Fall

No, this is not a picture of a sea anemone. It's spaghetti squash. And though my mom doesn't like it, she makes it all the time for my dad since it's his favorite type of squash. Her favorite, by the way, is buttercup. I know this because the three of us have the same conversation every year as if it's a revelation:

Dad: "What did you buy at the farmers' market this week?"

Me: "Some butternut squash."

Mom: "Ooh, yeah? I love butternut squash. But you know what's even better? Buttercup. You should try it."

Me: "Yeah, Mom, I have tried it, but I don't like it as much as butternut."

Mom: "How could you not like buttercup squash?!"

Dad: "You know what the best squash is? Spaghetti squash. Your mother makes it with tomato sauce and cheese. Oh, I love it like that. You should try it."

One night last week Jeff came home from work and handed me a bag from his clinic. I thought, "Yes! More free anti-wrinkle cream!" (Having a dermatologist as a husband does have its advantages). When I peeked inside the bag, however, I discovered something even better than antioxidant cream: a dozen plump, brilliant green figs that were beginning to split from ripeness. "Wow! Where did you get the fresh figs?" I asked. "Adel gave them to me from the tree in her yard," he said.

Adel, who works with Jeff, told him, "Last year my tree produced three figs. One for me, one for my husband, and one for the birds." Fortunately she's having a bumper crop this season, and we're two of the lucky beneficiaries.

To celebrate fall's arrival, I'm sharing a recipe for Dessert Risotto with Wine Poached Figs. Arborio rice, which is used to make risotto, makes the most luxurious rice pudding imaginable: it's plump, tender, and creamy. Topping it with perfumed, wine-poached figs adds elegance and sweetness, resulting in a remarkably velvety, rich pudding.

Do you remember how a peanut butter sandwich always tasted better when your mom made it? Just a couple of slices of bread sandwiching peanut butter. I’d make my own sandwich and it just never tasted as good as the one mom made for me.

Well, that’s what happened with the beets I pickled yesterday. They taste fine, but just not the same as the beets my mom or my mother-in-law used to make. Since I didn’t have a recipe from my mother-in-law, I looked in my mom’s recipe file and found the one she must have used. Although she cheated just a bit and used beets in a can from the grocery store, I used the recipe for the brine she made.

The beets I cooked, peeled and heated in a brine were fresh from the farmers’ market. Just as I remembered from the time my mother-in-law showed me how to make pickled beets, my hands were stained a pretty shade of red by the time I was finished peeling the beets.

Who thought reduced calorie pumpkin bread could be so good? Well, I'm hear to tell you it is. Aren't you lucky? Anyway, my bestie's mama, Sharon (Hi Sharon!) tweaked up a recipe and came up with this little gem (I tweaked it a tad bit more as well). Anyway, it's moist, it's pumpkin-ee and a perfect fix with coffee.

So here's the thing, I was looking at nutritional information for regular, full-calorie pumpkin bread and it averages about 179 calories per slice. Now, they consider one slice to be 1 ounce in terms of weight. I can tell you right now that no one ever cuts a 1 ounce slice of pumpkin bread and considers that a serving. It's minuscule and definitely wouldn't hold a slab of butter. This means that a regular slice, one that you would just normally cut and looks like "normal size" weighs about 2.4 ounces (based on a 12 serving loaf made in an 8 x 4 pan). So one slice of regular pumpkin bread is about 429 calories. OUCH!

So this lovely recipe will cut your calories in half, coming in at only 228 calories per 2.4 ounce slice.  That's a huge savings.  Now, since you are saving so many calories, you can slather on the butter..he-he. Or cream cheese, or...or...