I just found this link on 30 Fall menus on myrecipes.com today. It’s really a recipe a day for the month of September, but since September hasn’t really felt much like Fall anyway here in Newburyport (I love Indian Summer!), maybe you can use these ideas to get you through the month of October.

Cream Puff Pie?

Can you post Del's recipe for the Cream Puff Pie? Manny loved it and requested it for his Confirmation!

Fun & Easy Meals for Kids

My husband will be traveling next week, and I will still have to be shuttling the kids back and forth from events, so I need thing that can be ready when we walk in the door, ie. crockpot meals, or shortly after we arrive home, or in-between runs.

Any fun, tried-and-true meal ideas? I usually try to make fun meals when George is away, but I'm not sure I can keep that up for a week...

SOUP-er Easy!

My kids always love to order Miso Soup when we get Chinese or Japanese food, mostly for the tofu. They have been asking me to make tofu at home, but anytime I have, it hasn't come out right -- mostly apparently because I do "stuff" to it. So tonight, mostly because I didn't have much food in the house and partly because I had 2 running out to soccer practice, I threw together a super easy soup:

I heated up some chicken broth, threw in some veggies from the fridge, added a can of cubed chicken breast and some diced tofu. Really easy and the kids loved it!

Back to School...

and back to after-school activities. What is everybody making to get through busy nights?

Ecclectic Meal

Getting every last bit out of summer vacation!

I asked my family the other day to give me a few final summer meals, things they haven't had enough of, or are at their peak this time of year. My son asked for Grammy's clam chowder (see January 27, 2009 post), my daughter piped in with no corn chowder. Those are similar enough that they can both be on the menu tonight. I had pizza dough in the fridge and frozen caramelized onions, so I tossed those on a pizza with bacon and brie. (I'll report on that creation after we eat.)

A whole family favorite is grilled portabella mushrooms on chiabetta bread with roasted red peppers and mozzarella drizzled with balsamic vinegar. So tomorrow night everyone will be happy with dinner.

Later this week we'll be having grilled sausage and peppers. For the weekend I'm already planning on a BBQ with friends featuring Ribs and steaks. Hopefully we'll get some good summer tomatoes, because with all the rain, they haven't been that great yet. The yellow and white corn has been yummy though:) I also may have to make one more Peach Crisp before it's apple season! Of course, we'll end the BBQ with S'Mores over the chimenea! Enjoy the end of summer!


Corn Chowder (from 365 Quick & Easy Microwave Recipes)
I also just add everything and simmer it on the stove at times.
1/2 pound bacon, diced
3 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups milk (can use some half and half to make it creamier)
17 ounce can cream-style corn
7 ounce can corn kernels, drained (or 2-3 ears cut off)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Hot pepper sauce and salt to taste

1. Place bacon in a 4 cup glass measure. Cover with paper towel. Cook on HIGH 5-6 minutes, until crisp. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and set aside. Save 1 T bacon drippings.

2. Place potatoes, onion and I T bacon drippings in a 2 quart casserole. Cover and cook on HIGH 7 minutes, stirring once.

3. stir in milk, cream style corn and corn. Cover and cook on HIGH 10-12 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add pepper and season with hot sauce and salt to taste.

Serves 4-6