Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy Pancetta

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Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy PancettaThis celery root soup seems like the type of thing a cooking magazine would suggest as an elegant way to begin your family’s Thanksgiving feast.  I can picture it, served tableside out of a gorgeous soup tureen, as a family of beautiful people gather around a beautiful fall table.  The mood is festive, but serene.  They’re all so happy just to be spending the holiday together.

But that’s fantasy-land and your family’s Thanksgiving is probably more like mine (at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  Dogs will be racing around the house, adult siblings will be fighting, wine will be spilled, and someone will be having a nervous breakdown over a turkey that just won’t cook.  As you look around and realize half of the group hasn’t bothered to change out of their pajamas and the opulent table you had imagined is actually covered in dirty mixing bowls, you’ll wish it was just a quiet Monday night and you were sitting down to a bowl of this soup with a hunk of bread and a glass of red wine.

And that’s how I enjoyed my celery root and apple soup.  In perfect family holiday land, it would be a wonderful Thanksgiving first course, but in reality, it’s better appreciated at the kitchen table on a weeknight, garnished with a couple crispy pieces of pancetta and a mess of roasted Brussels sprouts served on the side.

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Roasted Chicken with Apple Cider Pan Sauce

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Roasted Chicken & New Potatoes with Apple Cider Pan SauceRoast chicken with potatoes ranks pretty high on my list of things I like to cook, as I bet it does with most home cooks.  It’s simple, it’s easy, and yields heart-warmingly delicious results, every time.  Who wouldn’t love that?

This time around I took a very minimalist approach with the chicken, just rubbing the skin with salt and pepper and stuffing a few rosemary sprigs and sage leaves in the cavity.  I roasted it in my (beloved) cast-iron pan over new potatoes and wedges of onion and made a quick apple cider pan gravy to serve alongside.  The result?  Total comfort food bliss and a beautiful dinner that tasted like I went to a lot more trouble than I actually did.

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Red Cabbage & Apple Slaw with Toasted Walnuts

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Cabbage and Apple Slaw with Walnuts

There are situations in life that just call for slaw.  I’m thinking any meal that involves bratwurst, is centered around fried items, or involves copious amounts of cheese.

My sister invited me over for cheese fondue this past weekend and I was put on salad duty.  It’s a strange fate to be dealt; normally when given dinner party salad responsibilities, I’d want to show off and make something flashy with gobs of blue cheese or rounds of melty goat cheese.  But when cheese is already the star of the evening, you’ve got to regroup.  You’ve got to eliminate any thoughts of dairy.  You’ve got to go light, fresh, crisp, acidic.  You’ve got to slaw!

Seeing how we’re smack dab in the heart of fall, I opted for a red cabbage slaw with honeycrisp apples and toasted walnuts.  It’s a refreshing counterpoint to rich dishes.  It’s simple, it’s pretty, and I think it’d be a hit at any fall dinner.

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Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

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French Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

My mom makes a great apple cake.  It’s baked in a tube pan, loaded with cinnamon, and drizzled with a brown sugar glaze.  Anytime I go over for dinner in the fall, it’s the dessert I expect/demand.  She’s made it all my life and it tastes like home.

But it’s her cake and I’m grown; it’s time I find my own apple cake.  An apple cake that tastes like my home.

So I’m on the prowl for apple cake recipes.  I’m looking for unfussy, rustic cakes, that can be pulled together in a moment’s notice.  I’m looking for the kind of cake you can quickly mix up when you get a “is it alright if I stop by in an hour?” call.  The kind of cake you can have in the oven 10 minutes after that call, its aroma filling your house with everything good about fall as you race around, shoving unmentionables under the bed and attempting to eliminate the dog hair tumbleweeds from every corner.  

My first contender is a (slight) adaptation of a French apple cake that I found on David Lebovitz’s website but is actually from one of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks.  It’s a dead simple apple cake that is made with ingredients you will most likely already have on hand.  I chose to serve it with caramel sauce this time around, but I think it would be just as nice plain with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

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Apple, Onion & Sharp Cheddar Grilled Cheese Sandwich

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Apple, Onion & Sharp Cheddar Grilled Cheese SandwichI was feeling a little silly about posting a grilled cheese sandwich until I remembered how easy it is to get stuck in a lunch rut and how hard it can be to think of what to stick between slices of bread when you let yourself get stupid-hungry.  

So that’s my disclaimer and here is what is officially my favorite fall lunch: a crispy grilled cheese sandwich with sharp white cheddar, crunchy apple slices, and red onions on Pumpernickel.  Add a pop of Dijon mustard and wash it down with a glass of cold, cloudy apple cider or a good beer and you are living fall the way it’s meant to be lived.

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