Yes, there was way too much food. Yes, I will scale it way back next year…but hey, it was my first time and I wanted to make sure there was enough.

Appetizers:

Pumpkin Pie Dip with Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Pimento Celery (Kraft pimento cheese and celery sticks)

Vegetable Tray with Dip

Gingerbread (Williams Sonoma-recipe coming)

Pumpkin Walnut Bread (recipe coming)

Cheese Balls and crackers (store bought cheese rolled in nuts)

Main:

Turkey (my sister-in-law’s recipe, hopefully coming soon!)

Precooked spiral cut ham

 Sides:

Fall Salad w/

Cranberry Vinaigrette (a splurge, but yummy!)

Green Bean Bundles

Baby Carrots Glazed with Balsamic Vinegar and Honey (not worth repeating yuck!)

Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Parmesan (recipe coming)

Cornflake and Hashbrown Casserole

Cornbread Dressing (my grandma’s recipe, homefully coming!)

Candied Yams

Buttermilk mashed potatoes (recipe coming)

Desserts:

Upside Down Apple Cake

Pecan Pie (MIL’s recipe, coming soon)

Pumpkin Pie (mom’s recipe, coming soon)

Raisin Pie (grandma’s recipe, coming soon)

Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote (Williams Sonoma)

Fruit Salad (grandma’s recipe, coming soon)

Other:

Dripping Gravy (SIL recipe, coming soon)

Fresh Cranberry-Orange Relish (grandma’s recipe, coming soon)

Raisin Sauce (grandma’s recipe, coming soon)

Rolls

Beer Bread

Mulled Cider (organic, unprocessed apple juice, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/4 t nutmeg, 1 t cloves brought to a boil and left to simmer)

Tea

Coffee

Water

Evidently, I have two recipes for red beans and rice. I wonder which is better…we’ll find out tonight.

MamaJo’s Red Beans and Rice Deux

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 c water
• 1 beef sausage link (we use Chappel Hill)
• 1# small red beans, soaked and drained
• 1 c fresh chopped onion
• 3 stalks celery heart, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sm can tomato sauce
• 1/2 t red pepper flakes
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1/2 t paprika
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in crock pot, stir until mixed well.
2. Cook on low for 10 hours. Mash some of the beans with a fork to thicken.

Fall Feast Evening Menu:

Stuffed Chicken Roll-Ups

Green Bean Bundles

Brown Rice

Apple Upside-Down Cake

served with Pumpkin Ice Cream

Recipes to follow.

Part of the fall feast evening menu.

Mama Jo’s Stuffed Chicken Roll-Ups

makes about 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (butterflied and pounded to about 1/4″ thick)
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 medium yellow onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 cups broccoli slaw
• about 1/4 lb provolone stagianato, sliced on a 1 (about 5 or 6 slices)
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat about 2T olive oil in a medium skillet, add garlic and onions. Sautee until soft.
2. Add broccoli slaw, stir until mixed evenly. Sautee until mix begins to soften.
3. While veggie mix is cooling, lay cheese on inside of chicken. Put thin layer of veggie mix on top of cheese.
4. Roll chicken up, tucking in sides so cheese doesn’t melt out. Use toothpick to fasten.
5. Coat bottom of skillet with olive oil, heat to medium. Cook chicken turning only once when chicken is golden brown. (If you have to do this in batches, chicken can be placed in warm oven.)

Part of the fall fest evening menu.

This recipe is originally from a friend at church, but has been slightly altered in quantity and ingredients. 

I actually prefer my veggies savory, but the light sweetness was a hit with the hubby.

Green Bean Bundles

Ingredients:

• 70 fresh green pole beans (the only reason I know the actual number is because I counted how many beans I put in each bundle…I’m not really sure what the weight was though…about 3 handfulls I guess)
• 5 slices of bacon, cut in half to make 10
• 3/4 brown sugar
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• kosher salt
• 2T water

Instructions:

1. preheat oven to 350
2. wrap 7 green beans in one half slice of bacon, secure with toothpick.
3. place bundles in 9×13 baking dish
4. in a small bowl mix sugar, oil, and garlic. heat in microwave 30 sec and mix again. 
5. spoon over bundles (about 1 spoonful each)
6. drizzle water on pan in the spaces between the bundles
7. cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes
8. uncover, salt lightly, bake for 5-7 more minutes

To add a little flavor to the rice, spoon juices from this dish on to plain brown rice.

