The Best Parts of Fall

This past week was a perfect Fall week. This is my favorite time of the year. I profess to be a winter girl loving the cold weather; however, if I could only pick one season, it would be the Fall. I am incredibly fortunate to live in an area that is known for its explosion of color every Fall. I love to go for Fall walks and have three favorite paths that we choose from. For me, it's more than just the slightly cooler weather or the cozy sweaters that you reach for in your closet when you go outside. I find the Fall weather sparks my creativity to cook warm, comfort food, soups and stews. I am working on some new soups and look forward to sharing the recipes with you when they have been completed and passed the taste test. I made a sausage kale soup again for Lorraine to try. I will take notes on the ingredients and measurements.

The part of this path was recently paved. It was one of the last sections that was gravel. It is so beautiful. 

This is one of my favorite paths which runs along Lac Mercier. It is a part of the 200km Petit Train Du Nord trail. 

The photo with the sun shining through was taken at this location. 

The photos I shared with you the other day were taken from another path just 4 km away. We were surprised to see how much more color there was on this path. 

I always ask Lorraine to stop at this bench for a few minutes. This is actually where Lorraine was sitting 13 years ago when I fell from my bike and broke my ankle. We were riding our new bikes and she waited there for me to catch up. She said she knew it would be bad news when a complete stranger came up to her and asked if her name was Lorraine. She made her way back to me and the rest is history. 

The new sausage and kale soup recipe I am working on. It was delicious and perfect for a fall or winter day. 

We joke about my new self-proclaimed title: recipe developer. I get so excited when I walk into the grocery store. I see the displays of vegetables and all the fresh seasonal vegetables and at this time of the year all the fall squash. The idea of what I would do with each kind tempts me to pick one up. I find the same temptation when I walk through the refrigerated section offering different cuts of beef, pork, chicken, and fish. Since I am not cooking for 25 people, I must rein in my ambition and will ask Lorraine to go to the grocery store to pick up a list of items for me. When I go into the grocery store and see a particular vegetable or cut of meat, I already see the finished plate or how I imagine it will turn out. I often come home with enough food for multiple meals, so I find it best for Lorraine to pick up a few select items. I do enjoy going to the grocery store and treat it like a special outing.

I love taking photos and when I typed in grocery store in the search bar of my photos I was surprised how many popped up. This grouping of photos was taken in one of my favorite grocery stores, Adonis. Top left was my birthday and we went into the city for the day. I am equally excited to see a bouquet of kale, as I am a bouquet of flowers. The Adonis store has great marinated meats. The store is over an hour from Tremblant so Lorraine and I often buy extra for the freezer. Bottom right is a photo of our cousin Georg. He and his wife were visiting from Germany (2017)  and a trip to Adonis was part of the tour. Bottom left, Lorraine is picking out garlic. 

Top two photos are Lorraine and I picking up groceries for the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin during winter layup. It was so much fun picking out the fresh vegetables. Bottom photo was taken in Jean Talon market in Montreal, fall 2021

I was making my famous chicken enchiladas for friends and managed to resist the temptation to buy anything else and bought only the list of ingredients for the dish. I was transporting the enchiladas and bought three aluminum pans. I also bought a bag of Mexican corn and black bean mix to make Spanish rice as a side dish. I cooked the frozen vegetables with rice and used tomato juice instead of water. I added taco seasoning for flavor.  For myself and Lorraine, I use the grain-free tortillas, and for our guests, I use the regular tortillas. The grain-free version are as delicious as the regular flour version. Chicken enchiladas are always on the list of requests when I cook for friends, and after serving this meal, I added three more friends to the list who love this recipe. It was the first time they had chicken enchiladas. I forgot to take a picture of the final plate, but a photo of my chicken enchiladas can be found on the cover of my first cookbook "Recipes and Stories as I Sail Through My Day."

I bought all the ingredients for chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice. I like eating the enchiladas with salsa, sour cream and I made guacamole.  The meal was delicious. 

