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Soothing Ginger Tea
Ingredients -
4 1/2 teaspoons cardamom pods, crushed
4 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
5 cups water
1 piece (6 inches) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced inch thick (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon honey
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
Directions -
Toast cardamom and fennel in a saucepan over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Add water and ginger. Reduce heat, and simmer until it reaches the desired strength, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in honey and mint leaves. Let stand for 5 minutes. Strain into mugs. Garnish with mint.
(source: http://www.marthastewart.com/312774/soothing-ginger-tea)
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Spiced Tea
Ingredients -
1 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, halved lengthwise (about 3/4 ounce)
4 black-tea bags
1 three-inch cinnamon stick
8 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 cups 2-percent milk
1/4 cup honey, or to taste
Directions -
In a large saucepan, combine ginger and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for 8 minutes. Add teabags, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and milk. Steep over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Strain through a sieve. Stir in honey, and serve.
Pear Types
Whatâs not to adore about fallâs most luscious fruit? Thin skins give way to creamy, juicy flesh thatâs a pleasure, raw or cooked, in desserts, salads, and more.
Ann Taylor Pittman
Pears are a truly seasonal crop, and all the more wonderful for it. Most of the year, if you do happen upon a pear in the supermarket, itâs usually an Anjou, often rock-hard, and probably not worth the bother. Then, around September, the Bartlett, Bosc, and Comice begin to pop up. By October itâs a pear profusion, with lovely colors echoing fall-leaf tones: russet, crimson, gold, and chartreuse. And that flavor! That texture! A ripe pear is plump and juicy, gorgeously sweet, with a pleasing give to the bite and a faint grittiness. The taste is hauntingly subtle, yet also strong and unlike any other. Explore the varieties. Get to know the Comice, Seckel, and Starkrimson, and be inspired to include them in your cooking. These are the varieties you are most likely to see.
ANJOU Available in red and green, this is the most abundant variety and usually the one youâll find year-round. Juicy, slightly dense flesh makes this pear great for raw and cooked usesâsalads, snacks, chutneys, and pies.
BARTLETT Deep, quintessential pear flavor and intense pear-floral aroma make this variety a favorite. Youâll find both green and red Bartletts. They perform well in raw and cooked dishes.
BOSC Firm texture (even when ripe) and gorgeously russeted brown skin differentiate this variety. Because it holds its shape well, the Bosc is the go-to for poaching and preserve-making.
COMICE Arguably the most delicious variety for eating fresh, these are buttery-creamy, juicy, and highly sweet. Because they drip with juice, theyâre best to eat raw and may not cook well.
CONCORDE This pale-green pear has a firm texture and resists browning when cut, making it perfect for a fruit tray or cheese plate. It is also a good choice for pies, crisps, chutneys, and other cooked dishes.
FORELLE Stunning petite variety that boasts green skin spotted with red freckles. The fruit is slightly crisp with a tart-sweet flavor.
SECKEL The smallest commercially grown variety, Seckels are often used as garnishes. Theyâre very sweet, though, and should be enjoyed for snacking, too.
STARKRIMSON Crimson skin contrasts milky-white flesh in this beautiful variety. Its juicy texture, floral aroma, and striking color are best enjoyed in raw applications like salads.
(source: http://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/pear-types)
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We love pears, even the kids will eat them. Mostly we get ANJOU or BOSC depending on the time of the year.
Yummy!
Mark Gosdin
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Dining with a View
It is one thing to drive through the Connecticut countryside on a glorious autumn afternoon, but quite another to linger over a leisurely lunch or dinner (Daylight Savings Time ends on Nov. 2) in such surroundings. Here are some places where you can seek and find the seasonâs golden light.
Hopkins Inn, New Preston. This venerable Litchfield County restaurant sits high above the northern shore of Lake Waramaug, with views from both the dining room and outdoor terrace. Serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Essex Clipper Dinner Train, Essex. All aboard for a four-course meal served in a restored Pullman diner pulled by a vintage diesel locomotive through the beautiful colors of the lower Connecticut River Valley. A âfoliage experienceâ unlike any other.
Cobbâs Mill Inn, Weston. Sometimes it seems the Cobbâs Mill Inn has been around as long as Connecticut itself. Enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner by an old mill pond (with waterfall) surrounded by woods in all their fall finery.
Paragon, Foxwoods Resort & Casino, Mashantucket. Get to this ârestaurant in the skyâ while thereâs still light enough in the day for you to soak up the colors of the endless canopy of trees below. Then tuck into the deluxe offerings on the menu, easily one of the resortâs best.
