11 Great Dishes for Fall

Living in the North, where we have real seasons, fall is a treasure.  As the leaves begin to change color the shorter days and longer nights, get us ready for the long winter ahead and are a reminder that the salads of summer are about to be replaced with the soups and stews of winter.

Fall is also harvest time; it’s when the farmers markets overflow with piles of sweet corn and colorful squashes are stacked around the booths.  Fall is when gardeners better than us start to can the hard work of summer and when it’s cool enough to get back into the kitchen and use the oven again.

For us, great fall recipes are like the season, with one hand holding on to summer and the other guarding against winter.

Early Fall Dishes – Shouldn’t We Be Outside Right Now

Our favorite early fall dishes are best cooked and eaten outside.  These dishes are for warm September days when the sun gets lazy and starts to knock off work before you leave the office.

This time of year is all about corn, everywhere you go someone is selling sweet corn from a roadside stand.  One of our favorite corn dishes is Creamed Corn – seriously, we’re not talking about the crappy cream corn from cans that is an abomination against nature.

We are talking about homemade creamed corn that has an amazing deep corn flavor and creamy texture that you can only get from using fresh corn on the cob.  We are so sure you’ll like it that it would have a money back guarantee – if we had the kind of relationship where you gave us money for creamed corn.

When the grill gives you that longing look that says “come on, it’s getting dark, can’t you turn me on one more time;” break out Simple Grilled BBQ Chicken.  In a little over thirty minutes, you can have the best chicken you’ve had all summer and make your grill happy.

If you’re looking for something special for friends, try our Apple Cider Smoked Pork Shoulder and Grilled Sweet Potatoes.  The apple cider vinegar brine in the pork and the maple syrup in the sweet potatoes are amazing together and really bring out the flavors of fall.

Hello Winter – Can I Have Another Couple of Weeks

When the wind starts whistling through the trees, and you can feel winter starting to unpack in the guest room, it’s time to come inside, unwind with a Classic Old Fashioned, and make heartier dishes.  The dishes we like to eat when it starts being cold all day are the ones you can put on in the morning and leave on the stove as you’re working outside.

A couple of our favorites are Buffalo Stew with Poblano Peppers and Sweet Corn and Bacon Pasta.  These dishes are built for fall.

We also like to serve Smoked Roast Beef and Grits with Smoked Gouda.  These grits have the right combination of flavors to compliment the deep, rich smoke flavor from the tender roast beef.

Hey It’s Cool Enough to Turn on the Oven – Let’s Bake 

Summer is not for bakers, there’s something depressing about spending all day in a hot kitchen when you can fry an egg on the pavement outside.  Good baking requires patience and time, two things we’re always short of in the summer.

When our oven starts to come back to life around the second week of September, we like to make desserts that we can share with friends.  Two of our favorites are Bourbon Apple Bread Pudding and Apple Crisp, these desserts are best with freshly picked apples.

Whether you live somewhere with seasons or not, we hope you’ll take some time to try a few of our favorite fall dishes.