Served as part of my fall feast evening menu, served with a scoop of pumpkin ice cream. This is a light and moist with the texture and sweetness of a coffee cake. To see the original recipe, retreived on 10/13/2009, go HERE.

Martha Stewart’s Apple Cinnamon Upside-Down Cake (slightly tweaked)

Ingredients:

• 10 T unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 c packed light-brown sugar
• 4 apples, Gala (peeled, cored, and sliced into 8 wedges
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 c buttermilk, then fill to 2/3 c with 1% milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat bottom and side of a 9-inch round cake pan with 2 tablespoons butter; sprinkle bottom with brown sugar. In a medium bowl, toss apples with lemon juice; arrange in prepared pan in two concentric circles (you might not use all of them).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, beat remaining 8 tablespoons butter with granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until incorporated. With mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture in three parts and the milk in two, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
4. Spoon batter over apples in pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack, at least 30 minutes and up to 6 hours (if cake has risen above rim of pan, simply push back inside rim).
5. To serve, run a knife around edge of pan, and invert cake onto a rimmed platter.

I took the basic, plain-jane oatmeal cookie recipe from Quaker…to view the starter recipe go HERE. Additions to the original recipe are: walnuts, peanut butter, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, extra salt, and extra flour.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c unsalted butter, softened (2.5 sticks)
• 3/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 T natural peanut butter
• 1 c pumpkin puree
• 1 3/4 all purpose flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 2t pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 3 c old fashioned toasted oats
• 1 1/2 coarsly chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together with a mixer on medium until smooth.
3. Add egg, vanilla, peanut butter and pumpkin puree. Blend thoroughly.
4. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients except oats and nuts. Mix well with fork.
5. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients with spoonula until well blended.
6. Add oats and nuts, blend well.
7. Spoon onto undgreased cookie sheets, cook 10 minutes or until centers are firm and bottoms begin to brown.

Our Menu for the evening was:

Pepperlime Chicken Breast

Sauteed Asparagus

Plain Brown Rice

Pepperlime Chicken:

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts – butterflied
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lime
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
2. add onion and garlic in, saute until soft
3. generously salt and pepper one side of chicken
4. place chicken, seasoned side down in skillet
5. generously salt and pepper other side of chicken and squeeze 1/2 lime over chicken, cook about five minutes until golden brown
6. turn chicken over, squeeze lime over chicken, cook until golden brown

Sauteed Asparagus

Ingredients:

• one bunch of asparagus (about 1.5 lbs)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 green onion
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• a squeeze of lime juice

Instructions:

1. place olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat
2. add onion and garlic and saute until soft
3. add asparagus, coat with oil, garlic and onions
4. season with salt and pepper, squeeze lime over asparagus
5. saute until bright green and slightly tender, about 10 minutes

This lemonade tastes *almost* just like fresh squeezed and it’s a lot less work! It’s way better, and cheaper than its store-bought counterpart.

MamaJo’s *Almost* Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

Ingredients:

• 1 cup lemon juice concentrate
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions:

1. Pour all ingredients into a small saucepan and turn heat to high.
2. Stir until sugar is melted.
3. Allow to simmer for a few minutes stirring occassionally.
4. Dilute with cool water to taste (I use about 4 cups of water).

This is a easy, and VERY tasty simple syrup to infuse into drinks. It can be used with teas, lemonades, or diluted in water as a raspberry juice all by itself.

And if you’re feeling extra daring…you can always give it a little adults-only kick ;0)

MamaJo’s Raspberry Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups frozen raspberries
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions:

1. Heat water in small saucepan over high.
2. Add sugar and raspberries.
3. Heat to a slightly bubbly simmer, mashing raspberries with a fork or potato masher while heating.
4. Pour through a fine strainer to strain out seeds and skins.
5. Infuse into your favorite drink or dilute in water. Can also be used in iced tea if syrup is poured into tea before the tea is diluted.

Enjoy!