Saturday, September 30, 2023

In My Kitchen, September 2023

Outdoor cooking: the grill is part of our kitchen!

Because the days are growing shorter, we’ve put away the grill until spring.






Using Local Fall Produce

Although we are predicted to have a warm, dry winter, our beautiful autumn weather may soon be over, and the fantastic local tomatoes, peaches, lettuce, eggplant, corn-on-the-cob, green beans, broccoli, and lots more will soon be a winter dream. In September, we tried to enjoy this bounty while we could, and we tried to shop at the local market that sells only locally grown or locally processed products. Time to transition to apples, potatoes, onions, squash, and other winter produce. Plus as always, we’ll be using the packaged products and imports that we get at the supermarket!


Even the eggs come from a local farm! Only the tuna is from far away.


Making pizza — the basil is fresh from our herb garden.


Locally grown eggplant, zucchini, onions, peppers. Our own herbs. 
Sorry, but canned tomatoes are more reliable so I use canned.


The best fall treat: cake made with the most wonderful fall fruit.
Some years I make plum cake. This year it was peach cake. Recipe here.

A few new packaged foods




I think these are a TimTam knockoff!



Where We Are NOW: Baltimore, MD

From September 29 to mid-October we are taking a trip to various points on the East Coast.
I’ll be posting updates about what we’re doing.

What might be good in October, kitchen-wise?

We hope this year's Great British Baking Show, which starts in the US Sept. 29, will be better than
last year's show. At least they have promised no travesties on international cooking!


Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander
Shared with Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz and with  Sherry at In My Kitchen


 

20 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

As you are starting to close the door on fall, we here along the Gulf Coast of Texas are still awaiting its arrival.

The availability of fresh produce is one of the lovely things about living where I do. I grow vegetables and fruits all year long. I plan to plant for fall very soon.

eileeninmd said...

Hello,
The meals and grilled salmon look delicious.
I hope you found some great places to eat in Baltimore.
The Costa Rica coffee sounds great, is this from Trader Joe's?
Take care, safe travels and enjoy your weekend.

My name is Erika. said...

I've only had the girl scout thin mint pretzels, but the rest of your food looks so yummy. I've started that change over in food already, but now I want to go back and eat some of your late summer yummies. Happy end of the month Mae.

My name is Erika. said...

I've only had the girl scout thin mint pretzels, but the rest of your food looks so yummy. I've started that change over in food already, but now I want to go back and eat some of your late summer yummies. Happy end of the month Mae.

Jenn Jilks said...

Beautiful photos! I keep our BBQ on the back deck, and I've been know to BBQ in rain or snow!
We'll see what winter brings. I love cooking shows. Some of them!

Lori said...

Your summer dinners all look delicious. I will miss the freshness of herbs and veggies and fruits but I have some tucked away for long winter day. I'm looking forward to GBB. I hope it is a fun season.

Claudia said...

It all looks good. We don't use our outdoor grill that often. But yes on the indoor stovetop grill. What was the spice on your salmon?

anno said...

It all looks so delicious -- and that salad niçoise might inspire me to try something similar next week -- definitely food to enjoy out of doors in that beautiful garden space!

Mark Baker said...

I ate dinner not that long ago, and I'm over here drooling at your pics.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

You certainly eat very well. Far, far better than I. I can tell you both like to cook.

Joy said...

Your grilled foods look so tasty! We're hot this week, but we have some fall weather predicted so I'm looking forward to apples and pumpkin.

stacybuckeye said...

What an amazing bounty! I need to do better about cahnging my cooking to more seasonal choices.

Jinjer-The Intrepid Angeleno said...

Every single thing you have shown is in this post looks absolutely stunning and delicious! And then there's me with my bags of frozen veggies from Walmart. lol

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

Your meals look very healthy, and the pizza really caught my eye. Safe travels and enjoy the new GBBO. I am sure we will not get this one until the new year :)

gluten Free A_Z Blog said...

Everything looks so good and must be amazingly tasty using local produce. The pizza and the ratatouille are calling to me. Yum! I love the red plates and napkins for Dinner in the garden!

Sammie @ The Annoyed Thyroid said...

I love the look of those Aussie bikkies - they look exactly like the famous Australian Tim Tam biscuits - they are super yummy! It looks like you've made the most of the good weather and the summer seasonal produce - so much deliciousness!

reese said...

Oh, that all looks so good!

Still grilling away here, but our basil gave up the ghost about two weeks ago. The woman at the farmer's market has promised corn for at least two more weeks, though. Yum!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Everything looks so good. I've never tried roasting pumpkin -- we were just talking about how there are bins of them in front of every grocery store and how few of them will be turned into food! We watched the first episode of GBBs just last night and it is definitely promising. I like the new host and it seems like from that episode anyway they will be trying to get back to what made it fun at the beginning. (Last year was an embarrassment for sure.)

Unknown said...

Ah fall fruit is so wonderful, I do love plums and for some reason after 40 years of life finally realised that prunes were dehydrated plums (I realised this because the word for them is the same in French!) I finally got a loaf tin here so I'm looking forward to baking something this weekend!

Those Aussie biccies are totally Tim-tam knockoffs, perhaps a little thinner with less inner filling? I'd be so curious to try them though

have a great month~ dreams of sourdough @ http://ayearindarwin.blogspot.com

Happy Retiree's Kitchen said...

I had a smile when I saw Trader Joe emulating our Aussie Tim Tams, hope they taste half as good. Lots of yummy things in your kitchen Mae, our BBQ season is just beginning, with lots of outdoor dining. The Girl Scout thin mint pretzels interest me, I was an Aussie Girl Guide and we had special Girl Guide biscuits as fundraisers which were delicious, I never see them now unfortunately.
Pauline from Happy Retirees Kitchen
https://hapyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com