Fall harvest recipes

Well, not just fall, but also late summer, and not so much harvest as gifts.

Neighbors with vegetable gardens rock. Until you come home to a crate full of gigantic zucchini on the porch, and then the neighbors still rock, but you secretly want to ring their necks. So I’ve kind of become a pro at finding new and interesting ways to use up the fruits and veggies people so generously give us, because gratin de courgette can get old real fast.

Courgettes

the final four … hopefully

These are tiny zucchini compared to what I normally find waiting for me, and they have magical properties – when you eat one, it’s immediately replaced by another! So here’s a whole meal of my favorite zucchini recipes.

Apéro : Zucchini bites
Entrée : Cream of zucchini soup
Plat principal : Zucchini enchiladas
Dessert : Chocolate zucchini cake

Tomates

my precious

While zucchini might sometimes be a cadeau empoisonné, homegrown tomatoes are always welcome on my doorstep. They just don’t compare to a grocery store tomato; I think I might like them more than chocolate. I haven’t had a chance to make my favorite tomato recipe this year, so I might have to go stalk my neighbors to get the last of their crop.

Tomato crisp

Pommes

ugly apples, before and after

Our friend has an orchard, but isn’t always around to pick the fruit, which means free apples! These were pretty tart, so I decided to make apple butter. I found a great slow cooker recipe that was like having a fall scented candle burning all day, except you get apple butter at the end instead of a puddle of wax. Also check out this apple cake recipe, it’s so good because – butter.

Slow cooker apple butter
French apple cake

Potiron

you can’t really tell, but this is a gigantic pumpkin

This pumpkin is currently occupying a whole drawer of my freezer. Half in chunks and half in puree. You see, you can’t get canned pumpkin in France, so if you want pumpkin spice anything, you have to make your own. So a few afternoons every fall are devoted to pureeing pumpkins. The Pioneer Woman’s instructions and tips are great, especially the freezer bag roll-up. I also freeze a bit in chunks to use in curries or chili. The internet doesn’t need another list of pumpkin recipes, but I will link to this super yummy Afghan recipe I tried the other night.

Homemade pumpkin puree
Afghan sweet and savory pumpkin