, hopefully in the years to come they’ll naturalise and spread to give a lovely carpet of Spring flowers.  I wish I’d done it years ago!

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http://thehappyhousewife12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/blackberry-crumble.html

Cheesy Broccoli and Rice

I can’t claim any credit for the provenance of the recipe - it’s a Delia, but I do claim the shortcuts as my own!

I love my freezer, and I love my leftovers.  I’m always stashing Ziploc bags of cooked rice, cooked pasta and tubs of cheese sauce for quick meals on lazy days.  This one was put together to use up some leftover cooked broccoli from the day before and is simplicity in itself. 

Quantities depend on how many you are cooking, I think in terms of about 1/3 cup a person. 

This is really nothing more than a simple assembly job!  Defrost a bag of cooked rice (Camargue red rice is flavour of the month here at the moment) and tip into an ovenproof dish.  Top with the cooked broccoli (par cooked would be better if you’re making this from scratch) and then with the cheese sauce.  Add a grating of cheddar and parmesan (if you have it to hand, if not good old cheddar is just as good) and then pop into the oven.  I cooked mine at 200^oC (400^oF/gas mark 6) for about half an hour – until the cheese is bubbling and the dish is hot right the way through.

My cheat hero ingredient! 

Delia’s original recipe is here :

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/vegetarian-food/cauliflower-and-broccoli-gratin-with-blue-cheese?utm_source=https%3A//www.bing.com/&utm_medium=d&utm_campaign=otn&utm_content=recipes/type-dish/vegetarian-food/cauliflower-and-broccoli-gratin-blue-cheese

Baked Chicken and Rice

This recipe is testament to the miracles that can occasionally come out of the kitchen thanks to some frantic fridge raiding and seat of the pants cooking!

I was out walking Holly one sunny Saturday morning when the call came – “cricket’s off, I’m going fishing and I’ll be back in time for tea”.  The poached egg on toast I’d been planning for my tea was never going to satisfy a non-dieting and hungry fisherman so cue some frantic mental stocktaking of the fridge and freezer contents.  It was a huge hit, so much so that I was coaxed into making it again the following week.  The first time I made it I used up some leftover frozen chicken from the freezer, but I’ve made it with fresh chicken breasts since which was almost as good.  If I’m honest, the smaller chunks of leftover roasted chicken worked better, but that’s just a personal preference.

For two people I used :

  

2 sticks of celery

1 medium carrot

½ a leek (or all of a very small one)

1 small carton of chestnut mushrooms (approximately two cups when chopped)

Knob of butter

¾ - 1 cup of rice – I used a mixture of Camargue red, wild and white basmati rice

About a cup or so of leftover cooked chicken, or two whole chicken breasts.

1 ½ - 2 cups of chicken stock (double the volume of the rice you used)

Finely dice the celery, leek and carrot and add to the butter in a small frying pan over a low heat.  Clean the mushrooms and chop half of them finely and add to the frying pan.  Coarsely slice the remainder of the mushrooms and add those too, together with a seasoning of ground black pepper and sweat gently for 10 – 15 minutes.

Add the rice to an ovenproof dish and make up the stock – I like Knorr stock pots best for this sort of thing.

Turn the vegetables together with their buttery juices into the dish with the rice and combine together, pour over the stock and season with salt to taste.  If you’re using leftover cooked chicken add this to the dish as well now.  If you’re using fresh chicken breasts brown them first in a little butter, season with a little salt and pepper and then add them to the dish.

Cover with foil and bake at 200^oC (400^oF/gas mark 6) for about an hour, until the rice is cooked and all the stock is absorbed.  If you like, you can uncover for the last 10 – 15 minutes to finish browning the chicken.

Good old Minestrone Soup

The winter storms are rolling and rolling across my increasingly sodden and wind lashed world.  In desperation, I turned to the Mediterranean for comfort, and to remind me that once there was a less harsh world!  By stroke of luck, I found a beautiful big bulb of fennel while I was grocery shopping which led to this lovely recipe.  As with all my recipes, this isn’t cast in stone – use what you have and leave out what you don’t!

For four good serves I used :

1 cup of chopped onion

1 bulb of fennel, diced

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 large carrot, diced

½ medium swede (approximately one cup) (rutabaga)

2 finely chopped cloves of garlic

A good handful of chopped green beans (frozen works as well as fresh)

1 400g tin of Italian tomatoes

1 pint of vegetable stock (use Knorr stock pots if you can find them)

2tsp caraway seeds

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup soup pasta (or broken macaroni, spaghetti etc)

Preparation is simple – peel and chop the onion and sauté in a little olive oil while you prepare the rest of the vegetables.  After about 10 minutes, add the garlic, fennel, celery, carrot and swede and sweat together for 10 more minutes.  Add the tin of tomatoes and the stock and give it all a good stir.  Season to taste and add the caraway seeds.  Give the soup 20 minutes simmering – until the vegetables are tender.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary (you might need several tastings, I did!) then add the soup pasta and cook for 10 more minutes.

Serve with lovely crusty bread, or slices of parmesan toast (toast a few slices of crusty bread, sprinkle with grated parmesan and grill until crispy and golden).

I apologise for the quality of photographs, the real ones are stuck on my SD card as my computer won’t recognise it!  I’ll update the blog post as soon as I can with the real ones!

I’d like to dedicate this recipe to my lovely Dad, who loved a good soup.  I wish I could have shared it with him.

Barefoot in Bologna

This is another one of my favourite cheat sauces.  Glorious Barefoot in Bologna, a really tasty sausage ragu.  I often use it as a sauce with good chilled ravioli or tortellini.  

You simply need to thin out the tub of ragu with a little chicken stock and season with a little salt and pepper to taste, quickly cook the pasta parcels and then arrange in a dish before adding the sauce.  Add a good snowfall of grated cheese (parmesan mixed with cheddar is my favourite) over the top before popping into a hot oven for 25-30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and hot through.  This is a lovely, quick after-work dinner for next to no effort.

Cheat Ingredient : Cheese Sauce

Cheating is all about knowing which corners to cut, and which packets and tins to buy.  If it’s good enough for Delia, it’s good enough for me!

This is one of my favourite cheat ingredients, and this particular brand one of the better ones.  To be truthful, I haven’t made a cheese sauce in more years than I care to remember, not since these tubs of good cheese sauce hit the shelves in the 90’s!

Cheese sauce is a particularly useful ingredient.  I always use it to top lasagne; when you’ve spent an hour making the meat sauce, making a cheese sauce can be enough to tip you over the edge!  This is the shortcut to make.  No-cook pasta sheets are another handy shortcut.  Back in the day I’d have one pan going to make the meat sauce, another cooking lasagne sheets and a third for the cheese sauce.  By the time I’d done all the washing up I often couldn’t face eating it!

Cauliflower cheese is a favourite, and with a tub of cheese sauce it’s next to no work at all.  I cook the cauliflower (and often broccoli for a bit of colour) briefly before decanting into an ovenproof dish, topping with the cheese sauce and some extra grated cheddar and finally popping it into a hot oven to finish.

A tub of cheese sauce can also make very short work of mac and cheese, especially if you have some leftover bacon or cooked ham hanging around.  Then it’s nothing more than a matter of thinning out the cheese sauce with some milk and a quick assembly job.