It's Cooking Weather Again

I can't say I'm crazy about fall — the ever-shortening days depress me — but I am pleased that I can once again cook things on the weekends that will work for several subsequent weekdays.

Last night, I made a chicken and mushrooms casserole, adapting a Rachael Ray recipe I found online: I used my own usual technique for stews/braises but mostly her ingredient list. One thing she specifically described that I will do again: reconstituting some dried mushrooms in the heated stock used as cooking liquid, as well as sautéeing fresh mushrooms. It made the gravy really rich-tasting.

Tonight I'm making a small piece of brisket for Tuesday night (Erev Yom Kippur, the evening that begins Yom Kippur). I don't like the various 1950s-era refined food product brisket recipes that are the typical childhood versions for my generation: the Liptons Onion Soup Mix brisket, the Coca Cola brisket, etc. So, inspired by a container of dried cherries I have here, I found a recipe from Epicurious that involved dried cherries plus shallots, which I picked up at the Farmers Market this morning. It also involved balsamic vinegar, for which I substituted the tail end of a bottle of Gustare's Black Cherry vinegar (balsamic vinegar infused with black cherries: I always lay in a stock of Gustare stuff when we're up at the Cape in the summer). It smells wonderful.