Fall is in the Air!

Every year I look forward to the Apple Tasting at the Portland Nursery. This year I ropped Jess into going with me. It was a wonderful way to kick off fall. Every year I've been it's been held on beautiful, sunny days where the sun is warm and the shade is cold. Unfortuntally, Portland doesn't have many of these type of fall days that I grew up with, but yesterday was one of them.

The follow is how we celebrated.

Pumpkin Pie
1 box of silken tofu
3/4 cup sugar
1 can pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
pumpkin pie spices to taste

Blend in blender until smooth. Pour into premade crust and bake for about 1 hour at 400F.


Simple Maple Salad
Salad greens and other veggies of choice (I used shredded carrots, thiny sliced onions, lettuces)
1/2 pear chopped
1 Tbl. maple syrup
1 Tbl. balsamc vinegar
pepper

Mix and serve.
Toasted nuts and other fruits are also a nice touch to this dressing.


Roasted Veggies
Any random veggies you need to get rid of. Looks like I used potatoes, leeks, onions, carrots, winter squash. All mixed with olive oil, garlic and some rosemary.
The special touch to this simple dish was adding roasted kale on top. I just baked 4 leaves until crispy. Once the veggies were done I sprinkled the dry leaves on top. It added a nice depth to this dish and put some leafy greens into a roasted dish.



Apple Strudel
Totally inspired by the apple tasting.
Many sheets of phylo.
2-4 apples
powdered sugar
olive oil.

Lay a couple of phylo sheets down, spraying olive oil between each sheet. Layer on sliced apples, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Repeat a few times. Fold/roll phylo once the apples are done to make a latice across the top.
Bake about 20-30 min at 350F.
Once out of the oven coat in vanilla frosting.

A simple dessert that only looks fancy.


Lentil Soup
I wanted a brothy soup and found a quick way to use up those left over roasted veggies.

Boil left over roasted veggies for 30-60 minutes.
Strain veggies and add 1/2 to 1 cup of lentils, depending on how much liquid you added to your veggies.
Add salt and pepper to taste. let look until the lentils are tender.
Garnish with shredded carrots and chopped chives.


I've updated the cupcakes I've worked on. Check out this post for new pictures.