What's Your Favourite Seasonal Food?

[valadil]

Pumpkin beer.
But in all seriousness, I love a really good chili. Fall is the best time of year for this heart meal, while the other seasons are too warm.

Agreed on the beer. Not necessarily pumpkin though. I'm down with all the fall, winter, and summer beers, and just when they're getting boring a new one rolls around. Not sure about spring beers though.

I used to associate chili with fall. Then the wife and I joined a farm share and got more hot peppers than I knew what to do with, right in the middle of August. Summer chili works too. I figure I'm already covered in sweat, what's a little more capsaicin going to do?

Other than that... avocados! They're cheapest and tastiest in spring/summer. Same with fruits and berries. Oh and corn. Had a thing for mangoes a few years ago, but they're practically candy.

[Serpentine]

Hey Eldan, the first thing you posted a picture of looks like what we call Russian tea cakes.

I was thinking something like pfeffernuse (that is so not spelled right). They're gingerbready biscuits coated in hard icing, and they're delicious P: If they're seasonal, though, I'm doing it wrong.

[Cuthalion]

I was thinking something like pfeffernuse (that is so not spelled right). They're gingerbready biscuits coated in hard icing, and they're delicious P: If they're seasonal, though, I'm doing it wrong.

Pfeffernusse. Had some last weekend, as my Austrian grandmother made some.

[Elemental]

Hmm... I can't seem to think of any foods I like that are all that seasonal... Save for hot cross buns, which are excellent still warm from the bakery with butter, and rum balls, but both of those can technically be made whenever.

[Serpentine]

Pfeffernusse. Had some last weekend, as my Austrian grandmother made some.

Oh hey. I was closer than I thought!
And I would loooooove to try fresh, home-made pfeffernusse.

[Cuthalion]

Oh hey. I was closer than I thought!
And I would loooooove to try fresh, home-made pfeffernusse.

So good. They had been baked the night before, but ah. Amazing.

Fresh huckleberry scones, anyone?

[KacyCrawford]

Spring: Strawberries!
Summer: Watermelon!
Fall: Turkey!
Winter: Hot Chocolate!

ALL YEAR ROUND: JELL-O

[Cuthalion]

Spring: Strawberries!
Summer: Watermelon!
Fall: Turkey!
Winter: Hot Chocolate!

Hot chocolate is a year-round thing, especially if you do camping.

[razark]

Fall: Turkey!

If you have a freezer, don't buy a turkey in the fall. Buy two or three. They're on sale, and a lot of stores give even bigger discounts. Get multiple turkeys while cheap, and then have a full turkey dinner any time you feel like it.

Aside from being good, you can get three four ten a lot of meals out of it.

[warty goblin]

If you have a freezer, don't buy a turkey in the fall. Buy two or three. They're on sale, and a lot of stores give even bigger discounts. Get multiple turkeys while cheap, and then have a full turkey dinner any time you feel like it.

Aside from being good, you can get three four ten a lot of meals out of it.

I confess my affection for turkey was severely reduced by having to raise the horrible creatures a child. Something to do with the vile things coming after me with unnatural desires first thing every morning, wattles flapping a disgusting red, and wheezing.

[Mauve Shirt]

Aw man, it's Friday, which means I'll allow myself to go get a pumpkin latte at work. Once winter comes around it's peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes at the Starbucks.
It's the sugar, not the caffeine!

Other seasonal foods I enjoy include pumpkin-everything, and anything carbtastic that goes on a Thanksgiving table. And Yorkshire pudding at Christmas.

[Krazzman]

My wife loves pumpkin.

We made some sauce out of a soup recipe for our RP group recently.

I don't really like it but it's usually tasty anyway...

For me I don't know. I don't like christmas cookies that much or such things in general...

A seasonal thing that was a one-time stuff is berries mixed in Korn for quite 3 months so it is "ripe" on christmas eve. My dad did this once with berries from my uncles garden. Was a tasty thing.

But ONE seasonal thing I really have to buy soon is "Karl-Heinz Tea". I have no clue what it is exactly but it is an awesome tea. Thinking about just ordering 20 pounds of that stuff...

[Cuthalion]

My wife loves pumpkin.

We made some sauce out of a soup recipe for our RP group recently.

I don't really like it but it's usually tasty anyway...

For me I don't know. I don't like christmas cookies that much or such things in general...

A seasonal thing that was a one-time stuff is berries mixed in Korn for quite 3 months so it is "ripe" on christmas eve. My dad did this once with berries from my uncles garden. Was a tasty thing.

But ONE seasonal thing I really have to buy soon is "Karl-Heinz Tea". I have no clue what it is exactly but it is an awesome tea. Thinking about just ordering 20 pounds of that stuff...

Ingredients: Black teas from Ceylon, China and India, aroma, cinnamon, orange, lemon peel, star anise, anise, fennel and cloves.

You could make that.

[Aedilred]

I'm cooking a Michaelmas goose tomorrow for some friends, which should be great. Getting hold of it was rather harder and more expensive than I was expecting, but hopefully it'll be a good bird.

Something I and my co-host are debating is what to do as a starter. We have both agreed that the starter should feature mushrooms, but can't decide what to do with the mushrooms (see also: Asterix and the Olympic Games)

Options we have so far considered include:

Mushroom soup
Mushroom paté
Mushroom ravioli
Puff pastry mushroom tarts
Mushroom stroganoff on toast

I favour keeping the mushrooms intact if at all possible rather than puréeing them, but a key issue is that the kitchen we're cooking in is quite small, and the oven is likely to be full of food for much of the cooking time, thus making (e.g.) the tarts, or the bread for the paté, more problematic. Since we're preparing other food too, something like a risotto is also out, as it requires too much attention.

