Door Number 8: Other Good Eats This Month

Yep, November equals turkey: smelling it as it roasts ... sitting down with family, plates heaped high ... making turkey sandwiches with the left-overs ... sticking the bones into a big pot and concocting soup.

But. Besides turkey, November presents us with pretty good eating the rest of the month, too. Take winter squashes. Butternut, acorn, delicata. They're wonderful baked with a little butter and dollop of hot pepper jelly. I'm not a hot-food fan, but pepper jelly works magic. It's also fabulous when you sauté carrots or thinly sliced red cabbage. I heat a little olive oil in an already hot(ish) pan, drop in the veggies, stir, add a dash of water, put on the lid, shake the pan, let the whole thing steam/sauté, then mix in a spoonful of pepper jelly. Soon, with a lid, it can be turned off to finish in a gentler fashion.

The carrots right now are perfect.

Leeks and potatoes are good now, too, and go together beautifully to make a delicious warming soup ... with a little grated cheese on top or a splash of half-and-half.

Then, too, I've come up with a really tasty meatloaf. The secret is to mix ground pork with ground beef. (You can even remove the casing from sausage and put that in.) Here's how I make it. Sauté diced onions and celery. Add them to the meat along with one egg, some tomato sauce or bits of diced tomato (if canned, keep the juice for another dish), bread crumbs, oregano flakes, salt and pepper. Or any other herbs that look good--chives, parsley, thyme... Then, get in there and mix it with your hands. Nothing else does as good a job. Spoon it onto an oiled baking dish, form it into a nice shape, and bake for an hour at maybe 385º. Let rest 10 minutes.

Here's a slice next day, heated up as left-overs.

So, we have soup, veggie, and meat loaf. A good carrot cake would be perfect for dessert. Or gingerbread. I don't have recipes that I can copy here, but they're easy to find.

And for drinks? I have two excellent ideas. One is a good mulled wine. Again, there are recipes galore, but, basically, you need a bottle of a nice red, a sweetener (honey, sugar), brandy (or a fruit juice substitute), an orange, and whatever spices seem appealing--cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, nutmeg, ginger. The key is to warm it slowly and let it simmer awhile.

The other drink is called Intoxicating Hot Chocolate--something we relished back in "the old days" at K.C.'s Restaurant and Bambooze Bar in the Thamel region of Kathmandu. On cold autumn/winter nights, it warmed body and soul. It was simple. A mug of your favorite hot chocolate. A jigger of rum. A sprinkle of cinnamon. I don't think it had whipped cream, but that would be heavenly, too.

I might end here, but I'm not going to because one of my absolute favorite meals to prepare and to eat (which is perfect this time of year) is to roast everything in one large baking dish. (Bake for an hour at about 385º, then let rest 10 minutes.) I made this supper a couple of nights ago: a breast of chicken, oiled and seasoned with the last of my herb garden sage. Fingerling potatoes, also oiled. A delicata squash that I peeled, cut into chunks, oiled, and seasoned with a dab of butter and some pepper jelly. An onion cut into quarters. Salt and pepper all around. As it baked, it smelled fabulous. It tasted pretty fabulous, too. There was even enough to turn it into a two-night meal. And all I had to wash was that one baking dish.