Tis the season

Winter is two days away, but fall is my favorite season. Veggies are still plentiful, heartier meals, and the eve hot cereal and some of my favorite beverages. 

Old fashioned oats with heavy cream, cranberries, and pistachios; farina with butter and sugar; and new this year - cornmeal porridge.  Apple cider, egg nog, hot chocolate, and this year hot apple cider has made quite a debut. Inspired by our visit to Franklin Fountain, I took a stab at hot spiced cider, no not the hard stuff that Johnny was propagating from seeds, but the good stuff that is produced by grafting.  This has been a great year for cider, with the best coming from Wegman's...the stuff I bought from Whole Foods this week lacked body, flavor, and sweetness; so I certainly couldn't go wrong trying to jazz it up. I don't have mulling spices per se but I was able to improvise. I simmered the cider with cloves, cinnamon sticks, grated fresh ginger, a bit of nutmeg and brown sugar. It was absolutely delicious.

This time of year is also the season for soups. Yesterday we had the liver and onions for breakfast so I had no lunch/dinner plan.  I thought about soup but I didn't have much on hand so I attempted a tomato soup that just didn't come out right, my daughter said it tasted like V-8...so I rummaged around the fridge and dusted off my Griddler and made a veggie panini (broccoli, red onion, spinach, peppers, sun dried tomatoes, sharp provolone) with a pseudo pesto mayo (kalamata olives and basil).