Today was “Fall Feast” with my Triangle Fight Club (not what you think. Ha!). I’ve posted before about our annual cookie exchange, but we also try to get together sometime in October or November for a seasonal meal. I think we chose to have it in Fall because everyone is so busy in summer, making it impossible to schedule something but mostly because we all love the Fall and its flavors.
We don’t always manage to get around to the Fall Feast before the demands of the holidays are upon us, but this year, somehow we managed to pick a date and stick to it. We had a small group this year with only 4 of us able to attend, but as usual, the table was groaning with a variety of yummy things. We have stellar cooks in the group and apparently we were craving bacon since three of the dishes featured bacon.
Gnocchi, pumpkin-sausage manicotti, Mediterranean quinoa, spinach-bacon quiche, spiced apples, fruit, hummus, crackers and bread along with sangria. We filled our plates and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful, slightly chilly Fall day.
Too soon it was time to bring the meal to an end. It was Sunday, after all, and we all had various school and work days to prepare for.
I don’t see these ladies often enough; they’ve been with me through wedding planning, the wedding, infertility and finally parenthood. Twenty pounds lighter and much less gray in my hair. We all look different, yet the same in all the ways that matter.
We have tentatively set the date for our annual cookie exchange and are researching how to make it revolve around our master, bacon, from cocktails to cookies.
Oh, and I volunteered to host 🙂
Thanks for a wonderful day, ladies!
My quiche recipe is Paula Deen’s (I was only slightly embarrassed to say that before; now I’m mortified). The major change I made was to sauté everything. I sautéed red onion and spinach (I also needed to use about 5 cups of fresh spinach) in the bacon grease. I also added gruyere cheese to the swiss cheese (I forgot we had thrown out my broken grater, so I had to use a zester, which worked OK). I’m not a fan of swiss cheese, so I’d like to find a milder cheese. I did NOT make my own crust because I’m a slacker like that.