Obviously, too, the dish we end up cooking will determine the type of mushrooms we buy.

Anyone got any good and relatively straightforward mushroom recipes to share?

[Morgarion]

Mushroom ravioli sounds good. Portabellas would probably be good. I expect they'll end up getting diced for the filling. I feel like sherry and sage or rosemary should be involved as well, perhaps for a sauce?

[Eldan]

Simply fried mushrooms go pretty well with a salad, if you don't already have a salad course.

I forgot another favourite seasonal food: fresh tomatoes. We used to have a neighbour who was the member of a very extensive sicilian family. Every summer, one of her cousins drove from Sicily to Switzerland with a pick-up truck full of tomato crates.

They are so much better than store-bought tomatoes. They don't even register as the same fruit, really. For years, I was convinced that the tomato was a fruit with little to no natural flavour. I was so, so wrong.

[KacyCrawford]

If you have a freezer, don't buy a turkey in the fall. Buy two or three. They're on sale, and a lot of stores give even bigger discounts. Get multiple turkeys while cheap, and then have a full turkey dinner any time you feel like it.

Aside from being good, you can get three four ten a lot of meals out of it.

LOL! that will be full of turkey meals.

[Drakeburn]

EGGNOG!!! I love the stuff. In one way, I suppose it's a good thing they don't produce it year round because I would be a half-ton over weight.

Eggnog is my favorite seasonal drink as well. When I found out that the local stores start selling eggnog around October (or was it November?), I had to get them.

They taste so good, yet since I'm partially lactose intolerant, I would have to take constant trips to the bathroom if I had too much. But I regret nothing!

[Serpentine]

Something I and my co-host are debating is what to do as a starter. We have both agreed that the starter should feature mushrooms, but can't decide what to do with the mushrooms (see also: Asterix and the Olympic Games)

Options we have so far considered include:

Mushroom soup
Mushroom paté
Mushroom ravioli
Puff pastry mushroom tarts
Mushroom stroganoff on toast

I favour keeping the mushrooms intact if at all possible rather than puréeing them, but a key issue is that the kitchen we're cooking in is quite small, and the oven is likely to be full of food for much of the cooking time, thus making (e.g.) the tarts, or the bread for the paté, more problematic. Since we're preparing other food too, something like a risotto is also out, as it requires too much attention.

Obviously, too, the dish we end up cooking will determine the type of mushrooms we buy.

Anyone got any good and relatively straightforward mushroom recipes to share?

I semi-regularly do "mushroom pizzas", especially if I have the really big, flat ones. You cut the stalk off (chop it up and use it as more "topping"), brush tomato paste on it, add whatever toppings you want (usually salami or bacon, tomato, pine nuts and cheese when I do it), and put it in the oven or under the grill for a while.
You could probably do the same thing with smaller cup mushrooms, they'd just be more hor'deuve-like.

[Cuthalion]

As far as actual food goes, Pumpkin Pie by far. There have been years that instead of cake on my birthday (Oct. 23), I've had Pumpkin Pie!
Now, my favorite thing ever that it's criminal that they don't make the rest of the year is:
EGGNOG!!! I love the stuff. In one way, I suppose it's a good thing they don't produce it year round because I would be a half-ton over weight.

Haven't actually had the stuff before. I've heard it's good, though.

Go Dodgers!

[Temotei]

Definitely watermelon in the summer. Gawd. I love watermelon.

[Togath]

Definitely watermelon in the summer. Gawd. I love watermelon.

Aye, same here

[Cuthalion]

Aye, same here

Thirded. I would act more melondramatic about the confession, but I seed that this is the only way.

[Melayl]

Lefse would be mine. Our family usually only makes it around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, and it is one of my favorite foods of all time!

[Maelstrom]

Fall wild mushrooms... Love to eat them, love to find them.

[Zaggab]

Knäck, a Swedish Christmas treat. Don't know if there are similar treats in other countries. The basic recipe is cream, syrup and sugar that is boiled together and put into small moulds. There's usually chopped almonds in them too, and you can add things like vanilla as well.

It's basically the only candy I eat. Last Christmas I made 3 batches with about 75 knäck each, and they were all mostly gone before the actual Christmas Eve. It was awesome. Although, I gave most of them away, because friends and family just wouldn't stop eating them

[Temotei]

Thirded. I would act more melondramatic about the confession, but I seed that this is the only way.

You're my favorite.

[Cuthalion]

You're my favorite.

Mind if I sig this?

Unless you're joking or being sarcastic...

[shadow_archmagi]

Knäck, a Swedish Christmas treat. Don't know if there are similar treats in other countries. The basic recipe is cream, syrup and sugar that is boiled together and put into small moulds. There's usually chopped almonds in them too, and you can add things like vanilla as well.

It's basically the only candy I eat. Last Christmas I made 3 batches with about 75 knäck each, and they were all mostly gone before the actual Christmas Eve. It was awesome. Although, I gave most of them away, because friends and family just wouldn't stop eating them

Hmm. That sounds really interesting. I think I have my next baking project!

How is it pronounced?

[Bhu]

Chili. There's damn few restaurants that serve chili here that's any good, but the ones who do only serve it seasonally.

Also tamales. Real tamales not the crap you see in faux mexican fast food places.