In between all the other things that I am baking — whoo hoo Cookie Madness! — I need to keep my sourdough starter in tip top shape, so I made a new variation on the weekly sourdough experiment: Sourdough Maple Pecan Harvest Bread. A little nutty, a little maple-y and definitely a good choice for breakfast and bread pudding. Very New England autumn inspired.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving! Long time followers will know that I often make a few things ahead of the big foodie holiday. I also typically try a riff on your standard cranberry sauce. This year,I found some fantastic italian plums at their peek so I frozen them to add to this Plum Pear and Cranberry Chutney. It’s delicious, and while it doesn’t take very long to make, it’s nice to have it ticked off the list. Should stay good in the ridge until Christmas, if you don’t eat it all at Thanksgiving.
It’s about this time of year that I start making some foodie things that can also double as stocking stuffers. This year, I decided to make seasoned salts. The Herb one and the Lemon one were really quite simple; the tomato one took a little more effort, but is well worth it, as it has a surprising amount of tomato flavor.
The colors of these will fade within a few weeks, but the herby flavor and aroma will remain intact for much longer. There is no shelf-life limit, and this can be kept indefinitely. I use these as a finishing salts, meaning it’s used to season cooked food at the table; however, they can also be used in place of regular salt in any recipe preparation.
When in doubt, there is always a new type of crumble bars to try! This time, I went with a great combination of autumn flavors: figs and ginger. For those who don’t know, I absolutely love figs. I even have a Pinterest Board called “Getting Figgy with it”. 🙂 Anyway, figs and ginger, a buttery vanilla base and a few walnuts to top it off. Super yummy.
