Fall cooking: sweet and savory

On Saturday night, I made a fantastic new cauliflower dish which I will write up for you soon. In essence, I cut a head of caul into florets, tossed those with a liberal 1/4 cup of olive oil, a good tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, some garlic and brown sugar, salt and sultanas. Then I roasted the whole mess under the cauliflower was caramelized and tender. It was great that night, and it was delicious again yesterday and today. Cheers for good leftovers!

At the farmers market yesterday, Ol and I stopped by the apple lady's stand to get a bunch for munching and a pie. Jack eats at least one apple a day so I have to keep a sizable stash, and this cool weather recently has given me a real hankering for a deep dish apple pie. I love to slice my apples very thinly before gently tossing them with cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and such and packing them in a slightly salty crust.

This beauty is cooling now, my kitchen smells fantastically, and I have finally gotten out of my PJs. ;) Off to the school libe for a little re-shelving.

Double Grape Compote, a study of the Hakurei

Y'all, I have been in my PJs since 2p, and it's been blissful. The kids have spent the afternoon with T's parents (heaven!), and I have taken a nap, read, putzed, made a batch of Double Grape Compote, got it in the freezer, am now roasting some gorgeous cauliflower right AND have just snapped some beautiful, if I say so myself, photographs of a fresh bunch of Hakurei turnips.

This small, snow white turnip is a member of the cabbage, more formerly brassica, family as are radishes, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. I grew up eating boiled purple top turnips, a larger variety that generally needs to be cooked or pickled to be most enjoyed. I love turnips to this day, rutabagas too! Smaller turnips such as the Hakurei are much sweeter and can be eaten like a radish or apple. They're lovely sauteed, glazed, mashed, pickled, stewed with their greens, made into soup, and one of my favorite applications is to sear them with radishes, drench them in a butter-anchovy-garlic sauce and serve them atop grilled bread. Oh, mon dieu. I could die just imagining it!

Three and I'm done

This week's third and final canning class this morning was another great time, and I think everyone learned a lot in addition to enjoying themselves. Thank you, Strosniders, for hosting me, and thank you to all who came. You were a great, interactive group! I am, however, taking a full 24 from my canning pot starting now; yee-haw!

Afterwards, I went to the market, devoured a taco platter and have since been cleaning up the lunatic warzone that the boys in my life left behind instead of my home. WTF are these piles? And WHAT is happening in that sink? I am not touching or cleaning that sink.

And although I informed husband that I scheduled a refrigerator repairman visit because the water dispenser makes a terribly disconcerting thump-thump sound as it weakly pumps water, I can tell he is attempting to remedy this himself because the bottom of the fridge is on my table, the door no longer closes without major assistance (yes, he unleveled the beast) and the interior is as much a hot mess as is the rest of my home. Also I found this downstairs. Mother of god...