This is the photo of chicken enchiladas that I used for the cover of the first book. I was on the Algoma Hansa and after taking the photo I had the enchilada for my supper. 

Along with taking walks in the Fall, cooking comfort food and all, I love to sail in the Fall. I had hoped to accept a job sailing for November and December, but my appointment to see the specialist for my ankle on October 10th was postponed. Apparently, I was booked with the wrong Dr. The receptionist who called a couple of days ago to change my appointment said I should have been scheduled to meet with a doctor specializing in ankles. My rescheduled appointment will be on November 4th. I had wished that the new appointment would be before the end of October because most of the sailing jobs that come through the Union begin on the 1st of the month. I remind myself that I am where I am meant to be and there will be a job that is meant for me when the time is right. This little change in my plans means that your virtual seabags will have to wait in your closet a little longer. In the meantime, I invite you to pack your virtual vacation bags and join Lorraine and me for ten days in Maine. We will leave on Monday morning. The forecast looks good, and we look forward to walking on the beautiful beach. We can't wait; there will be a lobster roll in the near future.

You can see the path the Ferry takes on the car's GPS screen. We shared the ride over with a group of cyclists. 

I like to take a Ferry ride. It was a perfect day with not a cloud in the sky. 

When we got to the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, we saw construction. I quickly checked with the GPS and chose a country route that would serve two purposes: get us to our destination on time and take us on a beautiful country ride. We arrived a little early and took a moment to catch up with our hostesses. The table was set up and they had baked items from our new book "More Recipes and Stories and we Navigate Healthier Eating." I thought it was extra special that one of our hostesses was inspired to make the two banana bread recipes that Lorraine and I made when we had the banana bread bake-off during her visit while I was doing winter lay-up on the Paul Martin. Both banana bread were delicious and everyone enjoyed sampling the treats that also included "My favorite Cookie Recipe" (also in the new book.) One young lady, in particular, was so excited to see gluten-free options and sampled both banana bread and a cookie. We enjoy seeing familiar faces in Brockville and this time was no different. I saw a gentleman who looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. When it was his turn to have his book signed, he introduced himself, and it was my English teacher from high school. I hadn't seen him in almost 45 years. We chatted with another woman who said we played together as young children when our parents met at social gatherings. We went through a list of names and got caught up on everyone's whereabouts. We had a visit from Catherine Orth, a journalist from the Recorder and Times. She took some photos and interviewed us at the book signing, meet and greet. You can read her article online. Just click on the link . Food, adventure come together in Ship to Shore | Brockville Recorder & Times RiverWest Co has both cookbooks, children's book and the 2025 Porthole Calendars in stock. We signed their remaining calendars before we left at the end of the afternoon. You can pick up signed 2025 Porthole calendars at their store on King Street in Brockville. They make great Christmas gifts and can be enjoyed the entire year. It was a wonderful afternoon.

We had a great afternoon at the RiverWest Co book signing, meet and greet. Our hostesses made the two banana bread recipes from the new cookbook.

You can pick up a signed 2025 calendars at RiverWest Co King Street in Brockville. They make great Christmas gifts. 

We will be in Clayton, NY, for a book signing at the Antique Boat Museum tomorrow, October 12th. We are excited to go back; it was the location of our first US book signing two years ago. Bring your books or pick them up at the museum gift shop, and I will be happy to sign them. We will have the 2025 calendar available for purchase too. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Antique Boat Museum. Click on the following link Antique Boat Museum — Ship To Shore | Chef Catherine Schmuck | Author, Entrepreneur & Cook | Canada (shiptoshorechef.com). You can also order books and calendars online; we will happily mail them to you.

We look forward to seeing you Saturday October the 12th from 1 pm to 3 pm.

Click on the following link to purchase. We will be happy to mail them to you. Shop Online — Ship To Shore | Chef Catherine Schmuck | Author, Entrepreneur & Cook | Canada (shiptoshorechef.com)