Favorite Fall Recipes

I love fall cooking and baking. I think it’s because after a long, hot summer I’m ready to get back in the kitchen and am feeling inspired. Fall here in Nanjing isn’t much of a fall - it pretty much goes straight from summer to winter. One October day it’s hot and you are sweating, then all of sudden, the next day you need to wear socks indoors and you have turned on your heat. 

I have lots of favorite fall recipes. Steven loves pumpkin. I mean, he really, really loves pumpkin. Like, when he was growing up he used to eat a whole pumpkin pie for dinner. So, I make a lot of meals out of pumpkin and I get my bake on. Plus, fall means the holidays are coming and lots of these recipes speak family and comfort to me. 

Without further rambling, in no particular order, my favorite fall recipes. Enjoy! And if you have a favorite to add, please share in the comments. I love getting new recipes from friends!

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

This is usually the first recipe that heralds in all the pumpkin baking. Steven goes crazy for these cookies. I got my recipe from a friend at work (see, love new recipes from friends!), but the link is to a very similar version. I’ve played around with the spices and usually add a pinch of nutmeg and ground cloves as well. Also, my recipe calls for butter, not oil. You could probably substitute applesauce as well. 

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta

From one of my favorite bloggers, this pasta recipe is so easy to make and easy to tweak to your tastes! I usually add chicken stock to thin the sauce depending on the noodle I decide to use and sometimes I even throw in some whipping cream at the end to make it a little more smooth and rich (not like it needs it, but I love whipping cream!). Don’t skimp on the sage leaves, they add a great depth to this dish. 

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

This is by far my favorite fall soup. It’s amazing. It is Martha and she does know how to do a good soup! I’ve substituted butternut squash for the pumpkin with the same amazing results. The shiitake mushrooms add a little kick and the color of this soup is gorgeous. Steven likes it a little chunky so I usually puree it in two batches, first batch includes all the veggies and half the pumpkin pureed until totally smooth.  The second batch is the rest of the pumpkin pureed a little thicker to leave some chunks. It’s so delicious. Pair it with a toasted baguette and you are in pumpkin-fall heaven!

Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds (no photo, sorry!)

Another Martha recipe. I love this take on your traditional roasted seeds. Large pumpkins don’t exist in China like they do in the States, so I actually buy pumpkin seeds in bulk already dried. I know, kind of like cheating. But hey, it works! 

Fresh Apple Cake

Have you heard of Iowa Girl Eats? A great food blog! And she recently started going gluten free, so if you are needing some GF inspiration she’s got you covered. This Fresh Apple Cake is one of my all time favs (before she started her GF diet). It’s so scrumptious. This cake is also not too sweet, so all my Chinese friends love it. It’s a great cake to bring to a potluck!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

I have no idea how I found this recipe, probably Pinterest. It’s ridiculous. As in, ridiculously good. Steven requests it every fall. I can only make it once a year because I feel so guilty when I eat it. And cream cheese is expensive in China! But these bars are totally worth it (both on the budget and the waistline). 

Slow Cooker Tuscan Chicken Stew

A new favorite soup recipe, I recently found this and love it! I got a slow cooker this summer and since summer is not the time for cooking (at least for me - I dread being in the kitchen in summer) I finally got it out. This stew is excellent. We served it over brown rice, but you could use any grain if you wanted - or serve it as is! Goes great with fresh bread. Yum!

Cheeseburger Soup

A Taste of Home oldie-but-goodie. I’ve been making this for years. A great, flavorful comfort soup that will warm you up from the inside-out on those crisp and cool fall nights! 

Celebrating Thanksgiving Overseas

It's hard to find turkeys in China, but Taobao makes it easier.  Taobao is like eBay or Amazon in that individuals and businesses can sell items through their platform (each has their own storefront).  And fortunately for us, one of those items is imported foods.  Like turkey!  This year we went with two Norbest turkeys and they showed up at my door less than 24 hours after I placed my order.  Shipping in China amazes me.  

My friend and I modeling the new double oven and occupants. :-)*

So, my friend and I tackled cooking the turkeys.  Neither of us had cooked a turkey before, but armed with a lot of confidence and Martha Stewart recipes, we jumped right in.  It was a total success!  Surprising, right?  Since we were hosting at our house, we cooked the turkeys here to save time transporting them and such.  Well, our teeny oven could barely hold one turkey so I borrowed another one.  My new double oven was more than adequate for the task!  It was a bit tricky basting the bird in the top oven, but we quickly learned that tag teaming was the way to go.  I will interject here that the next day my biceps were very sore.  We got our workout in lifting those turkeys in and out!

