Flavours of Fall

A very enjoyable and experimental weekend. Firstly, there was the annual church dinner & auction on Sat evening. It was a night of good, homecooked food (by our resident chef Terrence), entertainment and fun. Most of us struggled to finish the stuffed Cornish hens that were placed before us (1 hen per person!), and Ziploc bags flew all over Woodside Hall to pack the leftovers.

Some of the auction items were quite novel e.g. 1 year's worth of housekeeping services offered by church youths; $400 worth of garden design for next Spring; and a basket of homebaked bread (which eventually sold for $50). The hottest items were apple & blueberry pies by Terrence, and a solid pine bookcase-cum-study table. Many of the items were donated by church members, though a number of items also came from some local restaurants and shops.

After dinner, Genny, Manny and I stopped by a roadside stall to pick up some Beaver's Tails - a pastry shaped like a beaver's tail, with a choice of toppings. It's apparently native to Ottawa, and something which people enjoy with a hot chocolate, especially in February when they're skating down the Rideau Canal to work. My fave? - the maple butter one :-)

The next day, I started experimenting with the first of the harvest recipes that I'd picked off the web. I read that squash, apples and pears are excellent this time of the year, so I tried a butternut squash, leek and apple soup. It was easy enough to do and a breeze to clean up - just the preparation that was monotonously tiring! :-p But I now have good soup I can heat up anytime for a warm-me-up on cold nights! :-)