The Leaves are Starting to Turn

Fall is fast approaching, and it puts me in mind of apples, and pumpkins, and all things fall. The changing seasons are my favorite . . . spring, when everything is coming to life and colors are starting to sprout from the ground . . . and fall when everything is going to sleep and colors are falling to the ground.

This is a wonderful time of year. A time to celebrate the harvest, and enjoy the crisp autumn air. A time to gather around bon fires with family and laugh together while roasting marshmallows. It is a time when I find myself waxing philosophical, mourning the loss of the long, lazy days of summer, but looking forward to the cozy evenings of winter in front of a fire, snuggled under a blanket and reading with the kids.

The children, of course, are looking forward to All Hallow's Eve. Right now, they are poring through costume magazines and trying to decide what they want to be. Next comes the traditional jack-o-lantern carving at our house, scooping out the pumpking guts and creating a frightening friend to light up the porch. Oh, and we always, always, always roast our pumpkin seeds. Finally, the big night comes, when they will join the other ghosts, goblins and ghouls to gather treats from the neighbors.

And at the Market the sweet, autumn smell of apples, fresh from the tree, is in the air, tempting the tastebuds and tantalizing the pallete with thoughts of warm apple crisp or apple pie, or apple custard fresh from the oven. This year, Russ has even gotten in large bins of the favorite varieties. Cortlands, Macintosh, Galas, and more, with a new variety coming in just about every week.

Speaking of apples, I can't wait until Octiber 17th when we will be holding our 4th Annual Apple Bake-off at the Market. This year, we are raising money for Camp Quality Ohio, where kids with cancer get to be kids, again. For those wonderful bakers and cooks out there, we invite you to put your best apple dish in the ring and see if yours will reign supreme this year. We will have three judges score all the dishes entered in the contest, and the three highest scoring dishes will receive prizes.

And if you don't bake, you should still plan to come out. We'll have entertainment in the Market, and once judging is complete (around 1pm) the leftover apple dishes will be available for you to try. All we ask is that you consider a donation to Camp Quality Ohio. In addition, we will be donating 5% of all sales on October 17th to Camp Quality Ohio. I hope you'll come out and join us for this wonderful event!

Now, if I could just figure out how to bottle the aroma of the Market that day . . .

THE Omelette

I'm not sure how many of you watch Russ on Conneaut AM Live with Pat Williams, but if you do, this week you saw the monster omelette he brought on to the show. I thought I would give you a glimpse of the kind of meal stretching that we do at our house.

The basis of that omelette started the night before with dinner. We wanted to have tacos, but due to a lack of hamburger or buffalo burger in the house opted for chicken tacos (don't know why we don't do this more often, I like them better then hamburger tacos anyway;).

The chicken taco 'recipe' is really easy. Here's what I do:

1. Pound the chicken breast out until they are ~1/3-1/2 inch thick all over (this helps them to cook more quickly and evenly, without drying out).

2. Sprinkle your favorite taco seasonings on the breasts (a mix of chili pepper, cilantro, salt, pepper, red pepper flake if you like it hot, is a simple combo that works great, or you can use one of those pre-fab packets).

3. Toss the seasoned chicken into a pre-heated, non-stick pan (add a little olive oil to get a nice sear) over medium-high heat and cook on each side until cooked through (about 3-5 minutes per side, depending on how thawed they are). Note that in the winter when I'm making this dish, I would heat the over to 375F and roast the prepared chicken breasts - but that's just to get some extra heat into our chilly house ;).

4. Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes, then take a couple forks and shred it into bite size pieces.

5. Return the chicken to the pan it was cooked in, add some additional taco seasoning, a couple tablespoons of corn meal (or more to taste) and enough water to make some sauce (for 4 breats, I probably added about a cup of water). Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to cook until the cornmeal is cooked and the sauce is thickened.

6. While the chicken filling is cooking, we lay out and prep all the other fixings - I usually get the kids to help with this. For our tacos, we like shredded cheese (your choice, I'm partial to the Buffalo Pepper Jack for tacos, but it is kind of warm), diced tomatoes, candy onions (sometimes I sautee them - yum), fresh salsa (I'll show you another trick when you have leftovers of this tasty stuff from the Market), black olives, shredded lettuce, jalepenos, taco sauce . . . in short, whatever you like on your tacos.

Now for my brood of seven it takes 4 chicken breast halves - two whole chicken breasts - in order to even hope to have any leftovers; and if you want the omelette in the morning, you'll need leftovers!

In the morning, pull out your favorite taco fixings left over from the night before. For the omelette Russ took on AM Live yesterday we heated up some leftover chicken filling and onions, but I've added a couple spoonfuls of salsa before, and that's a nice addition. All you have to do is heat the ingredients up, which won't take long.

Heat your non-stick skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add a little butter (I can't help it, I like the little shot of richness the butter adds to the eggs). Crack and scramble 4-6 eggs, adding salt, pepper and cilantro to taste). Once the skillet is heated, pour in the eggs, sprinkle a tablespoon of water around the edges of the pan, and cover the skillet. Let this cook until the egg is just about set on top (it will still be a little runny).

Once the egg is almost done, sprinkle shredded cheese over the egg, then spread the heated taco fixings over than, and cover the skillet. Allow this to cook until the egg is done and the cheese is melted, probably another few minutes is all it takes.

Serve with sour cream and salsa, with a little fresh cilantro as a garnish - yum!!

And as a bonus, for lunch that day, there was just enough chicken and cheese left over to make some chicken quesadillas! Triple yum out of four little chicken breasts. Now that's what I call stretching your food!

Oh, and I promised another tip with the fresh Market salsa - tired of cooking spaghettios for the kids as a snack? Try this healthy and easy alternative:

1. Cook some pasta (spaghetti, linguine, whatever you like) according to package directions, cooking only until al dante (still a little bite to the pasta). Strain the pasta.

2. In the pan you cooked the pasta in, dump some salsa (how much depends on how much pasta you made and how sausy you like it - I'm a dump kind of cook, so I'm not always real good about amounts, sorry;).

3. Add some parmesean cheese to the salsa and heat it over medium heat. Once it's heated through, add the drained pasta and toss to coat. Add salt/pepper to taste.

4. Serve with extra parmesean.

Simple, fresh, and better for you then that sodium-laden, mushy, over-cooked canned stuff.

Yep, it's all about stretching the food in our house. With seven mouths to feed, it's important. But equally important is teaching the kids that it doesn't have to come out of a can to be easy and good!

How do you stretch your food and/or food dollar? Please, share!!