outtakes, march

back deck sunshine and shadows and Guinness | sea salted chocolate chip cookies | a great bottle of red wine, Langhe Nebbiolo | roast chicken on Easter 

Fall Comfort Foods

Here are a few of my favorite weeknight meals inspired by brussels sprouts, the fall season, cranberries, maple syrup, local bloggers, sage and pumpkin.

Sometimes the most satisfying dinnertime meal is a plate of roasted vegetables. Easy prep, easy bake, easy clean.Besides the ease of all steps involved, I feel super healthy after eating a big ol' plate of them! And as the central focus of the meal, rather than a typical side, I seem to appreciate them that much more.

No vegetable makes me happier than roasted brussels sprouts. I toss them in a generous amount of olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them on a foil lined baking sheet. Into a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes until a golden caramelized exterior begins to form.

The baked sweet potato needs 45 minutes to an hour in the oven. Once cooled, I topped the halves with a light, creamy Maple Sage Yogurt.

The simple preparation courtesy of We Are Not Martha mixes 6 oz of Greek yogurt with 1.5 tablespoons of pure maple syrup and a tablespoon of finely chopped sage. It's a delicious component that livens up and lightens up a meal of hearty roasted vegetables.

The ultimate seasonal comfort food proves to be a Pumpkin Macaroni & Cheese. I borrowed this recipe from The Small Boston Kitchen.Coarse breadcrumbs incorporated with sage top a creamy cheddar, gouda and goat cheese blend using whole milk and lots of butter, a can of pumpkin puree (the original recipe used fresh), onions, spices and a tablespoon of grainy mustard. All of it gets baked until golden brown and yields plenty of velvety pumpkin meets gooey cheese goodness; with lots of leftovers to boot. Back to brussels sprouts real quick, this time they get sautéed and coated in a Maple Dijon Dressing and studded with a few extra components! I spotted this dish last season on Delicious Dishings and have made it once before. The sweet and savory dressing is really tasty. I put my own twist on the coveted green veggie: buttery egg noodles, toasted pecans for a textural crunch and dried cranberries which lend a tart sweetness. The second installment of fall cooking here on III is nothing without dessert! I made Butterscotch & Cranberry Blondies after I spotted the recipe on A Cambridge Story, originally adapted from Cooks Illustrated, Fall Entertaining. The mix calls for a truckload of butter, as in 12 tablespoons of it - which I took the liberty of reducing to 10! These are ridiculously buttery and indulgent even so. The dried cranberries make another appearance, giving a tart and juicy complex to the blondies, while the real start is the sweet butterscotch chips. True comfort is evoked in each and every bite. I absolutely love fall foods!!

Fall Recipes & Pumpkin Beers

As I make my way back into the kitchen I have been delightfully borrowing recipes from around the blogosphere. Here is a look at my foray into fall cuisine and the seasonal craft beers that have accompanied the dishes.

Click on the links for the step by step recipes!

Cake Batter and Bowl's BBQ Chicken & Cheddar Baked Potatoes with corn and roasted red peppers.

I made these awhile back when the weather was still warm, saying good bye to late summer corn before diving into the world of root vegetables. While the potato bakes the chicken is poached, shredded and mixed in your favorite BBQ sauce. The extracted baked potato flesh is combined with butter, corn and roasted red pepper and scooped back into the potato skins before getting loaded with the BBQ chicken and some fresh grated sharp cheddar cheese.

These are hearty and filling, proving a fantastic way to spice up your regular old twice baked potato. Alongside I drank Sixpoint Sweet Action, a beer I had been enjoying throughout the summer. This dynamic golden amber colored ale is brewed in Brooklyn, NY. The sweetness is lent from the barely malts. The action is lent from the hops, a bitter spice that brushes your palate clean after every sip.

Delicious Dishing's Butternut Squash Soup with brown butter, sage, cayenne and blue cheese.

The soup is made with roasted and sautéed squash, as well as leeks, carrots, onions, shallots and garlic. Filling, hearty, sweet, savory and spicy, I can't think of anything more you could want from a cold weather soup. Actually, the weather is not what I would describe as cold quite yet, the days are seeing beautifully crisp fall temperatures, but perfect for soups none the less.I did make one small change to Megan's recipe; I substituted the 2 tablespoons of honey for maple syrup. I also used a bit more cayenne pepper for an extra kick. The soft pungent sage and the sharp creamy blue cheese crumbles are ideal garnishes for lending even more contrast to the deeply flavorful soup.

From Cambridge Brewing Company, The Great Pumpkin Ale is now being sold in the bottle for the first time in 22 years of brewing! It's an unfiltered ale brewed with locally grown organic sugar pumpkins.

