Seasonal Sundays (Week 44 Halloween Week)

A quick read, a not-so-scary collection of recipes and ideas for the fun that is Halloween and the week before and after. Is anyone else reading Testaments, the new Handmaid's Tale sequel?
Seasonal Sundays ♥ KitchenParade.com, a seasonal collection of easy family recipes for fall plus ideas for the home and life.




You Texted Me Back, Thanks!

The very best words this cook/writer can hear: "I have learned so much from you."

Thank you, Lee Bee with the pretty name Leonora, so like my great-grandmother's!

B O O!

Family Pumpkinheads ♥ KitchenParade.com

Oh the excitement! Oh the costumes! Oh the pumpkins! (And oh my, the sugar! Does anyone else's brain explode seeing the aisles of candy and sweets that taunt and tempt us between now and the new year?)

My favorite thing used to be hitting a Denny's on Halloween about 1 am, just to watch post-party groups arrive in costume for hangover cures before heading home. Hilarious ...

Now things are more sedate, just pumpkin carving with the grandkids and organizing a special "no masks" evening with the twin who finds Halloween shape-shifting shenanigans unnerving.

You? What's your Halloween like?


Halloween ideas, not many but they're fun!

You Heard It Here First! Maybe?

Many of us will switch the clocks by an hour next weekend, "falling back" to gain an hour's sleep, definitely better than "springing forward" to lose one.

That means early risers will see more sunrises and suddenly, dark will descend so much earlier, making for um, cozy, dinner times.

As regular readers know, Kitchen Parade is full of short essays, life musings and observations, some times sentimental, some times provocative. These essays don't translate so well from print to digital, even Google's most advanced search algorithms have difficulty figuring why I write about turning back our clocks and a forty-year ritual the Monday after the time change and then switch to a soup recipe.

But in my seasonal mind, one follows the other. The time changes and life is little different. It's like switching a painting from one wall to another, you suddenly see the painting differently, the light, the perspective passing, the viewpoint sitting.

And ... I like to think that these essays are part of the reason why readers come back and sign up for free email subscriptions, .


That essay about switching our clocks back? It's here, along yes, with a recipe, White Chicken Chili.

Anyone curious about those early essays, I keep a list of my favorite essays, there were a lot during Kitchen Parade's print years.

Something for Supper

Thick Chops with Sauerkraut & Apples ♥ KitchenParade.com, a country-style skillet, easy enough for a weeknight supper, special enough for Saturday company. One of my very oldest fall recipes.

Come fall, I find myself wishing we had pork in the freezer.

And sauerkraut! Shoppers tip, be sure to buy sauerkraut in glass jars or plastic packets, not cans, a world of difference. And keep your eyes peeled for small-batch sauerkrauts from local producers. At least here in the Midwest, they're easy to find and extra good!


Thick Chops with Sauerkraut & Apples

Not Into Sauerkraut?

Sausage & Cabbage Skillet ♥ AVeggieVenture.com, supper in a flash, a big ol' skillet of rustic and homey sausage, potato and cabbage that turns quite sweet and succulent. Low carb, even with potatoes; even lower carb with turnip. Gluten free so long as sausage is gluten free. Weight Watchers Friendly.

Haha, no problem, I've got you covered here too, albeit with fresh cabbage.

Weight Watchers, pick your sausages carefully (anything with a label, at least you know what you're getting) and this easy rustic skillet can be very Freestyle friendly.


Sausage & Cabbage Skillet

My Wish for All of Us

Missouri leaf color in late October

  • Color that delights and the eyes to really see it, up close and far away.
  • Ministering Through Food, whether on the giving or receiving end

Vegetarians at the Table

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Butternut Bechamel & Roasted Butternut Squash ♥ AVeggieVenture.com, three vegetarian layers plus a gorgeous 'Butternut Bechamel' studded with roasted squash.

This is a lovely autumn-y lasagna, no meat, no tomato, no ricotta in sight. Instead, build a creamy sauce with puréed roasted butternut squash, then intersperse roasted squash cubes. Just gorgeous.

Thanksgiving? Sure. But it works for light dinners too, it's on the ideas list for my next book club. This is the time of year when I like to keep the dinners themselves festive but light, leaving room for a knock-out dessert. Hello Pumpkin Cheesecake?!


Butternut Squash Lasagna with Butternut Bechamel & Roasted Butternut Squash

It's one of several ideas for Vegetarian Entrées for Thanksgiving.

Finally, It's Chili Season!

