Favorite Seasonal Foods

[mysterygal]

Each season I love making a favorite dish. Summer/Spring, it's barbeque with my own marinade creations. Fall, I love to make homemade soups and breads (especially my minestroni) and of course pumpkin pie...winter, it's homemade gingerbread cookies.
anyone else have their favorite 'seasonal' foods?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Y'all come over for potato soup. It's from the 70s Betty Crocker cookbook. Bring your appetites! Spring: burnt sugar cake from the 50s Atlanta Gas Company cookbook. Winter: homemade pie crust with Wesson oil, whatever pie filling, I don't care, whatever you like. Summer: the best burgers in the world. Omaha burgers with Worcestershire sauce as they fry.

 

[Lady Day]

Tamaters! I LOVE tomatoes in season!

As far as making food, I love oatmeal raisin cookies in the fall. Mmmmmmmmm guuuuuud.

LD

 

[Barbigirl]

When I saw that headline my first thougth was EGG NOG!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I love to make my Thanksgiving gravy! I roast a turkey only so I'll have something to pour the gravy over....

 

[Rosie]

In summer, I love to incorporate fruit into my cooking, mango chutney, orange sauces for chicken and chops, Polynesian Chicken Stew which uses pineapples. Yum. I bake year long but, during winter, I like to bake breads and richer desserts, chocolates and such. And I LOVE to entertain so Thanksgiving and Christmas are great to me. During the holidays, my favorties to cook are turducken, sweet potato cheesecake and red velvet cake.

 

[SaraBell]

When I saw that headline my first thougth was EGG NOG!

I live for egg nog! lol

 

[Nathan Flowers]

Winter Foods...

During the fall/winter, we usually cook more:

pecan pies
spiced apple cider
homemade vegetable beef, or potato soup
hot cocoa
collard and turnip greens
sweet potato souffle

 

[Matthew Dalton]

My mother's Trifle around Christmas. Not really seasonal in itself, but she rarely makes it at any other time.

 

[Paisley]

Pumpkin pie in the fall. But it has to be made with fresh pumpkin; I don't like canned pumpkin at all.

 

[Spitfire]

This time of year: OYSTERS! Preferably direct from Cancale, France.
Or even better - sittin on the habourwall, overlooking the sea in Cancale - eating oysters.

 

[Haversack]

Pegging myself as a native Californian, my favourite seasonal foods are artichokes and aspearagus. Vineripe tomatos are good, but after working too many summers in tomato canneries they lose their edge. On the other hand, apricots right off the tree get an honourable mention.

Haversack.

 

[mysterygal]

Pumpkin pie in the fall. But it has to be made with fresh pumpkin; I don't like canned pumpkin at all.

I've always bought store made pumpkin pie or from the can. A friend of mine says she makes it fresh as well and swears she'll never go back. For some reason I've been kind of afraid to attempt this [huh] I think it's the what do you do with the pumpkin?! But, after buying a store one, it just didn't taste all that good.

 

[Paisley]

Using a Fresh Pumpkin

Mysterygal, get a pie pumpkin from the store (they are smaller than the carving pumpkins). Stab it a few times near the top and bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until it feels spongy. Let it cool and cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and string and discard. Scoop the flesh from the skin and mash it with a potato masher. This flesh is what you use in place of the canned goop, and it has a completely different flavor and texture.

You can make pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, even. But my favorite is the pie. You can also freeze the flesh until you are ready to use it.

Buon appetito!

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Definitely pumpkin pie in the fall.
I love using the grill in the summer, especially grilled swordfish with a homemade mango pineapple chutney with a grilled baked potato crusted with sea salt and wrapped in foil and slow roasted on the grill.
Homemade blueberry crumble with fresh picked wild Maine blueberries, mmmm, yum.
I also like hearty soups, stews, and pot pies for the fall and winter season. Ministrone is definitely my favorite, or a nice thick New England clam chowder or lobster bisque. Freshly made chicken pot pie, with made from scratch flakey buttery crust and fresh vegetables, not the frozen ones. Beef stew with dumplings is also really good on a cold winter night. Homemade chicken noodle soup. I make it from scratch using free range chicken, fresh celery and carrots, and fresh herbs with lots of thick noodles or if I'm up for it homemade matzoh balls.
Hmmm, this thread is making me hungry.
I also love fresh apple cider in the fall. Hot with a cinnamin stick. Hem and I recently went to New Hampshire and stopped at a little store in the middle of nowhere and had the freshest apple cider and homemade apple fritters right from the fryer. Wow, were they yummy. They also specialize in homemade pumpkin doughnuts, but unfortunately they were all sold out.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

This time of year: OYSTERS! Preferably direct from Cancale, France.
Or even better - sittin on the habourwall, overlooking the sea in Cancale - eating oysters.

Oh my, I can't believe I forgot to mention oysters. Being in New England, we have access to a wide variety. This summer, we ate them a few times a week. Nothing beats a hot summer night in New England, sitting at a clam shack by the water eating oysters on the half shell, and then having a lobster bake. A netted bag filled with a lobster, clams, corn and sometimes sausage, and then steamed in seaweed. It's the ultimate summer feast, with lots of very hot cocktail sauce for the oysters, that is a must.

 

[John in Covina]

Turkey stuffing - mom's secret receipe!

For Thanksgiving and many Christmas dinners Turkey was the big deal and my Mom's secret receipe was fairly standard stuffing but to the mix she would add chopped leaf spinach that was sauteed in butter with the onions and celery. Not alot, but it added a certain special something that only Mom can do right.
:essen:

 

[Phaedra]

Definitely pumpkin pie!

 

[maintcoder]

Oh my, I can't believe I forgot to mention oysters. Being in New England, we have access to a wide variety. This summer, we ate them a few times a week. Nothing beats a hot summer night in New England, sitting at a clam shack by the water eating oysters on the half shell, and then having a lobster bake. A netted bag filled with a lobster, clams, corn and sometimes sausage, and then steamed in seaweed. It's the ultimate summer feast, with lots of very hot cocktail sauce for the oysters, that is a must.

That sounds delicious, Daisy. When is everyone invited over?

Oysters on the half shell is awesome, but I also love them barbequed with garlic butter drizzled on them after they pop and a slash of Tapatio hot sauce! Now that is 'good eatin' food'!

As for seasonal foods, I would have to go for these...

Spring/Summer - oven roasted or grilled asparagus with balsamic vinegar, BBQ corn on the cob, BBQed oysters

Fall/winter - pumpkin pie, smoked Alaskan silver salmon, goulash, coffee cookies, roasted turkey breast with rice stuffing

 

[Paisley]

Other fall and winter favorites: corn bread and beans, corn pudding, pecan pie, and ribs. I know you can have those in the summer, too, but it's too hot to light the oven. So summer fare is anything I can fry, poach or eat raw.