Celebrating, Fall, Comfort Food and Family

I awoke to a blanket of fog that had settled upon Siuslaw Valley. As it burned off over the course of the morning, the fall scenes surrounding me were magnificent. Steam from the horses nostrils melded with the rays of soft light filtering through the golden leaves of the grand old maple. 

Today is our son-in-law's birthday. So I set to work early to set a fall harvest table, which later will be filled with warm, savory dishes for a cool, fall evening celebration. I'm cooking from Donna Klein's The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen. The main entree this evening is Mushroom, Pea and Pearl Onion Pot Pie with Herbed Potato Topping on page 108, served with Warm Beet Salad with Parsley and Walnuts on page 51.

Early in the afternoon, I made a double-batch of oven-ready pot pie and had just finished making the warm beet salad when the call came. Change of plans. Our son-in-law was going to have to work later than expected at the hospital. Not a problem, we simply took dinner to their house, so it would be ready to eat when he walked in the door.  

I only made a few changes to the recipes.

There was enough vegetable broth and cream cheese in the pot pie  mixture that the skim milk was totally unnecessary, mixed together with peas and pearl onions, sauteed chopped onions, mushrooms, red pepper and fresh basil. No longer having fresh herbs available from my garden, I blended a variety of dried herbs together from my spice cupboard: marjoram, oregano, savory, tarragon and thyme to add to the potato topping.

The whole beets warmed through with vegetable broth, raspberry vinegar, scallions and coarsely chopped walnuts were delicious all by themselves, but I presented each serving on a bed of fresh greens topped with crumbled feta cheese and drizzled with a zesty raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

Locally-made, ready-to-bake bread from the natural foods grocer and bakery was hot and ready to slice and serve in ten minutes.

Effie and Dirk loved both the entree and the beet salad, rating the meal a *****.  Watching how our one year old granddaughter was gobbling her dinner down was the best compliment of all.

Our daughter served us an incredible non-alcoholic beverage she made with fresh prickly pear, lime, sugar and cinnamon.  This is not her exact recipe, but close:

2 cups cold water

1 cup ice

2 cups red prickly pears, halved, pulp and seeds scooped out (wear rubber gloves)

1/4 cup sugar, or to taste

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, or to taste

cinnamon to taste

Directions: In a blender combine all ingredients and blend on high speed until completely smooth. Pour cooler through a fine sieve into a glass pitcher. Chill cooler and stir before serving.

Effie also baked and beautifully decorated a German chocolate birthday cake for Dirk. I took a GlutenEase well in advance, realizing the temptation was going to be too great to pass on a slice of yummy homemade cake with vanilla  bean ice cream on this festive occasion.

Our family loves to get together and share in the cooking and eating of good food, always cooking more than enough to ensure that there will be leftovers. We do love our leftovers and find that they are often just as good or better the next day... with few exceptions.

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers.  The original meal has never been found."  ~Calvin Trillin