White Chicken Chili ♥ KitchenParade.com, a spicy-but-not-too-spicy concoction of chicken, spices, chilies and white beans, so good on a chilly night!

Something to Savor


Testaments is the sequel to Margaret Atwood's 1985 harrowing dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale whose Hulu production has etched the images of bound women in our minds.

I'm in my second reading (or, more accurately, listening) and recommend a review of the first book before pitching in. Testaments isn't as riveting as Handmaid's – for a frightening reason, however, that it all seems too possible, too real, almost too familiar. It digs deeper into the characters and fills in gaps left wide open in the first book. If Aunt Lydia stymied you in the first book, all shall become clear ...

Recommended!


The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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Green Tomatoes, Just Before Frost

Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Pie ♥ AVeggieVenture.com, an old farm recipe made with upripe green tomatoes. It's a sweet pie and tastes just like apple pie!

Paying it forward.

I first posted this green-tomato pie in July, when the farmers markets were full of green tomatoes. A friend gently tut-tutted, coaching me that green tomatoes are at their very best just before frost, as in now.

I checked yesterday: our garden is plum done, not a green tomato in sight. But for anyone with plants still producing, although probably not ripening, given the time of year, let me recommend this pie.

Green tomatoes with sugar? You'll swear you're eating apples.


Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Pie

"To Every Thing There Is a Season"

I tried to start a movement and it failed. Oops. And even my own #PieDayFridays have come to a close.

But I love projects like #PieDayFriday, whether for two weeks or two years. You learn so much, you try new things, you perfect your old favorites. I recommend it!

Are you gearing up "pie season"? That's the month of November when every food magazine will have either a turkey or a pie on the front cover, just the magazine racks, am I right? Maybe now's the moment to dig into homemade pies?


All my pie recipes, including several crusts, fruit pies, cream pies, no-bake pies and more. Dig in, looking is calorie-free!

DIY Dried Herbs

DIY Dried Herbs (How to Dry Fresh Herbs in the Microwave) ♥ AVeggieVenture.com, for herbs fresh from the garden or purchased at the grocery.

This is on today's agenda for the very last of the summer basil.


DIY Dried Herbs (How to Dry Fresh Herbs in the Microwave)

Leftover Halloween Candy?

Snickers Cookies on Sticks (or NOT), peanut butter cookies with mini Snickers bars wrapped inside, roll-your-eyes good, much more than a novelty cookie, way more than a fun idea for baking with leftover Halloween candy. Rave reviews!

In this house, leftover Halloween candy is as likely as leftover wine, it just doesn't happen!

But for anyone who can raid the kids' candy bags, you'll definitely want to mix up a batch of Snickers Cookies, peanut butter cookie dough wrapped around bars wrapped mini Snickers bars. Sooo good.


Snickers Cookies on Sticks (or NOT)

Early Christmas Shopping in the ... Doctor's Waiting Room?


I'm mixing my metaphors merriments here, Halloween and Christmas, but keep your eyes peeled for kids' reactions to the toys in the waiting area before doctor appointments. Both these held rapt attention for long whiles, I ordered each on the spot for two grandnephews, ages four and one.



Updated Recipes, Just This Week

Refrigerator Pickled Beets ♥ KitchenParade.com, made with canned beets or fresh roasted beets, no canning required, keep for weeks in the fridge. Vegan. Low Sugar. Low Cal. Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly.

Refrigerator Pickled Beets, people are crazy for these, put a big jar in the fridge soon and then, instant salad for a cople of months. No canning required!


Finnish Meatballs, one of Kitchen Parade's top recipes, maybe because I share three tips for light and tender meatballs, techniques that can be used with your own favorite meatball recipe.


Broccoli Potato Soup, a meal in itself, tons of broccoli and broth-based instead of cream-based, saving calories and making the real star the broccoli itself.


Savory Spinach Kugel made with fresh spinach, a rich side dish for the right occasion, a friend who took the casserole home loved it, saying, "I'd definitely order this at a restaurant." Super easy to make, easy to scale up for a crowd.


Estonian Apple Cake, just republished this week, so happy to see it fly to the top of the "trending recipes" list! it's a simple, rustic cake with so many fresh apples, you'll find yourself wondering if there are too many. There aren't!

Text Me Back!

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com, dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, whatever.

  • What's up in your world?
  • Are you "celebrating" Halloween? What happens to the leftover candy? Or is there leftover candy?!
  • Are you gift shopping already?
  • What're you reading?
  • Anything else? Chime in, chat away.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2019

Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

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