The pumpkin flavor is subtle but fresh, enhanced by autumnal spices. While I generally crave powerful flavors of sweet pumpkin in my pumpkin beer, (hello Shipyard Pumpkin/see below!) this brew was a nice contrast in general and a pretty perfect pairing with the soup.

Beantown Baker's Balsamic Roasted Vegetables

I used Jen's recipe as inspiration for the vegetables I had on hand. I adjusted the original recipe by adding olive oil, opening one of my California Olive Ranch bottles provided at the tasting dinner I attended a couple weeks ago. It is pretty amazing what a high quality olive oil can do for your food; I'm a big fan of their product.

Here is what's in the mix:

- 1 potato

- 1 sweet potato

- 1/2 butternut squash

- 3 beets

- 6 garlic cloves

- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

- 1/4 cup olive oil

- salt and pepper

I tossed the evenly chopped vegetables and whole garlic cloves in a large bowl with the balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted on a tin foil lined baking sheet at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. This made enough for a hearty side dish for two, with a small amount of leftovers that Adam heated up the next morning and served for breakfast, homefry style with egg sandwiches. I decided to pair the vegetables with Shipyard Brewery Smashed Pumpkin Ale. Not to be confused with Pumpkinhead, but make no mistake, I've been drinking that like it's going out of style (oh wait, it is...) Smashed Pumpkin is an energetic, full bodied pumpkin ale, with a light coppery orange color and nutmeg aromatics. The natural pumpkin tannins are vigorous, playing off the vegetables sweet roasted flavors, one doesn't tend to overpower the other. The spiciness of the hops also lends balanced flavor to the ale.

What's all these savory fall foods and brews without a pumpkin dessert?!

Eat Live Run's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies are a breeze to make. You don't even need an electric mixer or anything fancy - even the buttercream frosting can be mixed by hand.
I would like to call mine Artisan Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, due to the fact that I have no skill when it comes to piping batter or frosting. I take comfort in the fact that I can haphazardly spoon batter on a pan, yielding varied shapes and size pies, that will all taste the same!These morsels are moist and fluffy with bright pumpkin flavor and rich spices sandwiching sweet, creamy frosting. They impressed Adam, delighted my co workers, and gave me a good excuse to use my recently obtained Silpats.

If you have a recipe for fall that I absolutely must make, please don't hesitate to share! And then go bake these whoopie pies!!!

Geoff + Drew's | Gourmet Cookies

I am about to proclaim a bold statement. Take my word and read on, there might even be something in it for you!

Geoff & Drew's is a local gourmet cookie and brownie company bakes hands down some of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. On a frigid Thursday evening I gathered with 1o other bloggers and Chief Cookie Girl/President Carol Spickler at Clover Food Lab in Harvard Square to taste the award winning "Tiffany" or "Rolex" of cookies.Conceptualized in 2001 as "Late Night Cookies" Carol and her two best friends, Geoff and Drew offered a cookie & milk delivery service to Boston residents, catering largely to the college student population. Renamed to Geoff & Drew's in 2003 they've put their heart and and soul into the company, baking cookies ever since. They gained popularity after a spread in Gourmet Magazine and much notoriety including writes ups in the NY and LA Times and a stint on the Today Show. Cookies this good deserve to be nationally recognized and I'm telling you they live up to the hype. The company headquarters is based in Malden, MA where they pride themselves on being not just a bakery, but a high quality gift company. You will not find these cookies sold in grocery store chains or retail of any type. Geoff & Drew's maintains freshly baked to order goods that come packaged in charming gift boxes. They were un-packaged before our very eyes to taste to our hearts content. The Brownie types range from their signature chocolate, to mini M&M's, to a toffee brownie, to a unanimous crowd pleaser: the peppermint brownie. Gooey fudge wrapped around a thick mound of soft peppermint, we could barely contain our excitement. But the real star of this show were the cookies. Slightly crunchy on the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, sweet uninterrupted flavors of gourmet chocolates, buttery goodness and pure bourbon vanilla delighted. Sheer bliss comes in the form of the White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie, followed by a sinfully delicious Double Fudge Chunk. The cookies embody a freshness and quality that surpass any cookie I have tasted as of late. I've decided I need to order more stat and keep a gift-to-myself-box in reach at all times.
I washed my cookies down with Clover's Hot Mulled Cider. I know milk would have probably been better suited, but this was perfect considering the 25* temperatures outside left a lingering chill.Elizabeth was smart to organize the event at Clover (the vegan food truck turned brick and mortar) as it provided a relaxed and bright setting where we were able to sprawl out at the large communal table. We enjoyed our cookies next to a tree that the owner actually cut down himself at a local New England Christmas tree farm.
To get in on the cookie action yourself, purchase a last minute gift, or forgo your own version of baked goods at the office holiday party, Geoff & Drew's is offering my readers 20% off using code BLOG20. See, told you there was something in it for you!

Geoff & Drew's: Baking People Happy