Vegetable Pot Pie

In honor of the impending holiday, I thought I'd share one of our fall and winter family favorites: made-from-scratch pot pie. What I love about this recipe is how versatile it is. You can really do just about anything with it, and it is especially awesome for thanksgiving leftovers (think left over turkey, for you omnivores and carnivores), for a holiday lunch, or for a special Sunday night dinner. This is loaded with wonderful, vitamin-rich vegetables, no cream or butter is used to thicken the filling, and is certainty lightened up.

This recipe is a bit more time consuming, about 45-60 minutes plus bake time, but it is so worth it for a special occasion meal. This is full of fall flavors like, thyme, sage, rosemary, and the crust. Oh that crust. It is tender, flaky, salty, buttery, tangy and has a few sneaky tricks (like Greek yogurt).

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

So, here is the deal. Apart from the stores and online social media saying otherwise, it is still very much Fall. At the beginning of August people are pinning and talking about all things Fall when it's still Summer time, then by Thanksgiving people are over all things Autumn and are already onto Winter and Christmas time. Since I am trying to enjoy our current season and I am not letting go of pumpkin quite yet, here is my tribute to this wonderful Fall season.

Back on August 1st, when everyone was going pin-crazy for pumpkin I stumbled across a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies (I couldn't remember what blog it came from) and was completely intrigued. I took one look at the recipe, saw the ingredient list and haven't looked back (2 1/2 cups of butter and over 2 cups of sugar? I'll pass on that one). No cookie needs that much fat and sugar to taste good, and I have tons of cookie recipes that I love and not one of them calls for that much butter. I created this fall cookie loosely based on a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have on hand, and one of Robert's oatmeal cookie recipes from his family.

Tomato Orzo Soup

There are loads of tomato orzo soups floating around online, but they all call for quite a bit of cream, butter, milk, and flour to thicken it. My amazing cousin Jill and my Aunt Julie sent me over this recipe and I modified it to fit my family's taste and needs. It is really one of the easiest soups to make and is my go-to meal in the fall because I always have the ingredients on hand. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do; it's a huge hit at our house.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

A few months ago I was at the grocery store and stumbled across a roasted red pepper pasta sauce. It sounded positively delicious and I decided to try and whip it up myself. I was looking for a delicious alternative to the general jarred tomato pasta sauce, but something almost just as easy, requiring only a few more steps than opening a jar and not that many dishes.