The football participants (and Samson - they needed a sixth man)*

We made a whole day of Thanksgiving.  Activities focused on thankfulness (or "thanksgivities" as they were dubbed) were shared throughout the day to bring our attention to being thankful.  We started with lunch, followed by some football for the boys and then topped it all off with some of the best tasting food I have had in awhile.  Last year, I made the green bean casserole from scratch.  It was time consuming and I had to remake the fried onions (yes, you can make your own!).  This year, a friend of ours who parents were visiting brought in the necessary components for a green bean casserole.  Canned foods baked in a casserole dish never tasted so good.  

"Brian" the brined turkey*

"Chester" the cheese clothed turkey (see Martha's recipe)*

Rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn casserole, salad and Beijing duck finished off the menu. We didn't have enough plates, glasses or silverware, but friends willingly donated their wares to adorn the table in a mismatched fashion that worked out pretty well.  The tablecloth I found on Taobao (I tell you that site is amazing).  Thankfulness abounded as we sat around and shared food, smiles and warm conversation.  Dessert was readily accepted and three hours after carving up Brian and Chester (yes, we named the birds), people slowly and sluggishly pushed themselves away from the table.  

The table setting - red plates over here, purple over there :-)*

Enjoying ourselves*

I'm so thankful for this community of friends we were able to share this Thanksgiving with!  It was an amazing day and as we sat and shared in the meal, my heart was happy.  God has blessed us so much in this foreign land - even giving us turkey!  We have a lot to be thankful for. 

Turkey coma!*

*All photos courtesy of Taylor 

Christmas Party Time

Last night, on the eve of Christmas eve, we hosted a Christmas party for our friends, new and old.  It was an evening filled with laughter and food - lots of food!  I think we made enough cookies to feed an entire city block (especially in China, they're not too keen on sweets).  

After everyone arrived, we gathered around for a gift exchange game that the Hubby played growing up.  It is all sorts of craziness.  Dice are passed around (we played with three sets), and every time someone rolls doubles, they get a gift and they get to roll again.  After all the gifts in the middle are opened, we went around the circle to share so everyone could see the goods obtained, and then the Hubby set the timer for 15 minutes during which you could steal someone else's gifts every time you rolled doubles.  It got a little physical. :-) At the end of the 15 minutes, some people had 5 or 6 gifts, some had none.  Everyone without a gift stole from anyone with 2 or more gifts.  The best part?  There's no limit to the amount of times a gift can be stolen!  Oh yeah, it got real. 

There had to be a disclaimer that the baby was NOT part of the gift exchange.  

"What? A whoopee cushion? I want that..."

After the game, we read the Christmas story combining the gospels of Luke and Matthew along with Old Testament prophecy proclaiming the coming of the Messiah.  

And then our friend got out a guitar and led us in some pretty awesome Christmas carols (if I do say so myself).  It was amazing.  Since we do live in China, we also sang Silent Night in Chinese.  There is something special about worshipping God and celebrating Christ's birth in two languages.

It felt like a true celebration of Christmas.  This time of year is hard for us to be away from all our family and friends back home, but we are thankful for the relationships and new traditions we get to make on this side of the ocean.  

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior!  It is such a meaningful time of year.  May the Lord bless you and may the Light of the season shine in your hearts, your homes and bring you joy throughout the year to come!

Food: What I've been making

**UPDATE 10/15 - Links added in for ones I have!**

**I was going to add links to all these recipes, however our Internet is running super slow and so you are lucky you all got the link for the first one. Boo. Sorry! If it gets better in the next few days I will add the rest of them in. If you have links to any of these recipes, please leave them in the comments! Thanks.**

Yes, I thought it was time for a post about food. With all the changes in what is readily available, I've had to remake my "go to" meal list. Not a bad thing, but definitely time consuming. These days, I've taken to Pinterest to help me find simple dinners & desserts - and it has not disappointed (though I have yet to try most of those). Here's a rundown of the successful & not-so-successful recipes I've attempted...

Cheeseburger Soup. Or otherwise known as the-most-expensive-soup-I've-ever-made. Why? At the time I made this (just over 10 days in), I still hadn't found the best place to buy hamburger and ended up paying almost $10 for one pound. Yikes! Add to that, $5 for 8oz of cheese and $3 celery and you have one expensive recipe. However, I am willing to forgive myself because 1) I was desperate to make something I knew & loved and 2) it turned out excellent. 