Apricots, Farmington. Located right on the banks of the Farmington River, Apricots is an autumn delight, serving lunch and dinner every day in a casual pub and more formal dining room, and also an outdoor patio for warm days.
Sharpe Hill Vineyard, Pomfret. Many of the glories of eastern Connecticut in autumn can be viewed from the dining room and terrace here. Open for Friday dinner and Saturday and Sunday lunch, Sharpe Hill makes a perfect base for further exploration of the area.
Fresh Salt, Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, Old Saybrook. Water views change in autumn, too, although perhaps a little more subtly than in the countryside. Take in the freshening breezes and long, clear views over dishes of impeccably fresh seafood.
Harbour House, Inn at Mystic, Mystic. Another good saltwater view can be found up the coast at the freshly renovated Inn at Mystic. Fresh local oysters from the raw bar at the innâs Harbour House restaurant seem especially tangy in fall.
Stonehenge, Ridgefield. Hereâs a Connecticut destination of long standing (Elizabeth Taylor once spent her wedding night here) where the dining room overlooks a pond and the trees beyond.
Gelston House, East Haddam. Immerse yourself in the many fine views of the Connecticut River Valley, then repair to the Gelston House or adjoining, less formal GH Gastro Pub for lunch or dinner.
Golden Lamb Buttery, Brooklyn. A unique offering in eastern Connecticut, the Golden Lamb sits on 1,000 acres of rural pastureland, and your dinner begins with a cocktail and a hayride. Lunch is served, too.
(source & links: http://ctvisit.com/dontmiss/details/12328)
Why Leaves Change Color
Many people believe that frost is responsible for the change in colors, but Jack Frost has little to do with it. In fact, many times leaves change color before the first hint of frost.
Indian legend has it that celestial hunters slew the Great Bear autumn and the spilled blood turned the leaves red. The yellow of fall came from the fat splattering out of the kettle as the hunters cooked their prize. Other legends persist as well, but we know today that the changes are the result of chemical processes taking place in the tree as the growing season ends.
From the time the leaves emerged from the green buds in spring, they have served as factories, creating the food a tree needs to grow. The food-making process take place in millions of leaf cells which contain a pigment known as chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is green and there is so much of it in a grown leaf that it gives the leaf its green color.
But, in addition to the green chlorophyll, leaves also contain some yellow or orange carotenoids which, by the way, give carrots their familiar color. For most of the year, the little bit of yellow/orange carotenoid color is hidden by the huge amounts of green chlorophyll. But, in the fall, the food factories shut down for the winter. The chlorophyll breaks down and the green fades away, letting the yellow/orange carotenoids blaze forth, giving autumn its splash, dash and panache.
At the same time, other chemical changes occur, giving rise to more pigments which vary from yellow to red to blue. It is to these changes we owe the reds and purples of sumac, the brilliant orange or fiery red and yellow of sugar maple, and the golden bronze of beech.
The fall weather reaches a point where the days are warm enough for the food factories to operate, but the nights are too cold for the sugars which are produced to move downward in the tree. In the presence of bright light, the sugars trapped in the leaves form the red pigments, anthocyanins. The brighter the light, the greater the production of anthocyanins, and the more brilliant the colors we see. When the days of autumn are bright and cool, and the nights chilly, but not freezing, the brightest foliage colors will develop. Familiar trees with red or scarlet leaves are red maple, dogwood, red oak, scarlet oak, and sassafras.
Only a few regions of the world have seasonal displays of color like Connecticutâs. The eastern United States and southeastern Canada have large areas of deciduous forests, ample rainfall, and favorable weather conditions for vivid fall colors. However, eastern Asia, southwestern Europe, and some areas of the western United States (notably the mountains) have bright fall colors.
(source: http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2697&q=322756&deepNav_GID=1631)
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Youâve made me think of something I hadnât in a long time, Sassafras Tea.
My grandmother always made this in the Autumn and I always liked it in part because it matched many of the leaves.
Gotta see if I can locate the roots you would need to brew it.
Mark Gosdin
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Connecticutâs Trees Singularly Spectacular In Fall
Fall Foliage In Tri-State Area Expected To Peak In Late October
Native trees, shrubs provide fall color
Fall foliage begins to take shape
Pittsburgh area fall foliage report â get there early and often
Finding fall color: Mille Lacs area trees near fall color peak
Fall foliage season begins in Virginia
The Best Time To See Fall Colors This Year
Fall foliage forecast: Expect vivid colors
Fall colors changing fast in Michigan: Here are the peak color areas right now
Thus I have returned⌠and so has autumn! 
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