April's CR Diary

Elder berries! Unfortunately I can't buy them here and my tree is too young to yield a lot of them. I also have to experiment a bit, because my pre-CR-recipes won't work anymore. There is a heavenly combination of boiled down berries with freshly grated horseradish in whipped cream, usually served with sliced canard breast, which I'd like to make CR-friendly. Second best and easy to obtain: chestnuts.
The cranberry-salsa sounds phantastic - I might try a european version of it with cowberries, since we have to import cranberries. Hope this will work, since cowberries are more bitter, but a lot less sour.

Definitely the pumpkin with garlic yogurt dish that my mom makes! You just cook pumpkins (sort of diced biggish) in their own juice, then sautee them with some olive oil, onions and coriander seeds and eat it with a garlic/paprika yogurt sauce. I also love pumkin soup, lentils, celeriac, all berries and mushrooms in the fall. I make a killer mushroom-cinnamon brown rice pilaf too which has a very earthy flover just perfect for fall.

Fall's arrival brings me right back to childhood. I immediately recall a dark green corduroy jacket that I had around age 8. It had a zipper up the front and I remember walking to school wearing it, stomping in the fallen leaves, listening to that wonderful crunch and smelling the delicious earthy smells of Autumn. The best Fall memories, though, are from my years of being the mother of small children and living in Quebec, where the Fall foliage displays were spectacular and the brilliantly coloured leaves would be up to your knees! Fall food? My mother's Beef, Vegetable & Barley Soup, her Chicken Pot Pie, and wonderful Chili (thanks, FoMR, for that recipe). I still make all of those recipes (with healthy amendments) and they're still wonderful. But for today, after my long walk through the leaves, it's going to be April's Lasagne, with a nice glass of Merlot! :-)

Hi Zeynepella, I'd like your mushroom cinnamon brown rive pilaf recipe - it sounds really good.
Peg D

April, the salsa sounds fab and so does the pumpkin with yogurt garlic sauces. Seems like simple is the key ingredient to all these fall dishes.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

This cranberry salsa sounds fantastic! Thank you for the idea, April.

Mmm. Autumnal foods. Most of my fond fall food memories are of gak, so I'll be modifying and controlling my access to those this year. However, I love soups and stews in the fall, and I know I can take some of my favorite soup recipes and "CR" them.

Great, now I'm craving vegetable soup!