Winter dinners are here again

[chadspad]

We pretty much have roast dinner every week regardless of weather. I cant live without my roasts lol. Was thinking the other day how much Im looking forward to hearty stews and dumplings again but not just yet, its still barbie weather at the moment!

[becky3086]

I was very interested to read what you all like to eat. When I moved here to GA from the north I had to get used to a different types of food offered in the south (it was the first time I ever saw chickens feet sold in stores--and no, I have never tried them yet).
Pork roast is on sale here all the time because southern people like to make it into barbeque. Cooking a perfectly good pork roast down till it falls all apart then adding in bbq sauce is not the way I like to make pork roast so mine are all done in the oven with carrots and potatoes. I seldom get a beef roast as beef is so expensive here now and the roasts are so small but when I do get one, we love to put it in the crockpot, cook it down until is shreds with some mushrooms and onions, make a lovely brown gravy in the pot with it and serve it over mashed potatoes. The leftovers are wonderful for breakfast over eggs. We also like homemade chicken soup, beef stew, and chilli in the winter.
We also like salads in the summer as well but the meat that is king here in the south is catfish. Fish fries are popular and so is catfish stew (which I have learned how to make and it is quite good).
I work evenings so the evening meal has to be easy enough for my daughter to make. Often I make up casseroles and she just has to bake them but tonight we are having chicken fetticini alfredo. I cut up some chicken breasts that I saved from the chickens I processed this year, put it in the crockpot with the alfredo sauce. My daughter will cook the pasta.

[citizentwiglet]

Yes, Autumn is definitely here - the casserole dish has been dusted off, and we've already had three casseroles - one made with left over free-range chicken, the other two made from mixed beans. What is, however, lovely, is that - for the first year - all the vegetables apart from the spuds have come from our very own raised bed in the community garden. It makes our casserole dinners all the more special, knowing that I trudged half a mile in the pouring autumnal rain to get them!

I wish I liked Autumn. I don't. I find it a very sad season. Yes, it's beautiful, but it's like a Swansong - the year is dying. My birthday is also in the Autumn, and I like it even less the closer I get to 40.....

[Millymollymandy]

I agree with you CT about autumn.

[Odsox]

No I don't, I like all seasons in their turn and autumn is one of my favourites. Possibly because I like winter and autumn is the winding down season, hectic to start with but getting slower as the season progresses until winter comes and I can have a bit of a rest and do all the things I promised myself but didn't get time.
Plus what I really like is the smugness that comes with having a larder full of stored produce, a freezer bursting with veg and a shed with a couple of hundredweight sacks of spuds, not to mention squash, and knowing whatever happens in the world that we can at least be well fed.

[bonniethomas06]

No I don't, I like all seasons in their turn and autumn is one of my favourites. Possibly because I like winter and autumn is the winding down season, hectic to start with but getting slower as the season progresses until winter comes and I can have a bit of a rest and do all the things I promised myself but didn't get time.
Plus what I really like is the smugness that comes with having a larder full of stored produce, a freezer bursting with veg and a shed with a couple of hundredweight sacks of spuds, not to mention squash, and knowing whatever happens in the world that we can at least be well fed.

I agree, I LOVE autumn - the colours, the fact it is not too hot but not too cold, the wooly jumpers and tights, the nice warm leather boots, the chopping wood and log fires, the fact that they put the decent programmes back on the telly, the clearing out the house and making it comfy for winter, the fact I don't have to do any bbq's (massive anticlimax every time) any more, no more mowing grass, a time for quiet reflection and not feeling guilty for not being out in the garden. Christmas on the way, lentils, soup, red wine, carbs. Also having a fresh new year around the corner to look forward to.

Bring it on!

[Millymollymandy]

And all the hunters out yahooing and constant rifle shots disturbing our peace and quiet and barking dogs and parping horns..... worrying about my ducks and chooks and cat all the time, not to mention people's horses and livestock. And then the farmers/hunters cut down all the trees or at least all their side branches and make the landscape look horrendous, and when the sound of the hunting has stopped about end of January it's chain saw city round here so no peace for the wicked then either. Yet we are not allowed to make any noise on a Sunday by mowing or using power tools ourselves!

No thanks give me spring any day of the year!

[Odsox]

And all the hunters out yahooing and constant rifle shots disturbing our peace and quiet and barking dogs and parping horns..... worrying about my ducks and chooks and cat all the time, not to mention people's horses and livestock. And then the farmers/hunters cut down all the trees or at least all their side branches and make the landscape look horrendous, and when the sound of the hunting has stopped about end of January it's chain saw city round here so no peace for the wicked then either. Yet we are not allowed to make any noise on a Sunday by mowing or using power tools ourselves!

Well that has to be self inflicted cos you're living in the wrong country

That's another one of the things I like about winter ... all the Bla$ted tourist have gone home and left us with peace and quiet, and no more worries about driving round a bend and finding one of your neighbours coming at you on the wrong side of the road

[Green Aura]

all the Bla$ted tourist have gone home and left us with peace and quiet

Amen to that, Tony. Bliss.

[Millymollymandy]

Why would your neighbours be coming from the wrong side of the road but not in winter?

The old biddy here who drives one of those little cars which you don't need a driving licence for comes at us on the wrong side of the road, whilst merrily looking out of the window not where she is driving. Any time of the year!

We don't have tourists where I live either.

[Odsox]

Why would your neighbours be coming from the wrong side of the road but not in winter?

No no no, one of YOUR froggy neighbours, out of all the European tourists we get here, only the French seem arrogant enough to think they have the right of way on the wrong side of our roads.

[Millymollymandy]

ha ha - no you're wrong, Keith and I have driven on the wrong side of the road in England and we're not froggies. It was a genuine mistake though - had managed fine on all the main roads then turned into brother in law's quiet little road and wondered why some stupid English person was driving on the wrong side of the road towards us.....

[Masco&Bongo]

And all the hunters out yahooing and constant rifle shots disturbing our peace and quiet and barking dogs and parping horns..... worrying about my ducks and chooks and cat all the time, not to mention people's horses and livestock. And then the farmers/hunters cut down all the trees or at least all their side branches and make the landscape look horrendous, and when the sound of the hunting has stopped about end of January it's chain saw city round here so no peace for the wicked then either. Yet we are not allowed to make any noise on a Sunday by mowing or using power tools ourselves!

Well that has to be self inflicted cos you're living in the wrong country

That's another one of the things I like about winter ... all the Bla$ted tourist have gone home and left us with peace and quiet, and no more worries about driving round a bend and finding one of your neighbours coming at you on the wrong side of the road

[Milims]

I just made a mustard, sausage and apple tart with seasonal vegetable rosties, followed by apple sauce and custard - yummy and totally wintry!

[Millymollymandy]

Did you forget to comment, M&B?

I had the last of my sweetcorn last night boo hoo, such a short season and it all comes at once! The chooks are really happy cos they've had a cob between them every day this last week and have got about 8 more (the tough chewy ones).

I can't cook any winter dinners cos the only veg I've got to go with them is lettuce and lots of other salady things.