Summer Ends Instantly. What do you Cook in Cold Weather?

I've paid attention for more than a few years now. Summer just ends abruptly right around the end of August. It didn't matter if I was getting up at 5:00 AM to work in pipeline construction, or if I work at home the way I do now and just look out the window. I can feel it happen almost instantly. It gets cold in the evening really fast and it just feels different, even on the warm days. Now I can take out my window air conditioner. It will never get hot enough to warrant another press of the "on" button until next June. I'm going to miss summer.

The good thing is that I will enjoy cooking a lot more. Sure, I keep the house at a good temperature in the summer, but I don't like cooking stew, pizza, slow baked ribs, or anything else I really like to eat when it's hot outside. Sometimes I break down, but the air conditioner always loses to that unnecessary heat! LOL!

I just made pizza the other night; (ham and pinneapple, and pepperoni with green pepper and onion ) and I think the next thing I'll do is a good, hearty beef stew. Do you enjoy cooking more when fall comes around? What's on your list of favourite things to cook when it starts getting cold... or does it even have an effect on your mindset where you live?

I love to cook, but hate the heat of the summer! So I absolutely love fall and start planning all my 'heavier' dishes. Actually, I just took the crockpot out last week to start making my favourite soups. Plus, we usually go to the cottage more in the fall/early winter, so making a big pot of soup and fresh bread for the cottage is great and convenient.

I make many spicier dishes, usually Indian in the winter as well. Can't beat a well marinated Tandoori chicken that's been slow cooking all day. I love Mulligatawny Soup and it will clear out any cold that may be lingering in your body because of its curry!
Yum!

I also do more baking when it gets cooler and make my Finnish coffee bread (pulla), Finnish Prune tarts (Joulutähtiä), and Karelian Pastries (Karjalan Piirakka). You can see pictures of these here:

Finnish Foods

The aromas from all these foods cooking in a warm home are wonderful!

Yup, North Alabama summertime makes a difference in food. As it cools down I'm looking forward to beef stew, chili, hot chocolate, lots of hot, hardy foods.......when the hubby gets cool enough to cook it, I'm ready !

Hmm, well to celebrate the first comfortable weekend I made a pot roast. During the fall and winter, I love to make my 6 hour Super Bowl Sunday Stew, slow cooked beef stroganoff and more oven cooked things. Also, home-made mac and cheese!

I am coming for dinner(lol).

It is still hot here, 90 today, and we have heat into Nov.

Cooking is not my forte, so I really do not make anything different.

Fall and winter mean that I will get to cook my favorite thing in the whole wide world - Roast Turkey with Stuffing and all the trimmings!

Originally posted by valanhb
Fall and winter mean that I will get to cook my favorite thing in the whole wide world - Roast Turkey with Stuffing and all the trimmings!

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Can I come over to your house??? Even though I usually love to cook, I have NEVER done a whole bird! I usually chicken out (pun intended)and only cook breasts, thighs, etc.

The things I make the most in cold weather are a crockpot full of chili or homemade soup/stew and fresh bread in the bread machine. I like that because it can cook while I'm at work, and when you come in from the cold the house smells so good, and the soup/chili warms you so much! My other weekday 'specialty' is what we call chicken surprise. It's some cut of meat (chicken, beef, pork - that's the 'surprise') in the crockpot with cream of mushroom soup, dried onion soup mix, and seasonings. It's then easy to microwave some potatoes and have a fast, hot dinner.

I did get a George Foreman grill late last winter, and I think I will be using that a lot this coming winter, especially since I can't eat some of the other stuff while I'm on Atkins.

Does anyone else find it hard to type with a cat trying to shove his head under your hands so you will pet him?!?

I bought a new stove over the summer and finally used the oven for the first time 2 days ago - too hot to bake in the summer. I get the husband out to cook on the smoker over the summer. It's cooled off here - highs in the lower 70's the last few days. Made Chili yesterday. Other cold weather dishes:

Soup (any kind but split pea works for me)
Stews
Chili
Roasted stuffed meat (pork, chicken)
Italian sauces with various noodles
Homemade deep-dish pizza
Polish sausage and saurkraut
Fried chicken and dumplings
Jambalaya, red beans and rice

OK, anything on the ethnic side with meat and starch, served hot!!

I've just made myself hungry....

Originally posted by Suzy
Does anyone else find it hard to type with a cat trying to shove his head under your hands so you will pet him?!?

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ROFL Yup....Muddy has a knack of standing on the keyboard, or pushing the mouse for you. Check out the thread where he said hi to everyone one day:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=24242

ya are making me drool!!! stroganoff, chili, pot roast, tandoori chicken, yumm yummm

I plan on doing more chicken tikka on the barbecue pit, I finally get to be a true southerner, barbecuing in winter, but it doesn't get that cold for snow, even though last year, or actually in Feb or March of this year we had our first snow and freeze for three days, got below the 30s, that was fun! And I'll be making a lot of smores since I found some kosher marshmallows

btw, I think we should do a cookbook...any thoughts on it?

What is chicken tikka?

A cookbook would be fun. (Although I already gave out the chicken surprise secret.)

You all sound like great cooks! I had some left over pizza after I posted, but you're all making me hungry again! I don't think anyone has mentioned anything that I don't like to eat... and I can be pretty fussy. I guess everyone here has good taste. I've never tried any Finnish food, but it looks interesting as well.

I think I've gained 10 lbs on this thread and five on the icecream

STOP with all the food talk!
I just started a diet!
LOL

me toooooo!! LOL!

My Autumn Soup is always a hit

what's in Autumn Soup? I make the pumpkin/coconut soup

Originally posted by Jellybelly
btw, I think we should do a cookbook...any thoughts on it?

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I put one together two years ago for my husband's family. It turned out to be close to 100 pages and we included a lot of family pictures, stories and of course the recipes. We're updating it this year to include family bios (birthdays, anniversaries, e-mail addresses, etc). We included everyone from both his parent's side, which includes about 100 first cousins.

It was well worth the effort - there are still family members who see it for the first time and want a copy right away.

If someone pulls together recipes, pictures and some bios, I'll volunteer to get it formatted into a document. I live for this kind of stuff.

I love cooking any time (except when it's high 80's...we have no air conditioning...) but yes, Fall affects me including the dishes I like to cook.

Since I moved from one coast to the other, I find the difference in the light has a physical impact (partially mitigated with using full spectrum lightbulbs)...soon, I'll be a little pumpkin taking a brief nap around 3:30 to 4:30 every day. It goes away in early Spring!

Foodwise, I love that the way we eat allows for both weight loss and cooking "real" foods. I'll soon be making Kapusta (my mil recipe) - a cabbage/bacon dish, my Italian grandmother's recipe for potato croquets, and her bracciole recipe more often (just had this last week..yum!), eggplant parmesan, ham and scalloped potatoes, chicken fricassee...and most special...my english great-gram's recipe for chili sauce ( great used in meatloaf, or for leftover roast beef or turkey sandwiches) - which if anyone wants, I'd be glad to post here.

Hmmm....I begin making holiday type desserts (tiny batches) and holiday dishes such as the scalloped oysters I make for Thanksgiving every year.

Oohh...don't get me started!