For me, I start with flash freezing onions and green peppers since they are about the least expensive they'll be for the year. Dice, chop and mince the onions and some of the green peppers w/ my handy dandy food processor. Well actually the man does since down through the years we've divided kitchen duties. He cuts, I put up and cook; system works for us so there you are. As for the peppers some of them are cored and cut in half lengthwise so they can be stuffed. On this end I find that at about 10 lbs of each will last us at least thru the end of winter.Next stop is to empty the freezer of meaty carcasses and bones giving me the wherewithal to start making stocks for soups, sauces and gravies. I don't bother with vegetable stock making until October since the summer harvest is done by then in this region. 10 odd gallons of meat based stock later and it's time to make soup bases. I normally start with dried beans and progress to meat and vegetable bases thereafter. By November, I begin making stews for the freezer and once again the freezer is half way full from it's being emptied out at the start of the summer. Any bulk cooking or canning done on your end this time of year?

We camp in northern Michigan for most of October and picking apples from old apple trees in Sleeping Bear Dunes NL us our main change. Everything that I can think of that can be made with apples is on the menu. I get tired of apples before my husband does so have to try some odd combinations.

Fall cooking to me is getting out the soup pot, doing something creative with the million apples and grapes we just harvested and winter squash I love winter squash.

Will be another month for soup...warm here in Reno yet. looking forward to it though.However....The apple crop was huge and we have already made one treat with apple pies and more coming soon.

I picked more beans today. I keep saying ..this is the last of the beans, then I check ..& more beans. I got half of a Walmart bag full. Also picked a soup bowl full of cherry tomatoes & 1 large. I've frozen many qts of beans, pints of pizza sauce, veg juice, few qts of tomato ju, dehydrated 5 & 1/2# of mushrooms, and will be dehydrating apples soon. Our home store had canned veg on sale @39c. I bought 24 cans of chili beans & 12 cans of corn. Stocking up for winter. :)

Bethany Carolina wrote:I picked more beans today. I keep saying ..this is the last of the beans, then I check ..& more beans. I got half of a Walmart bag full. Also picked a soup bowl full of cherry tomatoes & 1 large. I've frozen many qts of beans, pints of pizza sauce, veg juice, few qts of tomato ju, dehydrated 5 & 1/2# of mushrooms, and will be dehydrating apples soon. Our home store had canned veg on sale @39c. I bought 24 cans of chili beans & 12 cans of corn. Stocking up for winter. :)My interest is sparked by your vegetable juice in particular. Can you share your recipe?

What Does Autumn Mean to You in the Kitchen? | Good Sam Community

WishWeWereCampi
Explorer
Sep 29, 2016
We have to turn the lights on in the kitchen earlier in the evening. Other than that, meals are all the same.
Shortie3
Explorer
Sep 26, 2016
Mainly I cook up about 5 gallons of spaghetti sauce w/meat for the freezer and 5 gallons w/o meat that I can for winter use. Also like to can apple pie filling, watermelon pickles, pickled baby corn and mountain pears if I can find them. If I score tomatoes, I freeze them and when I'm heating up a pot of spaghetti sauce, I'll throw in 2 or 3 whole ones - just seems to make the sauce taste richer. Need to pick up a new rubber ring for my pressure canner then I can put up potatoes. It's really handy to have canned potatoes on hand for soup, stew, or a myriad of breakfast dishes that call for them!

Then, it's time to winterize the houses.
GaryKH
Explorer
Sep 25, 2016
NYCgrrl wrote:
GaryKH wrote:
I've just spent the morning making butternut squash soup. Man, was it ever hard to cut up that squash! But that along with about 6-7 other vegies, cooked in a big stock pot, then put it all into our food processor, and back into the pot. It tastes & smells great!! Just in time as the weather has cooled down with a bit of a breeze blowing. Just right for some eh!

For the next time you are blessed with butternut you might try "nuking" it first:

Chatelaine Easy Peel & Cut Butternut Squash

Where was this video yesterday!! That looked too easy! Thanks for this tip.
NYCgrrl
Explorer
Sep 25, 2016
GaryKH wrote:
I've just spent the morning making butternut squash soup. Man, was it ever hard to cut up that squash! But that along with about 6-7 other vegies, cooked in a big stock pot, then put it all into our food processor, and back into the pot. It tastes & smells great!! Just in time as the weather has cooled down with a bit of a breeze blowing. Just right for some eh!

For the next time you are blessed with butternut you might try "nuking" it first:

Chatelaine Easy Peel & Cut Butternut Squash
jnharley
Explorer
Sep 24, 2016
As fulltimers, we have limited freezer and storage space. So we are picky about what we stock up on. For us, it is usually Conecuh Sausage that we can only find in the south. So when we head south for the winter, we stock up on this smoked sausage so we have plenty to last us until next winter if we can. I do love all the pumpkin and apple flavored things found in the Fall though.
GaryKH
Explorer
Sep 24, 2016
I've just spent the morning making butternut squash soup. Man, was it ever hard to cut up that squash! But that along with about 6-7 other vegies, cooked in a big stock pot, then put it all into our food processor, and back into the pot. It tastes & smells great!! Just in time as the weather has cooled down with a bit of a breeze blowing. Just right for some eh!
Steve_B_
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
I made a pot roast this week, and apple crisp. I love the fall/winter meals. Even now that I head to Florida after the holidays, I have to have my mac and cheese, beef stew, chili, chicken and dumplings and baked pastas. Then, there is the baking...
AJBert
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
Filling the freezer with fresh elk and deer meat! Along with that, making sausage from said meats.
NYCgrrl
Explorer
Sep 22, 2016
Roy&Lynne wrote:
Fall cooking to me is getting out the soup pot, doing something creative with the million apples and grapes we just harvested and winter squash I love winter squash.

Last summer the kiddos drank a lot of cold fruit soups as snacks during our 3 week camping trip. I was a little anxious (2 of 3 of em could have careers as food critics later in life) serving it to them the first time but they gulped it down just fine and asked for more. This year I'm thinking a hot apple soup should be on next summer's menu and this is the recipe I plan to play with:

Hungarian Apple Soup
Grapes can be used in a classic Costa de Sol gazpacho too.
Super_Dave
Explorer
Sep 22, 2016
It means Winter weight to me. Comfort food!

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