Thoughts on Autumn

I love Autumn. I love it from the first day of Autumn in September, until the last day in late December. I love Halloween. I love Thanksgiving. I love Advent, with its special celebrations like Santa Lucia Day. What's not to love. The cool mornings, the late harvest fruit. I love how the Nouveau Beaujolais always come just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Let me say it again - I love Autumn!

 I read on so many blogs how some people say they want to have simpler Christmases and they don't how they are going to cope with all that "has to get done" by Christmas. And they I read on how they are already feeling "behind" because they don't have everything ready. Seriously? Do they know that it is still November and Christmas is almost a month away? If they are really serious about cutting back, they might start with celebrating each season as it comes along. Try observing Advent this year. If you use this important season to prepare yourself for the birth of Christ, I promise you will enjoy the real Christmas season more than you ever have. If you aren't familiar with the traditional ecclesiastical seasons, this site: Advent, might be interesting to you.
This year I had both my daughters and my son-in-law with me for dinner. We had a delicious turkey that I bough at Whole Foods. It has to be the best turkey I've ever roasted. It was so clean and well prepared, having no residual yucky parts left inside, and not one pin feather left for me to pull out with tweezers.
Since I'm the only one who likes pumpkin or mince pie, I opted for Cranberry and Pear Tart, this year. I haven't made that in years, but it is quite seasonal and really delicious. It is a recipe from Jr. High home-ec. Yes, we did have modern stoves back then, not wood-burning.
Well, I've been asked for the recipe by several people who have stopped by since then, so I decided to share it here. I hope you try it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Cranberry and Pear Pie 

 2 C fresh cranberries
½ Small orange
3 and 1 small ripe pears
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1¼ C sugar
¼ Tsp cinnamon or cardamom
2T. Flour
¼ tsp salt
1T. Melted butter
6 walnuts
Crust for one tart

Whirl fruit and rind in a blender. Combine sugar, spice, reserving 1T. Add  flour stirring until smooth. Fill pastry shell. Top with remaining pears, halved and cored. Drizzle each pear with butter and sprinkle with reserved sugar. Decorate with a walnut half on each pear half.
Bake at 400∘ for 45 - 50 Minutes (I suggest you blind bake the shell for 5 minutes before filling to assure a crisp bottom crust)
Cool or chill completely before serving. Great for making ahead.

Chestnuts roasted in my oven, not on an open fire.

Roasting chestnuts in my oven is just not the same as buying them on the street in Europe. The fragrance is on the air everywhere in the autumn. In France they are sold in little paper cones. In Switzerland they sell them in little brown bags that have two sides, one for the chestnuts and one for the peelings (so Swiss).  I love them roasted or as a puree, or my favorite, marron glacé,

 

Chestnut History

     Probably one of the first foods eaten by man, the chestnut dates back to prehistoric times. The chestnut tree, Castanea sativa, was first introduced to Europe via Greece. The majority of the chestnut trees currently found in America are of native European stock, but Native Americans feasted on America's own variety, Castanea dentata, long before European immigrants introduced their stock to America.

In 1904, diseased Asian chestnut trees planted on Long Island, New York carried a fungus hitchhiker that nearly devasted the American chestnut population, leaving only a few groves in California and the Pacific Northwest to escape the blight.

Today, most of the chestnut food crop is imported from Japan, China, Spain, and Italy. Chestnuts are known as marrons in France and some parts of Europe.

These starchy nuts are given to the poor as a symbol of sustenance on the Feast of Saint Martin (Nov 11) in Germany and are also traditionally eaten on Saint Simon's Day in Tuscany.

Legend has it that the Greek army survived on their stores of chestnuts during their retreat from Asia Minor in 401-399 B.C.

Chestnuts contain twice as much starch as potatoes. It is no wonder they are still an important food crop in China, Japan, and southern Europe where they are often ground into a meal for bread making, thus giving rise to the nickname of "bread tree."

Chestnut timber resembles its cousin, the oak, in both color and texture and is highly-valued. Also known for its tanning properties, the trees can live up to five hundred years and usually do not begin to produce fruit until they are forty years old.

Last night we had our first really Autumn dinner. We had a nice bit of pork roasted with lots of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, squash, hericort vert, and apples. All flavored with shallots, thyme and wine.

Polly had stopped at the market for a loaf of bread and ran into a sampling a French wine, called French Rabbit. It's one of those wines in tetrapaks. She brought us a Cabernet to go with dinner. I look forward to trying some of the other varietals.

When we lived in England we could buy inexpensive French wine at Sainsbury packaged in collapsible, recyclable plastic bottles. I'm sure these tetrapaks are far superior.