Fall Feast = Family and Lots of Food

My family loves to eat and will make up about any excuse for a get together.  My family is definitely where my love of food and cooking came from.  Not just any food though but good food that's been prepared with love.

This last weekend we had a fall feast at my parents house where we all brought seasonal fall dishes and were supposed to carve pumpkins.  Never got around to carving pumpkins though because we all jumped into the food first and kept eating.  =)

Mom made chili (my fave chili ever) and beef stew as well as apple crisp and brownies for dessert.  Deb (Jessica's MIL) brought garden fresh green beans with bacon and pearl onions.  Dad made some kind of sauerkraut dish with potatoes and sausages and not sure what else.  I didn't indulge since I'm not a fan of kraut but everyone who did like kraut and ate it seemed to enjoy it.  I contributed butternut squash soup, a fall salad, and pumpkin muffins.

 Food keeping warm on the stove: butternut squash soup, chili, which people have already been enjoying from the looks of it, and beef stew.

The butternut squash soup recipe is super simple and pretty darn tasty.  I've made it several times for different get togethers and have always had rave reviews.  You can easily halve the recipe if you aren't making it for a large crowd and I would pass on the hazelnuts.  I used them once and didn't add that much to the soup in my opinion.  I also like to add a little half-n-half or heavy cream at the end but that isn't necessary.  Make sure you thoroughly roast the squash and  use a high quality stock/broth.  I've found out they both make a difference when it comes to flavor.

 The butternut squashes after roasting

 The soup ready to dig in to

For the salad I used mixed greens, a thinly sliced apple, craisins, toasted walnuts, and feta.  You could easily substitute a pear or crumbled blue cheese or add some red onion.  It is definitely a nice change of pace when it comes to salads for this time of year.  Ryan then made me a homemade salad dressing with maple syrup and reduced apple cider.

I'm not much of a baker (but my sister is!) but during the fall and winter I do enjoy some baking and pumpkin bread/muffins are one of my fave things to make.  The pumpkin muffins I made are gluten free so you do have to have a couple of special ingredients, coconut flour and 100% maple syrup.  I also like to add golden raisins and walnuts to pumpkin bread/muffins.

Overall it was a pretty great day spent with family even if we didn't get to the pumpkins.  I was stuffed as I tried a little bit of everything (except the kraut...blech!).  The Cowboys and Chiefs also won that day so it was a happy household!  Here are a few more pics from the day.