Pasta. Seriously the easiest meal to make here. Penne and spaghetti are cheap & I can get a large can of Hunts or Del Monte pasta sauce for around $3. Just throw in some sautéed veggies & hamburger (no longer the expensive kind thankfully) and you have a meal! Sides for this have included garlic sautéed bok choy, bread, steamed asparagus, and corn on the cob. The corn was excellent, but it has since went out of season (I think, because I haven't seen it for a few weeks). However, just yesterday we found asparagus and I know there's no way that is in season here locally...so, not sure how that works.

Speaking of veggies, I buy most of mine from the supermarket (because when I'm there on the second milk run for the week it's fast and easy). However, the last few weeks I have started going around the corner to a couple of fruit & veggies stands/trucks that sell great stuff. I had to go to several different places to get exactly what I needed, but it was good produce. 

Let's see...what else...

Stewed tomatoes. Yup, I did stew my own tomatoes. Which is much cheaper than paying $4 a can. I actually have about 25 tomatoes in the fridge waiting to be stewed. I need to get on that!

Pasta casserole. Did I say pasta was easy? Well I used some of the aforementioned stewed tomatoes, some butternut squash (at least I'm pretty sure that's what is was), some onions & mushrooms and made a GIANT casserole that fed us for five days (at least). This was a "go to" in the states, however usually I use zucchini & brussel sprouts. I could not find either, so I swapped for the mushrooms & butternut squash. It worked perfectly. 

Taco salad. So easy. There's an amazing import store in Shanghai called City Shop & they deliver to Nanjing on Fridays. I got a big container of fresh greens from them for $1.50 (like two of the pre washed salads you buy packaged in the states) & found decent tortilla chips at Carrefour.  Add in a jar of salsa from City Shop and taco meat (I brought over my own seasoning) and voila - awesome taco salads. Delish.

Apple cake. It just sounds good. So yummy. I got "green" apples from the market (I don't think they were Granny Smiths, they weren't sour enough) and whipped up a yummy loaf of apple cake. It was so good! I didn't have vegetable oil & the recipe called for applesauce, so I also made applesauce and used it to also substitute for the oil. Making the applesauce was also easy. Just peeled, cored & chopped the apple and cooked it on the stove with some sugar and water and then mashed it up. Simple! Who knew? Although I was a little disappointed mine looked more brown than the yellow I saw in all the pictures of homemade applesauce on Pinterest. The cake was a huge hit with everyone. Even our Chinese friends loved it!

Meatloaf. Yup, another "go to" in the states. This one I only substituted the type of BBQ sauce I use (yes, I put BBQ sauce in my meatloaf). It was a little runny, but tasted excellent. 

Orzo with Parmesan & Basil. I think this is the Hubby's favorite side dish. It's just so yummy! I was excited to find that City Shop had orzo & I found a block of Parmesan at an import store. So happy to find Parmesan cheese! 

Cookies. So far I've made no-bake cookies & the amazing Wallace cookie.  No-bake was an easy choice before I had an oven. The Wallace cookie was made possible by a local friend having butterscotch chips at her bakery! Yay! 

So there you have it, a little run down on the yummy foods we have been eating over here. I feel like we hit our stride a few weeks ago making life a little less chaotic and cooking a little more feasible. I'm so thankful for all the helpful friends who have advised where to find things and what to look for.  There are also a few helpful blogs that have aided me so far. 

Oh, and another blessing - we got a free oven! Ok, we're just borrowing it, indefinitely. One of our friends here knew a family that went back home to the states and let her keep their oven "until they return". She doesn't use it (she's Chinese, they don't really bake) and so offered for us to have it. I'm not sure when her friends are coming back, but it sounds like they left awhile ago. The bonus is that it is the biggest size you can get here, almost full sized (one large cookie sheet fits snugly side-to-side). Extra blessing! 

Chinglish Monday #3

I missed last week, but this should make up for it!

Francebeef!  One word or two?  "Beef" isn't even in the characters at the bottom of the circle.  They are the characters for the countries - Germany, Italy, USA & France (not quite in that order).  Where did it come from?  Is France always associated with beef?  Maybe it's a special dish...thoughts?  Conjectures?  

**We did not eat at this restaurant, but not because they had a mistranslated sign...**