Fall 2008

Every year, I have mixed feelings about fall; I love the fall colours, I get excited about winter coming, but get really sad about having to put socks and shoes on! It all boils down to claustrophobic feet! There I said it.

We closed the cottage this weekend. The weather was quite lovely (about 24C yesterday). We were even able to sit on the porch for cocktails! And, we enjoyed a splendid display of light during a thunderstorm on Saturday night!

JT created the menu, and it was wonderful!

Friday – cocktails at arrival (11pm-ish) with my home-made flat breads and a couple of dips – and of course, martinis!

Saturday

Breakfast – make ahead panettone french toast with wild blueberries and maple syrup, grapefruit and coffee

Make ahead Panettone French Toast (a healthier adaptation of a recipe I tried at All Recipes)

• Slice Panettone in about 2″ thick slices (I generally buy these on sale and slice and freeze  with parchment between each slice – that way, I have it ready when-ever!). One slice is enough for 2 people.
• 2 large eggs, plus 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (or vanilla)

1. On the night before, blend eggs, yogurt and maple syrup in a blender.
2. Spray Pam (or similar) into an 8″ round cake pan and place panettone in the centre. Pour egg mixture all over the panettone and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next morning, pre heat oven to 350F. Bake French toast for 20-30 minutes (ovens will vary, but you want a golden colour on the French toast). The eggs will puff up like a soufflé!
4. When done, remove from pan, cut into 2 portions and serve with your favorite maple syrup and fruit!

Lunch – Creamed roasted butternut squash soup with home-made walnut bread (Anna and Michael Olsen’s Walnut Bread recipe – I’ll post this soon)

Eva’s Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (Check out my recipe on Foodista)

• 1 medium Butternut squash (peeled and cut into even sized cubes)
• 1 medium sweet onion (like vidalia), chopped into quarters.
• 1 entire garlic, skin on
• olive oil
• sea salt
• 2-4 cups of your favorite stock (I used miso for this one!)

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large roasting pan, mix the butternut squash and the onion, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
3. Take about 12 inches of parchment paper and place garlic in centre. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Wrap tightly, and then wrap parchment in foil (I don’t like putting foil directly on food, but it’s up to you!). Place this package beside the roasting pan in the oven.
4. Bake for about 45 minutes or until squash is tender and garlic is mushy.
5. Add the squash and onion (and all the pan juices) to a glass blender and blend adding stock to desired consistency. Squeeze out garlic and add (with all the olive oil from the little package) into the squash purée and continue to blend until smooth.
6. Pour through a fine sieve to make it creamy smooth.
7. Enjoy (no cream in this soup, but you would never know it!.

Dinner – Cassoulet (yep, JT made cassoulet!), Madeleines with wild blueberry yogurt sauce!

We rendered the duck until the skin was crispy, and put it into the cassoulet whole – lots of flavour!

• 1/2 pound pork sausage links, sliced
• 1-1/2 teaspoons whole cloves (I found this a little too clovey, next time we’ll cut this down considerably!)
• 1/2 whole onion, peeled
• 1-1/2 sprigs fresh parsley
• 1/2 sprig fresh thyme
• 1/4 pound bacon (too much bacon, if you are adding the skin with the duck)
• 1/2 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1/2 pound dry navy beans, soaked overnight (we used traditional white beans instead)
• 1/2 bay leaf
• 1-1/2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1-1/2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 pound skinned, boned duck breast halves
• 1/2 fresh tomato, chopped

This is a photo of the raw ingredients without the beans!

1. In a large skillet, brown the sliced sausage over medium heat.
2. Insert whole cloves into onion. Roll bacon up, and tie with a string. Tie together parsley, thyme, and rosemary.
3. In a large slow cooker, place soaked beans, sausage, bacon, onion studded with cloves, fresh herbs, bay leaf, carrots, minced garlic, and duck. Add enough water to cover the other ingredients. Cook for 1 hour on HIGH. Reduce heat to LOW, and continue cooking for 6 to 8 hours. (The duck will cook and break into smaller bits – kind of like pulled pork!)
   
4. Remove onion, bacon, and herbs. Stir in chopped tomatoes. Continue cooking for 1/2 hour. Serve with crusty French stick or walnut bread!

Madeleines with Wild Blueberries and Yogurt sauce (I had to have one healthier thing this weekend!)

Sunday Breakfast JT muffins – whole grain english muffins with a fried egg, pancetta and french goat’s milk feta cheese…YUM!

Closing up is always a lot of work but we managed to get it all done by our 10am goal, and we were on the road again!

Only a few trees have been bitten by the chill and have started to ripen into bursts of red in a sea of green! Soon the evening chill will take them into a long slumber until the spring when we travel this road again!

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